Jodie Foster unveiled the cause of turning down the role of Princess Leia in ‘Star Wars’. During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the actress and filmmaker talked about rejecting the iconic role. Let’s find out the reason behind her rejection.
Jodie Foster said she rejected the role as at that time she was doing a Disney movie
During a conversation with the Oscar winner Fallon asked Foster, “You’ve [played] so many iconic roles, we love what you do. But I saw this on the internet, you were offered the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars. Is that true?”
The 61-year-old responded, “I was, yeah. They were going for a younger Princess Leia but I had a conflict. I was doing a Disney movie and I just didn’t want to pull out because I was already under contract.”
Although Foster didn’t address which Disney movie she was doing, it might have been Freaky Friday, which was released a year before Star Wars. Moreover, the actress said despite being disappointed in not being able to do this film she praised Carrie Fisher, who takes on the role of a beloved resistance leader. She said Fisher did an “amazing job.”
“I don’t know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair, you know. I might have gone with a pineapple,” the actress joked.
Since her appearance in 1977 in the Star Wars franchise Princess Leia has become one of the beloved characters of all time.
Fisher played Princess Leia in five Star Wars films total: Star Wars (A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. However, she tragically passed away in Dec. 26, 2016, at 60 before The Rise of Skywalker’s filming began.
In 2019, Director J.J. Abrams told Entertainment Tonight at D23 about the legacy of Fisher’s character. Abrams said, “We couldn’t figure out how to tell the end of the Skywalker Saga without Leia and, you know, saying that she had passed away, saying that she was somewhere else…there was no way. And we realized we could never recast it and we didn’t want to do a CG character, so we actually realized there was footage we could use, that we could literally write scenes around and suddenly have as an active part of this movie and she’s great in the film. And still, maybe now more than ever, it’s impossible to me that she’s gone because she’s so alive in the film.”
Also Read: Dolly Parton Revealed the Reason for Turning Down Kate Middleton’s Tea Invitation
