With four days remaining in 2016 (good riddance!), the universe decided to take away another celebrity great: Carrie Fisher. The late actress, of Star Wars fame, passed away on Tuesday, days after suffering a heart attack on an international flight.
“She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly,” Billie Lourd, Fisher’s daughter, said in a statement confirming the news. “Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”
The 60–year-old’s death is the latest in a devastating string of celebrity deaths this year, and a tragic loss for feminists worldwide. Over her decades-long career, Fisher remained sharp, hilarious, and brutally honest about herself and the world around her. (She once told her daughter, who aspired to be a comedian, “You have plenty of material. Your father’s gay, your mother is a drug addict and manic depressive, your grandmother tap-dances for a living, and your grandfather took speed.”)
With Fisher, interviewers never had a shortage of material. But beneath the jokes and quippy remarks were nuggets of wisdom about Hollywood, living life as a woman, and her personal battles with mental health and substance abuse.
Here were some of Fisher’s best candid moments:
- Rolling Stone (1983): On Star Wars and the male gaze:
From the first film [Star Wars], she was just a soldier, front line and center. The only way they knew to make the character strong was to make her angry. In Return of the Jedi, she gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let’s not forget that these movies are basically boys’ fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes.
While acknowledging her ground-breaking role in the franchise, including the importance of portraying a fiercely independent woman on-screen, she was also vocal about being sexualized in the movies. For instance, the now-famous gold bikini she wore in Return of the Jedi didn’t sit well with her.
“It wasn’t my choice. When [director George Lucas] showed me the outfit, I thought he was kidding and it made me very nervous,” she told NPR this year. “I had to sit very straight because I couldn’t have lines on my sides, like little creases. No creases were allowed, so I had to sit very, very rigid straight. …”
Fisher also advised Daisy Ridley, the lead actress in The Force Awakens, to stand up for herself. “You should fight for your outfit,” Fisher said. “Don’t be a slave like I was.”
2. ABC News (1995): On mental health
In a PrimeTime interview with Diane Sawyer, Fisher famously said, “I have a chemical imbalance that, in its most extreme state, will lead me to a mental hospital.”
The interview marked the first time the actress publicly addressed her manic depression, a break-through moment that thrust her into the spotlight as a mental health advocate. According to Fisher, she suffered from restless nights and horrible mood swings. She also revealed that she initially thought her illness wasn’t an illness at all, but a result of her drug addiction.
“I have two moods,” she said. “One is Roy, rollicking Roy, the wild ride of a mood. And Pam, sediment Pam, who stands on the shore and sobs … Sometimes the tide is in, sometimes it’s out.”
Fisher was gradually able to accept and treat her disorder, after years of living dangerously.
“I am mentally ill. I can say that. I am not ashamed of that. I survived that, I’m still surviving it, but bring it on,” she said. “Better me than you.”
3. Twitter (2015): On body-shaming:
Please stop debating about whetherOR not👁aged well.unfortunately it hurts all3 of my feelings.My BODY hasnt aged as well as I have.Blow us👌🏼
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) December 29, 2015
Around the time The Force Awakens debuted, Fisher shut down sexist body-shamers and spoke for women — and men — everywhere. Her appearance in the film, nearly 40 years after the original franchise premiered, undoubtedly sent trolls who wanted her to maintain her 1977 figure into a tizzy. But the actress wasn’t afraid to speak out about the oppressive body standards that drive the entertainment industry.
“They don’t want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters! Nothing changes: it’s an appearance-driven thing,” she told Good Housekeeping UK this year, admitting that she had to lose 35 pounds to return to the screen as Princess Leia. “I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up.”
4. Toronto Film Festival (2016): On aging in Hollywood
Just as she was outspoken about her changing body, Fisher was vocal about getting older and trying to maintain a career. As the daughter of starlet Debbie Reynolds, Fisher was all too familiar with Hollywood’s attitude toward older women.
“There are not a lot of choices for women past the age of 27,” she said during a panel discussion in April. “I did not want to be an actress. I watched it growing up and there was no glamour in it for me. I know what happens in the end — or in the middle.”