TIL: Carrie Fisher Was A Brilliant Script Doctor For Films Like ‘Hook’ And ‘The Wedding Singer’
Today I learned that Carrie Fisher is responsible for mending some iconic scripts.
When mentioning Carrie Fisher, the first thought that comes to mind is her iconic role in “Star Wars” as Princess Leia. While particularly difficult to escape that spotlight, she’s also known as a script doctor for many notable films. In the 1990s she was brought in to fix films such as “Hook,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Sister Act,” and “Lethal Weapon 3.” While not officially credited for her work, in 1992 Entertainment Weekly referred to her as “one of the most sought after doctors in town.”
Fisher has been a bit humble about her influence on some of these projects. When her lack of credit comes into question, it could be due to her own reservations about being credited on certain films. It is even said (unofficially) that she contributed to the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Claims were that she was originally slated to be writing the script at first rather than serving as a script doctor.
While she was proven to have a talent for her penmanship, those days have come and gone. The industry has changed quite a bit and script doctoring isn’t a lucrative field like it used to be. In 2008, Carrie Fisher told Newsweek that it is now considered “free work” and referred to the process as “life-wasting events.”
“I haven’t done it for a few years. I did it for many years, and then younger people came to do it and I started to do new things. It was a long, very lucrative episode of my life. But it’s complicated to do that. Now it’s all changed, actually. Now in order to get a rewrite job, you have to submit your notes for your ideas on how to fix the script. So they can get all the notes from all the different writers, keep the notes and not hire you. That’s free work and that’s what I always call life-wasting events.”
Princess Leia may be one of the most iconic women characters on the big screen, but Carrie Fisher is so much more. As an accomplished actress and author, it’s no surprise that her talents were sought after outside of “Star Wars.”
Tell us your thoughts on Carrie Fisher’s accomplishments in the comments below!
This was first reported by The Mary Sue
