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Tavis: I'm delighted to welcome back to this program Carrie Fisher, the acclaimed actress and author--best-selling author--now out in paperback with her latest book 'The Best Awful,' the long-awaited sequel to 'Postcards from the Edge.' And, for all you 'Star Wars' fans, be sure to pick up the current issue of 'Vanity Fair,' if you can get it--ha ha--it's selling out everywhere--which features a collector's edition cover featuring all your favorite characters, including, of course, the original cast, including Carrie Fisher. Ms. Fisher, nice to see you again.

Carrie Fisher: Nice to see you.

Tavis: Tell me about this. I'm fascinated by this. Tell me about this photo shoot. I mean, this thing folds out. We show--you know, it folds out.

Carrie: And we're nude.

Tavis: Well, no, not exactly. So, this thing folds out, and it starts on the end here with the original cast--you, Harrison Ford--

Carrie: Hold, please.

Tavis: All right.

Carrie: He was digitally inserted, which I hear is painful.

Tavis: He is--you mean, Luke Skywalker.

Carrie: Mark Hamill wasn't there this day. We were just cozying--

Tavis: Wait, wait, wait. You guys were here in L.A., and he was in New York somewhere?

Carrie: He was in New York.

Tavis: And they just, like, stuck him in the picture.

Carrie: They digitally inserted him. Stuck.

Tavis: Ooh. Now, that does sound painful, doesn't it? I've been digitally inserted.

Carrie: Yeah. Can't come to the phone right now.

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Carrie: I've been digitally inserted.

Tavis: All right, so...

Carrie: So, we were there, and then they shot it in such a way to make it vaguely look like there was some--something going on.

Tavis: All right, so when you see this whole 'Star Wars' lineage--

Carrie: This is the first time I've seen it like that.

Tavis: When you see this 'Star Wars' lineage--so, what do you think when you see this?

Carrie: Oh, they--oh, gosh, what a fun time.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Carrie: This would be the one day--can you imagine that I would be at home going like this and poring over it and going, "Gosh."

Tavis: But I made a joke a moment ago, but I was actually not joking. I was being serious. This thing is, like, selling out. People are buying, like, 4, 5, 6 copies of this stuff. You're, like--you're an icon.

Carrie: I'm a Pez dispenser.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Carrie: There's a difference.

Tavis: That makes you an icon. I think it's one and the same. Tell me--I know you've been asked 1,000 times about this, and thankfully, the last time you were on the program, I tried--well, I shouldn't say "thankfully." I tried to avoid talking about 'Star Wars.'

Carrie: You can't help yourself.

Tavis: You've talked about it so many times, but I can't avoid talking about it now, since it's on the cover of 'Vanity Fair.' What did this do for your career?

Carrie: Hmm...well, I didn't really want to be an actor. I wanted to make that film because I wanted to go to lunch with the people that--with robots and hairy creatures.

Tavis: You just wanted to go to lunch.

Carrie: If you read this script, it was a fantastic script. When you look at the script, you'd think, "How the hell is he gonna do this?" And I was, you know--what was I? 19 years old. So I thought, "Well, I want to be in this. The part of the princess isn't the best part in it. I'd rather play Han Solo, but that's not available. And if I could get in it, I want to see--God, that would be cool." It was, like--I didn't think it--no movie was supposed to behave like it behaved. And it doesn't go away, never, ever, ever.

Tavis: So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with--

Carrie: I think I do it pretty well.

Tavis: You do it very well, yes, you do. And you wear it well. You like, though, being forever identi--I mean, this thing--you're right, this thing won't go away.

Carrie: If I didn't like it, that would just make my life silly. So, it's OK. Yeah, I like it. I like George a lot. I have a great relationship with George. I just saw him in San Francisco. And, uh, I think it's his, you know, invention, and it's a fantastic thing that he did. And, uh, and I'm glad to be in a good movie...or 2.

Tavis: Or 2, yeah. Or 6. Ha ha ha!

Carrie: Well, no, and I like that young kids like it. When people see it 79 times, you know, medication is in order.

Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha ha! Well, there are a lot of folk who ought to be medicated, then, because I know a lot of folk who've seen this 79-plus times.

Carrie: Well, then let's get them some medication.

Tavis: All right, all right. You started performing--you know, a lot of people came to know you through 'Star Wars,' but you actually started performing, what, at age 12, maybe?

Carrie: I started like most teenagers, at 13, to do nightclub work.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Carrie: I know that you probably did, too.

Tavis: Not exactly, but anyway--

Carrie: Well, some version of it. I started to do nightclub work with my mother, and it was a way of our family sort of hanging out together. Our family's version of Frisbee.

Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha! A nightclub act together.

Carrie: Yeah. Doing Vegas shows. So, um, I did that on all the vacations, and it started to just sort of pull me away from school, and I did my mother's Broadway show when I was 15, and I just became this odd creature that had a really unique life.

Tavis: Speaking of a unique life, the last time you were here, your mother--

Carrie: Who's hilarious.

Tavis: I love her. And I had a blast with her--Debbie Reynolds, of course, was here with you the last time you came by, and--I wish I had a clip of this, but we'll do it some other time. The last time you were here, I recall your mother being with you. We had a conversation. You and your mother had a conversation. I was over here just listening, but you and your mother were having a great conversation about your father, Eddie Fisher. Since you were here last--I couldn't believe it. I looked up one day on the Oxygen Channel, and saw you interviewing your father, and I--how? I mean, it was--I was--I can't even--I'm trying to find a word to describe what I thought of that show when I saw it, but it was just so...

Carrie: Weird.

Tavis: Yeah! There's a good word. Ha ha ha ha! I was gonna say "interesting," but it was an interesting conversation. What was that like, talking to your dad?

Carrie: Well, my dad--you know, in a way, I don't--he's this very charming man. Very, very charming, and you get that instead of other things, maybe. But it's very difficult to be angry at my father. And, again, it would be like--uh, I don't want--it'd be like saying, "Oh, it's no fun to be in ‘Star Wars.'" "Oh, I don't like my dad because..." You know, it's that saying that I love--"Resentment is drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." I, you know--with my dad, um, he is like a kid. He is like a kid. I loved that he sang on that show, and I'm glad that there's a record of that, because he stopped singing. And, uh, my brother doesn't really realize how angry he is. Or just, you know, hurt. We just didn't really see him that much.

Tavis: Speaking of kids, how does your daughter--I've met Billie a couple of times, and a wonderful kid, very well-adjusted and seemingly very, very bright. I'm trying to figure out how Billie came out of this OK...

Carrie: Me, too.

Tavis: Given all of the neuroses. Ha ha!

Carrie: Well, we always, um, you know, we've always talked to her like an adult, and she is incredibly competent. She has something that I didn't have--she knows that she's adored by both her parents. I mean, the only conflict Bryan and I have--and we co-parent very well, which I'm very proud of--is we can't get enough of her. She's just a great--she's a pleasure to talk to, and we--you know, that's a great--if you know that you're loved by both your parents, that's an amazing thing, and she has this poise and confidence, and she was always told the truth, even if the truth was--and it was sometimes quite difficult and complicated. So, things aren't that complicated for her. Complicated was sort of reasonable for her.

Tavis: I suspect--I'm not a parent--but I suspect you're right about this, having had 2 parents who loved me and always made me feel like I could accomplish and do anything I wanted, and my parents are my number one fans, and they watch the show. Everything I do, my parents show up at.

Carrie: You had that?

Tavis: Yeah, I've had it all my life, and I still have it at 40. I'm like their little boy. They still support everything I do, and I love them both. So I understand how important that is, but I wonder whether or not, because of your experiences, you determined, when you became a parent, that you were definitely going to make that happen because it was lacking for you, or whether it's happened through osmosis, or just--

Carrie: I was gonna have her have a relationship with her father no matter what, you know, no matter what it cost me. You know, we had a difficulty in the beginning when we separated, and then the issues there, which I joke about, but we resolved those, and, you know, we've always--all she's needed to know is that he and I are all right together. And we are, more than all right. We travel together. We went on the 'Queen Mary' this--whenever it was. And, you know, I'm Mrs. Lourde at the school. We function as a couple. What do they call those, um, nuclear families? Radioactive.

Tavis: Radioactive. Ha ha ha!

Carrie: ...but so, that's what we are.

Tavis: This book title, which is now in paperback...'New York Times' best-selling book--'The Best Awful' by Carrie Fisher--seems to be--and maybe I'm not being so smart here, maybe you planned it this way, but there's been some good and some bad in your life, as we just discussed here. This title, 'The Best Awful,' seems like a fascinating and appropriate metaphor for your life, in some respects.

Carrie: Well, it's, you know--it's like every life has, you know, a mix of everything. But with a certain kind of, like--with mania, which some of this deals with manic-depression and watching that ride, someone that stops taking medication, you know, just to have one more blast, and the dangerousness of that. And she has this fantastic, fantastic, fantastic time until it's so great, it's just awful. It's like getting sick on candy, you know, when you go to the carnival.

Tavis: I've done that a few times.

Carrie: Well, then, there you go. There's mania. Ha ha. But, yeah, my life is probably--it's been fantastic, and it's had some--I've had a lot of difficulties as well.

Tavis: Well, you've come through all of it, Ms. Fisher.

Carrie: Thank you.

Tavis: Quite nicely. The book--'The Best Awful'--now out in paperback, by Carrie Fisher. 'Vanity Fair'--if you can get it, it's a collector's edition. Go pick that up. And, as always, we ask our guests to offer or suggest a website that you might be enlightened or encouraged or empowered by. Carrie suggested you go to waterkeeper.org., talks about making our environment cleaner and safer. Waterkeeper.org is the website Carrie suggests. Ms. Fisher, nice to see you.

Carrie: Nice to see you. Love your tie. Have a great time at the inauguration.

Tavis: Yes, thank you. That's our show for tonight. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.