Star Wars: “There’s no jiggling in the Empire”

From Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind

Despite the fact that Star Wars was about as far as you can get from a realistic drama, Lucas, like his peers, did not want to cast stars, despite Fox’s pressure to do so. De Palma was casting Carrie at the same time, and also looking for new faces of similar ages, so the directors held readings for the two films together, working out of the Goldwyn Studios, seeing thirty to forty actors a day in a cattle call. De Palma was relaxed and garrulous. Lucas sat at his side in silence, obviously uncomfortable. George would make the opening speech, and Brian would make the closing speech. If the actor was somebody they were not interested in, Brian would start the closing speech before George had finished the opening speech.

Fred Roos, who was advising Lucas on casting, persuaded Lucas to use Carrie Fisher instead of Amy Irving or Jodie Foster. Harrison Ford was cast as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke. Lucas wanted young and callow, that is, Hamill and Fisher as opposed to, say, Ford as Luke and Raquel Welch or a Playboy bunny type to play the princess. He said, “You can make this picture for teenagers, late teenagers, early twenties, or you play it for kids, and that’s what we’re going for, eight and nine year olds. This is a Disney movie.” During production, he bound Fisher’s breasts with gaffer’s tape. “No breasts bouncing in space, there’s no jiggling in the Empire,” she observed wryly.

DePalma ended up using Irving in Carrie.