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Star Wars: The Actresses Who Almost Played Princess Leia
Star Wars' Princess Leia will always be associated with Carrie Fisher, but she wasn't the only actress considered to play the feisty royal. In 1971, George Lucas was looking to make his space-fantasy film into reality shortly after debuting his first full-length feature, but it wasn't until 1976 that things started to take shape. At that point, the then-19-year-old budding actress had a lot of competition before nabbing the role of Princess Leia.
Fisher made her movie debut in 1975 in the film Shampoo, where she played Lorna Karpf at age 17. A year later, she auditioned for Star Wars as Princess Leia Organa, the adopted daughter of Senator Bail Organa and a member of the galactic senate who was secretly helping the Rebellion against the evil Empire. Thanks to her palpable chemistry with co-stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, the three became the franchise's legacy stars. After starring in the original trilogy, all actors reprised their respective roles in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Unfortunately, before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker began filming, which was supposedly going to be heavily focused on Leia, Fisher tragically died. Nonetheless, the Princess of Alderaan-turned-Resistance leader remains one of the most beloved characters in the franchise.
Had things panned out differently, Princess Leia was going to be played by a different actress. Fisher was cast under the condition that she lose 10 pounds for the role. However, even before that, there were a string of rising actresses who were vying for the part. Through various reports over the years, multiple people have been confirmed to have either auditioned or have been considered for the part of Leia, including Cindy Williams, who had previously starred in Lucas' American Graffiti. This was before she became a household name as Shirley Feeney on Happy Days and, eventually, Laverne & Shirley.
Meanwhile, American singer-actress, who was best known for being the lead vocalist of the new wave band Berlin, Terri Nunn, was also in the running as the Princess of Alderaan. Aside from the pair, Jodie Foster and Amy Irving were two of the most-mentioned names associated with Leia. Lucas reportedly really wanted Foster for the part, but she couldn't take the job due to scheduling conflicts; this was likely the case considering that, between 1976 and 1977, she starred in a total of eight films, including Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
Other rising stars back then who auditioned for the part include Glenn Close, Farrah Fawcett, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Seymour, Kim Basinger, Geena Davis, Kathleen Turner, Sissy Spacek, Anjelica Huston, and even Meryl Streep. When Fisher was asked about the casting process for Star Wars' Princess Leia in 2015, she revealed that she never heard that Streep was also in the running. She, however, knew most of her other competitors, naming Foster and Irving, specifically. Things worked for the best and Lucas' gamble on casting a relatively unknown for Leia ultimately paid off. The actress embodied the feistiness and penchant for justice that her Star Wars character is known for, even off-camera. This made her an icon of feminism in Hollywood.
