Daisy Ridley faces fears, takes plunge for passion project

Daisy Ridley likes to make waves. Case in point: Her latest role is playing the first woman to swim the English Channel.

There was just one little problem: the water.

“I tried to swim a 20-meter pool, ended up halfway, stood and said, ‘Forget this!’ ” the 32-year-old British actor says. “And then thought, ‘What have I done? What have I promised?’ ”

But Ridley persevered through months of water training to prepare for a nine-night shoot in the freezing deep of the Black Sea.

“I swam until my lips turned blue with a chronic ear infection. In the ocean, all you hear is your own breath. Still, I said to the director, ‘Do you need me to do it again?’

“There is an exhilaration in life in facing your fears and pressing on,” Ridley says of the passion project that she also executive produced.

“Young Woman and the Sea,” streaming on Friday on Disney+, is the inspirational true story of Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, an American swimming champion who won gold at the 1924 Olympics and in 1926 became the first woman to swim 21 miles across the English Channel.

The odds were steep against Ederle, almost from the start. A case of measles nearly killed her as a child and resulted in severe hearing loss, which was only one of her challenges.

“The film is joyful and hopeful and really talks about triumphing over adversity. It’s about trying and facing your fears,” says Ridley, best known for portraying Rey in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy. “It also centers on this family who loves each other and supports each other and wants the best for each other. It feels like we could all do with that right now.”

When she’s not boosting spirits, Ridley makes her home in London with her husband, actor Tom Bateman. Her good life tips:

Look beyond barriers

“I was excited to play Trudy,” Ridley says. “She is the most joyful character I’ve played, which was thrilling to do. She’s determined. She doesn’t see the barrier. She is just on her path to doing the thing she loves to do. You just want to root for her.”

‘Find what you love’

“Trudy loved swimming,” the actor says. “She is beaming in that pool even in the beginning when all she can do as a young girl is the dog paddle,” she says. “It was wonderful to play someone who just loves what she’s doing. Everyone should feel that way. Find what you love and do it.”

Push your limits

“I lied a little bit and said I’m a great swimmer because I really wanted to do this role,” Ridley recalls. “As things progressed, I wondered, ‘How can I ever do this?’ It felt impossible at the beginning.” She trained for three months with English Olympic medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor to learn to mimic Ederle’s specialty, the crawl stroke. “The buoyancy is different in the open water. The temp was different,” Ridley adds. “But I did it. It was a good lesson. The anticipation in some ways was worse than the real thing.”

Scare yourself

It wasn’t long before the crew left the safe confines of the pool for the sea off Varna, Bulgaria, which doubled as the English Channel. Ridley also filmed in water tanks. “When I went into the sea, I never wanted to go beyond where I could see my feet,’’ she says. “Good luck with that one. The whole thing was a big exploration of things that really scared me, but you do it anyways!”

Do it now

Ridley is a big proponent of not waiting until tomorrow. “Say the words. Do the thing. You can be who you want to be,” she shares. “You can love the version of you that you want to be today. Don’t wait. Rectify your wrongs and move forward. You think, ‘Maybe I’ll do it next week.’ Do it now and you’ll be so glad that you did.”

Find your group

“We did a screening in London and a woman came up. She was a swimmer in Zimbabwe. She said she had never found a place to be herself … where she felt like she was with her group of people,” Ridley says. “She said that after the film she had no excuses. She was going to go out and find that group the same way Trudy did during a time when young girls weren’t really allowed to take swim lessons. Trudy found this group of young female swimmers; the woman wanted to seek out her own group where she could be understood.”

Accept change

“Life is an ever-changing course. Your drive even changes over the years,” Ridley observes. “You will find different motivations at different points in life. Experiencing those changes, slight and big, are part of the adventure. Plus, it’s exciting not to know what the outcome is going to be.”

‘Happy at all points’

“I’m always someone who appreciates everything. I don’t wait for the big thing to happen to celebrate. I’m happy each time something good happens. I’m happy at all points,” Ridley says. “There’s real beauty in finding that in whatever we do in life. Find the celebration along the way. … And if something good happens, I’ll give it a loud ‘woo-hoo!’ We could all use a few more ‘woo-hoo’ moments!”