Believe it or not Daisy Ridley is terrified of the ocean.
The 32-year-old-actress confessed as much to HipHollywood during the recent press day for her upcoming film The Young Woman and The Sea
The Joachim Rønning directed biopic follows the triumphant story of Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle (played by Ridley), from her early days recovering from a near-fatal case of the measles to learning how to swim to competing in the 1924 Paris Olympics and, eventually, training to become the first woman — and sixth person ever — to swim the English Channel.
The film is a winning celebration of perseverance and courage – two traits Ridley seemingly tapped into as she conquered her fear of the open water filming for months in the Black Sea and English Channel.
HH: What was your swim level before, and where is it at now?
DR: My swim level was out of 10, maybe a three. I could stay afloat. If I fell off a boat, I would gamble my chances of being okay, but I couldn’t really do the front crawl. So I was essentially learning the mechanics of an entirely new thing. My skills got proficient, and I was honestly getting better as we were filming because I was training around filming as well. So I feel like I could do it now, but I choose not to.
HH: How exhausting was it, doing all of that swimming?
DR: Exhausting. My very last swim, Joachim just said, ‘Go as long as you can go’ and I just went as long as I could and eventually thought, Okay, I actually have nothing left. I was so tired, emotionally, too, because, of course, the physicality was exhausting, but the ups and downs in the film are big, and there are micro things and macro things. So overall, it was a tiring job, but very fulfilling.
HH: Before filming did you have a love for the water that you could tap into to play [Trudy]?
DR: The first time I met everyone in person, I said to them, I’m scared of the open water, and they went, ‘ha, ha, ha’. And I was like, No, no. I’m being serious. I’m the person that doesn’t like going beyond where I can see. I have literally never been far out. I’ve never really done proper swimming in the open water. That was terrifying. But once I got in my rhythm, and the last swim I did, I did think, wow, there is something amazing about this. But I knew there were no sharks in the Black Sea, but I still thought I’d be eaten.
