Carrie Fisher’s death in 2016 was a nasty surprise. She boarded a plane in London for a return flight to the U.S. after wrapping parts in a sci-fi flick filmed in Italy and a TV series in the U.K. As the plane descended toward LAX, she went into severe cardiac arrest. She was only 60.
Sheila Weller eagerly recounts that life cut short in her biography, Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge. Fisher was, as they say, Hollywood royalty as the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and Singin’ in the Rain’s Debbie Reynolds. Raised by her mother in the entertainment world, doors opened for her without much of a push. Fisher debuted onscreen in a small role in Shampoo (1975). But after failing several auditions, she honed her craft at London’s prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama. While home for the holidays (1975-1976), she failed another audition (for the lead role in Carrie) but caught the eye of George Lucas.
Science fiction was, Weller points out, “an outlier” in that era of cynical sophistication (The Godfather, Nashville). Star Wars was about to change all that and Fisher reigned over the shift as Princess Leia. On the surface she was another damsel in distress, but the role gave scope for female agency as “an aggressive heroine.” And those London elocution lessons paid off. Fisher delivered her lines with engaged hauteur, “as if she were pouring English tea while gently trying to talk a lordly peer into a smart but risky gambit.”
Although she was never as impactful anywhere else on screen, and her career was nearly derailed in the ‘80s by multiple addictions, Fisher reemerged as a bestselling author and TV personality working to destigmatize mental illness (she was diagnosed as bipolar). She continued to appear in movies even after her life ended. The Last Jedi was released one year after her death.
An enjoyable quick read, A Life on the Edge is respectfully dishy, supportive and frank, a thoughtful fan’s book.
