This post contains spoilers about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, so read on at your own peril.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a lot. Between the space battles, unexpected lightsaber fights, new creatures, and Kylo Ren’s pants it’s safe to say that there’s hardly a dull moment in the entire film. However, in the midst of all that bombast, The Last Jedi also manages some quietly moving human moments as well, particularly involving Carrie Fisher’s General Leia Organa. While the original plan was for the upcoming Episode IX to be Leia’s film (The Force Awakens being Han’s, and The Last Jedi being Luke’s), Fisher’s unfortunate passing in 2016 caused those plans to be scrapped. However, The Last Jedi still offered a showcase of her immeasurable talent and was a fitting send off to the beloved character. Those emotional moments, according to director Rian Johnson, are largely due to Fisher herself.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Johnson explained that Fisher put her decades of experience as a renowned script doctor to good use on the set of The Last Jedi.
“She is a brilliant writer, an incredible mind. I would go to her house. We would sit on her bed for hours and go through the scripts. We would have these stream of consciousness jazz poetry kinda ad lib sessions. I would just scribble on my script everything she said, and at the end of six hours, there would be like a four-word line of dialogue that was the distillation of all of that that was brilliant.”
Fisher was behind the moment of levity in the highly emotional scene where Luke and Leia finally reunite after years apart (and Fisher and Mark Hamill appear on screen together once again).
“She loved one-liners and jokes. She could just pop out so many jokes. So the whole thing where she sits down with Luke and [says], ‘I changed my hair,’ obviously, that was her.”
Fisher and Laura Dern were also the creative minds behind the moving scene where Leia leaves Admiral Holdo behind to sacrifice herself for the rebel cause. According to Johnson, that heartfelt “You go. I’ve said it enough.” had Fisher’s fingerprints all over it as well.
“That whole Holdo scene, that goodbye scene was actually completely rewritten with Carrie and with Laura. The three of us got together and worked through it. And the real heart of that scene came from Laura. It was her saying, ‘I just feel like, from my character to Leia, but also me to Carrie, I want to express what she means to me. I want to express my gratitude.’
That’s one that may be the most powerful, oddly for me, especially now watching them. I’m just so happy we were able to get that.”
Fisher truly was a singular talent and will be missed in this and every galaxy.
(Via The Daily Beast)