Daisy Ridley had to hide the reason for her ripped body when she was shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as the film was shrouded in secrecy.

The movie hit cinemas in December (15) and as well as smashing box office records, it also thrust the British actress into the spotlight. Her performance as Rey has been lauded by fans and critics alike, and the 23-year-old is glad she can now talk about the life, and body, changing role.

"Yes (I trained) for three months, five hours a day," Daisy told OK! magazine. "It's weird when you can't tell people what (film) you're doing and they're, like, 'Why are you so muscly?' And I'm, like, 'I'm at the gym, by myself.'"

As Star Wars premiered around the world, Daisy got to wear an array of stunning gowns when walking the red carpet. For the Shanghai opening she donned a stiking purple Jason Wu dress, and she went sleek in a black Roland Mouret number with silver sparkle detailing for the London screening.

Her glamorous premiere looks are a far cry from how she needed to present herself in the film franchise though.

"We took sand from the desert where we were filming and boiled it in water to sterilise it," Star Wars make-up artist Amanda Knight recently told Allure. "Then we'd stick it on Daisy's face before each take. But it didn't really matter. When she was filming fight scenes, she was face down in the sand anyway. And there was nothing sterile about that at all. Poor Daisy really went through it."

While she wore eye make-up for Rey, director J.J. Abrams didn't want it to look like she was rocking smoky eyes. In the end Amanda settled on a smudge of Bobbi Brown dark brown liner and a touch of mascara.

"We didn't want her looking like she had full mascara on," she admitted. "The Kanebo (Sensai 38C) mascara has a tiny little brush; it worked well and didn't smudge. We put it at the root and didn't brush it all the way through."