When original Star Wars alum Carrie Fisher starred as Princess Leia in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi from 1977 – 1983, she was in her early 20s, a young woman getting her big break in Hollywood.
Standing at a meagre 5’1” and weighing 105 lbs., Fisher was petite. Despite her size, she was still asked to lose weight to play Leia in 1977. Now, in 2015, the 59-year-old actress was asked to lose weight again to reappear as General Leia in The Force Awakens; this time, the request was 35 lbs.
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“They don’t want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters!” Fisher told Good Housekeeping. “Nothing changes, it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”
“We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane,” she continued. “Everyone in L.A. says, ‘Oh, you look good,’ and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never ‘How are you?’ or ‘You seem happy!'”
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The timing of Fisher’s revelation couldn’t be more appropriate, considering how The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams recently spoke to Good Morning America about how the new Star Wars is more female-friendly: “Star Wars was always a boys’ thing, and a movie that dads could take their sons to,” he said Monday. “And although that is still very much the case, I was really hoping this could be a movie that mothers could take their daughters to as well.”
It isn’t clear what General Leia’s role will be in the new film, or if the script calls for a different physical appearance. The male actors returning to their roles in The Force Awakens — Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca — have not mentioned anything to the media about being told to lose weight, and that would indeed be a double standard, but nothing Hollywood hasn’t done before.
(There are reports Hamill was also asked to lose weight, but he has not confirmed it to the media.)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theatres on Dec. 18.
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