Despite playing father and daughter in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the late James Earl Jones and Carrie Fisher never met during its production. Jones’ role as Darth Vader was limited to supplying his legendary voice, while Fisher’s Princess Leia and the rest of the cast were on set bringing George Lucas’ galaxy to life. It would not be until an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” that the two actually met in real life.
In the Season 7 episode, “The Convention Conundrum,” Jones and Fisher play themselves. They both appear in a scene with Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), where he and Jones pull a ding-dong ditch prank on Fisher. Frustrated, Fisher exclaims, “It’s not funny anymore, James!” to which Jones cackles, “Then why am I laughing!”
As series showrunner Steven Molaro told IGN, upon meeting on set, Fisher excitedly called Jones, “Dad!” — a rare moment in which she finally got to interact with the voice behind her infamous onscreen father.
Why it took decades for father and daughter to finally interact
With Jones limited to recording his lines as Darth Vader in the sound booth, the physical performance was provided by David Prowse. While Prowse initially delivered his character’s dialogue on set while filming the original 1977 film, Jones was later brought in to provide a significantly more intimidating voice. For this reason, Fisher only interacted with one half of Leia’s antagonist father during the production of all three films.
The fact that it took a sitcom like “The Big Bang Theory” to bring the two together onscreen is notable, especially given how closely their characters are linked within the “Star Wars” franchise. At the time of the episode’s production and airing, Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm was still relatively recent, with “Star Wars” preparing to return to theaters with “The Force Awakens,” in which Fisher would reprise her role, now as General Leia Organa.
