Jodie Foster has confirmed that she was offered and turned down the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars.
The actor stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (January 17th), where the late night host brought up the internet had recently resurfaced the rumor that Foster had been offered the role.
“I was, yeah. They were going for a younger Princess Leia, but I had a conflict,” Foster said. “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, so I didn’t do it.”
She continued, “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 [instead of the side buns].”
Watch the full interview below. The Leia discussion begins around the 3:10 mark.
Of course, the late Carrie Fisher ended up being cast as Princess Leia. In 2015, Fisher told The Daily Beast that Foster and Amy Irving were among the actors who were up for the role.
Had Foster played Leia, the character likely would have been drastically different. For one, there was a significant age gap between the actors. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, Fisher was 19 years old during filming, while Foster would have been 13 or 14.
Though Foster didn’t reveal which Disney movie she was filming at the time, she played a starring role in Freaky Friday, which hit theaters in January 1977 — just months before Star Wars.
Currently, Foster stars in HBO’s True Detective: Night Country. Read our recent interview with Foster, co-star Kali Reis, and writer/director Issa López about the series.