Star Wars‘ Maisie Richardson-Sellers Knows How To Keep A Secret

Remember this name: Maisie Richardson-Sellers. In just over a year, when the 21-year old U.K. native makes her big screen debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — a.k.a The Biggest Movie of the Century — you won't be able to escape it.

Director J.J. Abrams is famous for plucking actors from obscurity and casting them in his brainy blockbusters. In Star Wars, he's once again assembled a diverse gang of newcomers, most of whom are destined for superstardom when the film opens next December. In Richardson-Sellers, Abrams has found a poised, thoughtful, and classically trained thespian who seems well-equipped for the life-changing madness that awaits her.

For starters, she refused to divulge any of the airtight secrets that have come to characterize a J.J. Abrams production. And, despite being new to the game — she beat thousands of actresses to land Star Wars right of Oxford — Richardson-Sellers handled our gumshoeing like an old pro.

If you can't wait a whole year to watch Richardson-Sellers do her thing, you're in luck. She just made her debut in The Vampire Diaries spin-off, The Originals, and will continue to appear on The CW show next year. We caught up with the actress to discuss how she landed the role of a lifetime, what it was like to work with J.J. Abrams, and the diversification of Hollywood.