Why we loved Carrie Fisher so much.

I was a guest of Disney & LucasFilm at the the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Global Press Event last week. All opinions are my own. This is part of my coverage of the #TheLastJediEvent

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
General Leia
Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd.
© 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

The legacy of Carrie Fisher

When I was a little girl, I loved Princess Leia. I dressed up like her, I wore my hair in buns and I was a force to be reckoned with. Heck, I still sometimes rock the Leia buns. She was a legendary icon from the beginning. I miss her sass and her spirit.

Carrie Fisher changed the lives of little girls everywhere with her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars stories. Her light shone so brightly for all of us, and then she was gone.

During Star Wars: The Last Jedi press conference last week, memories and gratitude where expressed, along with perhaps, a few tears. The leading female roles in the film shared what Carrie meant to them, and the impact she made on their lives.

Carrie, we miss you, but you changed us forever.

Gwendoline Christie

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Los Angeles Press Conference — Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney

Well, she was very significant because I was first shown A New Hope when I was six, and I remember thinking, wow, that character’s really different... it stayed with me throughout my formative years, of she’s really interesting, she’s really smart, she’s really funny, she’s courageous, she’s bold, she doesn’t care what people think, and she isn’t prepared to be told what to do. She doesn’t look the same as a sort of homogenized presentation of a woman that we had been used to seeing. So that was really instrumental to me as someone that didn’t feel like they fitted that homogenized view of what a woman was supposed to be, that there was inspiration there, that you could be an individual and celebrate yourself and be successful without giving yourself over, without necessarily making some sort of terrible, huge compromise.

Laura Dern

She made a profound impact me as a girl, so I’ll just speak to this present experience, people speak about people who are brave or fearless...but not that they would be without shame ...and to expect nothing less from any of us. Rian has so beautifully captured all of that and her grace in this amazing, beautiful, pure performance, but also I think she found an equal irreverent subservice and they had this dance that gives us this performance that I was just so moved by.

Daisy Ridley

Carrie’s daughter Billie is I think all of those qualities. She’s smart and funny and shameless and wonderful. I think Carrie bringing up a daughter who is all of those qualities and then some, in this world, just her being her, I think it speaks volumes to what she did as her in the spotlight and also her as Leia.

Kelly Marie Tran

I think that something about Carrie that I really look up to is, and something I didn’t realize until recently, was just how much courage it takes to truly be yourself when you’re on a public platform or when possibly a lot of people will be looking at you, and you she was so unapologetic and so openly herself and that is something that I am really trying to do, and it’s hard. And just like Daisy said, like Laura said, like Gwendoline said, I think that she will always be an icon as Leia but also as Carrie. What an example, you know? And I am so fortunate to have met her and I think that she will really live on forever.

Carrie had an impact on generations. She spoke to us. Don't miss Carrie Fisher's final performance as ~~Princess~~ General Leia in Star Wars: The Last Jedi THIS WEEK. She will continue to inspire the little girl in all of us.

Don't miss my video of the entire The Last Jedi press conference on my post from last week.