10 Most Notorious Star Wars Urban Legends
7. Mark Hamill Accidentally Says Carrie Rather Than Leia
Verdict: Untrue
Even studio films with small budgets are logistical minefields, requiring the time, efforts and painstaking attention to detail of numerous parties to ensure continuity and avoid embarrassing mistakes. As such, it's no surprise that plenty of bloopers have slipped through the cracks in some very successful movies, but is Star Wars one of them?
At the end of the first Star Wars film, Luke Skywalker emerges from his starfighter to a euphoric greeting from the Rebel Alliance. He spots Princess Leia and, according to Internet legend, calls Fisher by her actual name and yells out Carrie by mistake.
Did it happen? Not according to Hamill, who addressed the rumours in an AOL webchat in 1996:
The yelling Carrie rumour, is wrong, was always wrong despite the fact that it was printed in a book of film bloopers. The entire scene was looped, which meant post dubbing dialogue and sound effects later The actual phrase said was There she... as in There she is as I was looking for the Princess in the crowd, and that's what I dubbed.
It could just be Hamill covering up a cringeworthy moment, but this urban legend was also put to bed by an independent source. When the films were re-mastered for their special editions, sound editor Ben Burtt retrieved the original recordings, ran them through filters and concluded that the actor really was just cheering.