Oscar Isaac Says The Poe/Leia Relationship "Gets Carried Over" Into 'Star Wars: Episode 9'
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, hot-headed flyboy Poe Dameron learned some tough lessons about how to be a better leader from General Leia Organa and Vice Admiral Holdo. The Poe Leia relationship in particular, as brought to life by actors Oscar Isaac and Carrie Fisher, was a layered and fascinating one, and even though Fisher is no longer with us, Isaac says that relationship "gets carried over" into this year's Star Wars: Episode 9.
Read on for his full comments about that, and how his final day shooting the movie was overshadowed by an original trilogy cast member who's been there since the beginning.
On a SiriusXM show called Tell Me John (via Reddit), Isaac was asked about working with Fisher on Star Wars: The Last Jedi and he explained how their close relationship continues in Episode 9:
Host: I know you just wrapped on [Star Wars: Episode] IX. You're going to be getting the Carrie Fisher questions all over the place. But when you saw [Star Wars: Episode] VIII, were you surprised at how your relationship with Carrie Fisher was such an emotional centerpiece of the film?
Isaac: I wasn't surprised because I remember we were doing that...we worked a lot and her, and I worked together so much, too, and we would talk about the scenes, and we would...you know, we got very tight during the shooting of that. So it was a beautiful thing to see, and it gets carried over into the new film.
Host: I look forward to having you here next year when we can talk about it because I can only imagine having to work with her, with the scenes they're inserting, would be emotional for you on a whole other level.
Isaac: Yeah, no it is. It was definitely an unusual thing, but I also think it was right to engage with her character, and not just let it be something that fades away but can really give it its proper, you know, place of honor.
I'd assumed we wouldn't be seeing much of Carrie Fisher's Leia in Episode 9 since the production is said to be utilizing unused footage from both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to bring her to cinematic life one more time. But these quotes from Isaac seem to indicate that she's enough of a presence for their characters' relationship to continue in a meaningful way, so I'm looking forward to seeing how director J.J. Abrams and his editor manage to work her in.
Isaac was also recently a guest on The Tonight Show, where he jokingly told host Jimmy Fallon about how his last day filming Episode 9 also happened to be the last day of shooting for Anthony Daniels, the man who's played C-3PO in every saga movie since 1977. You can see him talk about the experience below: