Why Princess Leia Went Commando in “Star Wars”

One of the best stories that Carrie Fisher tells in her latest book and memoir Wishful Drinking is her explanation for why Princess Leia was so, er, bouncy in the original Star Wars.

Remember the white dress I wore all through that film [Star Wars]? George [Lucas] came up to me the first day of filming, took one look at the dress and said: “You can’t wear a bra under that dress.”

“OK, I’ll bite,” I said. “Why?” And he said: “Because… there’s no underwear in space.”

While that is a ridiculous statement in itself, it gets better. Recently, after Carrie Fisher told this anecdote in her one-woman show in San Francisco, Lucas came backstage to expand on his reasoning.

He explained that in space you get weightless, and so your flesh expands. What? But your bra doesn’t, so you get strangled by your bra. That’s why I couldn’t wear a bra in the first Star Wars.

His decision ultimately caused problems, because they had to put gaffer’s tape over her breasts to hide her nipples.

That explanation shows that Lucas knows as much about space travel as he does about writing compelling dialogue. Good thing Lucas is such a stickler for scientific accuracy, although it seems to have failed him on the subject of explosions in space. If that underwear thing was true, all the men would have been strangled by their tighty whiteys. Plus there’s the fact that the ship had artificial gravity, so the whole thing was a moot point.

In case you’re wondering, yes, today’s female astronauts do wear bras, and there hasn’t been an incident of strap-strangulation yet.

Would you wear underwear in space?