The 61-year-old was originally cast as Princess Leia.
Jodie Foster would have had a very different career if she didn’t turn down the role of Star Wars’ Princess Leia.
While appearing on Graham Norton in London, the 61-year-old actress revealed that she was cast in the original Star Wars films as the iconic character. Her reasoning for declining the role was that she was already locked into a Disney film.
The late Carrie Fisher, of course, went on to play the role and became synonymous with the character. Fisher not only starred in the original Star Wars trilogy but reprised her role in The Force Awakens and subsequent Star Wars films before her death in 2016, with her final scenes airing posthumously in The Last Jedi in 2017 and The Rise Of Skywalker in 2019.
This is not the first time Foster has revealed the original casting. While on The Tonight Show in January she told Jimmy Fallon, “They were going for a younger Princess Leia but I had a conflict,” she said. “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 so I didn’t do it.”
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Foster was one of many big names on Norton’s couch this week including; Olivia Colman, Lorraine Kelly, Wanda Sykes, Austin Butler, Josh Brolin, Calvin Harris and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man.
Foster is making the media rounds in the lead up to The Academy Awards where she is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nyad. This is her fifth Oscar nomination and it’s her first in 29 years. Her last nod was for Nell in 1995.
She stars alongside Annette Bening who also got her fifth Oscar nomination for the based-on-a-true-story swimming drama from Netflix.
Foster’s episode of Graham Norton airs tonight at 10:40pm.
