Princess Leia was snorting cocaine during the ‘Empire Strikes Back’
The Princess Leia actress, now 53, said her life had been defined by addiction, with stints in psychiatric hospitals and rehab clinics – even accident and emergency with an overdose.
“We did cocaine on the set of ‘Empire’, in the ice planet,” Fisher told Australian newswire AAP, referring to the setting of the second film in the original Star Wars trilogy.
“I didn’t even like coke that much, it was just a case of getting on whatever train I needed to take to get high,” she said while visiting Sydney for her “Wishful Drinking” stand-up comedy show.
Now a writer and comedienne, Fisher’s role as Princess Leia in the 1977-1983 Star Wars saga was by far her most famous.
The Blues Brothers co-star John Belushi warned her that she had a problem prior to his own death from a drug overdose in 1982, and Fisher said she ultimately came to realise how dangerous her habits were.
“Slowly I realised I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter,” she said. “If I’d been addicted to booze I’d be dead now, because you just go out and get it.”
Fisher was born into Hollywood – her mother, musical starlet Debbie Reynolds, was married to veteran crooner Eddie Fisher. Fisher, who died last month, left the family for Elizabeth Taylor when Carrie Fisher was just two.
She said she did not blame her broken family or the pressures of celebrity for her addictions.
“It’s always been my responsibility,” she said. “If it was Hollywood (to blame), then we’d all be dope addicts.”
