On December 27, 2016, Carrie Fisher passed away. And the world is a lesser place without her.
If you somehow didn’t catch this fact, Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars. She was also in quite a few other movies and TV appearances, over 90 in total. And did we mention she also wrote some incredible books as well? The lady was funny, and smart as all hell.
Fisher was a formative, hugely influential person to all of us, here at Agents of GUARD, and some of us would like to add our thoughts, if you don’t mind.
Agent Nathan
Is… is that allowed?
And thank god for Princess Leia for making me ask that question. Are girls allowed to be awesome? Are they allowed to be more than a thing that the guy saves and kisses and then she dies so the guy is motivated to beat up the bad guy more than he already was? Clearly, the answer is a big ol’ loud “HELL YEAH” which I figured out real quick.
And I would have asked Princess Leia, but she was little busy kicking ass and running a rebellion.
But hold on, what about real life Carrie Fisher? Wasn’t she a mess and did drugs and hence not allowed to be nuanced and have depth? Wrong again. And thank god, yet again, for Carrie Fisher, who just decides to be great at writing and be truthful about the messy stuff in life and funny as all hell, all while raising a daughter and fighting her own demons.
Carrie Fisher was one of the very first women to help me be a better human being. To see outside my box of who’s “allowed” to be the hero. Who’s allowed to have more depth. Who’s allowed to be an honest to god person.
So from the bottom of my aching heart, Thank you for being my hero, Miss Fisher. You will be dearly missed.
Agent Justin
First….I’m sure by now that most of you folks have seen this….
“Remember the white dress I wore all through that film? George came up to me the first day of filming, took one look at the dress and said: ‘ You can’t wear a bra under that dress.’
‘Ok, I’ll bite.‘ I said, ‘Why?‘ And he said:’ Because…there is no underwear in space.‘
He said it with such conviction. Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn’t see any bras or panties anywhere.
He explained. ‘You go into space and you become weightless. Then your body expands but your bra doesn’t, so you get strangled by your own underwear.‘
I think that would make for a fantastic obituary. Tell my younger friends no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”
– from Carrie Fisher’s book, Wishful Drinking.
This has been spreading like wild fire the day of Carrie Fisher’s passing…and it makes a ton of sense.
It’s hilarious, it gives some insight that some Star Wars fans may not have known about, it’s well written and sharp. It is…very truthfully, 100% pure Carrie Fisher.
This is the way everyone wanted to remember her. A bad ass that will call out the bullshit when she it. This quote speaks volumes of her personality, her wit and her take no shit attitude. So folks, do as the general says. Let this legend spread. She drowned in some incredible Moonlight, and her bra was too powerful even for her.
Carrie Fisher’s death hit me pretty hard, and at first I just thought it was because she was still relatively young and she was so tenacious; she never seemed like she was knocking on death’s door. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she, through her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa, was an icon throughout my childhood.
Leia was a misfit among Cinderellas, Sleeping Beauties, Rapunzels and other princesses who wished to be swept away and sat around waiting for rescuing. Leia provided a great role model for me and other young women, showing us we don’t have to wait around for some guy– or anyone, really– to do all the work for us. During a time when so many protagonists of adventure movies were male, Carrie gave me hope that maybe I could be a really cool self-rescuing princess too. If she hadn’t been such a great actress, I don’t know that I would have found another role model in my childhood to replace her. She created a hero I could look up to in a fantastical world.
Aside from her excellent acting, a quality I appreciated about Carrie is that she wasn’t the type to sugarcoat things or sweep unpleasantries under the rug. She was brutally honest about the harsh realities of mental illness, weight and image pressure of Hollywood, and how tough life can be in general. I was shocked when I took an on-camera acting class and discovered that the camera really does add twenty pounds. It wasn’t until then that I really took to heart the fact that many actresses we see on TV and on the big screen struggle with eating disorders, malnutrition from poor diets, and overall unrealistic body image expectations that don’t jive with a healthy lifestyle. Carrie’s honesty about these matters was touching and refreshing to me; one of my favorite things she said was, “We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in L.A. 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.”
