Carrie Fisher went off script and called Sharon Horgan a c*** while filming 'Catastrophe'
Of this much, I'm sure: Carrie Fisher was nothing short of a legend.
That's why it was of little surprise to learn that she was a bit of a rule-breaker during her time filming Catastrophe.
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney — who both write and star in the series — told Mashable during an exclusive screening of Season Four that they were protective over the final script and didn't allow cast members to improvise any lines. Except, of course, for Carrie Fisher.
Delaney said that Fisher would "improvise ferociously." "It was scary at first but then we knew to prepare for it," he said.
"This is the first time we'd met and she definitely called me a cunt."
Horgan revealed what happened during the first scene she and Fisher ever filmed together.
"The first scene she ever did, it was just me and her talking on the phone and I'm supposed to be inviting her to our wedding and we ended up, in the scene, just insulting each other and putting the phone down," said Horgan. "We just went at each other. This is the first time we'd met, and she definitely called me a cunt. Yep it was ferocious."
Delaney said that both he and Horgan did a "phone scene" with Fisher, which resulted in "maybe 50 seconds of film." But, the duration of the clip that made it into the final cut actually took a lot longer to film.
"We were on the phone each of us for 45 minutes just screaming. It was awesome," said Delaney.
Horgan said that Fisher was "a joy to be around" and "exactly what you'd expect."
"Someone you'd want to sit around and listen to. She was really open about her interesting Hollywood upbringing, and she was really open about her addictions," she said.
"We really got to know her in the 3rd series, and that's extra why it hurt, because we really got the feeling that this is someone I'm gonna spend a lot of time with," Horgan continued.
To be fair, being called the c-word by Carrie Fisher is a unique honour.
Topics Celebrities
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
