Rey’s Interrogation

The Force Awakens

When the team behind The Force Awakens scouted Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver from relative obscurity, they discovered a pair of top tier actors. Ridley’s been incredible as Rey at every turn, and Driver has brought immersive physicality to the role of Kylo Ren, as well as building quite the portfolio of movies since 2015.

His talents could well be honoured this awards season as is a front-runner for the upcoming Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the Netflix film Marriage Story.

If you ask me, he should have scooped the accolade of Best Supporting Actor last year, having been nominated for his part as Flip Zimmerman in the brilliant Spike Lee movie Blackkklansman.

But that’s a story for another time.

Both actors demonstrated every ounce of there considerable talent during Rey’s interrogation scene in The Force Awakens. They left it all on the field to put together one hell of a movie moment that foreshadowed a deep connection between the characters, (and no, that doesn’t necessarily mean Reylo confirmed).

Kylo looks to pull the missing piece of the map to Skywalker out of Rey’s head. We’ve seen him force – see what I did there – information out of Poe’s mind earlier in the film. Now Rey is about to endure the same torture and it will surely doom both Skywalker and the Resistance.

For a while, it seems that Rey is losing the battle. Tears stream down her face. She squeezes out the words “get out of my head” but Kylo is going nowhere. Just as he seems set to find what he’s looking for, the tables are turned and Rey goes on the offensive.

This is a switch in dynamic told only through facial expressions and subtle sounds. We hear a deep beating sound, almost like lightsabers clashing in slow motion. It becomes erratic and unhinged as Rey begins to lean towards Kylo. The tears have been replaced by sharp focus.

“You’re afraid, that you’ll never be as strong as Darth Vader.”

Rey’s revelation floors Kylo. His face has fallen and his eyes now show the vulnerability. You could say that Rey has just taken her first step into a larger world, attacking Kylo in the process.

This was a scene that Ridley first performed during the audition process for the part. She knocked it out of the park then, and does not disappoint in the movie. It’s a true showcase of acting in Star Wars, and sits right alongside what Mark Hamill delivers in The Last Jedi, as well as Felicity Jones’ performance in Rogue One.