'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' director J.J. Abrams explains how Carrie Fisher's character was handled

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Ahead of its release, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” director, J.J. Abrams, opened up about how the film handled the death of one of its most important actresses, Carrie Fisher.

Fisher played Princess-turned-General Leia in five previous installments of the hit science-fiction franchise before her death in 2016 at age 60. Following the events of the previous movie, the Rain Johnson-directed “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” it was clear that the future of the franchise had big plans for the Leia character that the latest movie would have to address.

Speaking to Yahoo Entertainment, Abrams explained that he felt it was critical for the final movie in “The Skywalker Saga” to include Leia, even if the actress was no longer around to give life to the iconic character.

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"We couldn't tell a story without Leia," he said. “We couldn't find a way where ‘The Skywalker Saga’ comes to an end and Leia is not present."

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" director J.J. Abrams. (Getty Images)

As a result, one of the principal hurdles for the director to vault going into the project was the handling of Leia's part. He explained that recasting such an iconic role was not an option. He also didn’t want to use a digital version of her. Instead, he opted to piece together Fisher’s role in “The Rise of Skywalker” through old, repurposed footage from the 2015 installment “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which he directed.

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“So it's all Carrie when you're seeing her perform in this movie. The beauty of it is it is her,” he told the outlet.

The director went on to explain the logistics of shooting a movie with an entire character being comprised of past footage.

"It was weird because we shot scenes, we lit everything, composed scenes [and] shots to match what we'd done with Carrie, and there were some times on this film where some actors weren't available for certain scenes, when we were doing some reshoots, when we were doing some original shoots. So we shoot their side just for their scenes, and that’s kind of the approach we took with Carrie. We shot the other side of the scene.”

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He added: "And it's really a testament not only to Carrie and who she was and how great she is, but to these actors who were in these scenes with Carrie, with Leia, and it's kind of remarkable to see it because I'm not sure anyone would have a sense of it if they didn't know."