‘SHE’D WANT US TO BE LAUGHING’

“Something about Carrie that I really look up to and something I didn’t realize until recently was just how much courage it takes to truly be yourself when you are on a public platform, or when possibly a lot of people will be looking at you. She was so unapologetic and so openly herself and it’s something

I’m really trying to do, and it’s hard. I think she will always be an icon as Leia and as Carrie. What an example. I’m so fortunate to have met her and I think she will really live on forever.” “I guess we should be grateful that we had her as long as we did. This I do know: She’d want us to be laughing and having fun. She wouldn’t want us to be morose or depressed in any way. She was this Auntie Mame character who lived every day like it was the last.” “Carrie passed away while we were in post-production, so we had shot her complete performance and put it all together. After we came back from New Year’s, we sat down in the edit room and just watched through all her scenes. It’s inevitable that there’s a whole other layer on top of all of them now. But her performance is a really beautiful one. Even though it wasn’t engineered to be a farewell performance, I think for whatever reason there ended up being just moments and scenes that I think are going to mean a lot to fans.” Watching the film for the first time “we were all crying and it’s emotional, partly because her performance was so beautiful and so full of Carrie and Leia and the wisdom of this iconic (character). Look at the power in her eyes. She’s a true female heroine. So it was very emotional. We really were all together through the course of a long production: hanging out, working out, at rehearsals, at the ping-pong table. It was a beautiful group of comrades and she was a leader in it, with her magnificent daughter and her dogs and her fearlessness in her own skin. It’s rare that people are willing to truly be who they are and she is forever a reminder of how essential that is.”