Daisy Ridley denies being privileged, despite attending boarding school

Star Wars actor also argued similarities with John Boyega, who attended theatre programme on hardship fund

Adam White
Saturday 07 December 2019 15:16 GMT
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Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley has denied that she is privileged, and argued that her boarding school education did not provide her with confidence.

Asked whether her privileged background allowed her to navigate fame more easily than if she were not as privileged, Ridley answered: “The privilege I have – how? No, genuinely, how?”

Ridley was educated at the independent Tring School for the Performing Arts, having obtained a scholarship. Her mother is a banker and her father is a photographer, while her family included the playwright Arnold Ridley and John Harry Dunn Ridley, OBE, who served as head of engineering at the BBC.

Ridley denied that she was privileged, and suggested that there is little difference between her and Star Wars co-star John Boyega, who grew up in Peckham, London, and attended Theatre Peckham on a hardship fund.

“John grew up on a council estate in Peckham and I think me and him are similar enough that… no,” Ridley told The Guardian. “Also, I went to a boarding school for performing arts, which was different.”

“I’m not saying what you’re saying is wrong,” she continued. “I’ve just never been asked that before, so I’m like, oh. I don’t think so.”

Ridley also denied that nine years of private education provided her with confidence.

“No,” she said. “No. I think, also, it has taken me a little while to be OK with it. I was always fairly confident, and I think that comes from being part of a big family who are all quite chatty.”

Ridley next appears in The Rise of Skywalker, the final chapter in the current Star Wars trilogy. Other forthcoming credits include the heavily-delayed action film Chaos Walking, and the animated sequel Peter Rabbit 2.

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