Remembering Carrie Fisher: Heroine On- And Off-Screen

On December 27th of last year, the “Star Wars” world lost its Princess and General Leia Organa when actress Carrie Fisher passed away due to a heart attack. If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of “Star Wars” and so you might also understand that Fisher has had some influence on my life, so her death deeply saddens me.

Image source: starwars.wikia.com

Of course, many of us know Fisher as the iconic heroine, Leia Organa, a princess who –unlike others in many stories that came before this one, was not the type to be a helpless damsel. But reading or watching her interviews, you get a sense that this bold, smart character wasn’t just Leia but Fisher herself.

Outside playing an ass-kicking space-adventuring princess and leader in the Star Wars movies, Fisher’s smarts shone through in her other role as a respected writer. Apart from applying her skills to “oomph” up the screenplays for “Sister Act,” “Hook,” and “The Wedding Singer,” she also authored novels, non-fiction titles, plays, and screenplays. As an English teacher, I appreciate anyone who creates literary art, and her semi-autobiographical novel “Postcards from the Edge,” is legitimately insightful and engrossing to read. Additionally, later, Fisher was also known to light up Twitter with her witticisms.

Image source: Wikipedia.org

 

She was also known to be a feminist; interviews would show her disappointment over how a woman’s physical appearance would be held to a different level of scrutiny that men would rarely experience. She was also said to have raised her daughter, actress Billie Lourd, without gender because more than being a strong woman, she wanted Billie to be a strong person.

Also a champion for mental health, Fisher notably appeared in Stephen Fry’s “The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive,” and has been known to speak frankly about her experiences living with addiction and mental illness in ways that helped reassure so many suffering with the same conditions that a normal life (‘Whatever that is,’ she once said) was still possible. Watching her, one could even say that success was highly possible.

Truly, through her many roles, Carrie Fisher has touched so many lives, and I’ll always be grateful to her for being a part of mine in some way.

As a woman and a Star Wars fan, Wendy Eber considers Carrie Fisher one of her heroes and will always remember the actress and writer with utmost respect. Read more about Wendy’s thoughts on Star Wars here.

Before She Was The Princess Of a Galaxy: Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher is a famous Hollywood actress who’s starred in many feature films, from “The Blues Brothers” to “The ‘Burbs” to “When Harry Met Sally.” However, all her appearances on the big screen were eclipsed by one major role, which was that of Princess Leia Organa from the “Star Wars” trilogy. She revisited that role three decades later, when “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” came out last year. But Carrie wasn’t always the kickass galactic princess several generations of viewers came to love.

Image source: people.com

She was born in posh Beverly Hills, to a Jewish singer, Eddie Fisher, and famous Hollywood actress, Debbie Reynolds. Her family was no stranger to show business. Aside from her parents, her brother, Todd Fisher, entered Hollywood as a producer and actor. Carrie’s half-sisters, Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, also saw moderate success as film actresses.

At the age of two, Carrie’s parents divorced. To cope with the situation, the very young Carrie immersed herself in literature and became sort of a bookworm. She was exposed to the works of classical writers and poets. One of her first major acting gigs was that of a debutante of the Broadway show “Irene” in 1973, in which her mother had the lead role. Fisher prioritized this over school, and never graduated from high school.

Image source: pinterest.com

That same year, Carrie entered the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and spent a year-and-a-half learning acting and honing her craft. In 1978, she moved to Sarah Lawrence College to study, but before she could finish, she caught the eye of a director by the name of George Lucas.

Wendy Eber is a ‘Star Wars’ fanatic and writes fan fiction about a droid named Eber CT. For more interesting facts about the popular movie franchise, visit this site.