Carrie Fisher told her panel audience at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim Friday that going back to the franchise felt like a “camp reunion.” As the Los Angeles Times quoted the 58-year-old actor, best known for playing Princess Leia in the 1970s and 1980s, the age is showing on the series’ original actors.
“What do they keep calling us? Not vintage … legacy! We are the legacy players. There’s something a little ominous and wilted about the legacy players.”
Fisher’s on-stage chat was her second of the week. She appeared alongside other legacy players Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew on Thursday where she acknowledged it’s nice to have other women in the cast in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens .
At her solo panel, dubbed “Date With a Princess,” she revealed what she would say to her on-screen mother, Natalie Portman, if given the chance. Portman portrayed Queen Padme in episodes I, II and III, which were released after the original trilogy but predated the story chronologically. Fisher’s answer shed light on her and Portman’s only-in-Tinseltown connection.
“[I’d say] ‘I wish I looked more like you.’ I’m OK but she’s the babe.
“I have only met Natalie once. She asked me to give her an award. Her agent was my child’s father [agent Bryan Lourd]. So in Hollywood, that’s like being related.”
Lourd and Fisher have a daughter, Billie Catherine. Fisher is herself the scion of Hollywood royalty — Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. During the Q&A Carrie discussed her mother’s aversion to foul language, so much so she suggested a revision to a script of one of her scenes in Shampoo so her daughter would not use the F-word.
“My mother was against very bad language. I remember that my mother once said ‘That f***er said the f-word to me.’”
Fisher told the crowd on Thursday that she will not be on-screen this year in the revealing gold bikini made famous during a scene in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi . The Times noted that despite Fisher’s entertaining discussion on Friday, she refrained from giving any spoilers from The Force Awakens . It is a point Fisher met head-on when she admitted she didn’t know what was a spoiler and what wasn’t.
“I think they keep me away from stuff because they know that I have an inadvertently big mouth.”
One memory Fisher disclosed from her time on the original Star Wars had to do with her donut-shaped hairstyle. While the look took ages to perfect for the film, a late-night sketch comedy show had a shortcut that produced the same effect.
“I had that hairstyle – and it took two hours to do; I’d come in at 5:00 a.m., and I’d go to sleep plain and wake up pretty. Pretty weird! Then later on, I did ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and they just clumped a hairpiece on that looked exactly the same. And I was upset.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for Christmas, 2015, release.
[Image: Carrie Fisher on panel at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California, April 16, 2015, courtesy of Getty]