Young Woman and the Sea director Joachim Rønning didn’t anticipate Daisy Ridley’s doggy paddle scenes being so difficult.

In the new biographical drama, the Star Wars actress plays Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Ederle, who was the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926.

Ridley admitted in a recent interview that shooting the early scenes where Trudy swims doggy paddle in full clothes was much harder than swimming front crawl in the open water in a two-piece costume.

When asked about her comments in an interview with Cover Media, Rønning confessed he didn’t initially realise how challenging those scenes would be for his leading lady.

“When she was swimming in the gown, I had no idea how hard that was,” he said. “When we’re out on the water, everybody is like really servicing her as much as we can but when she’s in the gown, I didn’t know what that was like. I just thought she was in the pool doggy paddling, like how hard can that be?”

The Norwegian director explained that Ridley was so tired on those filming days because the doggy paddle requires more effort and energy than other strokes.

“At the end of that day, I had to fish her out of the pool. I mean, she was gone,” he shared. “Kudos to her for, again, she was not saying no or complaining or telling me she was exhausted. She just went again and again and again until I realised that that was really hard.”

The British actress revealed in an interview with Empire in April that the doggy paddle was “the worst part of all of the swimming”.

“It’s the time when we’re in these very intense costumes, like the bloomers and the dress,” she explained. “That day where we went in and did our test for the coach was so rough. I could honestly barely breathe. It is such an intense waste of energy.”

Young Woman and the Sea is in select cinemas now.

© Cover Media