Why I Love Carrie Fisher
Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 6:00PM The Film Experience would like to wish Carrie Fisher a very happy birthday. Here's Kyle Stevens, author of a new book on Mike Nichols on why he loves her...
For various reasons, I’ve never cared for the use of “asshole” as an epithet. However, calling Carrie Fisher a “jerk” or “irreverent” plainly misses the point. She can be an asshole, and that’s why I love her.
My favorite evidence of this fact comes from her DVD commentary for Postcards from the Edge, the film adapted from her memoir-cum-novel of the same name. I’ve written elsewhere about the brilliance of this film, how Mike Nichols and Meryl Streep use Fisher’s story (and her personal narrative as daughter of Debbie Reynolds) to dramatize the shift from the old Hollywood star system, in which audiences liked to think that they really knew the star (and to see them play similar roles again and again), to a contemporary kind of stardom, where stars are celebrated for being convincing in a range of different kinds of roles. That’s what I appreciate about the film. But there is much to love about the film that is all Fisher, like the tragically plausible names of Suzanne’s past, vacuous movies (for example, “The Night of a Thousand Shoes”).
Early on in Postcards, Suzanne’s mother Doris throws her a very unwelcome welcome home party. Suzanne is complaining about the fact that she doesn’t even know anyone at the party to her friend Aretha (played with a voice like dark corn syrup by the wonderful Robin Bartlett), when the two are interrupted by a member of Doris’s staff, a maid, who informs Suzanne: "Your mother wants you inside to cut the cake."
Gif provided by Adam Sass (@TheAdamSass)
Fisher cast her personal cook, Gloria Crayton, as the maid, and the level of apathy with which Crayton delivers her line is astonishing. It is presumably the culmination of the evening’s festivities, and she could not care less. Crayton’s delivery is devoid of all feeling, seemingly evidence that the actress struggled simply to disgorge the line.
But this is where Fisher’s Wildean assholery comes into play.
We had a whole campaign about Gloria. We ran it in Variety nominating her for Best Supporting Actress. We got quotes from [Richard] Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss’s quote was “It’s the finest one line walk-on since Richard Dreyfuss in The Graduate…[There were] quotes from Meryl, Gene Hackman…”
On one hand, Fisher and crew are thumbing their noses at the Academy Awards, and the whole system of campaigning for Oscars. On the other, this gag makes us wonder about what makes a performance compelling or convincing. Why would a servant care about the party? Who wouldn’t be dead tired after working for Doris and her persnickety guests? While it might ultimately be impossible to tell whether Crayton is playing nonchalant or is talentless, it might just be the case that she has given us one of the most convincing and accurate portrayals in the history of cinema. It’s this sort of clever foolishness that makes Fisher the kind of asshole I can get behind.
Reader Comments (17)
The thing is that's real person infront of the camera where the others Meryl,Shirley etc are ACTORS with a capital A.
I have no idea how i have never heard this anecdote. I wish so bad we had a photo of these Oscar ads.
Big thanks to Adam Sass--@TheAdamSass--for making the GIF!
I'm a big fan of this film and have watched it with the DVD commentary. I've never heard that story before, what a great way to sass The Academy. Carrie Fisher a gift that keeps on giving.
Kyle -- oops. i meant to do that. added to the post. Thanks Adam!
I would say "smart ass", not "asshole".
Carrie Fisher's an asshole but I'm anti-woman when I refer to actresses I despise as the c-word and b-word?
Whatever --- Meryl Streep accepting her third Oscar for The Iron Lady.
Thank goodness I and others have supreme power to ignore. I love this post. Postcards is another entertaining movie in Meryl's highly valued film catalogue. CarrieFisher is a great survivor.
@Tom Ford
thank you.... ignoring is the correct and hurting thing to do for certain people
Tom Ford -- thanks for loving the post. Kyle wrote it awhile ago and I fucked up and it didn't get posted but i love it too. and love carrie fisher so her birthday must be celebrated.
I hope she gets a moment with a lightsaber in the new Star Wars film.
Love Carrie Fisher. She has "too much personality for one person, but not quite enough for two."
Her book Postcards from the Edge is worth a read-- very funny and strangely moving. It's quite different from the film (for example, her mother, played by Shirley MacLaine in the film, is mentioned in passing but isn't actually a character).
Is the Postcard DVD commentary online? I'd love to listen to it
She is awesome as is her daughter who is currently killing it on Scream Queens. i love the fact she wears ear muffs to pay a homage to her mom's most famous role
Somebody go through the Variety archives and find those ads, you guys!!
Even though hers is a really weird, privileged, but still sad life, Carrie was so humble and real and funny and brilliant talking about it onstage in "Wishful Drinking."
She is quite wonderful and sweet in her interviews in the Biography episode on the life of her friend Jennifer Jones.