Carrie Fisher died one year ago, but she had time to leave Princess Leia's 'testament' in the book she published just before her death, concerning her experiences during the filming in London of Episode 4, the beginning of Star Wars, back in the Spring of 1976, when no one, except George Lucas, gave a damn about that space fantasy entitled A New Hope. Forty years later she decided to show the world her diaries, poems and intimate thoughts about the affair she had then with Harrison Ford.
With him love was easier done than said.
She was 19, he was 33 and married. There was no communication between them; they didn't really care about each other; it was a one-night stand after another, all sex, drugs, drinks, loneliness and no future. Even so, she could not avoid to repeatedly admiring his beauty. I'm not at all surprised: she was a female native of Libra.
After the film, it was all over. Harrison divorced and remarried twice, but Carrie had nothing to do with it. She got on with her life too, and one of the best-kept secrets of Hollywood went into oblivion. When she made the revelation, many criticized her, as if it was some sort of treason. Harrison kept to himself and after her death he said he will remain so. Truly, there is nothing indecent or bad about the book, certainly nothing that can hurt him.
After the film, it was all over. Harrison divorced and remarried twice, but Carrie had nothing to do with it. She got on with her life too, and one of the best-kept secrets of Hollywood went into oblivion. When she made the revelation, many criticized her, as if it was some sort of treason. Harrison kept to himself and after her death he said he will remain so. Truly, there is nothing indecent or bad about the book, certainly nothing that can hurt him.
She explained that sooner or later their love story would surface and she wanted to be sure her version was heard. In the times we are living, when the degrees of separation between people seem to be gone, I'm glad she did it. Let me explain why.
Today, appearing in Star Wars is like being naked in front of the world. People can get close to know almost everything about those global stars: where they came from, who are their families, what they like and dislike, what they eat, what they dress, what views on society they share, what their best and worst experiences were, how much they earn, even which health problems they have, etc. There are people who use the net to gossip about them, publicly or privately, those who call, those who talk, those who tell facts, those who tell falsehoods, those who know someone who knows someone who knows that someone. And then there are the stars themselves, making use of interviews and social networks to reply to and to feed the world's curiosity, without realizing that one day this exposure will turn against them. To be a star in Star Wars is a dangerous business.
Obviously, anything touching their intimacy is eagerly devoured, spread and often twisted. People spend money on Star Wars, are really interested in it, many are fanatic. The final step is to believe they are entitled to own those stars, to make everything about them go public. The publishing of Carrie's fight with her inner demons, of her troubles with her feelings and her obsession about it all, as the teenager was becoming Leia, was smart and worthy of respect, for avoiding any future uncontrolled manipulation of the narrative by third parties.
There is a second part in the book, about what was like to be Leia all those years, a madness where most people could not tell the actress from the character: men who dreamed wet dreams about her; mothers who confessed to her, as if she were a priest; children who asked her to perform miracles, like a magical princess is supposed to, etc. She was always very sarcastic about the price of fame, reacting to it with a practical nonsense that kept her alive until she was 60 (the title of this post is from one of her last poems: how ironic!).
The little experience I have playing a princess showed me it is overwhelmingly idiotic: the first time I assumed the avatar of one in my blog (in the end of 2013) I received so many crazy text messages in my phone that I had to disconnect the service for a long time. Carrie was a very determined woman and she learned how to deal with it in the best way she could, and people loved her for it too. For that hard task she also deserves to be praised and dearly missed.
P.S. 31 December 2017
Prior to the 13th November 2015, I had never heard the names of the directors, the writers, or the new actors of the Disney Star Wars franchise. They were, all of them, totally unknown to me until then, no matter what they had already achieved in films, theater, books, music, TV, or any other activity.
Star Wars 7 awoke in me the need to deal with the fact that we are all virtually at the distance of...one human arm's length.
Final Note: Besides my 'compatriot' George Lucas, the creator, my one and only star in the whole Star Wars universe appeared in 2002 and never left. All the rest is sky scenery.
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P.S. 31 December 2017
Prior to the 13th November 2015, I had never heard the names of the directors, the writers, or the new actors of the Disney Star Wars franchise. They were, all of them, totally unknown to me until then, no matter what they had already achieved in films, theater, books, music, TV, or any other activity.
Star Wars 7 awoke in me the need to deal with the fact that we are all virtually at the distance of...one human arm's length.
Final Note: Besides my 'compatriot' George Lucas, the creator, my one and only star in the whole Star Wars universe appeared in 2002 and never left. All the rest is sky scenery.
* * * * * * * *
