Despite being one of the most highly anticipated movies of all time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens managed to maintain an unprecedented level of secrecy surrounding its production and story. However, not everyone is great at keeping a secret. It has now come to light that General Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, told British television host Graham Norton the plot of the film over a year ago.
During a promotional appearance for The Force Awakens on The Graham Norton Show, Daisey Ridley, John Boyega, and Carrie Fisher all discuss the amount of secrecy they were sworn to with the film. Ridley states that she had to wait three months just to tell anyone about her involvement in the film, while Boyega jokingly admits to telling the taxi driver about his casting as soon as it happened. Finally Norton asks Fisher about the secrecy associated with the movie, and she admits to having told Norton himself the secrets of the movie over a year ago – lucky bastard, we know.
We would say we are surprised by that whole thing, but then again that’s just the type of woman Carrie Fisher is: an utter loose cannon. The time the cast has spent promoting The Force Awakens has been made all the more hilarious by Fisher and her antics. From swearing like a sailor, to bluntly explaining the fact that as an older woman, she pretty much needed to take on this role again, she has held nothing back throughout the last few months, which has made it all the more entertaining while we geared up for the movie. All that being said, we can’t help but wonder if J.J. Abrams is going to be mad at her for admitting to the world that she couldn’t keep his closely guarded secrets.
Check out the full segment from The Graham Norton Show below:
Even if Carrie Fisher couldn’t keep her mouth shut, the film – and just about everyone associated with it – did an exemplary job of maintaining its secrecy. And, apparently Fisher knew that Graham Norton was trustworthy, as he kept his secret knowledge of the film's plot secretive. While not working on the film himself, it seems like Norton is one of the few people who could truly understand the struggle of keeping the secret of The Force Awakens, other than the cast and crew themselves.
Future blockbusters could take a cue from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and structure their marketing campaign around the sort of ambiguity and secrecy that made this work so well – we’re talking to you Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. The audience had to earn details as the movie went on, rather than it being spelled out in the trailer. If you haven’t seen The Force Awakens, we suggest you do it sooner rather than later before the spoilers start to come pouring out.
