美国国家公共电台 NPR Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia Of Star Wars Fame, Dies At 60

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: 

Carrie Fisher died this morning at the age of 60. She had suffered a heart attack Friday while she was onboard a flight from London to Los Angeles. Fisher was an actress and a writer. She was best known by far for her role as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" movies.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE")

CARRIE FISHER: (As Princess Leia Organa) 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 retrieve¹ 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.

SIEGEL: NPR's Andrew Limbong has this appreciation².

ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE³: Carrie Fisher was 19 when she played Princess Leia Organa in the first "Star Wars" movie, playing a woman who just witnessed her entire planet disappear and still has to manage the guys who show up ostensibly to rescue her.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE")

FISHER: (As Princess Leia Organa) I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on you do as I tell you, OK?

LIMBONG: It was here when Fisher started keeping a diary, the stuff that would later become her recent memoir⁴, "The Princess Diarist." Earlier this year, she told WHYY'S Fresh Air that she kept a log partly because she was one of the only women on set.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FISHER: I think I sort of felt isolated⁵. You know, I didn't really have anyone - I didn't confide⁶ in men. Well, I didn't confide in anyone.

LIMBONG: From there, she and Princess Leia were forever tied. From a certain slant⁷, that could be tragic⁸. But after some time, she found humor in her devoted⁹ fan base. This is from her one-woman Broadway show turned 2010 HBO special called "Wishful Drinking."

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "WISHFUL DRINKING")

FISHER: And the guy behind the counter goes, aren't you? Yeah. He said, I thought about you every day from when I was 12 to when I was 22. And I said, every day?

(LAUGHTER)

FISHER: And he said, well, four times a day.

(LAUGHTER)

FISHER: What am I supposed to say, thank you?

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBONG: Carrie Fisher was born in 1956 to two huge stars, the singer Eddie Fisher and the award-winning actress Debbie Reynolds. Being born to two famous people who ended up famously divorcing, again, could be tragic. But time passes and it becomes funny.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "WISHFUL DRINKING")

FISHER: I grew up - I grew up knowing that I had the prettiest mother of anyone in my class. But, you know, my mom, she's also - she's a little bit eccentric. I mean, she does - she has a lot of unique ideas. For example, she thought that I should have a child with her last husband, Richard, because it would have nice eyes.

(LAUGHTER)

FISHER: I should probably explain this you before you think it's weird¹⁰.

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBONG: After "Return Of The Jedi," she started writing books, beginning with the semi-autobiographical "Postcards From The Edge," which is about a movie actress who works to overcome her drug addiction¹¹. Fisher had a problem with drug abuse and was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder¹². She wrote the screenplay to the movie version of "Postcards," which came out in 1990, starring Meryl Streep.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE")

MERYL STREEP: (As Suzanne Vale) So what am I supposed to do? Go to a halfway¹³ house for wayward SAG¹⁴ members or something?

LIMBONG: Carrie Fisher was out and open about her issues with drugs and alcohol and mental illness and treatment. She told WHYY's Fresh Air that getting all of this out there and speaking about the baggage was a way for her to understand herself.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FISHER: It creates community when you talk about private things and you can find other people that have the same things. Otherwise, I don't know, I felt very lonely with some of the issues that I had or history that I had. And when I shared about it, I found that others had it, too.

LIMBONG: Sharing for Carrie Fisher was a way to look at life's difficulties and figure things might be OK. Andrew Limbong, NPR News.

1 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

2 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 confide   

v.向某人吐露秘密

参考例句：

• I would never readily confide in anybody.我从不轻易向人吐露秘密。
• He is going to confide the secrets of his heart to us.他将向我们吐露他心里的秘密。

7 slant   

v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向

参考例句：

• The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
• The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。

8 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

9 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

10 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

11 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

12 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

13 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

14 sag   

v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流

参考例句：

• The shelf was beginning to sag beneath the weight of the books upon it.书架在书的重压下渐渐下弯。
• We need to do something about the sag.我们须把下沉的地方修整一下。