Just when we thought 2016 couldn’t get any worse.
I’ll be honest, hearing of Carrie Fisher’s passing made me tear up a bit. I didn’t grow up listening to Prince or David Bowie, may they rest in peace, but I did grow up seeing Carrie Fisher on my TV (and was almost named after her most iconic role). There’s no doubt that she worked for her success, starring on film and Broadway, and writing novels and plays. Despite her struggles with substance abuse and bipolar disorder, she remained strong, outspoken, and an inspiration.
For example, when she was straight about the amount of work it takes to be a successful woman: “There is no point at which you can say, ‘Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.’”
Or when she wasn’t afraid to call out that Leia costume. To Stephen Colbert, she explained why she had to wear that metal bikini but never properly wielded a lightsaber: “Even in space, there’s a double standard.” She also told Daisy Ridley, star of the franchise’s reboot, “Keep fighting that slave outfit.”
Even in dealing with her mental disorder, she couldn’t help but add a sense of self-aware hilarity to the situation. “This’ll impress you – I’m actually in the abnormal psychology textbook. Obviously my family is so proud. Keep in mind, though, I’m a Pez dispenser and I’m in the abnormal psychology textbook. Who says you can’t have it all?”
She also refused to take any of Hollywood’s criticism or requests that she lose weight to reprise her role in The Force Awakens. “Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well. Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings,” she tweeted. And when asked about having to lose weight, she responded, “They want to hire part of me, not all of me. They want to hire three fourths, so I have to get rid of the fourth somehow. The fourth can’t be with me.”
She was also known for just being ridiculously quotable, with gems like,
“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
“Some women play hard to get, I play difficult to understand.”
“You know how they say you’re your own worst enemy? Well, you’re not. Read what they say about you on the Internet if you look fat. I don’t give a s***, by the way, but they say I look like Yoda.”
“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.”
And finally,
“I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”
Rest in peace, Carrie.