Jodie Foster says she nearly played Princess Leia in 'Star Wars': 'I don't know how good I would have been'

• "True Detective" star Jodie Foster said she almost played Princess Leia in "Star Wars."
• Foster said she turned it down because of a scheduling issue.
• Instead, Foster starred in Disney's "Candleshoe," which was released in 1977.

Jodie Foster says she almost played Princess Leia in "Star Wars," but had to turn it down because of a scheduling conflict.

The late Carrie Fisher made the role famous in George Lucas' classic space saga, which launched with "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" in 1977. However, the character could have looked different if Foster had chosen to take the role.

"The Silence of the Lambs" star recalled her brush with "Star Wars" on Wednesday's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

"I had a conflict, I was doing a Disney movie and I just didn't want to pull out of the Disney movie because I was already under contract. So I didn't do it," Foster said.

Instead, Foster starred in 1977's "Candleshoe" as Casey Brown, an orphan who is recruited to find a long-lost treasure hidden in a stately home in England.

The 61-year-old actor joked that Leia's iconic hairstyle — colloquially known as space buns — might have been different had she taken the role.

"And they did an amazing job. I don't know how good I would have been. And I might have had different hair, you know? I might have gone with a pineapple," Foster said.

Other actors who have been linked to Leia include Sigourney Weaver, Sissy Spacek, Anjelica Huston, and Meryl Streep.

However, Fisher told The Daily Beast in 2015 that she wasn't aware of speculation that she beat Streep to the role.

"I've never heard that one. But Jodie Foster was up for it... That one I knew the most. Amy Irving and Jodie. And I got it," she said.

Speaking to Business Insider last year, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" star Robert Englund said he auditioned to play the rogueish smuggler Han Solo, which eventually went to Harrison Ford.

"And, for five seconds, they saw me. They literally took a Polaroid of me, I think. And that was it. And that may or may not have been Han Solo," Englund said. "I was dressed for 'Apocalypse Now,' so I was sort of sexy military, or as sexy as this old face could be back then."

The horror icon also said the movie's hero, Luke Skywalker, stuck out to him when he read the script, and he recommended it to the young actor "who was always on my couch."

That actor was Mark Hamill, and the rest is history.