Wasn't Carrie Fisher amazing in the original Star Wars? Well, time has ticked on, yet for some reason audiences seem surprised at the fact that she doesn't look like she did circa 1983. You know what? Neither do I, mostly because it was 30 years ago!
Neither does Han Solo (aka Harrison Ford) for that matter, yet no one is publicly condemning him for not using the Force to singlehandedly stop the aging process.
Carrie Fisher's return to the silver screen hasn't been so serendipitous, with the actor and writer facing criticism for "not aging well" in The Force Awakens.
Thankfully 59 year-old Fisher is not made of delicate stuff. I've had a sweet spot for her ever since watching her standup show, Wishful Drinking, in which she talked about her crazy life with incredible wit, candour and self-deprecation.
To her latest critics, she gave the following funny and thoughtful response, proving that wisdom does in fact come with age:
“Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us.”
“Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’re the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either.”
Youth&BeautyR/NOT ACCOMPLISHMENTS,theyre theTEMPORARY happy/BiProducts/of Time&/or DNA/Dont Hold yourBreath4either/ifUmust holdAir/takeGarys
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) December 30, 2015
Fisher was pressed to lose a whole lot of weight for the role, which is one thing if getting ultra fit helps her perform action scenes - quite another if it's just an attempt to get her closer to the svelte Leia likeness of her youth.
Critics shot back, saying negative comments are par for the course for celebrities and public figures. And she should just take it like, er... a man? She and other pretty actresses should suck it up and be "grateful" they got a chance to be in movies in the first place. Fisher may have got the break for being young and attractive - because that's what the industry wants, not because that's all she's capable of.
So by all means, slam her acting. Slam the movie if you want. But slamming how she looks is not par for the course. It's not even on the table. Criticizing her appearance is not only ignorant and immature, it's also grossly irrelevant to how she does her job.
Image Source: Disney/LucasFilm
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