Carrie Fisher's brutally honest take on being an older actress in Hollywood

'There are not a lot of choices for women past 27. I don’t wait by the phone'

Carrie Fisher will be immortalised and beloved for Princess Leia, that's without a doubt.

Yet, there will be many who will also choose to remember her slightly differently; not as Princess, but as the General who stepped out in last year's return to the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens.

It was an important moment for older actresses in Hollywood, to see a woman return to her most iconic role further down the line in a manner which actually allowed her the grace of aging normally, when those roles are so rarely offered in the first place.

Indeed, Fisher once noted: "There are not a lot of choices for women past 27. I don’t wait by the phone."

The vital need for that kind of representation is evident even from the vitriolic reaction some small corners of the internet had to her return, their intent on body-shaming the actress (and not co-star Harrison Ford) leading her to hit back in her usual bright and hilarious manner.

"Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well," she wrote on Twitter. "Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us." Followed by, "Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’re the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either."

Indeed, Fisher always held such a level-headed attitude when it came to the superficiality of beauty in Hollywood, once stating in response to body-shaming: "I swear when I was shooting those films I never realized I was signing an invisible contract to stay looking the exact same way for the rest of my existence."

"We treat beauty like an accomplishment, and that is insane. Everyone in LA says, 'Oh you look good,' and you listen for them to say you’ve lost weight. It’s never 'How are you?' or 'You seem happy!'" she told Good Housekeeping.

However, in that same interview, Fisher discussed the way that even her return to Star Wars didn't go entirely untouched by Hollywood pressures, with the actress being asked to lose more than 35lb for the role of General Leia; which, thankfully, wasn't something she kept quiet on.

"They don’t want to hire all of me – only about three-quarters!" she joked. "Nothing changes: it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is."

Carrie Fisher passed away at the age of 60; a woman who will always be remembered for the way her onscreen roles, and offscreen wisdom, continue to inspire women everywhere.