Jodie Foster Confirms She Was Offered the Role of Princess Leia in STAR WARS but Turned It Down

Jodie Foster recently revealed some interesting information about her early career. She has confirmed that she was offered the role of Princess Leia in George Lucas’ Star Wars! There’s no doubt that had she taken on this role, the entire trajectory of her career would’ve been different. But, she ended up turning it down and the part went to Carrie Fisher.

The actress talked about all of this with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, and she revealed that the reason she didn’t take the gig was because she was already locked into a contract for a Disney movie at the time and didn’t want to break it for Star Wars.

Foster didn’t reveal what Disney movie was that she was locked into, but if you look at the timeline is was most likely Freaky Friday, which was released a year before Star Wars: A New Hope. Foster was only 13 or 14 years old when she was offered the role. That would’ve taken the character in a different direction. That relationship with Han Solo definitely wouldn’t have worked!

The conversation started with Fallon saying: “You’ve been in so many iconic roles, and we love what you do. But I saw this on the internet — you were offered the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, is that true?”

Foster replied: “I was, yeah. They were going for a younger Princess Leia but I had a conflict. 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.”

Foster talked about Fisher in the role, saying: “And they did an amazing job. I don’t know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair. I might have gone with a pineapple.”

It’s fun to think about how things might have turned out had Foster taken the role of Leia, but in the end, Fisher was meant to play that character. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in it.