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Carrie Fisher: Forever princess, space grandma, and hutt slayer. Sisters Claire Fisher and Katie Marinello watch and read everything she did through her short life and storied career.
Carried Far Far Away, Episode 1: A New Hope
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[00:00:00]
Claire Fisher: Hello and welcome to Carried Far, Far Away,
Claire Fisher: a podcast project where we are going to watch and read everything that Carrie Fisher did during her short life and storied career.
Katie Marinello: And boy, are there some stories!
Claire Fisher: I'm Claire Fisher,
Katie Marinello: I'm Katie Marinello woo.
Claire Fisher: sisters.
Katie Marinello: Oh, there was an echo there.
Claire Fisher: And we are still figuring out our podcasting platform!
Katie Marinello: Yes. Yes we are. So
Katie Marinello: here we are. It's our first episode.
Katie Marinello: What do you want to tell the people about yourself, Claire?
Claire Fisher: um, I am an ESL teacher by day and feminist blogger by night. Run a nonprofit cemetery on the weekends. What do you want the people to know about you?
Katie Marinello: Oh boy. Nothing that cool. Um, I am a digital marketing freelancer and a volunteer coordinator at the Humane Society and an avid lover of podcasts and cats.
Claire Fisher: The [00:01:00] podcast loving part is probably the most important
Katie Marinello: yeah, the relevant one. Yeah.
Claire Fisher: So for our audience, I'd like to explain that Katie and I wanted to be podcasters before the word podcast existed.
Katie Marinello: point. That's
Claire Fisher: were both, uh, nineties kids, late eighties, early nineties kids. And our family had this, crazy rule where every time we weren't at home, Katie and I had to share a bed, not just a room, an actual bed.
Claire Fisher: Every time we were away from home until we were in our early twenties.
Katie Marinello: You say it like it's so unusual. I'm pretty sure that most siblings have to share a bed when they go on vacation.
Claire Fisher: But most families are taking like one big vacation per year. We were going away for a full weekend, minimum every other month, right? Sometimes once per month. And we also were traveling and doing some really cool stuff and staying in some really great places and sleeping two to four in a bed at like the world famous Beverly Hills hotel.
Claire Fisher: [00:02:00] Right?
Katie Marinello: It's a solid, uh, argument in the favor of lowering the drinking age to like 12.
Claire Fisher: So, Katie and I spent a lot of time together, when we weren't arguing over the blankets, we would do this game called Going to Sleep with Katie and Claire, where we pretended to be on a radio show and interviewed each other about all of the adventures we were going
Katie Marinello: on.
Katie Marinello: It's true. We did, but I actually remember doing it more at home when we didn't have to share a bed, but we just did anyway. And by that,
Katie Marinello: I
Katie Marinello: mean, I climbed into your bed because I liked that like down comforter that you had.
Katie Marinello: I don't know why we didn't just get one for my bed, but I really want, I always want to sleep on your bed.
Claire Fisher: Well, if it's the thing I think you're referring to I got that because I already was developing back problems at the age of nine, the ones that would eventually lead me to become partially disabled, and cause lifelong permanent pain. So, um, you probably came out ahead on the deal all I'm[00:03:00]
Katie Marinello: But I remember coming into your
Katie Marinello: room and saying, you know, do you want to play Going to Sleep with Katie and Claire?
Claire Fisher: And we always did because notwithstanding our 30 year and counting argument over the blankets, we did love each other and we did do a lot of things together. And one thing we used to do a whole lot was watch Star Wars
Katie Marinello: Oh my goodness. Yeah. All the time.
Claire Fisher: over and over and over. Now, to be fair, we were the kids of the re release generation, which
Katie Marinello: Yes. We're not purists here.
Claire Fisher: had been digitally remastered and with deleted scenes put back in
Katie Marinello: jabba is in episode four. You can't tell me differently. However, I will admit that Han shot first.
Claire Fisher: We had the remastered trilogy on VHS. And, um, your favorite was Return of the Jedi.
Katie Marinello: Yes, because I liked when they brought Han back to life. I did not like watching him be frozen. So even though Empire Strikes Back is considered the best of the trilogy, I think, by most people, it's probably the one we've seen the least.
Claire Fisher: [00:04:00] Suffice to say, we've seen each of them many,
Katie Marinello: many many times.
Claire Fisher: Many, many And, I mean, starting when I was so young that you had to read the opening scrawl text to me. couldn't read it.
Katie Marinello: Do you remember when we first watched it?
Claire Fisher: Yes, I do. Because our friend Andrew's school was going to have a fundraiser. It be a night where if you went to see the re release in a certain theater, the proceeds would benefit. our friend's school.
Claire Fisher: But we were both the type to get really scared by movies,
Katie Marinello: Everything. Scared by everything.
Katie Marinello: We were terrible. I mean, I can't even believe, like, one time there was, like, somebody mentioned a spider on TV and you couldn't sleep. And I'm not saying I was any better, because you can tell that story.
Claire Fisher: Yeah, you shouldn't say you're much better, because one time the school nurse had to call our house and say that you had melted down during Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue, the anti drug PSA, and she had quote,
Claire Fisher: [00:05:00] never seen a child react to this strongly.
Katie Marinello: .
Katie Marinello: I rewatched it during the pandemic and guess what? It is creepy, but it's also like about suburban children. And I'm like, Oh, okay.
Claire Fisher: We had a history of freaking out over things before making a night of it and going out to see the remastered Star Wars. Our parents thought we should rent the VHS of the original New Hope and watch it at home. So we would know what was coming and we wouldn't freak out over things, worked.
Katie Marinello: we did see the original New Hope
Claire Fisher: Yes.
Claire Fisher: The original VHS release, I think that they actually had changed, like, in the original release, it was just called Star Wars, not Episode 4 A New Hope, but when they did the home video release, they, like, changed that
Katie Marinello: Yeah. right?
Claire Fisher: So, we, we had seen that, and, and that wasn't the only time we saw it, either, because our, our neighbors, the Mahoneys had, uh, VHS tapes that were from the 80s home video release.
Claire Fisher: So we, we saw in our [00:06:00] both, and then, you know, now with the DVD releases, they've added even more mishegas you know, right?
Claire Fisher: Uh, so we've seen several versions of this, but to go back to that beautiful night, the night in 1997 where we were watching it on VHS for the first time, and you and Dad cooperated to read me the opening scrawl text, Dad paused the movie in the scene where Luke is introduced and famously said, it'll help you girls understand the rest of this. If you know that the guy in black is this kid's father,
Katie Marinello: He went ahead and spoiled it right on out.
Claire Fisher: he spoiled the Empire Strikes Back during A New Hope
Katie Marinello: As it turns out, you don't need to know that to understand A New Hope or even most of Empire Strikes Back. That's literally how it was designed to be.
Claire Fisher: It's literally that you're not supposed to know that revealed.
Katie Marinello: Right. I mean, James Earl Jones didn't know that, you know, rest in peace. Um,
Claire Fisher: Carrie Fisher didn't know that, God rest her
Katie Marinello: right. I don't think she knew [00:07:00] until she said, we'll have to look that up, but I'm pretty sure she didn't know until she saw it, like
Katie Marinello: saw a cut of it anyway, because when they filmed it, David Prowse said, Obi Wan killed your father. Which, turns out, not inaccurate.
Katie Marinello: I did learn eventually that the reason Daddy did that was because he was so excited that he knew that because he had never seen the movie.
Katie Marinello: That was his first time watching the movie.
Claire Fisher: so he was 20 years late to the party and he felt he ought to just inflict that
Katie Marinello: Yeah. Just destroy it to all of us. Exactly. Exactly.
Claire Fisher: Well, anyway, we forgive dad. We love dad. Hi
Katie Marinello: Hi
Katie Marinello: Thanks for being one of our two listeners
Claire Fisher: and thank you for introducing us to wonder that was Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher, our eventual feminist idol, our first exposure to what was then being called girl power
Claire Fisher: in 90s, right? The big feminist heroine that she was. And we became lifelong fans of [00:08:00] hers
Katie Marinello: so I would say that she kind of came in and out of our radar over the years, as she did for most people.
Katie Marinello: So when she released the novelization or the memoir version of her one woman show called Wishful Drinking, I remember reading it and she talked a lot in there about her mental health and her addiction issues and specifically about being bipolar and, you know, how it going through electroshock therapy, which is now called electroconvulsion therapy, um, which became extremely important later in life when I had to help a friend get through that, um, and then we went to see her.
Carrie Fisher: Yes. We went to see Wishful Drinking in New York city. And I remember that the same day we took our childhood American Girl dolls to the American Girl Store in New York City to, get their hair styled cause they had been played with, and well loved and were kind of beat up. [00:09:00] Um, and so then we brought three American Girl dolls with us to a Broadway theater.
Carrie Fisher: They were stuffed into a rolling suitcase
Katie Marinello: I know I can't even picture how we got the rolling suitcase in the aisles with us.
Claire Fisher: It was on my lap.
Claire Fisher: Was
Katie Marinello: it really?, Oh, geez. I'm sorry. That sounds very uncomfortable,
Claire Fisher: and we saw the show. It was incredible. She was so open, she was so honest. And although she did tell the joke, you have no idea what I'm leaving out.
Katie Marinello: And then she came out with her next memoir which revealed that most of the time that we'd been watching her talk about her sobriety, she hadn't been sober, and that she'd had to go back through the process and, you know, I remember feeling very sick because I remember when we saw her, she announced that Billie, her daughter had just been accepted to Wesleyan University. I remember that because they were like the big rival of the school that I went to. So she was like 18 and I just felt so bad that they'd had to go [00:10:00] through all this again.
Claire Fisher: yeah.
Katie Marinello: And then she came out with a third memoir. I would say, I think that was her third, like actual memoir, as opposed to autobiographical novels.
Katie Marinello: And, that was in 2016.
Claire Fisher: And we had a plan. We were going to a book signing in November of 2016, and we're going to get that memoir, and we're going to have her sign it. We're going to get to meet her. And that was the week that our grandma went into hospice care.
Katie Marinello: Yeah, and I remember like I was at work and I had my bag because we were going to go home right after the book signing and it just became, it just had that feeling of like, this is too many things in one day, right? trying to do too much. Let's just get on the bus and go home, which, despite it being like a 45 minute ride is a process, right?
Katie Marinello: And so we decided, okay, let's just go home, see our grandma, all that good stuff
Claire Fisher: And we said, you know what, we'll go to the [00:11:00] next book signing. Uh, she obviously is a really talented writer. She'll come back through New York City center of the publishing industry. At the time we lived, we lived in Brooklyn, our family and grandma lived in New Jersey.
Claire Fisher: So we think there'll be another time
Katie Marinello: And so our grandma died December 17th, 2016, and Carrie Fisher died December 27th, 2016.
Claire Fisher: And I remember when the next day we found out that her mother, Debbie Reynolds had had a fatal stroke over her shock and grief. Um, I remember we were at our parents house. It was Christmas week and we had just lost grandma. And I came into the room to tell you Debbie Reynolds had died. And I think you said.
Claire Fisher: We should have gone to that book signing.
Katie Marinello: Yeah, yeah, I think. It wasn't just that, right? But this is like the celebrity death that has stayed with me for, you know, eight years now. Um, I like celebrity, culture and, and [00:12:00] knowing what's going on, but I've never been one of those people who like freaks out when, when a celebrity dies necessarily. But this one, I, I remember writing on Facebook because where else did we write our thoughts at the time that, you know, 2016 had taken the country and my grandma and now this, this figure that meant so much to us.
Claire Fisher: And for me, it also stands out that then the following year, in 2017, is when I think I first started seeing people call her Space Grandma, because in the fall of 2017 when the allegations of Harvey Weinstein's crimes were revealed in the New York Times. Many people came forward with their own versions of stories, and one person, uh, said that after Harvey Weinstein had behaved inappropriately towards her.
Claire Fisher: Carrie Fisher had mailed him a cow tongue in a box with a note saying next time it'll be something of yours,
Claire Fisher: um, and successfully frightened him off. And, and that [00:13:00] story stood out to me because we know that Carrie Fisher was in Hollywood very young, was mistreated by older men in her professional orbit, was told she had to lose weight, was told she had to do this, she was told she had to do that.
Claire Fisher: Joked about having slept with people to get jobs, but wasn't necessarily always a joke, right? And so she had eventually reached a point where she could use her own power to protect the, uh, younger and more vulnerable women who were being abused in Hollywood. I think that's part of why she got the moniker of space grandma.
Claire Fisher: That and the fact that, you know, posthumously two more Star Wars movies came out
Katie Marinello: Right. she was in fact a grandma or not, not really, but yeah.
Claire Fisher: she was the older mature general fighting a war, trying to save her son.
Katie Marinello: I'm pretty sure people were calling her space mommy. Because she had quite a social media presence and I, I believe it may have started when she, cause she had like [00:14:00] a significant Twitter and I believe even Instagram, um, she, she typed entirely in emojis, which was really, really hard to read. Um, but Billie Lloyd still does that when she talks about her, which I think is so cute. And I, and even before the Weinstein stuff came out, I remember seeing her all over the Women's March in January of 2017. I mean everywhere, everywhere.
Katie Marinello: Mark Hamill posting, you know, signs that he saw of her you know, when they did those photo compilations of signs and things, you know, posting that and, you know, saying how much it meant to them.
Katie Marinello: Hmm. Mm hmm.
Claire Fisher: you know, I remember as an adult, dad and I were watching Return of the Jedi and I said something like, Oh, I used to love this scene because she really kicks ass. And I like to see the girl taking charge. And he said, I didn't know that you were that affected by gender roles, which just goes to show, even when we don't know it.
Claire Fisher: It's there, right? Um, and as women [00:15:00] who grew up in a patriarchal system, we were always looking for the female role models, in, our movies, in our TV, in our books, and, uh, she was one who was important to us. And as you already alluded to, we know a lot of people who are bipolar. It runs in our family.
Katie Marinello: hmm.
Claire Fisher: And she helped to de stigmatize that illness to a lot of people, including us.
Katie Marinello: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Claire Fisher: It was poorly understood for a long, long time. And so she was our role model. She was very funny. She was an inspiration and she was our space grandma.
Katie Marinello: And I don't think we can underestimate the bisexual awakening that the gold bikini had, at least on me. I know that I grew up saying I had a crush on Han Solo and I did. But I think that's, you know, we had to pick a man to be attracted to.
Claire Fisher: Well, in all fairness, since I was too young to read the opening scroll text, I don't think I
Katie Marinello: Well, not the first time we watched it, but we watched it [00:16:00] a lot.
Claire Fisher: I think my bisexual awakening was more closer to the time of Attack of the Clones coming out, let's just say.
Katie Marinello: Oh, right. I forgot about your Natalie Portman thing.
Claire Fisher: Anyway
Claire Fisher: we both got very, very into podcasts once they became a
Katie Marinello: thing, Mm
Claire Fisher: hmm.
Claire Fisher: In my case, got into specifically movie watch through podcasts starting in 2020 when I was, uh, trying to ignore the ominous crunching sound coming out of my sewing machine as I made masks out scrap fabric. Good times.
Katie Marinello: And I think I got, I got into it when I was teaching, whenever I had like a spare moment of like cleaning my classroom or like grading or whatever. And then when I started to freelance, obviously I'm alone most of the time working from home. And so my Spotify wrapped has indicated that I listened to podcasts like one out of every 10 minutes that I listen to.
Katie Marinello: I'm awake, so
Claire Fisher: So get on our level,
Katie Marinello: get on our level, people! You can listen to us talk for, [00:17:00] what is it, 25 minutes so far?
Claire Fisher: We're gonna cut that down. You have said for years that we need to start our own podcast, we need to do Going to Sleep with Katie and Claire, but for realsies. Um,
Katie Marinello: come up with several ideas over the years that you have vetoed.
Claire Fisher: okay, we can't make a show that's called Passive Aggression.
Katie Marinello: But we're so good at passive aggression!
Claire Fisher: Anyway!
Claire Fisher: This was the one that finally we agreed we thought that we could make work. We're going to start with Carrie Fisher's film debut, Shampoo, 1975. We're going to work through the things that she starred in, the things that she wrote for. And we're going to read her books.
Claire Fisher: So, we're going to work our way through and sort of re consider her entire career in light of the things that have happened since the 70s and since her passing.
Claire Fisher: Um, and maybe it'll be funny. Who it's,
Katie Marinello: what would she say?
Carrie Fisher: I have [00:18:00] to start by telling you that my entire life could be summed up in one phrase. If my life wasn't funny, it would just be true. And that is completely unacceptable.
Katie Marinello: Yeah, so, it's got to be funny because, you make me laugh more than anyone. And also because she made us laugh. A lot. Even though I don't know that she was in a lot of comedic roles, she was a very funny person. And so, um, you know, she had a dog that she carried everywhere with her that she named Gary Fisher.
Claire Fisher: By the way, I'd like to note, although my last name's Fisher, it's no
Katie Marinello: Yeah, if only, right?
Claire Fisher: One thing we noticed with some watch through or read through podcasts is that the recaps take up a lot of time.
Claire Fisher: So we've decided to see if [00:19:00] we can do a twist on it. Carrie Fisher's most famous monologue is 54 seconds long.
Princess Leia: General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed.
Princess Leia: I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
Claire Fisher: So, when we recap our projects, the initial recap is going to be 54 seconds or less. And then we'll pull out more details as needed
Katie Marinello: Yes. So I am going to try and recap her life now.
Katie Marinello: In 54 seconds [00:20:00] or less.
Katie Marinello: Carrie Fisher was born in October of 19 something, and she was born to Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, the like, America's Sweethearts, they were like, the Ben and Jen of their day, uh. Brad and Jen is what I meant to say. Okay. So she had one brother, Todd, and then her father, fell in love with his best friend's widow and left her mother. And then she moved around a bunch with her mother to follow kind of her mother's theater and, uh, movie career. She sang in her. Nightclub act from the age of 13 and then went to school in London and then got cast in a bunch of stuff and then became Princess Leia and never lived it down. Think you can do better than that.
Claire Fisher: Carrie Fisher was born in October of 1954 to famous parents, actress Debbie Reynolds and singer songwriter Eddie Fisher, [00:21:00] who left the family when she was three years old and is, part of the reason why she had an entertaining array of step parents, throughout most of her life. She started singing with her mother's nightclub act when she was only a teenager and she went to drama college in London, but she's destined to be remembered forever for her role as Princess Leia in six different Star Wars movies, including one that was cobbled together from deleted scenes after she died.
Claire Fisher: And she also became a somewhat famous writer, script doctor, memoirist, screenwriter. And famous advocate for mental health and especially awareness of bipolar disorder. She was also a mom and our space grandma.
Katie Marinello: our space grandma. Beautiful.
Claire Fisher: All right, see you next time Shampoo.
Katie Marinello: I don't, I know nothing about this. I'm so excited
Claire Fisher: I read the plot synopsis. I can only assume it plays better than it sounds.
Katie Marinello: or not. She was quite clear that [00:22:00] most of her movies were, you know, Not high art,
Katie Marinello: but
Claire Fisher: Well, they can't all be winners.
Katie Marinello: well, I mean, they can't all be Star Wars, but that doesn't mean there's not some merit. So
Claire Fisher: you saying Star Wars is high art?
Katie Marinello: Well, it hit us somehow. Right. And , it's not like we're unique among people who see that movie and become lifelong fans.
Claire Fisher: Fair enough. All right, I'll see you next time, sis.
Katie Marinello: right. Bye. I love you.
Claire Fisher: Good night.
Katie Marinello: Thanks for listening to another episode of Carried Far, Far Away. This podcast is hosted, produced, edited, re-edited, obsessed over, and loved by Katie Marinello and Claire Fisher. You can follow the show on Facebook and Instagram at Carried Away Pod. You can email us at awaycarriedpod@gmail.com. You can follow Claire at Dead Fictional Girlfriends and Katie at Katiedaway. All clips used in this podcast are done so under the protection of fair use. Have a wonderful week and may the force be with you.
Katie Marinello: And now our space, grandma [00:23:00] wisdom of the week.
Ellen Audience Member: what advice would you give to your 30 year old self?
Carrie Fisher: Don't do anything you're thinking of doing. Just don't do it. Don't talk about it either.