Carrie Fisher on what happens to faces over time
The seventh Star Wars film is due to be released in two months, and I’m starting to see a lot of hype about it.
Seven is an awful lot of Star Wars. Way too much for me. I’ve never been a fan, which apparently makes me un-American or something. But I put in my time like everyone else when my son was little. I think I saw the first three, and then got my Get Out of Star Wars Free card. It stuns me to think how much time has passed since then.
Speaking of time, it must be hard to be Carrie Fisher. Or at least, a little bit hard. After all, there’s nothing like being in a huge blockbuster film when young, which is probably the most well-known thing you ever did, and then to get older in the public eye with your youthful countenance and body emblazoned on so many posters and other memorabilia to remind you and everybody else of what once was. Your aging face can’t quite compare—despite having had some “work” done, and despite the fact that you were never known as a great great beauty in the first place.
I know, the money and fame is probably compensation enough or more than enough. But still, those constant reminders could be tough. However, Fisher apparently finally figured “whatever; I’ll do a sequel and cash in on the power of the Star Wars franchise.”
A year or so ago Fisher was speaking of her reunion with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford to make the new movie. She was pretty funny about it, too:
While talking at the Hay Festival in Wales, she admitted that, 31 years after they all worked together on Return Of The Jedi : “We all look a little melted. It’s good to see other melted people.”
When I was young, I thought that wrinkles were the main facial effect of getting older. And they certainly are part of it, for some people the most noticeable part of it. But another part of it is that “melting” of which Fisher speaks, the loss of contour at the edges of the face. Young people usually have sharp definition, particularly of chin and what are later known as “jowls.” Older people start getting blurry, and either puffed or haggard.
But really, these three all look pretty darn good. I don’t see a whole lot of melting. Particularly Ford, IMHO, who’s 73, whereas Fisher is a relative child of 58 and Hamill squeezes in between them at 64:
Speaking of melting, and of Hollywood:
It must be hard for a woman, whose only means of earning a living was a photogenic face, to watch old age take that away from her.
She actually looks quite good! As a woman-in-her-40s, it is hard to look in the mirror and wish for certain things to disappear, such as bags under the eyes, wrinkles, etc. I never believed I was much to look at in my younger day, but realize now I was horridly blind. I was pretty cute! Wish I’d realized that a lot earlier.
It doesn’t help any that women’s skin is softer and thinner than men’s, so the affects of aging are apparent earlier in life. And we are more vain than men! Seems unfair.
Hoping that in the near future there are easier ‘helps’ for the aging face. I would not want to go ‘under the knife’ for something so silly. But yet I wish for more youthfulness as long as possible. Sigh…
snopercod:
Well, Fisher’s done a lot of other things, including writing some books that were pretty popular.
There also was an interlude of being married to Paul Simon.
I’m 59 and I think Carrie looks just fine, Hamill looks great (for 64) and Harrison Ford looks and acts like the really fun guy that he is. Aging is attitude UNLESS some kind of debilitating disease takes over you body and changes your smile. Anyone at these ages that enjoys good health has every reason to be happy. Wrinkles, male or female, are mere markers of Life, well lived.
After this we get to the point that just waking up is the success, and the memories wrought by the wrinkles are all we have.
mike in ga:
I think they all look good.
I thought she looked great in ’77, and now as well.
Fisher is still pretty. All of them have aged well.
Star Wars has had perhaps too great an influence on science fiction and fantasy genres. I don’t know how, but Star Trek and Star Wars are the biggest fandoms when it comes to the topic of science fiction. But for some reason, SF and fantasy have diverted from each other. They used to be genres very closely related and authors could go from one or the other, using hybrid setups. Now, not so much.
Reading the modern Japanese science fiction novels, I can easily tell the vast gap in development differences, where the Japanese hybridized and melted various sub genres together into science fiction fantasy, vs the American market which has fell into the decadent practice of dividing science fiction and fantasy, in order to market to mainstream audiences, over niche ones.
Lucas, a vile and revolting figure who Dante would have buried headdown in a flaming dung heap, has been busy ruining Star Wars for decades.
The best takedown of how disgusting Lucas is has been done on one of the finest extended reviews every…. it takes awhile but it is well worth it not only for the insights into the disasters of Lucas’ Star Wars follow ups but for other “elements” in the video review itself. The key link is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)
“Star Wars, the Phantom Menace is the most disappointing thing since my son….”
But go on from there.
That photo of Ford, Fisher, and Hamill is from 2005, when Fisher was a mere kid of 48. Here’s a more recent photo of her.
Egad! In Ann’s photo she looks like Caitlynn Jenner!
G Lucas had funding constraints back when he helped make 3-6, because the producers and accountants put a solid limit on his “creative” energies and forced people to use better methods.
When funding becomes near unlimited, just watch what these “creative geniuses” do then.
The funny thing about the 1-3 movies is that when Palpatine got up to the Senate and was rewarded with unceasing applause, I got the feeling that Lucas and other Democrat Hollywood corrupts, thought that Palpatine was like a Republican war leader or something.
But to me, it just reminded me of how the Leftist alliance projects, that they themselves would Applaud Unceasingly if a Leftist tyrant took power. Which they did in 2008, but that’s cutting short to the end.
I remember watching that review Vander linked. It was pretty funny back then, hasn’t changed now.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6154327-the-lord-of-the-sands-of-time
Sorry, forgot about linking this.
One of the books I was reading when comparing it against Western science fiction.
Can be bought on half.com subsidiary of ebay, for about 1$+4$ shipping.
Cheaper than some ebooks on amazon now a days (they submitted to the Big publishers in raising ebook prices). Gorelick’s on Amazon board? Probably helped then.
Perhaps this explains the apple? (Until now, I had assumed admiration of Magritte was the motive)
Just went to my 65th high school reunion last month. Talk about melted faces! (That is a pretty apt phrase.) Well, appearances seem to count for much less when you’re in your 80s. 🙂
Harrison Ford is looking pretty good even ten years later than the photo above. Here’s a more recent photo of him:
http://tinyurl.com/qd7s7f9
Of course, he needs to keep up his appearances with a young wife like Calista on his arm.
As an old codger I’m glad to see that there are still opportunities for those of a certain age to appear in movies. Hurray for the Geritol set!
Poor Margaret Hamilton, “She suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland, in which the trap door’s drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit…” wiki
It’s a bi$#@h being a witch:
“Hamilton’s stand-in and stunt double for the Witch, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident on February 11, 1939. Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. She was severely burned during the “Surrender Dorothy!” skywriting sequence at the Emerald City. Danko sat on a smoking pipe configured to look like the Witch’s broomstick. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. ”
And they dang near killed Buddy Ebsen, too.
“Ebsen recorded all his songs as Tin Man, went through all the rehearsals, and started filming. However, he soon began experiencing cramps and shortness of breath, eventually leading to hospitalization. Doctors determined that Ebsen was suffering an allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used in the Tin Man makeup; he was forced to leave the production for health reasons.”
BTW, they changed the make up entirely after Buddy’s distress.
Of course Mark Hamill now looks totally different because he was in a very bad accident between New Hope and Empire, they had to write in a mauling by an animal to account for his changed look.
I think Carrie is still beautiful, but in a different, older way in the picture Ann linked. In Neo’s older photo, I hate her lips. I really dislike the lip work that so many celebrity women get, even in their youth. When did fish lips become attractive?
Ah the infamous Trout Pout. I can’t stand it either.
Carrie is actually quite witty when you get her on the right subject: “Postcards from the Edge” (semi-autobio) was wicked funny.
Alas, she’s also a lefty loon. 🙁 But I put that out of my mind when watching popcorn movies.
If Mark Hamil has a good face at his age, thank his plastic surgeon: He experienced a disfiguring car crash in 1976, shortly before finishing Star Wars (IMDB) or On January 11, 1977, one day before he was set to shoot one of the needed scenes in Star Wars, Hamill was in a car accident in which he fractured his nose and left cheekbone, requiring seven hours of surgery. (Wikipedia)
They could have used Hamilton’s accident if they had him fall face first from that movie scene against Vader. But that depended on what scene they were still missing.
In the “what went wrong with Star Wars I” vid, there was some behind the scenes look at Lucas and his crew. Vander’s link also posted a few clips of that vid for reference material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxf1c3fzDOU
THe key moment for me is when Lucas Arts said he was both Creative Director and Producer, that he wore both hats.
Heh, as with Star Citizen, that’s like a fatality waiting to happen.
There is probably a psychological profile which accurately describes people capable of sitting through more than 10 minutes of that crap; but what it is I have no idea. I doubt it has anything fundamental to do with being an American.
I’d rather listen to a diesel semi, idle outside my bedroom window all night than sit through a Star Wars episode. Well, pretty near …
Harrison Ford did make a good movie once. Unfortunately, since it was directed by one of filmdom’s greatest moral reprobates, viewing it, as with Woody Allen flicks, may present one with some moral qualms.
DNW:
What’s the good movie he made?
I think that “Witness” was a very good movie, and that Ford was excellent in it. But I haven’t ever heard anything bad about the director.
” neo-neocon Says:
October 20th, 2015 at 1:07 pm
DNW:
What’s the good movie he made?
I think that “Witness” was a very good movie, and that Ford was excellent in it. But I haven’t ever heard anything bad about the director.”
Oh yeah I remember that too. My steady at the time liked it quite a bit as well. At least I didn’t have to humor her on that one; it was good.
This is the one I am referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKRSA40CGfo
What I LOVED about the 1st SW was the romantic outlook – good and evil were so well represented without shades of gray. It remains one of my all time faves.
Beverly – I shall add her book to my list.
Yikes. Sorry, but really, but Carrie’s lips just ruin it.