Carrie Fisher Says Pressure to Lose 35 Pounds for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Was ‘Messed Up’

“They don’t want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters!” Fisher tells Good Housekeeping magazine

Carrie Fisher says she had to lose 35lbs for "The Force Awakens"
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Carrie Fisher says she felt pressured to lose over 35 pounds to reprise her role as Leia in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

“They don’t want to hire all of me – only about three-quarters!” Fisher told Good Housekeeping magazine. “Nothing changes, it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”

She said that her weight loss plan was simple: eat less and exercise more. But she had a hard time reconciling with the attitude of the industry.

“When I do lose the weight, I don’t like that it makes me feel good about myself. It’s not who I am,” she said. “My problem is they talk to me like an actress, but I hear them like a writer… We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane.”

Fisher’s revelation comes just one day after the film’s director, J.J. Abrams, said that he hopes to attract more females to the franchise.

“‘Star Wars’ was always a boys’ thing and a movie that dads take their sons to, and though that’s still very much the case, I was really hoping this could be a movie that mothers could take their daughters to as well,” he said on Good Morning America on Monday. “I’m looking forward to kids seeing this movie and seeing themselves in it and seeing that they’re capable of doing things that they never imagined possible.”

Fisher’s full interview is published in the January issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, which went on sale on Dec. 1. “The Force Awakens” hits theaters on Dec. 18.

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