Anna Daniels
Todd Fisher’s discovery of his sister Carrie’s after-death note came as a shock even to him — “It just blew my mind. I thought, ‘Wow, why am I finding this right now?'” — and was undoubtedly made more emotional given that the anniversary of her passing was right around the corner, and that Carrie’s final film appearance happened days prior as well.
Carrie Fisher had played Leia Organa — first known with the prefix Princess, then General — from the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 all the way until her death in 2016. J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens was the final Star Wars film to debut during Carrie Fisher’s life, with The Last Jedi released posthumously in 2017. In December 2019 came The Rise of Skywalker, which was initially meant to feature Leia Organa in a huge capacity. Following the Star Wars actress’ death, however, Abrams and the folks at Disney and Lucasfilm implemented unused footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens to give Leia a proper send-off without resorting to the use of CGI. (They did, however, use CGI to make a young Leia for a flashback sequence alongside her twin brother Luke Skywalker.)
Saying goodbye to Leia in The Rise of Skywalker was quite an emotional experience. Leia used the last of her energy to send a Force message to her son, the villainous Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) who was once a promising Jedi Padawan named Ben Solo, in hopes that he would hear her and return to the light side. (For the record: he did.)
Leia’s send-off also moved Todd Fisher, who told The New York Post that he’s found a certain sense of comfort through the Star Wars movies.
“A lot of people asked me when they [Carrie and his mother Debbie] died, ‘How do you deal with it?'” said Todd. “Part of it is the faith that we all shared, my mother, my sister and I — the idea that we shall meet again, and they’re not far from you. They’re just in a different space or a different dimension. There are a lot of words you can attach to [that]. The word ‘force,’ for example, is [Star Wars creator] George Lucas’s choice word, but you could interchange the word ‘faith.’ I find a lot of that comforting, frankly.”
Written by: Looper
