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Princess Leia was hot. I mean, literally. That was her problem while filming one particular scene in The Empire Strikes Back, as she briefly explained, in a resurfaced interview, that the heat in the room on-set was a bit too much.
Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill appeared on the BBC show Blue Peter after Empire was released. For those unaware outside of the U.K., Blue Peter is still on the air and, in fact, is the longest- running children’s show in the world, having begun its run in 1958 when Star Wars wasn’t even a thought in the mind of George Lucas.
While Mark Hamill was busy petting a cat, Fisher was answering questions while playing with a turtle, and a dog sat between them. Personally, I thought it would’ve been more fun to see Fisher play with Salacious Crumb, but who am I to question the strange happenings on Blue Peter?
With turtle in-hand, Fisher was asked what scene what was the hardest part of Empire for her to shoot. She didn’t hesitate to answer.
”I think probably the carbon-freezing chamber,” she replied. “It says freezing but it was actually very hot. It was about a hundred degrees.”
Han Solo must’ve been secretly happy to be frozen in carbonite as Leia froze her buns off. Meanwhile, what was Peter Mayhew going through inside that already hot Chewbacca outfit?
Well, Fisher did bring up Chewbacca, as she explained that in the noted scene she embraces Chewbacca, and after numerous takes of doing that over and over again, things got hot between the two of them. Not romantically, that would be weird, rather the temperature was too much.
“After about two hours in a lot of heat like that,” Fisher said of being hugged by Chewbacca, “He doesn’t smell so nice.”
Perhaps they should’ve borrowed a line from the previous film when, in the garbage compactor scene, Han Solo tells Chewie, “What an incredible smell you’ve discovered!”
This might be the only scene in which Fisher wishes she actually was in her outfit from Jabba’s Palace in the Return of the Jedi. Instead, she was stuck in a sauna with Chewbacca while explaining her predicament to a turtle.
Before the Fisher and Hamill segment on Blue Peter ended, they present the movie stars with something called “Star Wars Stew.” It’s a kid’s recipe, and is a mix of a lot of things, including sausages, baked beans, onions, tomatoes, sweet corn, chips, potatoes, and — because it’s not enough stuff — cheese. Fisher and Hamill happily engage in the feast, though Hamill can be seen feeding it to the dog. The segment is quite a chuckle-jerker.
Chewbacca can be seen at the end but misses a golden opportunity to embrace Fisher. He walks in with Darth Vader and the droids, making kids wonder why the villain is hanging out with the heroes.
Noticeably missing is Han Solo, though it’s likely because he was stuck in Jabba’s Palace.