The “Star Wars” films of the 1970s left an indelible mark on the film culture and it’s nearly impossible to imagine anyone else in the iconic role of Princess Leia than the one and only Carrie Fisher. But the breakout role that rocketed her to superstardom is one that Fisher has said she wished she had turned down (via People).
Never one to stay quiet or not speak her truth, Fisher wrote her 2008 memoir “Wishful Drinking” after her one-woman show of the same name, and in it, she was frank and candid about her life’s ups and downs. One revelation was about her most famous part that she got at age 19. In a 2008 interview with Matt Lauer on Today, when he asked if she knew the kind of fame it would bring her, without hesitation, Fisher said, “No! I would never have done it!” She went on to say, “And all I did when I was really famous was wait for it to end. Because it knew that was coming up.”
Fisher has also been honest about her struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction over the years (via CBS News), and being thrust into such an intense spotlight by becoming an international celebrity at age 19 could not have made dealing with those issues any easier.
Carrie Fisher regretted the role, but liked the character
As the daughter of actor Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, who had an affair with Elizabeth Taylor while married to Reynolds, Fisher grew up with a front-row seat to fame and its potential pitfalls. As she put it in “Wishful Drinking,” “You might say I’m a product of Hollywood inbreeding. When two celebrities mate, something like me is the result” (per The New York Times). As she told Matt Lauer on Today, growing up with famous parents came with a sad reality. As an adolescent, Fisher said “I watched my parents’ celebrity dwindle. I saw the heartbreak of celebrity. Get me away from that.”
Yet, while she might have regretted taking the role, Fisher did show some love for Leia. In her 2016 book “The Princess Diarist,” aka her diaries from her time on set for the original “Star Wars” films, and in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR about the book, Fisher said, “The downside is the hair and some of the outfits. But I like Princess Leia. I like how she handles things. I like how she treats people. I — she tells the truth. She, you know, gets what she wants done.”
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