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Friday, November 07, 2025

Q & A: Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher

Q & AQ: Why did Carrie Fishers voice change between Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

A: Carrie Fisher’s voice changed between Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) and The Force Awakens (2015) for a few natural and personal reasons that accumulated over the nearly four decades between the films:

  1. Ageing:
    The simplest factor is time. A New Hope was filmed when Fisher was 19 years old, while The Force Awakens was made when she was 58. As people age, their vocal cords lose elasticity, the laryngeal muscles weaken slightly, and the voice tends to deepen or become rougher.

  2. Smoking:
    Fisher was a heavy smoker for much of her adult life, and smoking is known to alter the tone and texture of the voice. It can cause a raspier, huskier quality and lower the pitch over time due to chronic irritation and thickening of the vocal cords.

  3. Substance use and health:
    Fisher was open about her struggles with drug and alcohol use during parts of her career. Long-term effects of these, along with medications and overall strain on her body, likely affected her vocal quality.

  4. Voice acting and speech habits:
    By the time of The Force Awakens, Fisher’s natural speaking style had also evolved. Like many actors, she developed a more measured, deliberate way of speaking later in life, which can make the difference even more noticeable when compared with her youthful, energetic delivery in the original trilogy.

  5. Recording and production differences:
    Modern sound design captures voices differently than 1970s audio equipment. Digital recording highlights every nuance, while older analogue systems softened certain tones. This technical factor can make her older voice sound even more distinct.

So, her changed voice in The Force Awakens wasn’t the result of any one thing—it was a combination of natural ageing, lifestyle factors, and decades of life experience, all reflected in her iconic voice.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model

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