Daisy Ridley Responds to Ted Cruz

Senator had defended fired 'Mandalorian' star Gina Carano, insulted Ridley's Rey
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2021 1:13 AM CST
Daisy Ridley Responds to Ted Cruz in Gina Carano Flap
This image released by Disney/Lucasfilm shows Daisy Ridley as Rey in a scene from "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."   (Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd. via AP)

Ted Cruz came to Gina Carano's defense after Disney fired her from The Mandalorian over her various controversial comments, but he didn't just support Carano—he insulted the character played by another female Star Wars alum, Daisy Ridley. "Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe: not a princess, not a victim, not some emotionally tortured Jedi," Cruz tweeted Feb. 11. "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." That "emotionally tortured Jedi" line was an apparent reference to Daisy Ridley's Rey, from Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Though Ridley missed it when Cruz wrote it, Yahoo Entertainment brought it to her attention while interviewing her Tuesday.

"I did not know" about the tweet, she said, "and I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi who doesn’t leave their state when it’s having a terrible time." That, of course, was a reference to Cruz's flight to Cancun while the state he represents in Congress was suffering a deadly deep freeze and widespread loss of water and power. Carano, for her part, responded to Cruz's tweet with a "Thank you Ted," USA Today reports. She also, during her interview last week with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, called out her Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal for posting Cruz's office phone number on Twitter after the US Capitol riot in January, urging his followers to call Cruz, Newsweek reports. "I don't think that posting anybody's number on social media is OK," she said. (More Ted Cruz stories.)

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