Carrie Fisher: How I Became The Star Wars Blob
Actress Carrie Fisher, 16, daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, poses in New York City on May 2, 1973.
CARRIE Fisher is writing about looks and beauty for the Times:
Despite the fact that I have been employed as an actor, repeatedly and sometimes unfortunately (an occupation where looks can be very much an issue) I remain immune to my physical charms. This is, in part, because, since I was 13, I have spent months, nay, years, being, on and off, quite chubby and, therefore, conspicuously unattractive. I decided early on that I was officially a fleshy and forlorn blob. Couple that with self-absorption to spare and comparing myself unrealistically with the gorgeous and, voilà, you’ve got the recipe for my delightful and disastrous self-image…
Actress Debbie Reynolds, left, and her daughter Carrie Fisher, 15, are en route to Madrid at Heathrow Airport in London, England, Feb. 12, 1972. (AP Photo)
She romanced a ten called Simon.
One day, unable to reach him by phone, I half-heartedly went to an audition for a part that would, no doubt, require a beautiful actress to play it. I didn’t care anyway. I barely wanted to be an actress, and I didn’t have Simon. What did it matter?
Matter or no, the script I didn’t care about was extraordinary, especially after they told me it took place in outer space, where perhaps another standard of beauty would apply.
Cut to: I got it.
In this Oct. 5, 1978 file photo, actors featured in the “Star Wars” movie, from left, Harrison Ford who played Han Solo, Anthony Daniels who played the robot C3P0, Carrie Fisher who played the princess, and Peter Mayhew who played the Wookie, Chewbacca, are shown during a break from the filming of a television special presentation in Los Angeles.
And then she got the Star Wars job:
Cut to: I knew they would eventually realise they had made a mistake in hiring me. Remember I told you how I thought I was fat? Apparently, so did they. I was politely asked to lose 10lb before we started filming. After losing 6lb, I tiptoed around on my fat little feet for three months and finally breathed when filming was complete. Now things could get awkward. How could I explain to my unexceptional self that they had cast a stooped, beauty-free lump of colourless cereal as the princess of a galaxy? Either they were wrong about me, or I was wrong about myself… when I was hired to play Princess Leia, the intergalactic heroine, I knew they made the only choice they could. So, I thought about it. I thought about it in the brain I hid behind my dysmorphic, coin-round, hopeful face and I remembered not only that I ended up being her, she ended up being me. And one of us has been a slug-killing pin-up for teens everywhere. Which means someone was pretty, or there was no one else in the film to fantasise about. Or both.
This April 7, 2011 file photo shows Carrie Fisher at the 2011 NewNowNext Awards in Los Angeles.
Posted: 14th, September 2014 | In: Celebrities Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
