In hindsight, did Carrie Fisher look ill here and in "The Force Awakens"?

It's no secret she did not live a healthy lifestyle, physically or mentally. She has a noticeable lack of blocking and business to do in her scenes that are always abbreviated. Just a couple of lines then cut.

She looked a bit pale and tired during her space walk.

Yes, I think she did seem frail. Just as an observation - I was perplexed by a close-up when she/Leia was in command on the ship - there was a notable twitch in her upper lip as she was contemplating something. I have seen her in a number of interviews over prior months from the last five or so years of her life, and sometimes you could see a stiffness/twitch in her face which might be related to her health. Also, a certain line she says to Poe in a doorway seemed muffled to me - I didn't understand it. It was a complete contrast to her younger self as we saw her in films and interviews.

That said, I've read that Rian Johnson had a great time talking to her for hours about script ideas and literature - she was gregarious in his experience. Mark Hamill says something similar in his relationship with her - witty, sharp, argumentative.

She looked and sounded awful. It's obvious her screen time was kept to a bare minimum because she was not up to par at any level. I actually though to myself when watching it that if she looked that bad wearing movie makeup (which is notoriously thick / heavy) there must have been something seriously wrong.

I heard a theory that losing weight quickly for this film was a big factor in her deteriorating health and then death.

Now that I think about it, she looked very frail, frailer than you'd ever expect Princess Leia to look. You'd expect Leia to age fabulously, her beauty matured by time but undimmed, her energy and spirit intact, with none of Carrie Fisher's real-life health problems.

But the fact is, even if Princess Leia's spirit and humor were intact, she'd been through a hell of a lot in the last few decades, what with losing the Republic and her marriage going kaput and her son being a useless twerp. She was never physically robust even when young, I suppose I can believe that time could take a toll on her body, if never on her mind. Because she's still got it mentally through the two Disney movies, just as fabulous and brilliant and fearless and determined and righteous as she ever was. I just adore her.

She looked really old, frail and very hunchback for some reason, way older than she was. Most people I know couldn't believe she was 60, but way older. Now we know she wasn't sober, probably wasn't sober for years, who knows. The scary part for me is that she was not diagnosed with any life threatening condition like heart disease, as far as I know, but all signs of imminent death were there, shortness of breath, lack of agility and so on, I mean she looked it.

Forty years of drug abuse. Wikipedia has lots on her poor health: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Fisher#Death

On January 9, 2017, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued a death certificate that stated "cardiac arrest/deferred" as the cause of death. More tests were expected.[125] In a June 16, 2017, news release, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said that the exact cause of death could not be determined, but sleep apnea and the buildup of fatty tissue on the walls of arteries were among the contributing factors.[126] A full report from June 19, 2017, stated that Fisher had cocaine in her system, as well as traces of heroin, other opiates, and MDMA. The report also stated that the investigation was unable to determine when she had taken the drugs, and whether they contributed to her death.[127] Her daughter Billie Lourd stated that Fisher "battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life [and] ultimately died of it.

Why the heck did Carrie Fisher have meth in her blood stream when she died?

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/22082212-why-the-heck-did-carrie-fisher-have-meth-in-her-blood-stream-when-she-died-