Carrie Fisher Reveals ‘Star Wars’ Makers Sent Personal Trainer To Help Her Lose Weight For The Film

Actress Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, spoke candidly about the difficulty women face in Hollywood when aging. The actress, now 59-years-old, also talked about how Star Wars filmmakers sent a personal trainer to her house to help her lose weight for the latest film in the franchise, The Force Awakens.

The personal trainer weighed and took measurements of Fisher while she prepared to film, and the data was sent to the filmmakers. Fisher says she was put through “intense” workouts, including cross-training and lunges.

Fisher said, “They make them report on my weight. They take measurements. It’s intense.”

Back in December 2015, Fisher revealed in an interview with Good Housekeeping that she lost 35 pounds before the new Star Wars film, but she also said it’s “insane” to place so much emphasis on outward beauty.

“They don’t want to hire all of me – only about three-quarters!…it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance… They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is. We treat beauty like an accomplishment and that is insane.”

HBO Documentary Film’s Bright Lights, a documentary which reveals the private life of Carrie Fisher, her brother and their mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, screened at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. The documentary also includes archive footage of Reynolds at the height of her fame and Fisher when she was a little girl.

During the film festival, Fisher also released footage of her personal trainer throwing out junk food from her kitchen, the Telegraph reports.

When Fisher was asked how she lost weight, she answered she did it the same way everyone else does, saying she didn’t eat and exercised more. She said she has more difficulty eating well than she does exercising. Losing weight doesn’t make her feel good about herself, she went on to confess, because “it’s not who I am.”

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher in ‘Bright Lights’: THR’s #Cannes review https://t.co/jqS4oPOKXv pic.twitter.com/nWcZ2yyvFu

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 15, 2016

Fisher’s mother starred in such films as Singin’ in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Fisher, who has been taking care of her 84-year-old mother, describes her as a “close friend.” With famous parents, Fisher grew up in the limelight but admits she didn’t want to get into show business; however, Fisher ended up following in her mother’s footsteps despite feeling that way.

“I watched what show business did. I saw it as humiliating. It was very intense and I did not want to be in it. I’m more of an observer of it,” Fisher said.

Fisher talked more about how it’s very difficult to age in Hollywood, especially for women because they’re constantly being objectified.

“The whole thing with women is you can’t age, you can’t get fat. You have to be 27 unless you are famous and you can maybe hit 30. I think women are objectified. I don’t think that’s changed. It’s become more apparent.”

So what was it like to see herself as Princess Leia again in The Force Awakens?

“I wept!” Fisher exclaimed, according to Vulture.

Will Carrie Fisher don the infamous Return of the Jedi bikini once more for Episode VIII?

“I’m in it, that’s all I can say. I’m not wearing the bikini,” Fisher said. “I thought there should be a scene of me wearing the earphones [Leia’s signature hair buns] just walking by a window looking moody and reading Shakespeare’s sonnets.”

What do you think of Carrie Fisher’s views on aging and weight loss in Hollywood?

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]