While it’s a well-known snippet of Hollywood lore that the casting rooms for George Lucas’ Star Wars and his pal Brian ‘inspired the opening crawl‘ De Palma were shared, with (according to Carrie Fisher) De Palma auditioning the actors. While it’s rumoured that De Palma would have cast the hot ticket Fisher – fresh off Shampoo with Warren Beatty – and two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster was one of many actresses who auditioned for Princess Leia, the revelation that Foster was not only offered the role but turned it down is new information, but that’s how she explained it this week on Jimmy Fallon.
“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 of the Disney movie because I was already under contract.
“And they did an amazing job. I don’t know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair. I might have gone with a pineapple.”
22 years later the lead actress in a Star Wars film would be 14-year-old Natalie Portman, and 35 years later Disney would own Star Wars, and one has to wonder – in a perfectly Lucasian example of symmetry – if Foster would have considered taking the role in The Rise of Skywalker had a recast been considered over ILM’s work using outtakes and stand-ins.
We’ll never know, but we can imagine ‘What If Jodie Foster was Princess Leia‘, and speaking of What If, check out tonights 183rd episode of Making Tracks where we discuss that and more.
