Daisy Ridley on playing dead in 'I Think I'm Dying,' being an introvert: 'I'm like a grandma'

Daisy Ridley's lifeless body is shown a few times in her new film “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” and no one’s more weirded out about that than her mom.

In the dramedy that premiered Thursday at Sundance Film Festival, the British actress plays a quiet office worker whose daydreams showcase creepy crawlies, snakes and sometimes her prone body lying corpse-like. While filming in chilly Oregon weather, “the main thing was like, ‘Oh, my God, how long can I keep my eyes open and not shiver?’ ” Ridley says. “It's obviously quite haunting and when my mom watched the film, she was very emotional about it. I think to see one's loved ones in that way onscreen is very, very strange.”

However, Ridley adds, her character Fran doesn’t want to die – and, in fact, finds a reason to exist when she meets a new co-worker. Instead, her freaky fantasies are “just a meditative being in a place she escapes to and she’s desperately trying to live. So it's not painful. It's peaceful in a way, and that was my experience of doing it, aside from trying to stay warm.”

Ranked: All the best movies we saw at Sundance Film Festival (including 'Judy Blume Forever')

In addition to being the film's star and resident “bug whisperer” – a bunch of insects that squirm all over Ridley in one scene “did behave very well around me” – the 30-year-old “Star Wars” alum is a producer on “Dying” as well as on the upcoming “fun, twisty and turny” psychological thriller “Magpie.” Ridley hatched the story idea for that film – about a mom of a child star pushed to her limits when an actress infiltrates her family – and her husband/fellow producer Tom Bateman wrote the screenplay. It's “really the first time I've been truly on the ground from the beginning,” she says.

Before Ridley and Bateman start work on “Magpie” Monday, she checked in with USA TODAY on her way out of Park City, Utah, to talk about “Dying,” her social life and being a better cinephile.

Brooke Shields reveals she was raped in 'Pretty Baby' documentary: 'Stay alive and get out'

Question: Have you ever struggled with Fran's same social issues?

Answer: I don't have the sort of depth of despair that Fran exhibits, but I know what it is to be in social situations and find it a little difficult. Or say something and think, “What the hell? I didn’t mean it like that. It came out wrong,” and lie in bed because I'm so worried about if other people think I was ill-intentioned.

I'm a true introvert, which it might seem I’m not, but it exhausts me to be around people unless I'm comfortable. I think COVID did that for a lot of people. I remember going out to dinner just after the lockdown ended, and I was like panicking. I just thought I had nothing to say. I’d sat on my sofa for eight months and I had those feelings of thinking like “I don't know how to be social.”

'There's no way out': Michael J. Fox says he became an alcoholic, hid Parkinson's diagnosis

Are you back to your pre-pandemic social life of, say, when "The Rise of Skywalker" came out in late 2019?

It's interesting because around that time I was only going out for work and then the January following, I didn't see anyone. In general, it's not like I was doing less than I actually usually would. It was just that sense of worldwide inability and despair that everyone felt. So much of my identity had been being at work and that is a really big social thing for me, to be around people who share in the process of making something together. It's lovely to be back having that social outlet, but otherwise, I'm not going out there much. I'm like a grandma. I'm not even joking, I have a crossword book that’s called “Grandma's Book of Puzzles.” (Laughs.)

'Judy Blume Forever':  ‘Judy Blume Forever’ New documentary explores sexuality, banned books and controversy

Was “Magpie” a pandemic project for you and your husband?

He's actually written a number of things and he's a really good writer. He's a big cinephile. The way he sees story and structure and everything is amazing. I’m hoping that people have a little appetite for what we are making.

Fran is admittedly not a movie buff. How about you? Does being around a cinephile make you more of one?

Yes, it does. I wasn't a huge movie person growing up. I was always the person who was like, “I need to sit down and have a lot of concentration to watch a film.” My movie buffness is getting better. It's still embarrassing but now I’ve watched “The Godfather.” “Lord of the Rings” was a lockdown thing, loved those films so much. "Indiana Jones" I haven't seen yet. I’m getting through the good ones. At the moment there's just so much good stuff to watch but, yes, over time I'll be chipping away at the list.

Sundance: The 10 greatest movies the film festival gave us, from 'Clerks' to 'CODA'

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daisy Ridley talks 'Sometimes I Think I'm Dying,' being an introvert