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| A young Carrie Fisher in Jedi |
15 great facts and trivia about actress Carrie Fisher
Princess Leia is one of the quintessential Star Wars characters, one of the so-called 'Big 3' characters.
Every epic adventure needs a princess to be rescued and Leia was that damsel in distress.
Or was she?
Carrie Fisher became one of Hollywood’s more interesting creatures.
Made a worldwide star by Star Wars, her private life has maintained her legendary status amongst the fans, what with her coke addiction and mental health challenges.
Add in the marriage to singer Paul Simon![]()
, her affair with Harrison Ford, and of course, her role in the classic movie, The Blues Brothers, her star and fame shone brightly.
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Made a worldwide star by Star Wars, her private life has maintained her legendary status amongst the fans, what with her coke addiction and mental health challenges.
Add in the marriage to singer Paul Simon
, her affair with Harrison Ford, and of course, her role in the classic movie, The Blues Brothers, her star and fame shone brightly.
So given Leia is Carrie and Carrie is Leia, here’s 15 facts and trivia about the actress and character.
- Princess Leia never actually gets to 'meet'Obi-Wan Kenobi in ANH. She sees him from afar when she's escaping the Death Star and Obi-Wan is about to let Darth Vader kill him but that's it. Unless you count Obi-Wan being present for her birth in Revenge of the Sith...
- Legend has it that Carrie Fisher had a massive drug problem during the filming of Return of the Jedi. Cocaine was apparently her powder of choice. In Jedi you can see she wears an extra long fingernail which is just a perfect instrument to assist with the distribution of nose candy up the nose.
- Carrie Fisher has spoken many times of her struggles with bipolar disorder. You wouldn't wish this on any anybody. Watch this interview she did with the great Steven Fry. It gives a frightening context in how she struggled with this illness.
- Princess Leia was subject to one of the most famous ad-libs in cinema history - that being Han Solo's response to her declaration of love - "I know". Harrison Ford apparently made it up at Irvine Kershner's suggestion. Leia got to return the line in Jedi during the Battle of Endor. After Han Solo grabbed her breast...
- According to Fisher in her novel, The Princess Diarist, she and Harrison Ford had a three-month long fling during the making of A New Hope. Harrison was married at the time.
- Carrie Fisher appeared as a nun in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. This movie was a weird Kevin Smith homage to Star Wars and featured an appearance by Fisher as a nun and Mark Hamill as a parody of himself. Carrie's cameo was the one that got the laughs...do you follow the good book?
- A lot of people forget this but Fisher appeared in the classic movie When Harry met Sally. She was the 'friend' of Sally who ended up marrying Harry’s best friend.
- Carrie Fisher wrote an actual bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge and screenplay for the film based on her writing. In some Holywood circles, she was considered an excellent script doctor. The book was about her drug addiction and her relationship with her mother. Fisher has managed to parlay her writing talent with a few turns at playing script doctor for a few Hollywood movies, most notably Dustin Hoffman's Outbreak. Her appearance in Scream 3 was apparently scripted by herself. Beauty and brains eh?
- Speaking of mothers, Carrie Fisher's mother is actually a famous actress in her own right, Debbie Reynolds.
- Fisher was once married to one half of Simon and Garfunkel. It was Simon.
- Fisher delivered some classic quotes:
- Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope
- Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.
- Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
- Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder.
- I'd just as soon kiss a Wookie!
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- If you asked the average Star Wars fan what was Leia’s home world, they would be correct in answering the planet Alderaan and they could go to the head of the class. If you asked the hardest core fan, they might also quickly add that Leia and Luke were actually born at a medical facility on Polissa Massa – if you’ve seen Revenge of the Sith you might recall that is where Obi-Wan Kenobi took the injured Padme for medical assistance.
- Leia's character has her own musical theme titled "Princess Leia's Theme". It is represented by the musical leitmotif method which is famously used across the films. The piece was composed by John Williams and was used several times. It first appeared in A New Hope, heard when Princess Leia is captured by the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Later, it surfaces as R2-D2 plays her holographic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi. The also theme plays when Kenobi is killed by Vader and it makes an appearance in the credits of the movie. It also is used in the two follow up movies and the Revenge of the Sith prequel when her adoptive father Bail Organa introduces her to her adoptive mother.
- Leia's golden metal bikini that she wore while strangling the slug Jabba the Hutt in Return of Jedi is perhaps one of the most famous bikini in the history of bikinis. Its iconic status in film history is perhaps only rivaled by Ursula Andress’s exit from the beach in James Bond’s Dr No. Many women (and the odd male!) like to dress as Leia and attend conventions dressed in the bikini. Bless. Bless them all…
- In a New Hope, Leia was kept captive on the Death Star in cell number 2187. This was a deliberate choice as 2187 is the year that the Lucas directed film THX 1138, was set. The Force Awakens took this even further and used the number as Finn's designated Stormtrooper number FN2187.
- Leia says the last line of the movie Rogue One "What Is It They've Sent Us? Hope." It's a clever set up for the title of A New Hope and ties in thematically well. In saying this last line, that takes Leia's tally of saying the final line of a Star Wars movie to three - the other two being The Force Awakens and Return of the Jedi.
- The Rise of Skywalker was Carrie's last Star Wars movie, meaning she did 6 performances as Leia while the character appeared in a total of eight Star Wars films (Remember the Revenge of the Sith appearances as a baby and the brief CGI cameo in Rogue One.
- Fisher appeared posthumously in The Rise of Skywalker as Leia. JJ Abrams has worked her into the script by using deleted scenes and out-takes from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and some CGI magic.
Do you have anything else to add? If so, leave a note in the comments.
RIP Carrie.