Lunch Break Video: Birthday girl Carrie Fisher talks to TheaterMania about “Wishful Drinking”

As she turns 53 today, author-actress Carrie Fisher is in a good place in her often turbulent life.

The daughter of the wonderful Debbie Reynolds and deadbeat Eddie Fisher recently opened her terrific one-woman show Wishful Drinking on Broadway. I saw it at The Geffen sometime back and had a great time.

It’s an autobiographical show about Carrie’s life as a child of Hollywood, instant stardom in the Star Wars trilogy, marriage to Paul Simon, and struggles with drugs and mental illness.

“There’s a saying that you’re only as sick as your secrets so in that case I’m very healthy,” Carrie says in this interview with TheaterMania.

She’s busy off-stage too. Carrie is working on a book with stories from various movie sets she’s been on. Her film credits also include Shampoo, When Harry Met Sally, The Blues Brothers, Hannah and her Sisters, Soapdish and the recent remake of The Women.

Her last fiction book The Best Awfiul – a sequel to Postcards from the Edge – is being developed for Lifetime with Meg Ryan in the Meryl Streep role which is loosely based on Carrie.

She says in this interview that she does want to write about something other than being a drug addict and mentally ill!

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