Carrie Fisher Earns A Very Deserved Posthumous Emmy Nomination For ‘Catastrophe’

By Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline
Published July 13, 2017, 2:05 p.m. ET

The late Carrie Fisher scored a third Primetime Emmy nomination today, for her last turn on Season 3 of Amazon comedy Catastrophe. Fisher, who died in December, was recognized in the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series category for Episode 6 of the British series written, starring and created by Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney.

Fisher recurred as Mia, the mother of Delaney’s character, and had wrapped filming on Season 3 before her death in December. The half-hour series is set in London and follows an Irish woman and an American man as they struggle to start a relationship after their clumsy lust leads to pregnancy.

Following Fisher’s passing Delaney revealed that she was “a bigger part of series three than she was of the first two series. We couldn’t help but write more for her because she’s so brilliant… I revered Carrie until I met her and then I loved her,” Delaney wrote in The Guardian, sharing a couple of anecdotes from Fisher’s work on the show. “Carrie was the only cast member Sharon and I would let improvise. (I say ‘let’; as if we could stop her. She let us put her in our show.) We’re a bit despotic and inflexible with our dialogue because we’re insane, but Carrie was more insane and would always, always make it funnier and better. In episode one of series two you can hear her singing an improvised song about areolae in the background of our daughter’s christening party.”

At a Tribeca event last year, Horgan reminisced about how she and Delaney instantly knew Fisher was perfect for the role when they watched her present at the Attitude Awards in London. “I turned to Rob, and I went, ‘That’s your awful mother!’” Horgan said. They reached out to Fisher right away. “We still to this day can’t believe that you said yes,” Horgan added.

Why did Fisher say yes? “I did really want to play an awful person,” Fisher said at the same event. “There are not a lot of choices for women past 27. I don’t wait by the phone.”

Horgan and Delaney shared an Emmy nomination last year for writing the Catastrophe pilot. Fisher’s previous Emmy nominations were in 2008 for a guest shot on 30 Rock and her one-woman play Wishful Drinking in 2011. Raul Julia was the last actor to win a posthumous Emmy, in 1995 for The Burning Season.

HBO documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds also picked up a nomination today, for Fisher Stevens in the Outstanding Directing For A Nonfiction Program category.

Where to watch Catastrophe