After months of waiting and frenzied rumor-baiting, during which every living actor (and a number of people who do not fall into that category) was briefly said to be in, or maybe in, or in talks to be in, or auditioning to be in, J.J. Abrams‘ “Star Wars VII,” we finally learned yesterday who was actually in it: and the announced cast (aside from those returning from the original series) ranges from cinema legends like Max von Sydow to near-total newcomers like Daisy Ridley.
Who’s that, you ask? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Undoubtedly the least well-known of the new cast, even in her native Britain, Ridley seems to have beaten stars like Lupita Nyong’o for her role, but has yet to appear in a released movie, though she has two in the pipeline: a role in comedy sequel “The Inbetweeners 2” and a part in the low-budget indie horror “Scrawl” (which you can learn more about here). Both films are set for release later this year.
In the meantime, Ridley has been seen in bit parts on the small screen, most of them the usual kinds of murder mystery (“Silent Witness”), soap (“Casualty”) and costume drama (“Mr. Selfridge”) that young actors in Britain use to get their name known, though rarely with quite this much success. One place you can see her without tracking down individual episodes of British shows you don’t watch, however, is in this short, “Blue Season,” which was made in under 48 hours for a competition and runs for just 5 minutes. It’s a sci-fi of sorts, but not the sort of galaxy-spanning space opera Ridley has signed herself up for now. Still, it’s a nicely atmospheric little piece, and something to watch on repeat until “VII” arrives in 2015…