Jodie Foster Turned Down Role of Princess Leia in Star Wars: ‘I Might Have Had Different Hair’

Jodie Foster is opening up about the roles she’s turned down.

On Wednesday, the actress and filmmaker, 61, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and revealed that she had other filming commitments when she was offered the iconic role of Princess Leia in Star Wars in the 1970s.

“You’ve [played] so many iconic roles, we love what you do. But I saw this on the internet, you were offered the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, is that true?” Fallon asked Foster on his chat show.

“I was, yeah,” Foster replied. “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 because I was already under contract.”

“So, I didn’t do it and you know, they did an amazing job,” she said.

“I don’t know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair, you know. I might have gone with a pineapple,” the actress jokingly added referring to Princess Leila’s infamous hairstyle.

Princess Leia first appeared in the Star Wars franchise in 1977 and was portrayed by the late actress Carrie Fisher. 

Meanwhile, Foster has recently revealed that the day she turned 60 was “one of the best” days of her life and that this new decade has left her feeling “happy” and “content.”

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The Oscar winner, who turned 61 in November, explained on the Today show on Wednesday that her 60s have been far better so far than her “confusing” 50s.

“Your 60s, where you are today, is a place where you feel like your heart can rest, you’re home? Describe what’s happening,” host Hoda Kotb, 59, asked the movie legend.

“I think it’s some kind of hormone or something that got injected into my system, where suddenly the day I turned 60 was one of the best days of my life,” Foster replied.

“I don’t know, I just feel like suddenly nothing really mattered and everything’s a bonus,” she added.

“I was just happy and content, and I wasn’t competing with my old self. I had no expectations for what was happening, and I was ready for what was gonna come.”

Foster shares son Charles “Charlie” Bernard, 25, and son Christopher “Kit” Bernard, 22, with her ex Cydney Bernard, whom she split from in 2008. She then married Alexandra Hedison in 2014.