Carrie Fisher's urn is a giant Prozac pill
The Washington Post
January 8, 2017 17:04 MYT
January 8, 2017 17:04 MYT
Carrie Fisher never minced words about her bipolar disorder and her problems with drugs and alcohol.
She had openly described herself as manic depressive, never shying away from talking about her fight against her mental illness. "Bring it on," she said in a 2000 ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer.
It would seem fitting, then, that as a tribute to the iconic Star Wars princess' equally memorable wit and blunt humor, her ashes were placed in one of her most prized possessions: an urn in the shape of a giant antidepressant pill.
Pictures from the funeral in Los Angeles Friday show Fisher's younger brother, Todd, carrying a white and green Prozac pill-shaped urn. Todd Fisher told BBC News that he and Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher's daughter, "felt it was where she would want to be."
"Well, Carrie's favorite possession was a giant Prozac pill that she bought many years ago and she loved it. It was in her house," Todd Fisher told BBC News after the funeral. "We couldn't find anything appropriate. Carrie would like that. It was her favorite thing, so that's how you do it."
Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, were buried together at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. The once-estranged mother and daughter, who reconnected in recent years, died within a day of each other.
The 60-year-old star, who rose to fame as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" film series, died on Dec. 27 after suffering a heart attack days earlier while on a plane. Her 84-year-old mother died of a stroke the following day.
A few days later, Fisher's daughter took to Instagram to pay tribute to her mother and grandmother.
"Receiving all of your prayers and kind words over the past week has given me strength during a time I thought strength could not exist. There are no words to express how much I will miss my Abadaba and my one and only Momby. Your love and support means the world to me," Lourd captioned in a photo of her with Fisher and Reynolds.
Fisher, a longtime mental health advocate, was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was in her mid-20s. The daughter of two Hollywood stars - a singer-dancer-actress who starred in the classic 1952 musical "Singin' in the Rain" and a 1950s pop singing sensation - didn't accept the diagnosis until a few years later.
Her indulgence with drugs reached its peak in the 1980s, when she went to a rehab and a mental hospital. It was also around that time that a doctor pumped her stomach during a near-fatal overdose.
"I am mentally ill. I can say that. I am not ashamed of that," Fisher said on ABC News.
Over the years, Fisher used humor to cope with her illness. When WebMD asked her what it was like to be the poster child for bipolar disorder, she said, "Well, I am hoping to get the centerfold in Psychology Today."
"That's my way of surviving, to abstract it into something that's funny and not dangerous," she told People. "It is not an entertainment. I'm not going to stop writing about it, but I have to understand it."
After the funeral, many took to Twitter to express their appreciation of the humor behind the Prozac urn.
"I can't be positive, but I think Carrie Fisher had an urn made that looks like a prozac pill which is god damn genius of her," New York City-based pop culture and comedy writer Cher Martinetti said.
"She wins all funerals, forever," PJ Gallagher, a comedian from Ireland tweeted.
"Witty til the end," Borys Kit, writer for the Hollywood Reporter, said.
"Carrie Fisher, delightful to the literal end," Kate Arthur, a BuzzFeed Los Angeles correspondent, wrote.