Star Wars' Princess Leia Runner-Up Wound Up Becoming A Famous Musician

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In 1977, "Star Wars" created a powerful fandom. Suddenly the world was invested in a space princess who directed her own rescue, a farm boy with big dreams, and a rogue pilot who charmed his way into our hearts and bags of smuggled goods. For many people, this marked the beginning of their love of genre films, and there are very few places on the planet where the names Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia aren't recognized.

When we think about Leia Organa in particular (a role that Jodie Foster circled at one point, as did "Laverne & Shirley" veteran Cindy Williams), the princess, senator, and general that inspired a generation, it's almost impossible to imagine anyone other than the late, great Carrie Fisher playing the role. However, that part went through auditions like any other. During a 2002 interview between Fisher and creator George Lucas on Fisher's show "Conversations from the Edge with Carrie Fisher," Lucas revealed that the runner-up for her role eventually became a famous musician.

"Your runner-up? She became a rockstar," as Lucas put it. The runner-up he was referring to was none other than Terri Nunn, the lead singer of the band Berlin, which brought us songs like "Take My Breath Away" and "Metro." In fact, Nunn's audition with Harrison Ford is out there on the internet for those who want to watch it. Not only that, but she also brought a softness to the role that's very different from Fisher's interpretation. Frankly, I'm in awe of both of them for making what was, at the time, seemingly space gibberish sound compelling.

Decades later, Nunn talked about the audition in a 2022 interview with Rave It Up. "I'm sitting there with Harrison Ford, and we're reading these lines, and I had no idea what the hell is an R2-D2. I don't know what that is. But I was trying to make it happen," she explained. Nunn would eventually go on to act in projects like "T.J. Hooker," "Lou Grant," and "Vega$," but Fisher simply nailed that audition.

Nunn's chemistry, or lack thereof, with her would-be costar was another factor. Speaking with the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2015, Nunn admitted that Ford "had no interest in me whatsoever" during their audition together. In spite of this, Nunn very nearly shared the screen with the actor in a totally different project years later thanks to her "Star Wars" audition. "[Lucas] introduced me to [Steven] Spielberg, who offered me the role that his future wife [Kate Capshaw] played in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,'" as Nunn once informed The Charlotte Observer. "But I was going on my first tour. I was terrified, and didn't know if I could swing it," she added.

(On a related note: did you know that, at one point, Lucas was conducting auditions for "Star Wars" at the same time and place that Brian De Palma was testing actors for his Stephen King adaptation "Carrie?" Film history really is wild sometimes.)

In the interview on "Conversations from the Edge," Lucas told Fisher, "I hired you because there was this very mature streak that ran through you, and then on the other side, there was this very vulnerable kind of young girlish streak that ran through you." He added that she, Ford, and Mark Hamill all had qualities that fit their respective "Star Wars" characters really well. 

For sure, Nunn was great and gave more of a naturalistic performance in her "Star Wars" audition (which seemed to fit the sides she and Ford were reading). Still, knowing what we know about Princess Leia, Fisher was just the best choice. Clearly, Nunn doesn't regret things working out the way they did either. As she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, if she'd been cast as Leia, "I would be a very rich person now, but I wouldn't be happy," since it would've likely prevented her music career from ever taking off.

Indeed, if Nunn had gotten the role, we might have missed out on her beautiful voice. Okay, maybe we still would have gotten a singing Leia in the "Star Wars Holiday Special," but that's neither here nor there.

All the "Star Wars" films are streaming on Disney+.