Before Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher Auditioned for Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ — Here’s What Happened

Carrie Fisher had a long and successful career but was still gone far too soon. The actress would have turned 70 on October 21, 2026. The daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher became a star in her own right when she played Princess Leia in Star Wars (1977). She had made her film debut two years earlier in Shampoo. Before landing Star Wars, she also auditioned for the title role in Brian De Palma‘s adaptation of Stephen King‘s Carrie.

Fisher saw a joke in the possible casting. As she recalled in The Princess Diarist, it would have been “Carrie as Carrie in Carrie.”