Daisy Ridley realized she had to overcome one of her fears to truly embrace the role of Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
“I’m afraid of the open sea,” Ridley, the star of “Young Woman and the Sea,” told Reuters.
The cast and crew she worked with thought she was joking, but the “Star Wars” actress was actually afraid to face the sea.
“When I go to the beach, I don’t go above the water up to my waist. I like to see the bottom, I’ve never swum very far,” he added.
Ridley overcame his fear and ended up diving deep for the film, swimming in the Black Sea for nine days.
He said he found it very difficult to keep up with a camera and camera boat, going in and out of the water multiple times, drying off and then going back for more filming every day.
While he was able to do so for the film, Ridley doesn’t see swimming in the open ocean again in his future.
“I’m just not an open ocean girl,” she said.
“The Young Woman and the Sea” arrives in U.S. theaters Friday, slated for the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to honor Ederle’s Olympic history.
The Disney-produced film is based on the life of Ederle, who goes from a girl suffering from measles to a swimming prodigy who wins a gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics. In 1926, Ederle also becomes the first woman to swim 20 miles (32 km). across the English Channel River, which separates southern England from northern France.
After crossing the English Channel, Trudy’s hometown of New York held the largest public celebration ever for one of its citizens, with more than 2 million people cheering her parade.
Director Joachim Ronning was impressed by Ridley’s commitment to open water swimming.
“Her blue lips, you know, and she never complains, nothing, nothing and then she shows so much strength and channels Trudy, I really believe that,” she said.
“The Young Woman and the Sea” will be released following the 2023 release of Netflix’s “Nyad,” another film about a swimmer, for which Annette Bening and Jodie Foster were nominated for Oscars.
“(Trudy) transcended the other movie because it was there way before,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said.
“She paved the way for this film because she was the first woman to participate in an extraordinary event like this, so you look at all the great athletes. She was one of the first.”
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
