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".
Rachel Ames
Ames debuted professionally in 1949 in "Pilgrimage Play", and she joined her parents in acting in "One Foot in Heaven" at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. She transitioned into film under the stage name Judith Ames, and was
under contract with Paramount Pictures for three years in the early 1950s; her first feature film was "When Worlds Collide" (1951), a science fiction thriller based on the 1933 novel of the same name. The same year, she had appeared in "Toast to Our Brother", a short film documenting fraternity life at UCLA, where she was a student at the time.
She had an uncredited role in the film noir "The Turning Point" (1952), followed by a minor part in the Western "Arrowhead" (1953) with Charlton Heston. The following year, she had a supporting role in the Western comedy "Ricochet Romance" (1954). In her only regular role on prime-time television, Ames played Policewoman Sandy McAllister on "The Lineup" in that program's final season during 1959. Ames also had dozens of other guest-starring appearances in television, on series such as "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp", "The Virginian", "Ironside", "Wagon Train", "Trackdown", "Ben Casey", "Perry Mason", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", and six different appearances on "Science Fiction Theater". She appeared in a lead role in the 1960 Western "Gunfighters of Abilene", opposite Buster Crabbe and Barton MacLane.