Jodie Foster Turned Down An Iconic Star Wars Role

Jodie Foster was offered the coveted role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, but had to pass.

Foster revealed this fun fact during a Jan. 17 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, sharing that she was courted for the part back in the 1970s.

“I saw this on the internet, you were offered the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, is that true?” Fallon asked. “I was, yeah,” Foster responded, explaining that prior filming commitments made it impossible to accept.

“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 because I was already under contract.”

“I Might Have Had Different Hair”

While she wasn’t cast in the sci-fi epic, Foster told Fallon that the Star Wars team “did an amazing job.”

“I don’t know how good I would have been [as Princess Leia],” Foster said of the role that was ultimately awarded to the late Carrie Fisher. “I might have had different hair, you know. I might have gone with a pineapple,” she added, referring to character’s famous space bun hairstyle.

Fisher first joined the Star Wars franchise in 1977. Her final appearance was in 2019’s Rise of Skywalker, which posthumously released following her death in 2016.

Foster isn’t the only famous actor who’s been linked to Leia. The likes of Sigourney Weaver, Sissy Spacek, Anjelica Huston, and Meryl Streep also reportedly auditioned. However, Fisher wasn’t privy to Streep’s potential casting.

“I've never heard that one,” she told the The Daily Beast in 2015. “But Jodie Foster was up for it... That one I knew the most. Amy Irving and Jodie. And I got it.”