19 Great Performances by Women Playing Love Interests
By Amy Woolsey
Carrie Fisher in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), screenshot courtesy of 20th Century Fox
14. Carrie Fisher (Star Wars: A New Hope)
The role: Princess Leia Organa is a Rebel Alliance leader whom Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo rescue from imprisonment.
Why she’s great: Maybe this is cheating. Leia is pivotal to the overarching narrative, and the romantic tension between her and Luke never evolves beyond feeble pining on his part. Still, as the lone major female character in a space opera, she is clearly meant to offer our chivalrous hero the possibility of love. Lucky for us, she’s played by Carrie Fisher. The multi-talented actress has a wonderfully no-nonsense demeanor that recalls the screwball women of classic Hollywood, more prone to rattling off barbed quips than swooning. Thanks to her, Leia is no dainty damsel in distress but a fiery, competent heroine who has inspired generations of girls and women.
Standout moment: Throughout Luke and Han’s rescue mission, Leia continually expresses disdain for her would-be saviors. But her reaction to Luke bursting into her cell in the guise of a stormtrooper is particularly priceless. Sprawled casually on a bench, she surveys him and, unimpressed, deadpans, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” Fisher utters the line with a combination of boredom and belligerence that effectively encapsulates her background as both royalty and a warrior, providing a preview of the awesomeness that is to come.