Carrie Fisher's Star Wars scripts reveal Princess Leia's private thoughts
Princess Leia was thinking things she never said about Han Solo -- and we're only just finding out about it.
An auction of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds' property, set for next month, includes Fisher's personal shooting scripts for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The leather-bound scripts, signed by George Lucas, are expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 each.
But there's another more intriguing version of Fisher's Empire script on offer in the $50,000 range -- one in which the actress has taken extensive notes that appear to take the form of Leia's internal monologue.
For example, during Leia's argument with Han on Hoth -- where the smuggler and scoundrel declares his intention to leave the Rebellion -- the line "god, you disappoint me" appears.
Later we read the evidently sarcastic thought "aren't men amazing" and "I am so disappointed in you I can't even speak on it."
The notes appear to be Fisher's attempt to provide Leia's thoughts for context during her performance. However, we know from on-set diaries that Fisher was jealous of Harrison Ford, who got to rewrite dialogue for Han Solo on the fly.
Han's famous response to Leia's "I love you" during his carbonite freezing scene -- "I know" -- was improvised more or less on the fly, as was the line where he calls Lando Calrissian "you old smoothie."
Meanwhile, Fisher was struggling with cocaine and alcohol abuse during the Empire shoot, and was also having a hard time connecting to Leia's character, whom she found somewhat one-dimensional at the time. ("I know she likes white," she said sarcastically to the film's publicist.)
But she was unable to convince director Irvin Kershner to let her play around with her lines in a similar fashion to Ford.
Fisher found work as a script doctor and author later in her career, suggesting she was more than capable of taking more ownership of her character's dialogue.
The auction, which includes hundreds of Star Wars photos and items of memorabilia, begins October 7.
Topics Star Wars
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
