Pencils and Pop-Culture: Happy Birthday, Carrie Fisher!

Pencils and Pop-Culture: Happy Birthday, Carrie Fisher!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a princess was born to two parents of supernova celebrity stature. Okay, so that’s not quite how the story goes; the galaxy was Beverly Hills, the date was October 21, 1956, but the rest of it is fairly accurate. Actress and writer Carrie Fisher was born into Hollywood royalty; her parents, actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, were tagged as “America’s Sweethearts” before Eddie scandalously left Reynolds for actress Elizabeth Taylor.

A life in the public eye was inevitable, especially after the young Fisher’s turn in the “Star Wars” trilogy, which cemented her forever in the pop-culture consciousness as the bagel-bun sporting Princess Leia. However, fame had its dark side, and Fisher’s troubles with substance abuse and mental illness have been well-documented by the press, as well as by Fisher herself. In fact, it is her talent as a writer that provided Fisher with a means of coping with her demons and paved the way for a career — and life — beyond “Star Wars.”

Fisher’s career as a writer began with 1987’s “Postcard’s from the Edge,” a semi-autobiographical novel that describes the struggles of an actress coping with drug abuse and a famous, domineering alcoholic of a mother. Director Mike Nichols requested that Fisher craft the screenplay for the film version, which eventually led to Fisher’s stint as a “script doctor.” Often uncredited, Fisher polished and re-worked scripts for hit films like “Sister Act,” “Hook,” three “Lethal Weapon” films and “The Wedding Singer,” infusing each with her caustic wit and edgy perspective.

Three more novels followed Fisher’s debut work, with “Surrender the Pink,” “Delusions of Grandma” and “The Best Awful” exploring many of the themes that echoed throughout Fisher’s life. In 2008, Fisher published a memoir, “Wishful Drinking,” based on a one-woman show of her life that she had performed for several years. The memoir was an enormous success, and Fisher toured the revised performance piece throughout the globe, including a run on Broadway in 2010.

In a September 2011 interview with “The A.V. Club,” Fisher described the importance of writing in her life, both personally and professionally. “I have a mess in my head sometimes, and there’s something very satisfying about putting it into words. Certainly it’s not something that you’re in charge of, necessarily, but writing about it, putting it into your words, can be a very powerful experience,” said Fisher, who said in the same interview that she began writing when she was approximately twelve years old.

Said Fisher of the power of writing: “I wrote things to get them out of feeling them, and onto paper. So writing in a way saved me, kept me company. I did the traditional thing with falling in love with words, reading books and underlining lines I liked and words I didn’t know…your words, it’s a very powerful experience. They were my words, and I may have had to borrow them from the dictionary, but if I put them together that way, they’re mine.”

We’ll (wishful) drink to that. Happy birthday, Carrie Fisher — when the force isn’t with you, you’ve always got the power of the pencil.

Quotes courtesy of “The A.V. Club — Interview: Carrie Fisher”; Photo credit: Aksoy/Stock.Xchng