The force will always be with her. Billie Loud paid tribute to her late mother, Carrie Fisher, at the Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday, April 13.
The 24-year-old Scream Queens star, clad in a white, Princess Leia–inspired Tom Ford dress, addressed a room full of Star Wars fans nearly four months after her famous mom died last December 27 at age 60 after suffering cardiac arrest earlier that week.
“My mom used to say she never knew where Princess Leia ended and Carrie Fisher began. She went from being an unknown actress, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, to Princess Leia …” Lourd — who also lost her 84-year-old grandmother and Fisher’s mom, Debbie Reynolds, on December 28 — said. “She was imperfect in many ways, but her imperfections and willingness to speak about them are what made her more than perfect. My mom, like Leia, wasn’t ever afraid to speak her mind and say things that might have made most people uncomfortable, but not me and not you. That was why she loved you, because you accepted and embraced all of her.”
Lourd told the audience that Fisher cherished her fans who adopted Princess Leia’s fierce and fearless attitude. “She loved you. She loved these movies. And she loved this force called Leia,” she explained during the live-streamed event. “It’s not about what you were fighting — it’s how you fought it. How you resisted. In our world, Star Wars became a religion and a way of life. I wanted to be here with you because I know you feel the same way.”
The actress, whose father is Fisher’s ex-husband and Hollywood talent agent Bryan Lourd, concluded her tribute by telling event-goers that her mother’s iconic role helped her understand a major life lesson. “She taught me by her own example, that the most evolved person is seemingly a contradiction — they are both the strongest and the most vulnerable person in the room,” Billie — who appeared alongside her mom in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens — said. “And that was her. That is Leia.”
