5 Reveals From Carrie Fisher- Debbie Reynolds Documentary

'Bright Lights' hits an emotional nerve
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 8, 2017 4:58 PM CST
5 Reveals From Carrie Fisher- Debbie Reynolds Documentary
This image released by HBO shows Carrie Fisher, left, and her mother Debbie Reynolds from the HBO documentary, "Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds," premiering Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.   (HBO via AP)

HBO's Carrie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds documentary premiered Saturday; People and Vanity Fair list some of the biggest reveals and emotional moments from Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds:

  • Their bond was incredibly close and complicated. Says Fisher at one point in the documentary, "I’m trying to let go. I should be trying to let go of my daughter, and instead, I’m trying to let go of my mom. So everything is backwards."
  • Fisher disappointed her mom in one big way. Reynolds really wanted her to be a singer: "The biggest thing that broke my mother’s heart was to not do a nightclub act," Fisher says in the film. "My mother would say, ‘Do drugs—do whatever you do—but why don’t you sing?’ That was my big rebellion."

  • Mother and daughter struggled with Fisher's mental health challenges. "Manic depressive is a disease," says a teary Reynolds in the film. "Now that wasn’t diagnosed then, so nobody knew what was going on with Carrie. When she was 13, her personality changed. So it’s a constant battle—it takes all of us to assure her that she’s loved. It’s hard. It’s hard. That’s the hardest part."
  • Fisher struggled with Reynolds' failing health. Vanity Fair says Reynolds is most vulnerable in the film while discussing Fisher's mental health, and Fisher is most vulnerable when discussing the physical ailments her aging mother had been struggling with.
  • They both joked prophetically about the future. At multiple points, both Fisher and Reynolds talk about their eventual deaths. VF points to one moment in particular, when Fisher and brother Todd ask her if she'll be up for another lifetime achievement award (much of the film centers around her award from the Screen Actor's Guild) someday in the future. Reynolds' response: "I won't be here then."
(Fisher's urn is apparently shaped like a giant Prozac pill.)

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