In April 2014, Ridley's casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 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, film: A New Hope.
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 "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".
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