Rey Skywalker has absolutely no time for Ted Cruz.
In response to the Texas senator’s characterizing of her — and virtually every female character in “Star Wars” — as a damsel in distress, Ridley had the perfect clapback.
In reality, Daisy Ridley didn’t even know Cruz took a shot at her character in his defense of Gina Carano after the actress was fired from “The Mandalorian.” It wasn’t until an interview with Yahoo Entertainment that she learned of his comments. “Hilarious” the actress deadpanned upon having his tweet read back to her.
“I did not know” Ridley answered, when asked if she was aware of Cruz’s words. “And I’m very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi – who doesn’t leave their state when it’s having a terrible time.”
Cruz tweeted his gripe with the women of “Star Wars” at large Feb. 11, after learning of Carano’s firing for a now-deleted post on her Instagram page likening the experience of Republicans today to that of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
In his tweet, Cruz didn’t address her post. He simply praised Carano’s character for being different, and “someone who girls looked up to.” That, he says, is the reason “Disney canceled her.”
Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe: not a princess, not a victim, not some emotionally tortured Jedi. She played a woman who kicked ass & who girls looked up to. She was instrumental in making Star Wars fun again. Of course Disney canceled her.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 11, 2021
Cruz seemed to take a shot at all three of the core women of “Star Wars” with the tweet; “princess” was obviously referring to Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa, while “victim” seems to reference Padmé Amidala’s fate in “Revenge of the Sith,” and “emotionally tortured Jedi” is directed at Rey, who struggles with her origins while she tries to figure out her future.
It wasn’t even a full week later that Cruz hopped on a flight to Cancun with his family, fleeing the deadly Winter conditions his state and his constituents were facing. Ridley did not expand her comments any further after calling out his actions, keeping her dig short and sweet.