Being Carrie Fisher

The acclaimed writer and Star Wars star brings her one-woman show to Berkeley Rep this month.

Carrie Fisher grew up in Hollywood’s spotlight, through good times and bad. The daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher became a cinematic icon at 19, when she played Princess Leia in Star Wars. Less than a decade later, drugs and alcohol nearly cost Fisher her life, but she bounced back as a best-selling novelist and successful screenwriter.

All of these aspects of Fisher’s life (as well as her bipolar disorder) make an appearance and are seasoned with humor in her one-woman show, which opens at Berkeley Rep on February 8. Here, Fisher discusses some of the real-life events behind the show, from her early days as a child performer to her role as a celebrity parent.

More people know you from movies and books than from your live show. Didn’t you start performing on stage as a young girl?

Well, I went on stage with my mom, but that was to keep the family together, not because I wanted the spotlight. A family outing for us was to go onstage in Las Vegas.

After growing up with parents who were very famous, what is it like to be a celebrity parent?

I learned to cook so my daughter would have some memory of her mother in the kitchen. I tried to do things that were more like a conventional parent, which was something I did not have. But my mother was a very good parent, and she still is. She lives next door. She’s a very caring, loyal, involved parent now, but when I grew up, she worked all the time. One of the reasons I have stayed with writing is that I do not have to leave home to do it.

Has your daughter been exposed to the Hollywood lifestyle?

Yes. Her father [Bryan Lourd] is the biggest agent in Hollywood. Really, she’s been exposed more from that side of the fence than mine. But, she has recently learned to appreciate whom she is related to. I’ve been in an iconic movie, but her grandmother is an actual icon. My daughter is now taking tap lessons at my mother’s studio in the valley. What teenager does that? She’s quite good. She wants to learn one of the numbers from Singin’ in the Rain as a surprise for her grandmother.

Your first movie, Shampoo, was a quintessential 1970s film filled with promiscuous sex and drugs. You were just a teenager, and your character seduced Warren Beatty with the f-word. How did your folks, who were from a different era, react to that?

My father just wasn’t involved. My mother wanted me to use the word “screw” instead. That went well. Warren had to come to the house and convince her that we couldn’t say screw.

As your friends headed off to college, you landed the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars, the movie that defined the word blockbuster. How did that film’s success change your life?

I was 19, and I didn’t even really want to be an actress—I hadn’t made up my mind. It would be like picking your major at college. This movie picked my major for me, for a number of years. Star Wars made me financially independent, which was a neat trick at that age. The character I played became a celebrity, but I wasn’t necessarily a celebrity in my own right.

Besides the Star Wars movies, you’ve been in a number of modern classics—The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, When Harry Met Sally… , Austin Powers. What’s your favorite?

Creatively, the most rewarding was Hannah and Her Sisters, even though Woody [Allen] and I were like oil and water. But the most fun I ever I had on a film, bar none, was The ’Burbs with Tom Hanks. We had so much fun, I would have paid to be in it. I managed to be in Tom Hanks’s two worst films—The ’Burbs and The Man With One Red Shoe.

What were the parties like on the set of The Blues Brothers?

It wasn’t parties, per se; it was just rampant, ongoing drug use. The thing I always said about John Belushi is that it was a shame that his first OD killed him. He didn’t have that close call that gave him the scare of his life. I had that, and it really put the brakes on. The thing about addicts is they cannot stop. There has never been a moment since I first understood that I was an addict that I thought, “Well, maybe I’m not.”

How old were you when you realized you were an addict?

Twenty-eight years old. After John had died.

After the Star Wars films?

Oh, well after. Drugs weren’t big on the Star Wars set—you couldn’t have worked. It would not have been possible. We were very respectful of working. We had lines to remember; we had to be there at 5:30 a.m.

But there was one time where we had stayed up all night with [Monty Python comedian] Eric Idle, and he had brought this drink back from Tunisia where they were shooting Life of Brian. They gave this drink to the extras to get them to work long hours. So Harrison Ford and I stayed up all night drinking it, and when we came into work the next day, we were not hungover—we were still drunk. When we arrived on Cloud City [in The Empire Strikes Back], we were drunk. And it’s the only time in the film that we really smile.

Your first book, Postcards From the Edge, was a best-seller in 1987. How did your success as an author compare to acting?

That was awesome. That was all me, which made me really proud. Being in Star Wars was like winning the lottery. Writing a book was like inventing the lottery. And then writing the screenplay for the film and having Meryl Streep play the lead—you couldn’t say it was a dream come true because who would even dare to dream of having Meryl play the lead in your movie? I was on the set every day to watch her.

You’re appearing in a film remake of George Cukor’s The Women coming out this fall, with a great cast—Meg Ryan, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, Eva Mendes …

That’s going to be awesome. The director, Diane English, has been trying to get this made for 10 years. I did a scene with Annette Bening. I play a really awful person.

Meanwhile, you’ve shown up recently on all these hip TV comedies: Weeds, 30 Rock, and Family Guy.

I’ve had an acting slip of late. That episode of 30 Rock was great—a really funny, well-written character, but I missed it. My television doesn’t want me watching it for some reason—I can’t deactivate the parental controls. I love the show Weeds, but that was tough to do because I had to work with a live fish. That was the only thing I’ve ever done that has impressed my daughter.

Carrie Fisher performs at Berkeley Repertory Theatre February 8–March 30, tickets $18.50–$69, (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org.