Daisy Ridley interview: ‘Young Woman and the Sea’

“For any open water swimmer, it’s incredibly isolating; it’s just you and the sound of your own breath and the blue,” declares Daisy Ridley about what was most challenging about portraying an athlete braving the elements of the open sea. For our recent webchat she adds “what Trudy really did a hundred years ago was extraordinary, and broke barriers for women in sport, and has largely been forgotten. But she did have an amazing support system around her. So, the fact that this film honors her and honors the people around her feels really special to me.” Watch our video interview above.

SEE Interview: Joachim Rønning (‘Young Woman and the Sea’ director)

In “Young Woman and the Sea,” Ridley stars as the inspirational Trudy Ederle, who overcomes adversity and the stringent gender norms of 1920s America to become the first woman to complete the arduous 21-mile journey from France to England by swimming solo across the English Channel. Joachim Rønning (“Kon-Tiki”) directed the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced biopic, with a screenplay by Jeff Nathanson (“Catch Me If You Can”), adapted from author Glenn Stout‘s 2009 novel of the same name. Ridley delivers a tour-de-force performance as Ederle, alongside co-stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler.

“I am not a fan of the open water, which I had told them, and I think everyone thought I was joking, but I was being dead serious,” Ridley reveals about her initial apprehension about taking on the role. The actress knew that director Rønning wanted to shoot the English Channel scenes in the open water, which meant overcoming her fear of the ocean, and months of arduous training before production on the latter half of the film shifted to the freezing open water of the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria. “We did the big swim at the end of the shoot, so we had already shot the entirety of the film bar the open water work. So, I was knackered going into it and scared, and physically I knew it would take its toll,” she says. “Firstly, it wouldn’t have looked as good as it does if it wasn’t for real out on the ocean. But, also I felt in a strange way, even though I was doing 5% of what Trudy actually did, it connected me to her in a way even more.”