'Star Wars' Never-Before-Heard Interview: Carrie Fisher 'Scared to Death' Before Iconic Swing Across Scene
— -- The "Star Wars" scene where Leia and Luke swing across a giant cavern to escape the Stormtroopers in the original film has become screen legend and in a never-before-heard interview, Carrie Fisher reveals what was going through her head in the moments beforehand.
“In the swing across, I had to hold a gun, which is very heavy, and that scared me. I thought I’d drop it,” she said in the clip, released today in celebration of “The Star Wars” franchise’s first-ever digital release on Friday. “George [Lucas] wanted me to say ‘for luck’ and then shoot the gun and then swing. I was scared to death. They put all those boxes down and I couldn’t see how those boxes were going to prevent me from breaking many bones. But if one fell, we both fall. I could see both [Mark Hamill] and I on insurance for the rest of our lives.”
The newly-discovered interview was conducted by Charles Lippincott with the cast and crew between 1975 and 1978, but the tapes were lost for almost 40 years, according to Lucasfilms, which is owned by ABC News' parent company, The Walt Disney Co.
Fisher tells Lippincott she trusted her co-star--or rather the rope--but she worried her signature hair was going to fall off and she’d land face first.
“The rope was the one to trust, but [Mark] was the one with the girdle on. I was just hooked up to it. That could have come unsnapped and I could see me flying on my face,” she said. “We only had to do it once though and I was also was afraid that my hair was going to fall off. Things like that.”
They managed to do it in one take, but Fisher was ready for more.
“I was sort of sorry it wasn’t two takes,” she said in the clip. “Once I did it then you get over the initial shock and I wanted to do it again and I still do, so I hope they do a sequel with lots of swing across.”
The Fisher interview is one of the behind-the-scenes extras and conversations with cast and crew that fans can find on the first-ever digital release of the franchise, "The Star Wars Digital Movie Collection." All six films, from “The Phantom Menace” to “Return of the Jedi,” will be available for purchase digitally for the first time ever this Friday, April 10, on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play.
In celebration, tune in to “Good Morning America” on Thursday, April 9 and Friday, April 10 as never-before-seen secrets and footage are revealed.
