Daisy Ridley Has Responded To Ted Cruz Criticizing Her ‘Star Wars’ Character While Defending Gina Carano

Ted Cruz is currently in the “people that elected me are destroying my likeness in piñata form” phase of his political career, and Daisy Ridley has little sympathy for him after he went after Rey for no reason. Back before Cruz fled a freezing Texas during an environmental disaster, he was posting in defense of Gina Carano. And a backhanded mention of Ridley’s Rey had apparently escaped her notice until it was brought up by a reporter interviewing her while promoting new work.

In an interview with Yahoo’s Kevin Polowy, Ridley was asked about Cruz’s attempt to defend Gina Carano after the now-former The Mandalorian star posted her way out of a job because of social media messages that were described by Lucasfilm as “abhorrent.” Cruz implied at the time that Disney didn’t want strong female characters like Carano’s Cara Dune, and was critical of Ridley’s Rey in the process.

That didn’t sit well with Ridley, nor did Cruz’s failed leadership in Texas in recent weeks. Apparently she didn’t know that Cruz described Rey as an “emotionally tortured Jedi.” But once she was caught up on the tweet, she had no problem firing back at Cruz.

“I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi,” Ridley said. “Who doesn’t leave their state when it’s having a terrible time.”

Though Ridley apparently missed the snipe at her, she certainly seemed to have seen the news about Cruz, who abandoned Texas for a Cancun vacation and then sheepishly returned to the state much earlier than planned once word got out that he had left in a time of crisis, rather than do his job. And though Ridley was there to promote Chaos Walking, she was more than willing to defend her work in Star Wars. Especially against someone like Cruz.