December 19, 2017 10.06 am This story is over 74 months old

‘Carrie Fisher was lovely’: Lincoln graduate shares stories from set of new Star Wars film

‘I was really star struck when I first saw Carrie Fisher.’

A former Lincoln graduate is reeling after officially seeing her name in the credits of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. She spoke to The Lincolnite about her incredible experience on the set of the franchise’s latest instalment.

Alesha Minns, who graduated from the University of Lincoln in 2013 and studied BA Media Production, spent six months on the set of the film, where she worked as a Studio Trainee.

On set, Aleysha met the likes of actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker). She also brushed shoulders with Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) before she passed away in December 2016, who she recalled was ‘lovely’ and ‘sang to everyone’.

Alesha was over the moon to see her name in the credits of the movie.

Aleysha, 25, told The Lincolnite: “It feels incredible and completely surreal to have been a part of the film, I was brought up on Star Wars, my family just love it and it was a huge part of my childhood.

“Starting out in big budget feature film is a really hard journey. I remember seeing The Force Awakens in cinema in December 2015. At the time, I was going through a tough period; no jobs opportunities, no money and little hope it was going to work out.

“I turned to my parents and said ‘I would love to work on a film like this’. Little did I know, two months later I would be. The feeling when my name came up on the screen was overwhelming, I burst into tears. It was well worth the wait.

“I got to meet all the actors and genuinely they all are lovely.

“I was really star struck when I first saw Carrie Fisher, she was walking around singing to people.

“It made the screening that much more emotional to see her up on screen for the last time.

“Mark Hamill is the nicest and funniest guy you could ever wish to meet and is exactly like he is in interviews and on his Twitter.

“It’s so hard to choose a best moment from the six months I was working on the film. I suppose one of the biggest surprises and most memorable to me would be when I walked onto a sound stage and saw two life-sized X-Wings. That was a bit of a dream come true as I am always on the side of the rebellion.

“This is definitely the biggest production I have ever worked on. The scale and the amount of people that work on a film like this is bigger than you could imagine. Since then I have worked on two other feature films, but sadly I cannot say yet due to non-disclosure agreements.

“It was the most surreal experience, every single day I was just in awe of what I was seeing.”

Alesha puts her big break down to a scheme called The Skillset Film Trainee Finder, which helped her through her application process.

She is still involved with the University of Lincoln and often attends Meet the Graduate events.