I did not like the whole Leia thread…
It was very reminiscent of Jake Lloyd in TPM.
shareI hate to have to admit it but... yeah "Baby Leia" was definitely giving me slight Jake LLoyd from The Phantom Menace vibes. I also found it an odd choice for them to cast a child actress who was visibly younger than what the role called for. A single year makes a huge difference with kids & it was very obvious that the actress was at most 7 or 8 years old playing a 10 year old Leia, making it even more awkward. Luckily her scenes were in small enough doses to not overshadow anything. The prequels were still great Star Wars but IMO "Baby Anakin" was probably the biggest mistake that hurt the entire prequel trilogy so it was a bit unsettling to be reminded of that.
shareMy guess is seeing how quickly child actors age, maybe they wanted someone younger to make it easier for any future appearances.
shareI don't know why they cast a younger child, at times I wondered if she had diapers on under her little catsuits... and then she said she was ten??? Maybe they just wanted to cast a really tiny 10-year-old and couldn't find one, and they did need someone on the smallest end of the age range. Carrie Fisher was a very, very small human.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.vANmmiE_kTSbhGUnpKJUQQAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1
I find it hard to believe that they would get hung up on casting a child who was much younger than what the role called for because they specifically wanted Leia to be extra tiny. Ignoring the fact that a person's size during childhood isn't necessarily going to reflect their size as an adult, Carrie Fisher's naturally small stature was never a specific feature that was highlighted with Leia. If anything, the way she was shot throughout the series seemed to downplay how short she was.
This series is supposed to be a one season deal so the idea that they cast a 7 year old to play a 10 year old Leia so she wouldn't quickly age out of the part as a previous response suggested, doesn't really seem to fit considering no other projects that I'm aware of have been announced that would take place during this exact time period.
Just tried to do a search. The actress is, supposedly, 9 years old. I haven't seen the show fully yet but the clips I have seen she seems cute but playing way younger than she should. It's all about the timing of the show, I think. Why does this have to take place 10 years later? why do the kids have to be 10? All just a weird act of overthinking the timeline for me.
shareYou're right, casting someone too young so she won't outgrow the role would make more sense than casting someone too young to get an actor small enough.
But I disagree that Leia's stature was never highlighted, although of course it wasn't made much of. She never looked smaller than in one of the earlier scenes of "TESB", where she's giving the fighter pilots their instructions before the battle on the ice, and she's surrounded by a group of normal-stature grown men. She's literally half their size, and yet it seems right and natural that they take orders from her. I don't know how a tiny little woman managed to come up with a commanding presence in this film, and no other, but however she did it... she did it without any help from the director.