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Carrie Fisher Felt Pressured to Lose 35 Pounds for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Carrie Fisher attends the Midnight Mission's 100 year anniversary Golden Heart Gala held at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on September 30, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California.

Carrie Fisher is reprising her iconic Star Wars Princess Leia role nearly 40 years after the original 1977 film. But playing her debut part (she was just 19!) came with pressure from the studio to lose weight for the latest installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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“They don’t want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters!” Fisher, now 59, said in Good Housekeeping UK‘s January issue. “Nothing changes, it’s an appearance-driven thing.”

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Carrie Fisher on the January 2016 cover of Good Housekeeping UK

But, while OG Leia bemoaned Hollywood’s emphasis on the surface-level, she also complied. “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…My problem is they talk to me like an actress but I hear them like a writer,” Fisher, who eventually lost 35 pounds for the role, said.

The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher admitted that shedding pounds isn’t easy for her, especially when it comes to food. “I did it the same way everybody has to — don’t eat and exercise more! There is no other way to do it…I have a harder time eating properly than I do exercising. It’s easier for me to add an activity than to deny myself something,” the former Jenny Craig spokesperson told the mag.

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Despite losing the weight and keeping it off, the mom to Billie Catherine Lourd remains in opposition to the looks-focused mentality 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…We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane,” she explained. “Everyone in L.A. says, ‘Oh you look good,’ and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never ‘How are you?’ or ‘You seem happy!'”

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