Daisy Ridley Shares How She Bonded with Husband Tom Bateman While Making New Movie Magpie (2025)

It's always an intriguing start when a film project launches from the minds of a real-life couple. Magpie credits Tom Bateman as its writer, but his wife Daisy Ridley (Star Wars, Young Woman and the Sea) helped him conceive the idea from the get-go, as we recently learned. MovieWeb spoke with Ridley amid the release of their gripping neo-noir and opened up about their hands-on collaborative process through bringing the film to life on the page, including a wildly surprising twist in the third act (no spoilers).

"Because I was so part of it all, I was really seeing it sort of come together in real time, and I knew what Tom was writing was great, and I knew if we particularly got great people, we would really care about these characters and be invested enough to think, 'What the f*** is going on, and where is it going?'" Ridley told us about creating her new film. She continued:

"Much of the payoff of act three is how the rest of the film is shot and how everything is captured. And perspective-wise, you know, you're questioning whether what you're watching is true and reliable, and so much of that is how it's captured and the sort of suffocating nature of particularly what [my character] Anette is going through... But certainly seeing it was nice... Hearing people's responses to the last 20 minutes of the film is fantastic."

Ridley also opened up about why her collaborative process with Bateman (a star in his own right, who played Bouc in Kenneth Branagh's new Agatha Christie movies) is so uniquely effective. "I suppose it could be difficult in many ways, but I think the main reason it works with us is we have really similar taste in film. We know what we like, and we love watching all sorts of different things. And when we talk at length about what we're watching, and even if we don't entirely agree, it's always a really interesting conversation because, of course, we're all bringing our own individual perspective to what we're seeing." She added:

Related: Magpie Review: Daisy Ridley's Seductive Neo-Noir Slow-Burn

Daisy Ridley Was Less Inhibited with Her Husband Not on Set

TV fans might also recognize Ridley's husband Bateman from Peacock's Based on a True Story, the second season of which kept him busy while Magpie was also shooting. Ridley confirmed to us that not having her partner on set of this latest film of hers was actually, in fact, helpful. "That was precisely the moment where it ended up being really good, because I think I would have felt a little inhibited," she said, explaining:

"Because often," added Ridley, "when you go into a movie, you think, 'Well, it looks great, it feels great. Is it translating?' And certainly for him to every day be watching the rushes and saying 'yes' was another layer of comfort that we were capturing what we had hoped we were." From Shout! Studios, Magpie will be released in select theaters starting Oct. 25, 2024.

4/5

Magpie

R

When Ben and Anette's daughter is cast in a film alongside glamorous movie star, Alicia, Ben is quickly drawn into Alicia's world. As he becomes more intoxicated with Alicia and their affair intensifies, Anette is left at home with the baby, pushed to her emotional limits and psychologically on the brink.

Release Date

March 9, 2024

Director

Sam Yates

Cast

Daisy Ridley , Shazad Latif , Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz , Alistair Petrie , Pippa Bennett-Warner , Niall Wright , Cherrelle Skeete , Andy M Milligan , Jenny Galloway , Emmet Kirwan

Runtime

90 Minutes

Main Genre

Thriller

Writers

Tom Bateman