Today marks a very sad day for many people as actress/screenwriter/author/producer Carrie Fisher passed away following complications from a heart attack a few days ago. Fisher was on a flight from London to Los Angeles when the attack occurred, leaving her to require CPR for supposedly several minutes before paramedics were able to board the plane and assist in her treatment. Alas, even after reports came that she was in “stable condition” at the UCLA Medical Center, Fisher passed away, “drowned in moonlight, strangled by [her] own bra.”
While I mourn her loss as many others who grew up with the Star Wars films are doing, I see a disturbing trend on social media that I feel needs to be addressed. Carrie Fisher was not a princess, she was not a general, she was not Mrs. Peterson, she was not any of the characters she portrayed. All of these were characters that she gave life to because of who she was as a person. And as the years went on, we saw more and more that she was flawed and imperfect, which is all the more reason to grieve.
Fisher was open and honest about her struggles with bipolar disorder, a mental illness that is debilitating for many people. As a person who suffers through with depression, seeing Fisher speak so openly about the pain and troubles she went through on a daily basis was inspiring and important. She showed that there was no shame in what she was going through, in what so many others experience every day of their lives.
She openly admitted that she and Star Wars co-star Harrison Ford engaged in an affair when she was 19 and he was 34. She was unmarried at the time but Ford had been married for over a decade. No matter how we wish to view her in the hours after her passing, it can’t be denied that this cannot be viewed in any way other than with shame. Fisher was young, this is true, but both parties were responsible for allowing the affair to happen, no matter how you slice it. Ford’s marriage ended a few years later.
In the years after the success of Star Wars, Fisher fell into drug use, abusing both prescription medication as well as illegal substances. Even after she became sober, an accidental prescription overdose nearly killed her in the mid-80’s. Rather than hold this part of her life as some sort of blemish or allow society to see it as some sort of stigma, Fisher owned up to it all and never hesitated to address it, to face that pain head on.
What Fisher showed the world is that through wit, charm, and intelligence, she could utilize her empathy to inspire change in those around her. She never claimed to be perfect and I’m sure she would’ve hated the thought of anyone thinking of her as being so. What made her so powerful was that she was human. Even after years of playing one of the most iconic roles in cinema, much less the sci-fi genre, she didn’t want to be seen as anyone other than who she really was.
I would never presume to call Fisher “broken”, because that’d not only be a flat-out lie but it would be an insult to her and all the people who go through the same struggles that she faced. Rather, I will mourn her as a flawed human being, one who endlessly gave of herself so as to help those who didn’t have the voice and clout that she possessed. We can all take inspiration not from the strength of her characters but instead from her willingness to bare open her pain without fear or shame.
To Carrie Fisher, thank you for all that you’ve done and for all the people you’ve helped. May you rest in peace.
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Creepshow
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Creepshow
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