Irish comedian and actress Sharon Horgan has penned a warm and funny tribute to the late Carrie Fisher who she described as "a loyal friend, a wit..a lunatic, a legend".
Fisher played the role of Horgan's mother in law in the award winning sit-com, Catastrophe, which she co-wrote with Rob Delaney.
Writing in Tuesday's Guardian, she described the late actress in glowing terms and spoke of her warmth and humour but admitted that it was "hard to write a love letter to someone who was allergic to bullshit".
The 60-year-old Star Wars icon passed away last week following a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles on December 23.
Fisher’s last acting gig was while filming season three of Catastrophe where she reprised her recurring role as Rob’s mother. Horgan recently published a picture of the two of them together on Instagram which was taken during filming.
Horgan today revealed that the night before she got her flight back to Los Angeles, the pair had dinner together along with Fisher's long-term friend, the author Salman Rushdie.
She admitted she tried to get out of the dinner as she was hungover after the wrap party, but was so thankful that Fisher managed to change her mind.
"I tried to cry off and she reminded me that she had dragged her ass all the way out to Hackney to see me the week before and I should return the favour. So I did. Thank the dark lord, I did.
Horgan wrote warmly about the late actress whom she said was "no ordinary celebrity"
She was, she said, Mickey Mouse. Everybody owned a piece, or felt they had the right to a piece. But the beautiful truth about Carrie is that she was genuine. She knew her talents, she knew her cultural importance, but she was humble, too. She didn’t have to feign her modesty. Her modesty and insecurity were part of her makeup. She was so real that it was almost dangerous.
Actually, it was dangerous. Because she didn’t play the game. She said what she thought and, in an industry where that’s not always welcome, it sometimes came back to bite her. But she couldn’t help herself. She had very little filter.
In her tribute today, Horgan praised Fisher for exposing the way the film industry treats women and said fellow actresses "owe her a lot".
"Not many women of her generation called out the double standards of the film industry the way she did. And how it treats women of a certain age. She knew that a man in her position wouldn’t have got the flak that she got. And he didn’t. She knew that she had to keep mouthing off about it. And she did it with great wit.", wrote Horgan.
She finished by saying: "I want everyone to remember her and all the great things she was. A wonderful writer, a fine actress, a great mother, a caring daughter, a loyal friend, a wit, a prolific present giver, a lunatic, a legend.
