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".
Jodie Foster
Aware that child stars are often unable to successfully continue their careers into adulthood, Foster became a full-time student at Yale in fall 1980, and her acting career slowed down in the following five years. She later stated that going to college was "a wonderful time of self-discovery", and changed her thoughts about acting, which she had previously thought was an unintelligent profession, but now realised that "what I really wanted to do was to act and there was nothing stupid about it." She continued making films on her summer vacations, and during her college years appeared in "O'Hara's Wife" (1982), television film "Svengali" (1983), John Irving adaptation "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984), French film "The Blood of Others" (1984), and period drama "Mesmerized" (1986), which she also co-produced. None of them were however successful, and Foster struggled to find work after graduating in 1985. The neo-noir "Siesta" (1987), in which she appeared in a supporting role, was a failure. "Five Corners" (1987) was a moderate critical success and earned Foster an Independent Spirit Award for her performance as a woman whose sexual assaulter returns to stalk her. In 1988, Foster made her debut as a director with the episode "Do Not Open This Box" for the horror anthology series "Tales from the Darkside", and in August appeared in the coming of age romantic drama "Stealing Home" (1988) opposite Mark Harmon. The film upon release was a critical and commercial failure, with film critic Roger Ebert even "wondering if any movie could possibly be that bad". Although, years later the film found success in television re-runs and DVD release and is hailed as a cult film.