Cover Star

I look up, and Daisy Ridley is standing and waving to me from across the room at the Soho House in West Hollywood.Dressed in a grey sweater (Los Angeles has been awfully cold and gloomy for this time of year) and with her signature short hair, she somehow has that particular mix of star quality and approachability – it’s as if your best friend from next door is now a movie star.It’s this same quality that gives her the chameleon-like tendencies that many actors strive for; her acting projects range from a troubled housewife to a socially awkward office worker to a strong and stubborn Jedi. “It’s all make-believe,” says Daisy, laughing. “It’s about turning up and being very present and being very open and available, but also submitting to someone else’s vision. It’s about being open to what other people believe, even if you come up with ideas of what that is.”In her newest role, Daisy plays the real-life American athlete Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle in Young Woman and the Sea, centred on the story of the first woman who swam the English Channel. (Daisy executive-produced the movie.) It’s also the 98th anniversary of that historic swim – a feat that Daisy learned about intimately. “The first time I swam for the role, we were in a 20-metre pool, and I swam halfway, then started panicking. I was like, I can’t do it. I actually can’t do it,” she says. “It was a classic lied-on-the-CV moment of, What the f*ck have I done?”On the last day, filming in the Black Sea, Daisy was told to just swim as long as she could. She has no idea whether she swam for minutes or for much longer. “I remember thinking, ‘I can’t do this anymore’,” she says. Emerging from the water with the thought, ‘God, I hope that was okay’, and turning to O’Connor, she saw the Olympian trainer had tears in her eyes. Daisy had not just done it, she’d done it well – cold and current be damned. “The build-up to it was worse than the thing. Once you’re [swimming], you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m fine’. And then after the fact, I was like, ‘How did I actually do that?’” she says of the experience.Yet Daisy is no stranger to doing hard things. Diagnosed with endometriosis (in which uterine-like tissue grows outside the uterus and often causes severe pain) in her teens and polycystic ovaries in her 20s, she’s been candid about her health, on social media and in interviews. But now she’s dealing with another curveball: Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that involves overactivity of the thyroid.Photographed by Jonny MarlowBack at our table, Daisy takes a drink of water, then looks at me. “It’s the first time I’ve shared that [Graves’],” she says, moving her hands along the glass. She was diagnosed in September 2023, after her general practitioner encouraged her to see an endocrinologist following bouts of hot flashes and fatigue. (She doesn’t know if all three of her diagnoses are related, but the symptoms for all can be similar.)The star had started feeling terrible following the filming of Magpie, a psychological thriller in which she plays Anette, a wife and mother dealing with her rocky relationship. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ve just played a really stressful role; presumably that’s why I feel poorly’,” she says. When she described to her endocrinologist her symptoms, which included a racing heart rate, weight loss, fatigue and hand tremors, the doctor mentioned that the feeling of Graves’ is often referred to as “tired but wired” – and Daisy realised she felt super irritable. “It was funny, I was like, ‘Oh, I just thought I was annoyed at the world,’ but turns out everything is functioning so quickly, you can’t chill out.”READ MORE: 4 Quotes By Our September/October 2024 Cover Star Daisy Ridley That Inspired Us To *Listen To Our Bodies*With the diagnosis, Daisy experienced some sadness, but also – if she’s being honest – irritation as well. As someone who takes good care of herself physically, it felt to her like a random blow. On the silver linings side, the disease led Daisy to a more routine pattern of daily medication and a more mindful diet. She’s been vegan for years but decided to go gluten-free following her diagnosis. “I am not super strict about it, but generally cutting down on gluten makes me feel better,” she says, noting it is said to help with inflammation for those predisposed to it (like Daisy).The 32-year-old is still working to find balance. Soon after she started implementing the lifestyle changes, she woke up and found herself listening to the birds and noticing the colour of the sky and how it was so blue. “I didn’t realise how bad I felt before. Then I looked back and thought, ‘How did I do that?’”The diagnosis has also led Daisy to a renewed sense of body awareness and reminded her that not everything canbe anticipated. “I’ve always been health conscious, and now I’m trying to be more well-being conscious,” she says. She’s working to pay attention to her body, slow down and rest when she needs to. And she’s integrating things like infrared saunas, cryotherapy, massages and acupuncture into her routine, along with her beloved bath time. She’s into crystals, too and carries around rose quartz with her everywhere she goes; it’s said to promote emotional balance, self-love and peace. “I do a fair amount of the holistic stuff, but I also understand that it is a privilege to be able to do those things.”Daisy is, like so many of us, learning to continuously listen to her body, a thing she knows many women are not inclined to do. “We all read the stats about women being undiagnosed or underdiagnosed and sort of coming to terms with saying, ‘I really, actually don’t feel good’ and not going, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ It’s just normalised to not feel good,” she says.At that point, we sit in a moment of quiet, and I let that sincerity and the severity of that statement wash over us. If you look at the list of health issues she’s dealt with, Daisy has every right to be bitter or overwhelmed, but in reality, she’s thinking about those who have it worse. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s much less severe than what a lot of people go through,” she says. “Even if you can deal with it, you shouldn’t have to. If there’s a problem, you shouldn’t have to just [suffer through it].”In coming to terms with her new reality, her exercise regimen has shifted as well. Having worked out consistently since she was 20, Daisy has always been active in general – her mom put her and her two sisters in gymnastics as kids just to keep everyone busy and moving. Having attended a performing arts school, she also danced and sang.Today, her routine includes working with personal trainer Matt Bevan, who also trains the likes of Lily James, Sienna Miller and Jenna Coleman. “He’s just so good. He understands bodies; he understands fatigue,” says Daisy, who doesn’t really do high-intensity cardio or running or things that “just don’t suit” her body, health issues and goals. “I do lots of stuff that is reactive and functional,” she says, including mobility exercises, some lifting and general calisthenics and bodyweight movements. Moves that keep her going: lateral lunges, split squats, Bulgarian squats and hip thrusts, among others. Bevan also makes sure to integrate coordination drills for Daisy, so her muscles work together as a unit. To do so, they incorporate medicine ball throws and plyometric jumps and hops.Photographed by Jonny MarlowWorking in tandem with Bevan, Daisy integrates specialised trainings for roles that call for it – like swimming with O’Connor or doing kickboxing for another high-action role. For Jedi training, she relied on a lot of arm workouts.(Wielding a lightsabre is no joke.) “Generally, my training stays pretty consistent. And then we tailor stuff to what I’m doing,” she says. “It’s just finding the balance and me understanding now where my tolerance really ends.”And yes, her tolerance does end. After doing her press tour for Young Woman and the Sea, she went straight into pick-ups (i.e., refilming small scenes or moments for a film). “I was just shattered, so I took a few days off training and am now on a ‘deload’ week,” she says. (A deload is where you take a bit of a break or lower the intensity of your workouts.)It’s been an adjustment, because for Daisy, working out is a mental escape, not solely a physical feat. “It’s an hour just for me and it’s my time to do what I need to do to make myself feel good,” she says. The other thing Daisy really likes to do for her mental health? Reading. Daisy has always been a voracious reader and she credits that love of reading as a major reason she’s an actor today. (Two of her recent favourites include Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and As Young as This by Roxy Dunn.) Getting immersed in a script is one of her favourite parts of the job. “I get to the point where, if I’m reading, I can’t hear other people,” she says. “Reading is my meditation.”It’s hard not to see the parallel between tuning in to the words on the page and how she’s now tuning in to her own needs, in terms of managing Graves’ disease, getting lost in what works for her, and finding peace in the new routines of it all. Her hope is that others going through health struggles can do the same and realise there’s calm and acceptance on the other side – you just might have to swim for it.This article appeared in the September/October Issue of Women’s Health South Africa. Written by Samantha Leal. Photographed by Jonny Marlow. Styled by Kristen Saladino. Hair: Mara Roszak using RŌZ Hair, represented by A-Frame Agency. Make-Up: Chanel makeup artist Kate Lee using Chanel Beauty. Manicure: Jolene Brodeur at The Wall Group. More