Carrie lifts the lid on Hollywood royalty

ACTRESS Carrie Fisher was born into Hollywood royalty as the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds.

When she was 19 she played Princess Leia in George Lucas’ Star Wars, became a household name during the 1970s as a result. But despite a lifetime of acting and writing credits to her name, it’s the recent re-release of Star Wars on DVD and in 3D that have kept her popularity on a high.

“Star Wars was so gigantic and has become such a staple part of our culture that I don’t think that anything I ever do will outshine it,” Fisher says by phone from Los Angeles, on the eve of the Australian tour of her stage show, Wishful Drinking.

“Every part of Star Wars just gets bigger and bigger. The parents who loved it have had kids who love it and even the grandkids are watching it.

“When I pass away, the grave will have a picture of Princess Leia.”

Fisher has a Jewish background — her late father Eddie was the son of Russian-born Jewish immigrants named Tisch and she has early memories of him singing in synagogue, something that had “a big effect” on her.

“My father was going to become a cantor before he became a singer,” she says.

Today, as a single mother after two divorces, Fisher and her 18-year-old daughter Billie often attend Shabbat meals with Orthodox friends and she notes that Billie has had more exposure to Judaism than any other religion.

“One of my close friends, Wendy Mogel, wrote a book called The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children, on how to raise a child in a Jewish home, and I gave her some material for it. It’s a great book, even for people who don’t have a Jewish heritage.”

Fisher’s acting career includes roles in When Harry Met Sally, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Blues Brothers and Sex and the City.

“It’s a half-Jewish show,” Fisher says, referring to her solo show Wishful Drinking, which has been a hit in the United States since it premiered in 2006.

In the show, Fisher uses candour and humour to tackle the highs and lows of her life, including her brief marriage to Jewish singer Paul Simon, her struggles with addiction and bipolar disorder, and her literary triumphs with novels such as Postcards From The Edge.

She uses a blackboard and wooden pointer to explain her complicated “family” tree in a segment titled Hollywood Inbreeding 101.

Fisher draws on comedy to tackle some of the issues and problems in her life.

“Humour is a great healing device. The worst thing you can do is to take things too seriously,” she says.

“In the show, I went for the highlights, but they were the low parts of my life — a sort of greatest hits of my difficulties, which would be manic depression, drug addiction, waking up with a dead friend, being left by a man for a man, and Star Wars.

“I have a very surreal life, which sounds unreal — my normal is most people’s abnormal, but I think on the inside of everybody’s life we are all the same,” she explains. “We dress differently and our problems are of different square footage, but we are all human beings.”

Fisher has raised the public awareness of bipolar disorder, which she was diagnosed with at the age of 24, and her treatment by electric shock therapy.

“I have tried to get the stigma toned down by raising awareness about it and helping others.”

Aside from her show Fisher also has a new book coming out. Shockaholic, an anecdotal memoir, is due for release in coming months.

Enquiries: www.wishfuldrinking.com.au.

DANNY GOCS