Remembering Carrie Fisher: Princess Leia Forever and an excellent writer

Carrie Fisher's death has triggered heartfelt condolences from netizens. She originally played Princess Leia in Star Wars, and re-created the image of Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. In addition, a photograph taken by cinematographer Will McCrabb shows a one-page script for "The Empire Strikes Back," with several red pen edits that streamline and refine the script. McCrabb said it was Kelly Lee's. Fisher wrote it, and also pointed out on Twitter that Fisher had personally confirmed it with him.

Is what he says true?

These edits may also have been done by Irwin Kershner, the director of Empire Strikes Back. Fisher was only 22 years old in 1979, but when she finished reading lawrence Kasdan's script, she suggested that "some things need to be corrected" and took out her pen and began to circle the changes. You know, Cassdan was one of the most famous science fiction writers of Fisher's time, and many of his subsequent screenplays have been nominated for Oscars.

Whoever made the changes to the script, this improvement is undoubtedly correct. At least some of the changes become the final scene of the film, and the lines become simpler, more compact, and more beautiful—full of the rhythm of speech rather than a brain (science fiction is usually a person who constantly explains to others). Kelly Fisher created the classic image of Princess Leia, and in fact, she was also gifted with writing, understanding how people talk and how language works, even though she was only 22 years old at the time.

In 1987, Carrie Fisher published her first novel, Postcards From the Edge. In 1990, Mike Nichols adapted it into a film of the same name, which touted actors Meryl Streep and Sally McLean. Four of Fisher's other novels were based in part on her personal life— as a writer, Carey believed that she should write "what she knew"— yet the books reflected more than just the trivia of a Hollywood superstar's life. They give off the voice of a writer—witty but vulnerable, making readers laugh and making them feel comfortable reading. It was her own style and reflected the literary style of writers such as Dorothy Parker and Elaine May.

In a 2008 interview with The Times, Fisher said: "When I was about 16 years old, I wanted to be Dorothy Parker, and I was always thinking about how to be like her..... She wasn't tall. She was half Jewish. She has brown hair and eyes. She was an alcoholic or a drug addict. She married a gay man! ”

Like Parker and May, Hollywood also discovered Fisher's talent as a writer. With the exception of "Postcards from the Edge," she has had an exceptionally smooth career and is one of the film industry's most popular "screenplay doctors" — revising mostly mediocre, featureless scripts to add laughs and emotions to them. She has made significant contributions to many of her 90s work, including Steven Spielberg's Hook, Lethal Weapon 3, Sister Act, and The Wedding Singer. Of course, not all of the scripts she handles come back to life — she has reportedly revised the script for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and the general response is not optimistic. Of course, doctors can't bring all patients back to life.

In 2008, Fisher told Newsweek that she was no longer a script doctor because producers began asking for script rewrites without guaranteeing revenue. That same year, she gave up writing novels in favor of publishing a memoir, the first of which was Wishful Drinking. It's both an ordinary anecdote, a memoir of a celebrity, and very sincere, even somewhat ironically recounting her history of drug addiction and mental illness.

Fisher wrote in Wishful Drinking, "I feel very aware of how crazy I am. Fisher directly described his experience of being invited to a psychiatric hospital. It's also one of the fascinating things about her work: it will take you to a place you didn't originally intend to go, and will keep chattering with you, making you watch it, if not particularly comfortable, at least comforting. Your friend Kelly Fisher is with you, though she's also observing herself.

Fisher's memoirs aren't critically acclaimed either (critic Rebecca Traister complains that there are many episodes in Wishful Drinking that she's long ago written about), but we have to admit that Fisher's honesty in describing her struggles with mental illness, drugs, and other drugs is the most important part of the memoir. Because it is not easy to expose yourself to the public and honestly say, "You think I am a princess, but in fact this is me.". Fisher did, fearlessly and undefensively honest with himself. In the process of speaking out to the public, it at least alleviated her dependence on drugs and promoted her spiritual recovery. Fisher's second memoir, Shockaholic, published in 2012, details his use of electroconvulsive therapy for depression (formerly known as shock therapy).

There's no doubt that Fisher's fame comes from Star Wars and the Princess Leia she portrayed in it, a character that fascinates Star Wars fans. At the end of 2017, Star Wars Episode VIII will be released again. But Fisher's legend is not only that, but also her words—sharp, witty, observant, and unyielding.

(Translator: Song Xiaoyan)

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