Carrie Fisher’s ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Interviews are Amazing
Carrie Fisher isn’t receiving nearly as much attention as her original Star Wars co-stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, but she should be. The actress, author, screenwriter and national treasure has been making the press rounds to promote The Force Awakens, and she’s had some incredibly delightful responses to questions about Slave Leia and her weight loss.
You might recall that there was recently a bit of a fuss over a Princess Leia action figure featuring Fisher’s iconic character in that “Slave Leia” bikini outfit from Return of the Jedi, which inspired some fans to call for Lucasfilm and Disney to remove this version of Leia from all future merchandising.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Fisher was asked how she feels about the backlash. “I think that’s stupid,” she said, and went on to give a rather sensible explanation:
The father who flipped out about it, “What am I going to tell my kid about why she’s in that outfit?” Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it. And then I took it off. Backstage.
The Slave Leia thing has been debated for years, but I like Fisher’s simple, direct response to it — though it’s not nearly as awesome as what she did in this Good Morning America interview. You have to sort of feel bad for the interviewer, who is probably just following protocol by asking superficial questions (like a good droid) in what she thought would be a light-hearted exchange. She was so wrong.
Fisher brought along her dog and Twitter superstar Gary Fisher, who has already seen The Force Awakens and loves it. And while Gary’s presence probably reassured the reporter that this would be a silly and fun interview, she had to find out the truth the hard way when she asked Carrie Fisher about losing weight to reprise her role as Princess — no, make that General — Leia. Watch her squirm as Fisher totally shuts her down and turns the tables:
The media has been treating Fisher and fellow returning co-star Mark Hamill very differently when it comes to their respective weight loss for The Force Awakens, which just serves to highlight how differently the media always treats men and women, both famous and not, about their appearance.
But Fisher’s press tour for Star Wars is proving why she’s graduated from Princess to General — you do not want to mess with Carrie Fisher, no matter how much her adorable dog makes you think she’ll put up with it.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens on December 18.
More From ScreenCrush
