Jodie Foster has revealed she came dangerously close to starring as one of the most iconic characters in film history.
The actress, 61, has shared that she was cast as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars series, but had to turn it down because she already had a role in a Disney film.
Appearing on the Graham Norton Show this week to talk about her latest role in True Detective, she admitted her life could have been completely different if she hadn't turned down the sci-fi role.
Carrie Fisher starred as the Princess in the original Stars Wars trilogy and reprized her role in The Force Awards before her death in 2016, with her final scenes airing posthumously in The Last Jedi in 2017 and The Rise Of Skywalker in 2019.
Jodie – who was joined on Graham's couch by Olivia Colman, Lorraine Kelly, Wanda Sykes, Austin Butler, Josh Brolin, Calvin Harris and Rag 'n' Bone Man – was recently nominated for an Academy Award for the first time in almost 30 years.
Jodie Foster, 61, revealed the rumors are true. She was cast as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars series, but had to turn down the famous role because she was already starring in a Disney film
Appearing on the Graham Norton show this week to speak about her latest role in True Detective, she admitted her life could have been completely different if she hadn't turned down the sci-fi role (pictured with L to R Austin Butler, Josh Brolin, Olivia Colman, Lorraine Kelly, Wanda Sykes Rag 'n' Bone Man and Calvin Harris)
The two-time Oscar winner – who last received a nod for Nell in 1995 – was recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in Nyad.
Now Jodie (as Liz Danvers) is joined by Kali Reis (as Evangeline Navarro) to form True Detective's first all-female lead duo as they solve a mystery of disappearing investigators in the span of 24 hours.
HBO's description says the pair will have to “confront the darkness itself and delve into the ghostly truths buried beneath the eternal ice.”
Speaking about starring in the new season of TV drama True Detective, Jodie: Night Country as detective Liz Danvers said: 'She's just terrible; everything you can hate – racist, selfish and very hot.
“I can't say much about the last episode, but it's the best, it's extraordinary. No one sees that ending coming.'
“I got the role of Princess Leia, but I couldn't do it because I was already working on a Disney movie,” she added.
“My life could have been so different, and I would have loved to have the hair!”
The screen icon will take on Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple, America Ferrera, Barbie and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers on March 10.
Jodie said: 'I got the part of Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher in the picture) but couldn't do it because I was already working on a Disney film. My life could have been so different, and I would have loved to have the hair!'
Now Jodie (as Liz Danvers) is joined by Kali Reis (as Evangeline Navarro) to form True Detective's first all-female lead duo as they solve a mystery of disappearing investigators in the span of 24 hours.
HBO's description says the pair will have to “confront the darkness itself and delve into the ghostly truths buried beneath the eternal ice.”
Her Nyad co-star Annette Bening, 65, received her fourth Best Actress nomination for the film, having previously been nominated in the categories American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are Alright.
She was also previously nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for The Grifter.
Nyad follows the journey of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad as she attempts to swim 100 miles in the ocean from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida.
Annette plays Nyad who originally rose to fame when she swam 28 miles around Manhattan in 1975 at the age of 26 and her 100 mile swim in 1979 at the age of 30 from the Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida.
The film is based on Diana Nyad's 2015 memoir, Find A Way. It follows the 64-year-old swimming legend on her quest to realize her lifelong dream: a 112-mile open-ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.
Jodie plays Bonnie Stoll, her friend and coach, who, along with a sailing team, guides Nyad on her four-year journey to become the first person to complete the swim without the aid of a shark cage.
Foster won her first Oscar as a 27-year-old for her leading role in The Accused in 1989, winning the award for best actress. She received her first Oscar nomination at age 15 for Best Supporting Actress for Taxi Driver in 1977.
In 1992, she won again in this category for her role as rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, which also won co-star Anthony Hopkins the award for Best Actor, along with Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay .
Days before her nomination, Jodie revealed why she didn't tell her children she was a Hollywood star when they were growing up.
“I guess I just didn't want them to know me that way,” she continued The view in January. “I wanted them to know me as their mother and the person who went to work and all that.”
“I just didn't want them to be confused about what I did for a living,” she added.
The Silence of the Lambs alum then hilariously recalled what her eldest son, Charles, 25, thought she was doing when she brought him to a movie set every day.
“And I was like, 'Yeah, and this is this set and this set and this set.' And for a long time he thought I was a construction worker. He thought I was doing construction.”
Jodie was recently nominated for an Academy Award for the first time in nearly 30 years after being recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in Nyad.
Her Nyad co-star Annette Bening, 65, received her fourth Best Actress nomination for the film that follows the journey of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad
With both Charles and her youngest son, Christopher 'Kit', 22, now grown, Jodie was asked if she had watched her films with them.
'They have no interest in watching my films with me. I think they're going to pick up True Detective because that's what they really love,” she said of her HBO series.
'There are some films I would never show them because I would be afraid of being bullied, like Nell for example. They've never seen them because they tease me about it a lot, even though they've never seen the movie.”
Jodie shares her two sons with her former partner, Cydney Bernard. Foster is their biological mother, the identity of the biological father has not been made public.
After their divorce in 2008, the actress married Alexandra Hedison in 2014.
The Graham Norton Show airs on Fridays at 10.40pm on BBC One and iPlayer.