Daisy Ridley had so much adrenaline in her body while filming an action sequence for Cleaner that she couldn’t stop shaking.

In Martin Campbell’s action thriller, the Star Wars actress plays a former soldier-turned-window cleaner who helps rescue people who are taken hostage by criminal activists at a gala.

Although Ridley knew that she was acting and the dangerous scenes were not real, her body still released the fight-or-flight hormone in response to the perceived threats – and it kept building with every take.

During an appearance on the Off Menu podcast, the British actress cited a particular scene where her character Joey falls from the ceiling, wraps a plastic bag around someone’s head and wrestles them to the ground.

“That was a moment where I thought, I actually don’t know that I can carry on because the adrenaline was so high,” she said. “I’m like 15 feet in the air, so someone had to hold my toe so I wasn’t swinging when I dropped, so someone would be holding my toe to keep me still. Then they’d run away, we’d already be rolling, and then they’d have to drop me and it was a heavy drop.

“So I had to drop and hope I didn’t hurt my ankles and then getting the bag over someone’s head and then there’s a sequence of things that I have to do. That, it took like 15 goes to get it right, and my adrenaline was so high, I was shaking so much.”

Ridley, who is no stranger to stunts thanks to playing Rey in the last Star Wars trilogy, told the food podcast’s host Ed Gamble and James Acaster that she knew the shoot would be “incredibly taxing physically” so she abided by a meal plan to maintain her energy and fitness throughout production.

Cleaner, also starring Clive Owen, is now available in the U.K. on Sky Cinema.

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