How did James Blunt and Carrie Fisher meet? Friendship explored as singer claims ‘Star Wars’ bosses put pressure on late star to be thin 

On May 27, 2024, English singer and songwriter James Blunt attended the Hay Festival in Wales where he opened up about his friendship with the late actress and writer Carrie Fisher.

While promoting his latest memoir Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story, James Blunt claimed in front of the audience that his close friend faced pressure to lose weight to reprise her iconic role of Princess Leia in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Blunt stated:

“She’d been really mistreating her body, and she’d just got the job again of being Princess Leia in a new Star Wars movie. I was with her the day before she died. [Carrie] was really on a high and a positive, but they had applied a lot of pressure on her to be thin.”

Notably, Carrie Fisher also shared similar sentiments when she told Good Housekeeping U.K., right before the release of the movie in 2015 that she lost 35 pounds before its filming.

Reportedly, Blunt and Fisher first met through a mutual friend in 2003 and later became best friends.

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James Blunt lived with Carrie Fisher and her mother in Los Angeles

James Blunt in an interview with The Guardian in October 2023, got candid about his unlikely friendship with Carrie Fisher. He recalled:

"This wild rollercoaster ride began in 2003 when I was invited to the restaurant 192 in Notting Hill. I was going out with a girl whose parents were family friends of Carrie’s and I sat beside her at lunch.”

The All The Lost Souls singer continued to explain how he told Carrie during the meeting about leaving the British Army and securing a record deal in Los Angeles. Hearing that he was moving, Carrie asked whether he had any accommodation there. When James said no, she offered him to come and live with her. He shared:

“The third thing she ever said to me was, 'Well, you’re going to live with me.' So, I did just that.”

James Blunt said that he eventually moved to LA and began living with Carrie Fisher and her superstar mother Debbie Reynolds. Around the time, he was preparing for his 2004 debut album Back to Bedlam.

Initially, James and Carrie hardly crossed paths as they both had busy schedules. However, they soon began interacting, and eventually, they ended up spending a lot of time together, becoming best friends.

In an interview on The Late Late Show with Patrick Kielty, James Blunt mentioned how he returned to Fisher’s home after her demise and recalled crying at the gate.

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James Blunt about the pressure on Carrie Fisher to reprise in the Star Wars movie

Recently, James Blunt was at the arts festival in Wales called Hay Festival as part of his book tour for the memoir Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story. Speaking to the audience, he remembered how Carrie Fisher lost significant weight before the shooting of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 as the studio applied a lot of pressure on her to be thin.

He continued by explaining how at this point Carrie started “mistreating” her health, “put a lot of pressure on herself” and “started using drugs again.” James Blunt also alleged:

“By the time she got on the plane, she had effectively killed herself. They say it was heart failure of some kind, but she had taken enough drugs to have a really good party.”

Carrie Fisher died in December 2016 after suffering a cardiac during her flight from London to Los Angeles. It happened almost a year after reprising the role of Princess Leia in the Star Wars movie,

As per Variety, the LA Coroner’s Office reported that they found traces of cocaine, methadone, ethanol, and opiates in her body at the time of her passing. However, the conclusive nature of the autopsy didn’t state substance abuse as the cause of death.

During his Hay Festival appearance, James Blunt also shared how Carrie Fisher often told him about the difficulties that women have in the industry, and how only men were allowed to “grow old.”

The late actress too shared the same emotions during her candid chat with Good Housekeeping U.K. in 2015, just before her film hit the theaters. She alleged that the studio Lucasfilm didn’t originally “want to hire all of me,” jokingly adding, “only about three-quarters.” She further said:

“Nothing changes: it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say ‘get younger,’ because that’s how easy it is.”

She added that she did it “the same way everybody has to, by eating less and exercising more, as there was no other way to do it, but didn’t enjoy the process once, adding, “It’s not who I am.”

At the time of her death, Fisher had already finished filming the next movie in the franchise Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in 2017. Some additional and unused shots from it were also used in the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.