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Carrie Fisher Helped Write Half Of The Movies You Saw In The 1990s
Lucasfilm
You might recognize Carrie Fisher in one of her many varied bit roles, such as the nun in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the therapist in Austin Powers, or Phoebe Cates' best friend in Drop Dead Fred. If you're into celebrity gossip, you probably know about her brief marriage with Paul Simon. She's pretty accomplished off the screen as well, having written a novel and an autobiography. But she's perhaps best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, and honestly if you didn't know that, you're either 85 years old or you grew up in a bomb shelter.
Lucasfilm
"I- uh- need to go back to the shelter to ... check on something."
But long after she played our favorite member of space royalty, Fisher was hard at work rewriting the scripts for dozens of big movies, including Hook, Lethal Weapon 3, and yes, the Star Wars prequels.
Wait, What?
"Bullshit!" we hear you declare. "I don't see her name anywhere in the screenwriting credits of Lethal Weapon 3, a list of names I committed to memory long ago!"
Warner Bros.
"Besides, the real unsung hero was uncredited oboe soloist Tom Boyd!"
The thing is, unlike novels and that weird webcomic your cousin publishes on DeviantArt, screenplays are rarely written by a single person. While only one or two people may get credit for it in the film's final list of credits, uncredited (but well-paid) script doctors are routinely brought in to punch up dialogue, resolve plot holes, and sometimes rewrite entire swaths of the story. It's sort of like when your less-literate friends ask you to help them with their cover letters.
Fisher was one of Hollywood's top script doctors for 15 years. Some of her more famous movies include the aforementioned Hook, Sister Act, Last Action Hero, The Wedding Singer, Coyote Ugly and Scream 3. And yet, not even she could save the inexplicable dialogue that came spilling out of people's heads in the Star Wars prequels.
Lucasfilm
"I don't like this dialogue. It's course and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere."
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