Daisy Ridley studied mixed martial arts fights for her role in the upcoming British action flick Cleaner. Best known…
Daisy Ridley studied mixed martial arts fights for her role in the upcoming British action flick Cleaner.
Best known for her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Ridley will return to her action roots in 2025 as Joey, a skyscraper window cleaner who battles terrorists who have taken over an office building in London. Of course, Ridley’s character is not any ordinary window cleaner. She’s also an ex-soldier with a particular set of skills that make her a nightmare for people like the film’s main villain, played by the always-intense Clive Owen.
To prepare for the role, Ridley tried to take in as many MMA fights as possible but found herself struggling with the sheer brutality of it all.
“I tried to watch MMA fights,” Ridley, 29, said in a recent interview with UPI. “Honestly, they’re so violent I struggled to watch that many of them.”
In the end, Ridley got enough knowledge from watching MMA to know exactly how she wanted to play Joey.
“That level of aggression and that level of being very in your body, that was really the thing that was driving me physically for her,” Ridley said. “One of the fights particularly is in a really contained area. So trying to figure out how to realistically battle someone while quite restricted physically was a challenge.”
Daisy Ridley will return to the star wars universe and kickstart a new jedi order
It’s certainly not the first time Ridley has had to get physical for a film role. Of course, she appeared as (spoiler alert) Rey Skywalker throughout Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
She’ll return to the role in the recently announced Star Wars: New Jedi Order which is expected to come out around Christmastime in either 2026 or 2027, though no official release date has been announced.
Since her time battling Kylo Ren and the First Order, Ridley has taken on other physical roles, including her performance as English Channel swimmer Trudy Ederle in last year’s Young Woman and the Sea.
“Of course, there’s always physicality that lends itself to the role,” Ridley said. “But the films that I get to do the physical stuff on screen are always great and always a challenge, but I’m also particularly tired when I finish those ones.”
Cleaner hits movie theaters on Friday, February 21. Check out the official trailer below:
Daisy Ridley studied mixed martial arts fights for her role in the upcoming British action flick Cleaner. Best known…
Daisy Ridley studied mixed martial arts fights for her role in the upcoming British action flick Cleaner.
Best known for her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Ridley will return to her action roots in 2025 as Joey, a skyscraper window cleaner who battles terrorists who have taken over an office building in London. Of course, Ridley’s character is not any ordinary window cleaner. She’s also an ex-soldier with a particular set of skills that make her a nightmare for people like the film’s main villain, played by the always-intense Clive Owen.
To prepare for the role, Ridley tried to take in as many MMA fights as possible but found herself struggling with the sheer brutality of it all.
“I tried to watch MMA fights,” Ridley, 29, said in a recent interview with UPI. “Honestly, they’re so violent I struggled to watch that many of them.”
In the end, Ridley got enough knowledge from watching MMA to know exactly how she wanted to play Joey.
“That level of aggression and that level of being very in your body, that was really the thing that was driving me physically for her,” Ridley said. “One of the fights particularly is in a really contained area. So trying to figure out how to realistically battle someone while quite restricted physically was a challenge.”
Daisy Ridley will return to the star wars universe and kickstart a new jedi order
It’s certainly not the first time Ridley has had to get physical for a film role. Of course, she appeared as (spoiler alert) Rey Skywalker throughout Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
She’ll return to the role in the recently announced Star Wars: New Jedi Order which is expected to come out around Christmastime in either 2026 or 2027, though no official release date has been announced.
Since her time battling Kylo Ren and the First Order, Ridley has taken on other physical roles, including her performance as English Channel swimmer Trudy Ederle in last year’s Young Woman and the Sea.
“Of course, there’s always physicality that lends itself to the role,” Ridley said. “But the films that I get to do the physical stuff on screen are always great and always a challenge, but I’m also particularly tired when I finish those ones.”
Cleaner hits movie theaters on Friday, February 21. Check out the official trailer below:
Former Elite XC and Strikeforce contender Gina Carano has landed a major role in the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ spinoff series headed to the Disney+ streaming service. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Carano has been cast alongside former …
Former Elite XC and Strikeforce contender Gina Carano has landed a major role in the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ spinoff series headed to the Disney+ streaming service. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Carano has been cast alongside former ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Pedro Pascal in the series titled ‘The Mandalorian’ that’s being developed by writer and […]
There’s a temptation to say that Amanda Lucas wants to fight so much, she’d take a bout on Tatooine.
Though Lucas certainly must be growing tired of the constant “Star Wars” references, she at least suffers them with a smile. The adopted daughter of George Lucas, creator of the biggest movie franchise in history, knows the mentions of her ultra-famous father and his uber-famous space saga are inevitable.
But what Amanda Lucas wants more than anything is to reach a point in her mixed martial arts career when “Star Wars” and her father are but mere footnotes, not the lead.
“it doesn’t bother me – I’m proud of my family,” Lucas said last week on “The MMA Hour” with host Ariel Helwani. “I hope to do my best on my own and prove I’m not just George’s daughter. I work just as hard as my training partners and I don’t want any special treatment. (But “Star Wars” is) going to get mentioned – it’s nothing I can hide.”
Lucas, 30, even had parts in the latter three films in the “Star Wars” saga, Episodes I, II and III, which helped fulfill a childhood fantasy of performing, even though she said acting is not where her talents lie.
“I’m not an actress,” Lucas said. “It was fun, and it was something I can say that I did. I always wanted to be a performer. I liked the idea of acting, but it wasn’t really my thing. I wanted to be Madonna or Janet Jackson, but I can’t sing very well.”
Instead, Lucas (2-1) now focuses her performance ambitions on fighting. After losing her MMA debut in May 2008, Lucas has won two straight, including a first-round submission win at Deep 55 in Japan two months ago. She’ll next fight at Deep 56 on Oct. 29, her second fight in two months, but just her fourth in three and a half years.
Lucas, who trains at Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez‘s new gym, said though the women’s MMA market is much tougher to crack than the men’s, she wants to find a way to keep getting fights.
“My feeling is, I want to get in as much as I can and do this now,” Lucas said. “I’m 30 years old, so now is the time. I can’t be waiting every two years to fight.”
Lucas will fight in Japan for the second time after her Deep debut in August. And this time, she’s hopeful that she can avoid a certain highly iconic entrance theme. Lucas said she would never walk out to the theme from “Star Wars,” but at Deep 55, it was played anyway.
For a while, Lucas will have to get used to the “Star Wars” comments. But she believes as long as she keeps training, fighting and building a name for herself. And famous father or not, her motivation is pretty simple.
There’s a temptation to say that Amanda Lucas wants to fight so much, she’d take a bout on Tatooine.
Though Lucas certainly must be growing tired of the constant “Star Wars” references, she at least suffers them with a smile. The adopted daughter of George Lucas, creator of the biggest movie franchise in history, knows the mentions of her ultra-famous father and his uber-famous space saga are inevitable.
But what Amanda Lucas wants more than anything is to reach a point in her mixed martial arts career when “Star Wars” and her father are but mere footnotes, not the lead.
“it doesn’t bother me – I’m proud of my family,” Lucas said last week on “The MMA Hour” with host Ariel Helwani. “I hope to do my best on my own and prove I’m not just George’s daughter. I work just as hard as my training partners and I don’t want any special treatment. (But “Star Wars” is) going to get mentioned – it’s nothing I can hide.”
Lucas, 30, even had parts in the latter three films in the “Star Wars” saga, Episodes I, II and III, which helped fulfill a childhood fantasy of performing, even though she said acting is not where her talents lie.
“I’m not an actress,” Lucas said. “It was fun, and it was something I can say that I did. I always wanted to be a performer. I liked the idea of acting, but it wasn’t really my thing. I wanted to be Madonna or Janet Jackson, but I can’t sing very well.”
Instead, Lucas (2-1) now focuses her performance ambitions on fighting. After losing her MMA debut in May 2008, Lucas has won two straight, including a first-round submission win at Deep 55 in Japan two months ago. She’ll next fight at Deep 56 on Oct. 29, her second fight in two months, but just her fourth in three and a half years.
Lucas, who trains at Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez‘s new gym, said though the women’s MMA market is much tougher to crack than the men’s, she wants to find a way to keep getting fights.
“My feeling is, I want to get in as much as I can and do this now,” Lucas said. “I’m 30 years old, so now is the time. I can’t be waiting every two years to fight.”
Lucas will fight in Japan for the second time after her Deep debut in August. And this time, she’s hopeful that she can avoid a certain highly iconic entrance theme. Lucas said she would never walk out to the theme from “Star Wars,” but at Deep 55, it was played anyway.
For a while, Lucas will have to get used to the “Star Wars” comments. But she believes as long as she keeps training, fighting and building a name for herself. And famous father or not, her motivation is pretty simple.
There’s a temptation to say that