RIP Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher died this morning.
I am heartbroken. Ever since I heard about her heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles, I’ve been checking the news a couple of times a day, hoping to hear that she was out of danger, hoping to hear that she’d been released from the hospital.
I saw Star Wars when I was eleven. I saw it eight times. (Think about that, I didn’t have a car or a job, I didn’t live anywhere near a movie theater, and yet I still managed to talk my parents into driving me to the movies and buying me tickets to see it over and over again.) Princess Leia was a huge influence on me when I was growing up. Even though I was raised by a feminist dad, and grew up reading Ms magazine, there weren’t all that many strong female role models out there when I was growing up (for every Wonder Woman on TV, there were ten to twenty jiggly Charlies Angels). Leia was the first self-rescuing Princess. The first love interest who felt like a character in her own right.
When we got a new cat in 1977, a Siamese kitten with a white coat and enormous black ears, she was nameless for almost two weeks because the only name that we wanted to give her was “princess Leia” and we weren’t sure we wanted to name our new cat Leia since our other cat was named Leo. But after two weeks of trying to think of a better name, we broke down and named her after a movie character.
She was also memorable in The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. But mostly she’s remembered for her iconic turn in Star Wars. I was delighted to see her back on the screen in The Force Awakens as General Organa. I was hoping that, once we’d gotten past the nostalgia of that first new movie, that we’d get a chance to see some growth for the character in the next two promised installments.
I was SO looking forward to seeing her kick ass as General Organa in the next Star Wars movie.
And in recent years, I’ve come to respect her for speaking openly about her drug use, her struggles for mental health, and how Hollywood treats women.
“They don’t want to hire all of me - only about three-quarters! Nothing changes: it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”
‘We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in LA says, “Oh you look good,” and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never “How are you?” or “You seem happy!”’
“Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us.”
She later added: “Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’’e the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either.”
“I think I’ve arrived in a place where I’m very sane about how crazy I am.”
I am heartbroken. Ever since I heard about her heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles, I’ve been checking the news a couple of times a day, hoping to hear that she was out of danger, hoping to hear that she’d been released from the hospital.
I saw Star Wars when I was eleven. I saw it eight times. (Think about that, I didn’t have a car or a job, I didn’t live anywhere near a movie theater, and yet I still managed to talk my parents into driving me to the movies and buying me tickets to see it over and over again.) Princess Leia was a huge influence on me when I was growing up. Even though I was raised by a feminist dad, and grew up reading Ms magazine, there weren’t all that many strong female role models out there when I was growing up (for every Wonder Woman on TV, there were ten to twenty jiggly Charlies Angels). Leia was the first self-rescuing Princess. The first love interest who felt like a character in her own right.
When we got a new cat in 1977, a Siamese kitten with a white coat and enormous black ears, she was nameless for almost two weeks because the only name that we wanted to give her was “princess Leia” and we weren’t sure we wanted to name our new cat Leia since our other cat was named Leo. But after two weeks of trying to think of a better name, we broke down and named her after a movie character.
She was also memorable in The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. But mostly she’s remembered for her iconic turn in Star Wars. I was delighted to see her back on the screen in The Force Awakens as General Organa. I was hoping that, once we’d gotten past the nostalgia of that first new movie, that we’d get a chance to see some growth for the character in the next two promised installments.
I was SO looking forward to seeing her kick ass as General Organa in the next Star Wars movie.
And in recent years, I’ve come to respect her for speaking openly about her drug use, her struggles for mental health, and how Hollywood treats women.
“They don’t want to hire all of me - only about three-quarters! Nothing changes: it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”
‘We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in LA says, “Oh you look good,” and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never “How are you?” or “You seem happy!”’
“Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us.”
She later added: “Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’’e the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either.”
“I think I’ve arrived in a place where I’m very sane about how crazy I am.”