Aside From Princess Leia, Here’s Why We Continue To Remember Carrie Fisher
It's been 4 years, but she will always be missed.
Four years ago almost to the day, on December 27th 2016, the world lost a true icon. Carrie Fisher was most known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise, but she was also a renowned comedian, writer, mother, daughter, and advocate for destigmatising addiction and bipolar disorder.
As a lifelong fan of Fisher’s work, Star Wars and beyond, her death was nothing short of devastating. Throughout her life, Fisher was brutally honest about her struggles with her mental health, her feelings on being immortalised as Princess Leia, and she certainly wasn’t afraid to call the industry out on its bullshit.
So, today instead of plastering this page with sob-inducing tributes from celebrities, let’s look back at moments in pop-culture history when Carrie Fisher was the GOAT.
Roasting George Lucas For His Lifetime Achievement Award
Kicking off her speech with, “my name is Mrs Han Solo and I’m an alcoholic,” Carrie’s roast of George Lucas is scathingly hilarious. Carrie dives straight for the deep end, riffing on George Lucas’ single facial expression, his apparent sadism and the fact that his vivid imagination made Carrie “into a doll my first husband could stick pins into.” This 4 minute speech from 2009 perfectly captures Carrie’s uniquely intimate and cleverly personal brand of humour that never shyed away from her anger, legacy, or how she took it all in her stride.
The Iconic ‘G’nite Fuck-o’s’ Tweet
G'nite Fuck-o's❗️Uknow who U R💪🏼(NOT my 🆒sass Factories)Oh❕&✋🏻BTWeight-sweet dreamz my chubbyCHATTING FAT heads/judge👌🏼lestTHEE BtweeMeaned🎓
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) January 1, 2016
Pretty self-explanatory really. I aspire to tweet something as funny as “g’nite fuck-o’s” in my life. For now, I am just eternally grateful to Carrie Fisher for gifting me a nighttime farewell that I specifically use to address the collection of mental illnesses I have.
All The Times She Was Open About Bipolar And How It Is Stigmatised
Carrie Fisher was very open about her struggles with bipolar disorder, using her platform and signature sharp wit to destigmatise the mental illness every chance she got. Whether it was part of her stage show, during interviews, or in her tweets, Carrie Fisher contributed a hell of a lot to changing views on bipolar disorder. Many psychologists even believe that her openness about addiction and bipolar even saved lives.
She was also never seen without her companion god, Gary Fisher. Gary was frequently pictured with the Star Wars cast, and beside Carrie in interviews. As much as I miss Carrie, I know he misses her even more, given how Gary reacted to seeing his late mum in The Last Jedi.
She Is Responsible For Doctoring The Scripts Of A Lot Of Our Favorite 90s Films
Four years ago today, we sadly lost the truly incredible Carrie Fisher. An inspiration to so many, she will be forever loved and remembered.
Our Princess 💕 pic.twitter.com/Kzt2NARTOT
— Star Wars Stuff (@starwarstuff) December 27, 2020
You may be aware of Carrie’s series of best-selling works. She wrote a series of memoirs, as well as a one-woman play. Not to mention her novel, Postcards From The Edge was so successful it was turned into a movie in 1990 starring Meryl Streep. What you may not know is that Carrie edited and doctored many popular film scripts from the 1990s, including 1992’s Sister Act, 1998’s The Wedding Singer, 1992’s Lethal Weapon 3, 1997’s Anastasia and 1991’s Hook.
Traditionally, script doctors are not credited, and neither was Carrie Fisher. Their job is to tighten scripts up and make them film ready, once they’d been put through a few drafts. In her memoirs, Carrie discussed how she was one of Hollywood’s most popular script doctors. She also doctored scripts for almost all the Star Wars films she worked on.
She Consistently Called Out Ageism And Sexism In Hollywood
In her memoirs, Carrie consistently called out the pressure placed upon her to remain that young 25 yr-old Princess in a metal bakini. But when classic Hollywood starlet, Debbie Reynolds is your mother, Fisher was always accutely aware of Hollywood’s treatment of women, especially older women. After The Force Awakens was released in 2015, many an asshole felt the need to comment on how Fisher had aged and she had some choice responses.
Please stop debating about whetherOR not👁aged well.unfortunately it hurts all3 of my feelings.My BODY hasnt aged as well as I have.Blow us👌🏼
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) December 29, 2015
Age and ageism is often a facet of the body positive and body nuetrality movements that gets forgotten, but Carrie Fisher would not let you forgot that, and i quote, “Youth & Beauty are NOT ACCOMPLISHMENTS, theyre the TEMPORARY happy biproducts of Time and/or DNA. Dont Hold your Breath for either.” Carrie’s public stance against ageism was important, reminding us we are all just flesh and our greatest gifts are our hearts and minds, despite what Hollywood tells you. Man oh man, do I miss her clapbacks at people’s cracks about her age.
She Was As Proud To Be A Mum As She Was A Daughter
Carrie Fisher never shyed away from her famous lineage. The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, a union overshadowed with Hollywood scandal, Carrie was still the first to say she was her mum’s best friend. Their frienship was captured forever in the 2017 documentary, Bright Lights which follows the mothe daughter as they share a compound in what, little did they know, would be their final years together.
Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds in Bright Lights pic.twitter.com/5Biz37KjGm
— ✝️🅰️✌🏼👢⭕️♌️ 💝’⚡️ ©️🅰️♌️♌️ℹ️📧 (@friskynotebook) April 30, 2018
By all accounts, Carrie’s daughter Billie felt the same way about her mum. Billie Lourd famously lost her mum and grandmother over the course of a few days. But was greatful to star alongside her mum in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. In an essay for Time, Lourd wrote, “Losing my mom is the hardest thing I’ve ever been through. I lost my best friend.”
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I’m sure a lot of people assume Carrie Fisher is so widely missed because of Star Wars, and that is partially true. Us Star Wars fans do miss our Princess and General. But she is also missed, quite simply, because she was an energy for good to be reckoned with in all aspects of her life.
Whether it was dazzling the world with her wit, her writing, her mental health advocacy, or her incredible career as an actor- Carrie continues to touch the lives of millions, and its just a damn shame that she’s gone. To cheer you up, I’ll leave you with this iconic interview from Good Morning America in which Carrie is cracking up the host.
throwback to this hilarious interview of Carrie Fisher on GMA 😂 pic.twitter.com/5Yv4SNJ5Tt
— Star Wars Stuff (@starwarstuff) December 27, 2020
RIP Carrie Fisher. You continue to be missed.
Merryana Salem is a proud Wonnarua and Lebanese–Australian critic, teacher, researcher and podcaster on most social media as @akajustmerry. If you want, check out her podcast, GayV Club where she gushes about LGBT rep in media with her best friend. Either way, she hopes you ate something nice today.