Carrie Fisherdoubted thatStar Warswould amount to much when it was released in 1977. In his book,The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Fisher’s best friend, Griffin Dunne, shares an insight into the way Fisher initially dismissed George Lucas’ space movie as having a script that was“really stupid,”and felt the movie was going to be a“f-cking disaster.”
Fisher would end up playing the role of Princess Leia until, and briefly beyond, her death, appearing in the original trilogy, returning decades later toreprise her role in the sequel trilogyand also appearing using computer trickery inStar Wars: Rogue Oneas the 1977 version of herself. First taking on the role as a 19-year-old, Fisher really did not see anything special about the movie, and certainly did not expect it to be her career-defining role. In an extract of his memoir shared byThe Times, Dunne revealed Fisher’s response when he asked whether there could have been a role in the movie for him:
It’s a really stupid script and you would have turned it down, I promise.
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
The extract later shares the moment Fisher called Dunne in a panic while filmingStar Warsin the U.K., with her mocking what would become one of the most iconic hairstyles in cinema history, and candidly trashing two of the movie’s other iconic characters.
“‘You should see what they did to my hair!’ she had screamed into the phone on location, usually mornings before going to set for her, four in the morning for me. ‘I look like I’m wearing two bagels over my ears.’ She added: “And I’m acting with an eight-foot yeti and a four-foot Brit in a rolling trash can! We shoot at sh-t we can’t see on green screens with ray guns that don’t even have a trigger. This movie is going to be a f-cking disaster.”
George Lucas Shared Carrie Fisher’s Doubts Over Star Wars’ Potential
In retrospect, it is easy to look back and say thatStar Warswas always going to be a hit, and it is hard to imagine a world where the franchise did not exist. Back in 1977, though,A New Hope– a movie that inexplicably was marked as the fourth part of a new film series – was not a guaranteed hit, and in fact, even creator George Lucas was not completely convinced that it would make much more than its $15 million budget when it was released. Considering the saga has since earned in excess of $10 billion, it is not unfair to say he was a little off the mark.
George Lucas Dismisses Criticisms of Sexism and Racism in Star Wars Movies
George Lucas doesn’t agree with the constant complaint that his early Star Wars movies were “full of white males.”
As one of the central characters of theStar Warsuniverse, Fisher’s portrayal of Leia became one of the genre’s great female icons, and the strength and resilience of the character was something rarely seen in female characters in movies at the time. ModernStar Warsmovies have continued todevelop strong female leads, both in the sequel trilogy and in series such asAhsoka, all of which originated from that “stupid” script and a movie that so many people believed was destined to be a failure.
TheStar WarsSaga can be streamed on Disney+.
