It’s that sense of humor and irreverence that the actress, novelist and screenwriter will bring to the Victoria Theatre stage for the next two weeks when she presents “Wishful Drinking,” her one-woman Broadway show based on her own colorful life. The play will be in town from Tuesday through April 22 and was the winner of the 2010 Outer Critics’ Circle Award in New York.
“I’ve probably drawn some challenges to me just to practice my sense of humor, just give it some exercise,” she said during a phone interview. Among those life challenges are addiction, a diagnosis of a bipolar illness and divorce — including her own divorce from musician Paul Simon. Carrie Fisher jokes about them all.
“If it’s true that you’re only as sick as your secrets, then I’ll be healthy for a very long time,” she says. “I was ashamed about a lot of these things for years, but then they rule you. If I can make light of these heavy things, then I have problems, but they don’t have me.”
Fisher also is scheduled to talk about her life at Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts in May, and will speak and sign books Friday at Books & Co. at The Greene in Beavercreek. Her most recent book, “Shockaholic,” references her experiences with electric shock treatments.
After one of her Dayton performances, Fisher will meet with members of the Behavioral Services departments from Premier Health Partners and Samaritan Behavioral Health.
Born in Beverly Hills to crooner Eddie Fisher and film star Debbie Reynolds, Fisher’s dad left her mother in 1959 to marry movie star Elizabeth Taylor, one of her mother’s closest friends. She herself became an American icon at age 19 when she took on the role of Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” film.
Fisher, who has said writing helps give her a sense of being “in control of the craziness,” also is a novelist and a screenwriter who turned her book, “Postcards From the Edge,” into a film in 1990.
Now, at 55, Fisher looks back on her life and says being the daughter of celebrities had its ups and downs.
“The positive was growing up with my mom, who was very kind, a really good role model for working and being successful,” she says. Reynolds, who lives next door, just turned 80.
“She’s still doing her show, and that’s both inspiring and daunting at the same time,” Fisher says. “The hardest thing was that our family was structured differently — the parents were like the children. The children were the salads and the parents were the meal.”
What has saved her, she believes, is her openness to any sort of help that might be available to her — medication, all forms of therapy.
“There’s nothing I won’t try,” Fisher says. “It either works or it doesn’t.”
She believes it’s best to find other people who’ve faced similar issues and find a community of people that have had some of the same experiences “so that you don’t feel like the village idiot.”
“I don’t think anything is for everybody, but I believe in the 12-Step programs; they are basically a Christian ethic of helping others,” she says. “It’s about being honest, a good person.”
Fisher, who has received a number of awards for her commitment to fighting mental illness and the stigmas associated with it, has appeared on the Senate floor urging state legislators to increase government funding for people living with mental health issues.
She says her one-woman show allows her to laugh at her pain.
“I think a lot of humor comes from pain,” she says. “I laugh at the experiences I’ve had and talk about what I’ve learned from them and how I’ve coped.”
Although not every child grows up with a laundress and a projection room and begins working in films and nightclubs at age 13, Fisher says she wasn’t immune from the common concerns of childhood — wondering if you’re fat, wondering if you said something dumb.
Her own daughter, she says, somehow managed to avoid many of the pitfalls that have plagued her life. Billie, now 19, is studying at New York University.
On Carrie Fisher’s bucket list?
“I had been obsessed with going to Northern China for the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, and it was awesome!”
She says she’d also like to clear up any outstanding agitation that exists between herself and anyone from her past.
“My goal now,” she concludes, “is being a good friend, a good daughter, a good mother.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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