Historical Figures

Carrie Fisher, mythical princess and committed actress

American actress, novelist and screenwriter, Carrie Fisher (1956 – 2016) is best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars saga. . Feminist, humanist, she has also spoken out on numerous occasions against the stigmatization of mental disorders.

“The bookworm”

Carrie Frances Fisher was born on October 21, 1956 into a family of artists. His parents, Debbie Reynolds (Singing in the Rain ) and Eddie Fisher are both actors and singers. Her parents divorced when Carrie was two, and both remarried. Her father will have two other daughters, Joely and Tricia Leigh, who will both become actresses.

As a child, Carrie read a lot, to the point of being nicknamed by her family "the bookworm" (" bookworm "). She devours classical literature and writes poetry herself. It was at the age of 15 that she took her first steps on stage, in the musical Irene and with his mother. Her early Broadway career interferes with her studies, and Carrie drops out of high school. She will then study drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Star Wars

At 18, Carrie Fisher gets her first film role in the comedy Shampoo , in which she plays a young seductress. But it was two years later, in 1977, that she broke into the middle of the big screen, landing the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars , alongside Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

The film was a huge success, which Carrie admits not having anticipated. The strong character of the character, a prominent member of the resistance, his points of humor and irony, his characteristic hairstyle, made Leia and Carrie very popular, and the young actress became a star. Later, she will admit to having regretted this sudden celebrity, for which she was not prepared.

Parallel to Star Wars, Carrie turns in various films and series for the small screen, and plays in the cult film The Blues Brothers . In 1980, she reprized her role as Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back then, in 1983, in Return of the Jedi . She wears the famous bikini there which contributes to making the character mythical, and which she hates. “When George showed me the suit , she will testify later, I thought it was a joke”. She would later advise young actress Daisy Ridley to "fight for her costume" and not to be a slave "like I could be" .

Drugs and mental disorders

Suffering from bipolar disorder, Carrie Fisher experiences drug problems during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi . Thereafter, she moved away in sets and only appeared in rare and handpicked roles.

Committed to the stigma of mental illness, Carrie would later speak openly about it, as well as her addiction issues. She explains that she used the drug as "self-medication", to contain her symptoms. "Drugs made me feel more normal" she testified in 2001. “They contained me. (Drugs made me feel more normal, contained me ). On numerous occasions, Carrie takes the floor to testify publicly about mental illness.

"At times, being bipolar is an all-consuming challenge, requiring great endurance and even more courage, so if you're living with this condition and you manage to function at all normally, that's something to you should be proud, not ashamed. »

Kisses from Hollywood

Carrie Fisher appeared in 1986 in Hannah and Her Sisters by Woody Allen, in When Harry Met Sally and in Les Banlieusards alongside Tom Hanks . She also makes a few cameos (fleeting appearance of an already famous actor) in Austin Powers , Scream 3 , Poisoned Beauties or Charlie's Angels 2.

Stepping away from her acting career, Carrie now devotes herself to writing. His book Postcards from the Edge (Kisses from Hollywood ), semi-autobiographical and which romantically describes his relationship with his mother and his addiction problems, earned him the Los Angeles Pen Award for best first novel.

In the 1990s, Carrie continued her writing work and participated in the rewriting of numerous screenplays; she works in particular, without being credited in the credits, on Sister Act , Lethal Weapon 3 , Hook or Captain Hook's Revenge or Star Wars Episode I:The Phantom Menace . A committed feminist, she works to make female roles more interesting. “I want to make women smarter and love scenes more interesting” , she said.

Billie Lourd

Carrie Fisher has several adventures, with Harrison Ford on the set of the first Star Wars , with musician Paul Simon, with actor Dan Aykroyd. With Bryan Lourd, she has a daughter in 1992, Billie Lourd.

Carrie then decides to give her daughter a gender-neutral education, which Billie testifies:

“She taught me to be genuine, kind, and to trust myself. She taught me not to think that men and women are different. She raised me genderless. That's why they called me Billie. It's not about being a strong woman. It's about being a strong person.

A strong and committed woman, Carrie does not hesitate to defend her friends. When her friend Heather Ross was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood producer in 1999, Carrie personally gave the man a box containing a cow's tongue and a clear message:'If you ever touch my darling Heather or any woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box' )

Star Wars , the return

In 2006, Carrie Fisher wrote and starred in the comedy and autobiographical show Wishful Drinking , from which she draws a book. In her roles, her writings and her interventions, she stands out for her great capacity for humor. Carrie still makes a few appearances in movies and TV shows, playing herself in an episode of Sex and the City and Big Bang Theory .

In 2013, Carrie announced that she was reprising her role as Princess Leia for a new series of Star Wars films. Star Wars Episode VII:The Force Awakens , by J. J. Abrams, was released in December 2015; she always interprets there a woman of character, become general Leia Organa. Victim of attacks because she is no longer as young as in the first films, she still has to rise up against the cult of beauty and the tyranny of appearances.

“Please stop debating whether I have aged well or badly. My body hasn't aged as well as I have."

Carrie Fisher died of cardiac arrest on December 27, 2016, aged 60; his mother, Debbie Reynolds, died the day after of a stroke.

Episode VIII of the Star Wars saga, the scenes of which had already been shot, was released in December 2017 and marks, one year after her death, Carrie Fisher's last appearance on screen.