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'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Actress Daisy Ridley Lends Her Voice to a Classic Japanese Animated Film, 'Only Yesterday'

Daisy Ridley has become a huge celebrity thanks to the certified box office 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.' Portraying the scavenger Rey, who mysteriously has the skill of using the force, Ridley has gained her own fandom, and they cannot wait to see her in 2017's Star Wars 8.

For now, her followers settle for her next project, and in her next role, she will not be doing fight scenes using a lightsaber. Instead, she is the voice behind a character in a moving Japanese animated film entitled 'Only Yesterday.'

The classic Japanese movie released by Studio Ghibli in 1991 is based on a manga bearing the same title. Like Star Wars, the animated movie is also a box office success, and has even gotten a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The British actress voices the 27-year-old female protagonist named Taeko. Taeko has spent her entire life in Tokyo, and she decides to take a break and go someplace else. She went to Yamagata, and during her entire trip she began to look back nostalgically of her youth, in a beautiful juxtaposition of her past and present.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ridley shares her thoughts about the film. She says, "I think the reason probably this is such a loved film and will continue to be so is because it doesn't feel foreign. It feels exactly right, like, how do you make your dreams come true?" She adds, "...you try new things, you meet new people. And, eventually you kind of end up where you should be. "

According to Ridley, both children and adults will enjoy the Northern American version of the well acclaimed anime, as it is a story most of us would be able to identify with. She believes the movie speaks to everyone.

'Slumdog Millionaire' actor Dev Patel joins Ridley as lead voices in the classic movie, which can be seen come January 1 in IFC Center New York.  


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