Jodie Foster Reveals Why She Turned Down The Role Of Princess Leia In 'Star Wars'

At this point, Jodie Foster is a Hollywood legend and one of the most celebrated and award-winning actors and directors of her generation.

But there's one role she turned down that just might have changed everything back in the day.

Foster recently revealed to Jimmy Fallon that she was offered the role of the iconic Princess Leia in the original Star Wars back in 1978.

Jodie Foster Reveals She Was Offered the Role of Princess Leia in Star Wars (Extended)youtu.be

Foster stopped by The Tonight Show to promote her new role in HBO's True Detective: Night Country and to talk about her film Nyad, the biopic about swimmer Diana Nyad, played by Annette Bening.

The film is heavily favored to rack up Oscar nominations next week, but all that hubbub was sort of eclipsed by the revelation that Foster was offered the role of Princess Leia—and had to turn it down.

She told Fallon:

"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's casting would have completely changed the film series—at just 13 when Star Wars began filming, she was a mere child compared to 19-year-old Carrie Fisher who ended up playing the role and becoming a sex symbol in the process.

Foster had nothing but glowing things to say about what filmmaker George Lucas and Fisher ended up creating, of course, and she told Fallon she thinks Fisher was ultimately the right choice.

"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."

That last joke was of course a reference to Fisher's famous cinnamon bun hairstyle in the film.

On social media, people loved learning about this bit of Hollywood lore.

In the end, everything worked out as it should, but it's fun to think about how different Star Wars might have been with a child princess at its center.