The one thing Cary Grant and Carrie Fisher had in common: “Other than the acid”
Carrie Fisher was born into Hollywood as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, allowing her to make her film debut with the movie Shampoo in 1975 when she was just a teenager. Just two years later, she was thrust into the biggest role of her career, Princess Leia in Star Wars, quickly rising from unknown to iconic status.
She was only 19 years old when she played the recognisable character alongside Harrison Ford and a host of other stars, with the film becoming one of the most groundbreaking blockbusters of all time. Star Wars changed the industry – the question of whether this was for better or for worse is another story – and Fisher soon proved that acting was clearly in her blood.
Despite her talents, Fisher wasn’t so different from other young people, finding herself drawn to acid, which her mother was not too pleased with. Worried that her daughter would turn into a drug addict, Reynolds came up with a solution that then separated her from the rest of her LSD-taking peers – she was going to speak to an iconic Hollywood star who had famously experimented with acid himself.
Reynolds set up a meeting between her daughter and Cary Grant, although the similarly-named pair soon bonded about something completely different; rather, someone. Fisher had just filmed the terrible Under the Rainbow, which co-starred Saturday Night Live alumni Chevy Chase, whom she was not a fan of. In her book, Wishful Drinking, Fisher revealed that they got on “somewhat less than a house on fire.”
Chase has quite a reputation in the industry for being difficult and rude, so it’s no surprise that Fisher wasn’t a fan of working with him. While the actor was fed up with dealing with Chase, Grant was having his own issues with the so-called comedian. In fact, it had reached a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
Appearing on the talk show Tomorrow in 1980, Chase had made some rather inappropriate comments about Grant, which he was keen to shut down. Recalling the incident on the Club Random podcast, Chase revealed that Tom Snyder said, “‘People say you’re going to be the next Cary Grant,’ and I said, ‘That’s crazy, there’s nobody like Cary Grant and there will never be another Cary Grant and I understand he was a homo.”
He then added, “What a gal,” continuing to insinuate Grant was hiding his sexuality.
As a result of these comments, Grant had sued Chase for $10million, which was eventually settled out of court. It was the perfect thing for Fisher and Grant to bond over, with the actor continuing, “So, Cary Grant was suing him and I wasn’t getting along that well with Chevy either, so we initially started the conversation by saying how, you know, what we had in common, other than the acid, was that neither of us got along with Chevy.”
Grant died just a few years later in 1986, but Fisher was surely glad she got to meet the star and have a good gossip about their mutual hatred for one of the industry’s most contentious figures.
