She’ll always be Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher’s Star Wars audition tape resurfaced on Tuesday, December 27, following the death of the iconic actress.
As previously reported, Fisher died at UCLA Medical Center four days after suffering a massive heart attack while flying from London to LAX. She was 60.
In the three-minute clip, the legendary star runs lines with a casting director. The man takes the role of Han Solo, later played by Harrison Ford. (This year, Fisher revealed in her new memoir, The Princess Diarist, that she and Ford had an affair in 1976.)
Fisher wore a turtleneck and kept her brown locks down for the career-changing moment, a striking difference from Princess Leia’s gold bikini and signature hair buns.
Fisher would go on to star as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983). And she reprised the role of Leia, now a general, in last year’s Star Wars hit The Force Awakens.
Back in 2011, Fisher told New York Live that she had to lose 10 pounds to play the leader of the Rebel Alliance, even though she weighed only 105 pounds at the audition.
She and Ford, 74, would reunite onscreen 32 years later in J.J. Abrams’ 2015 smash Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In December 2015, she opened up about reprising her role — and having to lose 30 pounds for the movie — during an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I was very nervous, had a lot of memory problems initially – just horrific – and then it got better. I settled in. You know, think about it, what it would be to make three of these movies a million years ago, and now, ‘Let’s do it again, only you’re 40 years older and there’s a lot to live up to or down – take your pick.’ People want it to be the same but better … I don’t know,” she said at the time. “So there’s pressure on it, more than most films. But then you get over yourself and say, ‘By the way, it’s the younger people doing it.’ You have to sort of like get over yourself fast.”
Watch Fisher’s audition in the video above.
Can’t get enough of Us? Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter packed with the latest celeb news, hot pics and more!
About the Author
Luca Minutello
This author has not added a biography. Meanwhile Luca Minutello has contributed 8993 posts.
Click here
to view them.
