Carrie Fisher’s miraculous role in new Star Wars movie
Carrie Fisher was supposed to have her finest hour as Leia in The Rise Of Skywalker, but her untimely death in 2016 forced a change of plans. Now thanks to an unexpected twist of fate the revered actress still plays a prominent role.
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Daisy Ridley has seen both the light side and the dark side of Star Wars fandom.
As the central character, Rey, in the third trilogy of the 42-year-old space saga, Ridley has risen from a largely unknown actor to being given opportunities she’s never even dreamt of.
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit hyperdrive on her career in 2015, Ridley has capitalised on her new-found profile with well-received turns in Kenneth Branagh’s Murder On the Orient Express and this year’s Hamlet retellingOphelia, alongside Naomi Watts.
But she knows the magnitude of the gift she has been given as an integral part of arguably pop culture’s most enduring and impactful property.
And it will reach its triumphant finale this month with Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, the final film of the original story.
“I know it’s unusual,” she says.
“At 27 I’m living the absolute most amazing version of what’s possible. My family are awesome, my friends are awesome, I’m so happy with how life is, to the point that sometimes it’s scary.”
She gazes upward before adding: “I’m like, ‘Please don’t give me a massive curve ball!’ I know it will be hard to match, but I would love for the next five years to be filled with as many joyous moments as the previous five years.”
But although Ridley was put on the galactic map when she landed this pivotal role, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
While there was much noise online, not all of it was positive.
Some Star Wars fans complained that Rey, seemingly a nobody from a remote desert planet who discovers she’s strong in the Force (just like Luke Skywalker all those years ago), was a “Mary Sue” character, who was too perfect to be plausible.
It’s not a term that sits well with Ridley – but having played Rey three times now in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and the imminent Rise Of Skywalker, she realises that some forces she just can’t control.
“Even the term alone is sexist and it didn’t make sense when people were also saying that Rey had no struggles,” she says indignantly and shaking her head in disbelief.
“I mean, goodness me. I’ve certainly played feminist struggles. And the thing is, Luke [Skywalker] had a similar story but there wasn’t the same reaction; I think people are just scared of change.
“At the end of the day, I can only do my job and people are going to like it or they’re not. As far as the movie goes, I feel that the fans are going to be really, really happy with how we end this film, or at the very least, satisfied. There are moments that are so uplifting, and I think the overall message is one of hope.”
Returning director JJ Abrams, who cast Ridley in The Force Awakens as a virtually unknown actress who had appeared in only a few minor British TV roles and the horror indie Scrawl, says the actor’s journey has mirrored that of the character she plays.
“In The Force Awakens, it was about this very young woman, who was a little naive, and just starting out. In Rise Of Skywalker, she’s really come into her own,” he notes.
“And Daisy has really matured in an incredible way, both as an actress, and as a human being. And because of that she was able to wrestle with the bigger and deeper aspects of Skywalker.”
Like all things Star Wars, The Rise Of Skywalker storyline is shrouded in secrecy (save for the recent blunder when John Boyega’s script found its way onto eBay, before being swiftly extricated by Disney powers that be).
What we do know is that the film was shot at Pinewood Studios, England, and in Jordan’s Wadi Rum desert and picks up the story where the somewhat controversial The Last Jedi left off, with surviving members of the Resistance facing off with the villainous First Order.
Returning cast members include Boyega as former Stormtrooper Finn and Oscar Isaacs as flying ace Poe Dameron, as well as Mark Hamill (despite Luke Skywalker seemingly vanishing at the end of The Last Jedi), and Adam Driver as Rey’s conflicted nemesis Kylo Ren.
And then, miraculously there’s the character most central to the story, General Leia Organa. Rumour had it that Leia was going to be “the last Jedi” and was planned to have her finest hour in The Rise Of Skywalker, but Carrie Fisher’s untimely death from a heart attack in 2016 forced a change of plans.
But thanks to modern technology and some unused footage from The Force Awakens, the revered actress still plays a prominent role and Abrams says she remains “the heart” of the final chapter.
“That technical stuff is beyond me,” Ridley says of Fisher’s posthumous appearance.
“What I continue to find amazing is what we shot for a different film was pertinent to Rise Of Skywalker. There’s a scene of me and Carrie hugging, and obviously that took place in a different time and place, but it’s so strange how things have so eerily worked out.”
She pauses to consider.
“Literally, every single thing in the film that’s Carrie is Carrie. She’s central to the plot. It’s not like she’s featured in one scene, she’s a big part of this film.”
Although some fans were wary of what could have been a crass cash-in – a de-aged Fisher and resurrected Peter Cushing raised some hackles in the 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One – Abrams says there was simply no way to tell the story without the much loved, trailblazing Leia.
“The fact we had this footage to use was a miracle for us because there was no way she was not going to be in this movie somehow,” Abrams says.
“And we could not recast her, and we could not use CG. So, it ended up being this bizarre, cosmic kind of gift that we had this footage we could use.
“And I wanted to be true to Carrie. Our attitude was, ‘How do we treat what we have and tell the story so that everything we’re doing is what we would have done almost exactly as if Carrie had been here?’ And that was really important to us. Plus, Billie [Lourd], her daughter, is in the movie, and it was really important that she be OK with how we were doing things. It was sensitive, but it was something that was very important to us to do right. It was heartbreaking not to have Carrie around because Carrie was one of a kind.”
In years to come, when Abrams looks back on his impressive legacy, including the TV phenomenon Lost, which he co-created/directed, and directing duties on the Star Trek reboot, it appears the Star Wars films have resonated most deeply.
“Hopefully what I will feel is that we honoured what came before,” he says.
“I’m very happy and gratified by what we’ve done. It was by leaps and bounds the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to work on but we took it to places that were surprising, we did things that entertained people and ultimately, we brought people together.”
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As for Ridley, she’s learned to live with her fame and her place in the pop culture pantheon after years of adjusting to strangers wanting to ask her questions or have a picture taken. \Now, she says, her low key life in London has returned to some semblance of normality.
“I’ve started going on the Tube and the bus again. And it’s fine for the most part because people are looking at their phones anyway so they’re not looking up. I live a super private life. My friends and family have always been super private on my behalf which is really, really nice,” she says.
The Rise Of Skywalker opens on December 19.