Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisheris an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogyand Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Fisher is also known for her semi-autobiographical novels, including Postcards from the Edge, and the screenplay for the film of the same name, as well as her autobiographical one-woman play, and its nonfiction book, Wishful Drinking, based on the show. Her other film roles include Shampoo, The Blues Brothers, Hannah and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth21 October 1956
CityBeverly Hills, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Having waited my entire life to get an award for something, anything...I now get awards all the time for being mentally ill. It’s better than being bad at being insane, right? How tragic would it be to be runner-up for Bipolar Woman of the Year?
Then I overdosed at 28, at which point I began to accept the bipolar diagnosis.
So when I was 24, someone suggested to me that I was bipolar, and I thought that was ridiculous. I just thought he was trying to get out of treating me. But he was also responding to the chaotic nature of my life.
I'm fine, but I'm bipolar. I'm on seven medications, and I take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the illness I have. I'm never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It's like being a diabetic.
I get lots of awards for being mentally ill. Apparently, I am better at being mentally ill than almost anything else I've ever done. Seriously - I have a shelf of awards for being bipolar.
People are still asking me if I knew it was going to be that big of a hit. Yes, we all knew. The only one who didn't know was George.
Will somebody get this giant walking carpet out of my way?
I am someone who will rise to an occasion like that. Other occasions can defeat me.
I think that now most people know someone in their family that is coping with something, but there is still a tremendous amount of shame - that one is still regarded as a defective unit ... if only they would pull up their bootstraps - they are only indulging their emotions, everybody's moody, blah, blah, blah.
I don't know about understood. I think that unless you are forced to understand - unless it is an issue of yours - you wouldn't bother to.
I've never been that uncomfortable talking about it. Things come out [in the media] about me. When it's out, it's someone else's version of what's the matter with me. I want it to be my version of what it is. My recourse is to do my version.
I'm in denial in its lesser state. It will take me a second. People around me will notice my mania first. And, my depression.
I was telling some people in my dressing room some of my other stories, my psychotic break, and blah, blah, blah, and no, they kind of look at you and it's just not what they wanted to hear.
I did the traditional thing with falling in love with words, reading books and underlining lines I liked and words I didn't know. It was something I always did.