Daisy Ridley
Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes "Youngers", "Toast of London", "Silent Witness", "Mr Selfridge", and "Casualty". She appeared in the short film "Blue Season", which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in film three of "Lifesaver", an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. Ridley made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film "Scrawl", after her scenes from the British comedy film "The Inbetweeners 2" were removed in the final cut.
In April 2014, Ridley's casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in "", was announced. She was chosen for the film in February 2014. At the time of her casting she was, according to "Rolling Stone", a "total unknown." Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas's move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first "Star Wars" film in 1977. Ridley began filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and prior to the film's release in December 2015, she appeared at the launch of a set of "Star Wars" postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with her character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8. With international revenues of over $2 billion, "The Force Awakens" was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. After an early screening of the film, Brian Viner of the "Daily Mail" called Ridley the "real star of the show", adding that her performance as Rey should "send her career into orbit." Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding "Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".
Paula Wessely
Wessely, who was not particularly photogenic, was passed over in favor of Magda Schneider for the role of Christine in Max Ophüls' 1933 filmization of Arthur Schnitzler's "Liebelei", a part she had played at Theater in der Josefstadt. Her first major movie role was that of Leopoldine Dur in the 1934 film "Maskerade" directed by Willi Forst, together with Adolf Wohlbrück. Further appearances in films like "Episode" by Walter Reisch, for which she was awarded the Volpi Cup as best actress at the 1935 Venice Film Festival, finally made her a star. In 1938 she was the speaking voice of Snow White in the first German-dubbed version of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Immediately banned by the Nazi authorities after the Austrian "Anschluss" in the same year, this version was re-released in 1948 in Austria and in 1950 in West Germany (the first public performance ever), for the last time performed in 1957. As Disney Germany re-dubbed this movie in 1966 and again in 1994, both older versions are no longer available — although they are archived at London. Like her brother-in-law Paul Hörbiger, Wessely had publicly acclaimed the "Anschluss", after which she smoothly continued her film and theatre career. Her most notorious movie appearance was in the anti-Polish Nazi propaganda film "Heimkehr" ("Homecoming") by Gustav Ucicky in 1941. Heavily criticized by Austrian intellectuals after World War II, she later publicly regretted her involvement.