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CNN

SHOW: CNN CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT 20:00

December 25, 2002 Wednesday

Transcript # 122500CN.V92

Interviews With Andrea Bocelli, Clive Davis, Rod Stewart, Kevin Kline, Carrie Fisher

GUESTS: Andrea Bocelli, Clive Davis, Rod Stewart, Kevin Kline, Carrie Fisher

Connie Chung  

<big snip>

CHUNG: Carrie Fisher was born to a showbiz family, but the world of Hollywood wasn't her only inheritance. She says she had a genetic predisposition toward manic depression.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHUNG (voice-over): Manic depression, stardom, drug addiction. To say Carrie Fisher has had her ups and downs is like saying the Earth is round. It all began well enough, born the daughter of celebrity couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

CARRIE FISHER, WRITER/ACTRESS: Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route.

CHUNG: By age 19, this child of Hollywood royalty was playing a princess in one of the most successful films of all time, and roles followed in the next two "Star Wars" sequels.

FISHER: I remained celibate for you.

CHUNG: But by the time Fisher made the 1980s movie "Blues Brothers," she was frequently drunk on the set, evidence of what would become a long-term struggle with alcohol and drugs.

She chronicled her problems in the autobiographical novel "Postcards from the Edge," the start of a rewarding literary career.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My drinking does not interfere with my work.

CHUNG: Fisher wrote the screenplay for the movie version, later taking great pains to point out the erratic mother depicted in the film was not completely based on her own mom.

She followed "Postcards" with "Surrender the Pink" based on her failed marriage to singer Paul Simon, and "Delusions of Grandma," based on her relationship with the father of her daughter.

But it was a literary effort by her father that caused more strife, his recent autobiography, "Been There, Done That."

Carrie Fisher called the book "nasty," and said it made her want to "fumigate her DNA." Genetics may explain what Fisher has come to realize as the root of her personal struggles, severe manic depression. Untreated for many years, Fisher now takes medication for the illness. That has allowed her to take occasional acting jobs, and continue her writing career. One of those writing projects, last year's "These Old Broads."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THESE OLD BROADS")

DEBBIE REYNOLDS, ACTRESS: I was perfectly capable of losing Freddy on my own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHUNG: The TV movie co-starred Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, the woman who broke up the Reynolds-Fisher marriage. In one of the many ironies in Carrie Fisher's life, she is now pals with Taylor, and doesn't speak to her father, Eddie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHUNG: And Carrie Fisher's latest appearance is right here, right now.

Thanks for being here with us.

FISHER: Thank you for having me.

CHUNG: Over the years, you have been so straightforward, nothing but the truth, honesty, your life is all out there for us to know about.

FISHER: Well, there were some lying years.

CHUNG: Oh, yes? OK.

FISHER: Yes. But I've recovered now.

CHUNG: All right. So you have said, and I think this is, obviously, a fascinating part for you to talk about, because most people keep it to themselves. You have said you are mentally ill.

FISHER: I have?

CHUNG: Yes.

FISHER: That must be so difficult for me sometimes. I know...

CHUNG: Is it curable?

FISHER: ... my -- no, it's not curable. They're coming up with an antibiotic for it soon, but -- no, my mother says...

CHUNG: That is a joke.

FISHER: Yes, it is a joke. My -- but it's manageable with medication, and so my mother says, Dear, you're not mentally ill, you're manic depressive. So, mentally ill...

CHUNG: Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.

FISHER: It does sound -- well, it does sound so dramatic, but it can be that way, so...

CHUNG: Is -- Debbie Reynolds, of course. Is manic depressive bipolar?

FISHER: It is.

CHUNG: What is this thing -- it's hypomania? Hypomania?

FISHER: Well, that is a lesser version of it.

CHUNG: And that is what you have?

FISHER: No, no. No, no. I have the -- I have the full shot, I'm proud to say. You know, when I get something, I want to get the whole thing, and I'm volleying for a bipolar pride day, and bipolar bars, which obviously would be open 24 hours.

CHUNG: Of course. Have you ever been to a bipolar restroom?

FISHER: You liar!

CHUNG: No? OK. I haven't.

FISHER: No, but I -- the parades. Don't you think they would be good...

CHUNG: Yes, yes.

FISHER: ...with sort of the depressive floats, with people on mattresses...

CHUNG: Yes. You are...

FISHER: ... staring off into nothing, frantic, maniac.

CHUNG: You are being sick.

FISHER: Well, we just established that I was sick.

CHUNG: Oh, did I say that? OK. We'll continue along these lines.

FISHER: Well, I joke about it.

CHUNG: Yes, I know you do.

FISHER: It is a -- if I didn't, then it would simply be something that was true.

CHUNG: But it is.

FISHER: It is. Absolutely.

CHUNG: OK. What I want to know, though, is you take medication?

FISHER: Yes, I do.

CHUNG: I had read six different types?

FISHER: Oh, God, I hope not. But, yes, it's probably that much.

CHUNG: All right. So, are you ever tempted to not take the medication?

FISHER: Oh, absolutely. Well, yes, because -- and it's also -- any, I think, illness of the mind, your mind will always tell you, you don't have it. So I will still say this is not possible.

CHUNG: Right.

FISHER: I'm, you know, as sane as -- well, not you, but, you know, some of your friends. So I still will think I don't have it. But also, because the manic side of it is so great, it's fantastic. So I would want that back again. It just -- there is a negative fallout. Also, I -- you know -- so, yes, I would want it back but I would not want to put my daughter through that because it's very chaotic.

CHUNG: Were you ever concerned -- I'll just ask you one more question about this. Do you mind? Is that OK?

FISHER: No.

CHUNG: All right. Were you concerned that you had passed it along to your daughter, because I believe there is a belief that it's genetic?

FISHER: Yes, there is a huge one. Yes. Well, I would have that concern, but she doesn't, you know, show -- my father, who is the one that has it, he has four children. I'm the one that got it. I got it for all of us.

CHUNG: Was he diagnosed? Was Eddie Fisher actually diagnosed with manic depression? But he claims he doesn't.

FISHER: I know. Like that is a bad -- that is the bad thing, not the alcoholism and the 75 marriages and the -- I mean, if you look at sort of the behavior, it's very kind of manic depressive. You cannot diagnose manic depression, though, if someone is not sober because active alcoholism and drug addiction looks like manic depression.

CHUNG: I see. And, actually, you suffered from both too?

FISHER: Yes. Absolutely.

CHUNG: Drugs, pills, snorting heroin, all of that, whole nine yards, LSD, right? OK, we're done with that subject.

FISHER: But it was so fun.

CHUNG: I want to talk about this program that you do on Oxygen. You're doing what I'm doing for a living. You're interviewing people.

FISHER: And I've always said that that is one of the signs that the world is ending when two talk show hosts interview each other.

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: Right.

FISHER: But I don't consider myself a talk show host particularly.

CHUNG: OK. And I'm not either, so there you go.

FISHER: Well, then the world is going to go on and on forever.

CHUNG: Absolutely.

FISHER: We can relax.

CHUNG: I want to show a little clip of you interviewing Robin Williams.

FISHER: Oh, no.

CHUNG: Yes.

FISHER: OK, but I don't have to look, do I?

CHUNG: Yes, you do. Look at this. Look at it.

FISHER: Oh, no. No, I can't.

CHUNG: Carrie...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: The weirdest woman in the world, not really, talked about sex.

ROBIN WILLIAMS, COMEDIAN: We will be right back.

FISHER: She's so normal, though.

WILLIAMS: In many ways.

FISHER: My mother tells my daughter, the good night story. My daughter told it the other night. She said, you know, we used to have a beach house and a Palm Springs house, but my second husband lost both of them. I don't care about the Palm Springs house, but I miss the beach house. Garry Marshall has it. This is to my nine-year- old daughter. That is a good night story.

WILLIAMS: You know, most kids get, good night moon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHUNG: Hey, hey, you know what? When you interview someone, you're supposed to let them talk. No, you're not supposed to talk.

FISHER: You only took a part of it out. He...

CHUNG: I will just blast through the whole thing!

FISHER: How could Robin Williams not talk? Have you ever tried to...

CHUNG: No, no, no. Right.

FISHER: Believe me, you took out the one thing that I said.

CHUNG: Are you sure?

FISHER: I swear. Are we going to go on with me then? This is an intervention, isn't it? I'm in trouble with the talk show, like hierarchy. Oh, no!

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: All right. We will go to another subject. Are you writing another book?

FISHER: I am. I'm almost done, I think.

CHUNG: And what is it, fiction?

FISHER: Who knows with me. Do we ever know? It's faction.

(CROSSTALK)

CHUNG: Faction. That means there is a little bit of truth.

FISHER: It means there is probably more than a little bit of truth.

CHUNG: A whole lot of truth?

FISHER: Yes.

CHUNG: Like "Postcards From the Edge?"

FISHER: I'm -- it's sort of the sequel to that one, I'm afraid.

CHUNG: Really, about the second stage in your life?

FISHER: Is that the one I'm in?

CHUNG: I think so.

FISHER: Is the -- only the second one? It seems there has been so many.

CHUNG: Well, no, you're kind of in your...

FISHER: I'm exhausted. You can say it. It's fine.

CHUNG: I think almost 45, 44.

FISHER: Almost -- I'm 45. No, it's called "The Best Awful There Is."

CHUNG: That is the name of the book?

FISHER: I think so.

CHUNG: "The Best Awful There Is?"

FISHER: Mm-hmm. There you go.

CHUNG: That would be OK.

FISHER: It depends on your slant.

CHUNG: Of awful?

FISHER: That's right. And that day.

CHUNG: All right. When is it going to be published?

FISHER: In the winter.

CHUNG: OK, great.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHUNG: She's cool.

Stay with us for a quick word about tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHUNG: Tomorrow: Pete Sampras, Magic Johnson, Martina Navratilova and more. It's going to be fun. Join us.

"LARRY KING LIVE" is next.

Thank you so much for joining us. And for all of us at CNN, hope you had a great Christmas. Hope you have a great Christmas tonight. And we'll see you tomorrow night.