SHORT TAKES : Fisher: Drugs Sharpened ‘Edge’

Carrie Fisher says she took drugs while writing her novel “Postcards From the Edge” to add reality to the tale that chronicles the recovery of a drug-addicted actress.

To create scenes of the male character relapsing into drug abuse, Fisher had to relive the nightmare, she says in the November issue of Premiere magazine.

“There’s no way to do it well and not go through it somehow,” she said about the drug use. “I had to go through a thing of starting and taking a little bit of drugs, and more, and more.”

“Postcards From the Edge” was published in 1987. Fisher, who starred in the “Star Wars” trilogy, also wrote the screenplay for the film of the same name, which stars Meryl Streep as the drug-addicted actress and Shirley MacLaine as her alcoholic mother.

Fisher, 33, daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, said working on the film made her feel like some Hollywood children “who just exploit their parents’ infinitely exploitable existence.”