Actress Daisy Ridley shut down critics of her appearance in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
AP
Daisy Ridley is best known for her character Rey in the latest “Star Wars” franchise. And while her performance garnered numerous accolades, she hasn’t been immune to criticism online.
In two separate Instagram posts on Wednesday, Ridley called out one meme that a user posted criticizing her body. The person — who has since deleted their account — claimed that Ridley was setting “unrealistic expectations” for young girls.
The original meme had a still of Ridley from the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” movie along with a speech bubble that read: “I can’t believe the unrealistic expeditions I’m setting for young girls. Who cast me anyway? Don’t they know real women have curves?”
Ridley saw the meme and responded immediately. “'Real women’ are all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities, all levels of brave, have families, don’t have families," she wrote. "I am a ‘real woman’ like every other woman in this world.”
Though the account and Ridley’s comment have both been deleted, BBC has a screenshot of the interaction.
Later that day, the actress uploaded a picture defending herself and telling her followers she never meant for her fans to bully the person who posted the original meme.
"It was not my intention for anyone to send messages to that poor person that posted the original picture,” Ridley wrote. “My whole post is about being kind to each other, so please refrain!”
She also added that like Rey, she was a “normal girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances” and would not apologize for her body type. “I will not apologize for how I look, what I say, and how I live my life,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am striving to be the best version of myself, even if I stumble along the way.
The interaction came after she had received misogynistic comments on her International Women’s Day Instagram post on Tuesday.
“What’s weird is most of the time I see such gorgeous messages from people around the world,” she wrote, adding, “Kindness isn’t going to cure the world of all its awfulness, but it’s a good place to begin.”
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