You can read the full article and interview at The Guardian here
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I ask if she thinks it has been easier to be confident and navigate her celebrity because of the privilege in her life – of boarding school, her upbringing and so on? Ridley is suddenly incredulous.
"The privilege I have – how? No, genuinely, how?"
Well, I say, in terms of wealth, class, education – that kind of privilege, in knowing how to decode the rules in certain spaces. As a caveat, I add that both of us have privilege, and it's not a criticism; I was simply curious to know what she thought. Things take an awkward turn.
"Well no, because, no… " There is a very long and tense pause, before she insists that, actually, there is little difference between her experience and that of her co-star John Boyega, who grew up in south London to British Nigerian immigrant parents. "John grew up on a council estate in Peckham and I think me and him are similar enough that… no." I don't point out that members of Ridley's family were establishment figures (her grandfather, John Ridley OBE, was head of engineering at the BBC from 1950 to 1965; his brother was the Dad's Army actor and playwright Arthur Ridley), while Boyega had to apply for a hardship fund to join Theatre Peckham.
"Also," she adds, "I went to a boarding school for performing arts, which was different." (Her publicist later calls to clarify that Ridley won a scholarship.)
But surely nine years of private education gave her some additional confidence?
"No." Ridley leans on her elbow while twirling a small knot in her hair. "No. I think, also, it has taken me a little while to be OK with it. I was always fairly confident, and I think that comes from being part of a big family who are all quite chatty."
It's an unexpectedly defensive detour, as if the mere mention of privilege is an attempt to diminish Ridley's hard work or talent. I try to change the subject but get the distinct feeling that her publicist, sitting behind me in Ridley's eyeline, has made some sort of silent intervention. "I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong," Ridley adds. "I've just never been asked that before, so I'm like, oh. I don't think so." We move on.
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