By: Langdon Kessner ‘17
Arts and Life Editor
It seems strange to write a memorial piece for a celebrity–simply because there is no personal relationship. It is only from their work that we, the public eye, are able to form any sort of connection with them.
But Carrie Fisher was a different case. She was known for a myriad of things. She was the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds (who unfortunately passed only a day after Fisher) and played Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. Fisher also made a career in writing. Whether it was screenplays or novels, she was equally talented with writing as she was with acting.
Her most famous novel, Postcards from the Edge, was a semi-autobiographical work of her struggles with addiction. She made no secret of her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and her prescription medication. In 1985, after a few months of sobriety, she accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills and medication. After being rushed to the hospital, this turn of events led her to create Postcards from the Edge, to make sure no one changed the pills intentionally.
From that point onward, she was practically an open book. While many celebrities tend to keep their personal lives private, Fisher would not. She approached her past with insight and humor. She never ran from it, nor tried to hide it.
The media has a tendency to place celebrities on a pedestal to the point that the public forgets that they are still actually people. While they have considerably more money than the average American, they still have the same mental struggles that ordinary people face everyday. Carrie Fisher was a celebrity, actress and writer. And with all that, she never forgot her humanity. She was one of the few celebrities that didn’t feel like a celebrity, and all the better for it. She will be missed.
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