A familiar face stood in for Carrie Fisher during a key flashback scene in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: her daughter, Billie Lourd. Fisher is beloved by Star Wars fans for her portrayal of Princess and eventual General Leia Organa in the original and sequel trilogies. Her participation in the sequel trilogy in particular helped usher in a new band of heroes. Among these was Lourd’s character, Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix, a junior controller for the Resistance. Lourd appeared in each of the sequel trilogy movies.
Fisher filmed Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi before her unfortunate passing in 2016. However, that left the creatives behind The Rise of Skywalker with a dilemma, as they obviously wanted to include Leia in the final film of the Skywalker saga. Fisher’s appearance was ultimately made possible thanks to eight minutes of unused footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, for one important moment, director J.J. Abrams and his team thought a little outside of the box.
In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, there’s a brief flashback scene that shows Leia and Luke training and using their lightsabers. Now, Visual Effects Supervisor Patrick Tubach shares that Lourd made that moment possible. In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment about the scene, Tubach explained, “Billie was playing her mother. It was a poignant thing, and something that nobody took lightly — that she was willing to stand in for her mom.” He also spoke about the help Lourd provided from a visual effects perspective, saying, “It felt great for us, too. If you’re going to have someone play [Fisher’s] part, it’s great that it’s [Billie] because there are a lot of similarities between them that we were able to draw from.”
Tubach also referenced the use of Fisher’s face in the scene, which replaced Lourd’s in the final movie. He pointed out “The real challenge was just making the Leia footage we had to work with fit in that scene.” Recently, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker writer Chris Terrio shared that the Leia flashback footage came from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. For Luke’s part, Mark Hamill acted opposite Lourd but had his face altered via de-aging.
Abrams previously stated that Fisher would be “very much alive with us” in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the care taken to ensure that was the case is clear. Though there were never plans to replace Fisher as Leia, some feared her part would seem too orchestrated. However, with the added information about Lourd’s involvement in such a pivotal scene, it shows how important authenticity was to those involved with the film. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a fitting farewell to Leia Organa, thanks in no small part to Lourd’s participation.
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Source: Yahoo Entertainment
