Carrie Fisher's One Request For Her Obituary Involved A Weird Star Wars Underwear Rule
The world was devastated when news broke on December 27, 2016, that "Star Wars" stalwart and beloved writer-performer Carrie Fisher passed away at the age of 60. While on a flight from London to Los Angeles, Fisher experienced a cardiac event and ultimately died after being treated in a California hospital. Her cause of death, despite her fervent wishes, is not listed as "drowned in moonlight, strangled by her bra."
Wait, what? Let's back up. Fisher, known for her acerbic wit and sharp tongue, discussed her rise to fame as Princess (and eventual General) Leia Organa in her memoir and one-woman show titled "Wishful Drinking" — including an anecdote about her "Star Wars" costume and an ensuing argument with director George Lucas. Apparently, when Fisher donned her now-iconic white dress as Leia, Lucas had some ... interesting notes.
"George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, 'You can't wear a bra under that dress,'" Fisher wrote. "So I say, 'Okay, I'll bite. Why?' And he says, 'Because... there's no underwear in space.' I promise you this is true, and he says it with such conviction too! Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn't see any bras or panties or briefs anywhere."
Princess Leia's costume caused an argument between Carrie Fisher and George Lucas
So how does strangulation by one's own bra even come into play? Fisher went on to explain just that. "What happens is you go to space and you become weightless," she wrote. "So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn't – so you get strangled by your own bra."
Armed with that logic, Fisher came up with a perfect pitch for her eventual obituary: "Now I think that this would make for a fantastic obit – so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra." Obviously, this is not how Fisher shuffled off this mortal coil, but in the years since her passing, this particular line has been fondly remembered as an example of the actress' brilliant wordplay and quick mind.
How did the bra debate between Lucas and Fisher end, then? As she reveals in "Wishful Drinking," Fisher used gaffer's tape underneath the dress to help give her some support while she was pretending to be in space (and operating under the normal rules of gravity, despite Lucas' argument). "I used to think there should have been a contest at the end of the day for who in the crew would get to help remove the tape," she quips in the book. "Well, I was just thinking of others. Even then, I was just giving, giving, giving."
Carrie Fisher was a fearless performer who never shied away from jokes about death
Even shortly before her death at the end of 2016, Carrie Fisher was blunt, hilarious, and forthcoming; when her memoir "The Princess Diarist" was released in November of that year, she used the opportunity to reveal that she and Harrison Ford had an affair when they worked on the original "Star Wars" trilogy together and effectively broke the news cycle with that revelation. Still, in a heartbreaking interview with Andy Greene at the Rolling Stone one month before her passing, Fisher gave an honest account of some of her greatest fears.
"No," Fisher said when Greene asked if she feared death. "I fear dying. Anything with pain associated with it, I don't like. I've been there for a couple of people when they were dying; it didn't look like fun. But if I was gonna do it, I'd want someone like me around. And I will be there!"
"I'm not going to enjoy dying, but there's not much prep for that," the actor continued. She was, as usual, right. In any case, no matter what else her obituaries say, fans of Fisher can remember her fondly, floating in moonlit space and done in by her bra.