Thank you to Disney and Lucasfilm for hosting me during the #TheLastJediEvent.
The loss of Carrie Fisher has left a hole in the Star Wars galaxy. The women of Star Wars: The Last Jedi talk about her enduring legacy.
Gwendoline Christie
She was very significant because I was first shown A New Hope when I was six, and I remember thinking, wow, that character’s really different. I watched TV and film obsessively from such a young age, but it stayed with me throughout my formative years. She’s really interesting. She’s really smart. She’s really funny. She’s courageous. She’s bold. She doesn’t care what people think and she isn’t prepared to be told what to do. And she doesn’t look the same as a sort of homogenized presentation of a woman that we had been used to seeing. So that was really instrumental to me as someone that didn’t feel like they fitted that homogenized view of what a woman was supposed to be, that there was inspiration there, that you could be an individual and celebrate yourself and be successful without giving yourself over, without necessarily making some sort of terrible, huge compromise.
Laura Dern
People speak about people who are brave or fearless… but not that they would be without shame. And that’s what moved me the most about the icon she gave us… To be without shame, and to share her story, and to expect nothing less from any of us… Rian has so beautifully captured all of that, and her grace, in this amazing, beautiful, pure performance.
Daisy Ridley
Carrie’s daughter Billie is, I think, all of those qualities. She’s smart and funny and shameless and wonderful. And I think Carrie bringing up a daughter who is all of those qualities and then some, in this world… I think it speaks volumes.
Kelly Marie Tran
I think that something about Carrie that I really looked up to- and something I didn’t realize until recently- was just how much courage it takes to truly be yourself when you’re on a public platform or when possibly a lot of people will be looking at you. She was so unapologetic and so openly herself and that is something that I am really trying to do, and it’s hard. And just like Daisy said, like Laura said, like Gwendoline said, I think that she will always be an icon as Leia but also as Carrie. What an example, you know? And I am so fortunate to have met her and I think that she will really live on forever.
You can see Carrie Fisher in her final role when Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theaters on December 15, 2017.
In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in U.S. theaters on December 15, 2017
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