Thursday 31 December 2015

Carrie Fisher Leads an Older, Wiser Revolution

The older woman has had a stellar year in 2016—from Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda in Grace and Frankie to Carrie Fisher show-stealing the Star Wars premiere.
Carrie Fisher solidified her status as a national treasure when she took a light saber to the unfortunate baboons with internet access who somehow thought the most worthwhile criticism of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was related to General Leia’s physique.
On Twitter yesterday, Fisher politely and firmly blasted the sad people who have nothing better to do with their time than mock a woman’s body.
Fisher racked up further internet ass-kicking points when she responded to lovely civilians, like @TomRoberts983a (whose Twitter photo is of a man in a cowboy hat flipping off the camera and a bio that states “Hater extraordinaire. I’d rather be sleeping. Hypocrites can fuck off. I don’t follow back so don’t bother.”).
While he tweeted at her “you want the money & adulation that comes with being a famous actor but not the criticism. Whoever told you life was fair?,” Fisher swiftly responded, “Youth&BeautyR/NOT ACCOMPLISHMENTS,theyre theTEMPORARY happy/BiProducts/of Time&/or DNA.”
Normally, ignoring the trolls and taking the (relative) high road on Twitter is the way to go, especially for celebrities.
But Fisher has refined the art of being a badass truth-teller who gives zero fucks, a fact she has made abundantly clear through the Star Wars press junket.
When Fisher did an interview with Amy Robach for ABC’s Good Morning America, she swatted away the thinly-veiled questions about her weight loss (her “transformation” as Robach referred to it) for Star Wars.
“I think it’s a stupid conversation,” Fisher said dismissively, then added, “but you’re so thin, so let’s talk about it.” She turned the questioning on Robach. “How do you keep that going on? Do you exercise every day?… Isn’t it boring?
When Fisher was asked if George Lucas needed to convince her to reprise her performance as Leia, her answer was strong, classic, and packed a punch, the verbal equivalent of Scotch on the rocks.
No, I’m a female in Hollywood over the age of, let’s say, 40. We could also say 50… we could say it but not with real conviction or excitement,” Fisher said. More prescient than ominous, she told Robach, “You’ll see someday.”
With decades of acting, writing, and dealing with the press, Fisher is an expert at demolishing superficiality in the most entertaining way possible—and she had several sisters-in-arms this year.
From entertainment to politics, 2015 was the year that women of a certain age proved they were simply the best at kicking ass and taking names.
At 78 and 76, respectively, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin killed it in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie. They both starred in the sitcom—about two women whose lives are upended when their husbands of 40 years come out and announce they plan to marry each other—and served as executive producers.
“When women pass 50, in some ways, their lives get better,” Fonda told the New York Times. “It’s like: Who cares? What do we have to lose to not be brave? We’re not in the marketplace anymore for guys. Our children are grown. So go for it. I wanted to do a series about that.”
Tomlin nabbed an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for her performance, in addition to the one she earned her for her widely praised role in Grandma as a lesbian grandmother who helps her granddaughter get money for her abortion.

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