JJ Abrams called Daisy Ridley 'wooden' on her first day

Daisey Ridley in a scene from The Force Awakens.

Daisy Ridley "wanted to die" on the first day of shooting the new Star Wars movie after director JJ Abrams publicly criticised her "wooden" acting.

The British actress, 23, was already wracked with nerves as she began working on the new sci-fi epic, The Force Awakens, and her anxieties were compounded after Abrams singled her out for her bad performance while on location in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

"I was petrified," she recalls to Britain's Glamour magazine. "I thought I was gonna have a panic attack on the first day. Because JJ ... he probably doesn't remember telling me that my performance was wooden. This was the first day! And I honestly wanted to die. I thought I was gonna cry, I couldn't breathe.

"And there was so many crew there, because obviously all the creatures (had stand-ins), and there were loads of extra crew making sure everyone was safe 'cause it was so hot. It was awful."

However, Ridley insists it wasn't all bad as things quickly turned around for her and now she can't help but gush about working on the Disney movie and receiving the backing of film executives.

"My experience has been incredible," she says. "I've felt supported and respected the whole way through."

Meanwhile, Abrams appears to have forgotten all about his awkward first day with his leading lady after branding Daisy and her co-star John Boyega as "extraordinary" in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.

"I cannot wait for you to see them," the filmmaker exclaims on US breakfast show Good Morning America.

"We have an amazing, amazing cast."

And Abrams hopes his new vision for Star Wars will inspire young fans of both sexes to pursue their dreams.

"Star Wars was always a boys' thing and a movie that dads take their sons to, and though that's still very much the case, I was really hoping this could be a movie that mothers could take their daughters to as well," he explains.

"I'm looking forward to kids seeing this movie and seeing themselves in it and seeing that they're capable of doing things that they never imagined possible.

"What I hope more than anything is that they see a movie that tells them that life is full of sort of unlimited possibility that there's a sense of incredible - to use a George Lucas term, 'hope' - in the world, and that they feel better when they leave than when they got in there."

- WENN