Carrie's Last Tweet Was As Unique As The Rest

Today, fans worldwide are mourning the death of Carrie Fisher, who died following a severe heart attack on Friday. Prior to her death, the beloved actress was active on social media, sharing her unique brand of wit and honesty with more than a million Twitter followers. Carrie Fisher’s last tweet reveals her characteristic wry humor, as well her attachment to her dog, Gary. In the space of only a few lines, Fisher manages to skewer ageism, joke about Gary Fisher’s burgeoning film career, and confuse readers with her own personal emoji alphabet. It’s a fitting testament to the fact that there really is no one else like Carrie Fisher. The world will be less funny and less interesting without her.

Fisher was most famous for her work as an actor, particularly for her feisty portrayal of iconic Star Wars heroine Princess Leia. However, she was also an accomplished writer, publishing her semi-autobiographical bestseller, Postcards From the Edge, in 1987. She published a sequel to the novel in 2004, followed by the memoirs Wishful Drinking and The Princess Diarist in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Throughout her work, Fisher was open about her struggles with addiction and bipolar disorder, and discussed these topics with frankness, perceptiveness, and self-deprecating humor.

Fisher brought her wit and wry outlook to the Twitter account she started in 2009. In many of her recent tweets, she wrote using an emoji alphabet that was so hard to decipher that someone started a Twitter account devoted entirely to translating her tweets. Fisher’s final tweet may need some explanation:

If you’re struggling to read Fisher’s emoji-speak, here’s the translation:

“People have aged so much you can't even get them to domotion capture” — as though these folks are disobedient. Auditions are held. Gary didn't get cast.

In the first tweet, Fisher appears to be referencing a remark from Gareth Edwards, director of the recent Star Wars release, Rogue One. (Warning: Spoilers for Rogue One follow, so if you haven’t seen it, skip to the next paragraph.) In an interview with Radio Times, Edwards discussed the process of integrating characters from previous Star Wars films into the new one. “I mean ideally, you get the original actors to play these roles, but it’s been 30-odd years since then, and so it’s impossible,” he explained. “People have aged so much that you can’t even get them to do the motion capture. As you get older you’re not the same, your whole body language is different.” Fisher’s tweet thus pokes fun at the accusation that actors become too old to play themselves, and points out the oddity of people auditioning to do the motion capture for someone who is still living. (End spoilers.)

Fisher's tweet also referenced her beloved dog, Gary, a French bulldog who developed his own following after gaining fame on Fisher’s social media and becoming the highlight of the Force Awakens press tour.

We’ll miss you, Carrie Fisher.