Billie Lourd is still learning to cope with the death of her mother, Carrie Fisher, and her grandmother, Debbie Reynolds. But now the 25-year-old actress is opening up about the losses and the way her life looks in the absence of her iconic loved ones. In a recent interview, Lourd talked about moving forward while remembering her roots. Lourd said,
I've always kind of lived in their shadows, and now is the first time in my life when I get to own my life and stand on my own. I love being my mother's daughter, and it's something I always will be, but now I get to be just Billie.
Before Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds died, Billie Lourd began striking out on her own as an actress in projects like Ryan Murphy's Scream Queens. In fact, she explained that her famous mother was supportive of the show and her performance on it. In times when Lourd herself felt uncertain of her abilities, Fisher would watch the show with her and praise the best moments. Lourd indicated how important her mother's encouragement was, and she said she now tries to be someone who cheers on others in that way.
Billie Lourd was interviewed for September's Town & Country, and she had an extra special interviewer for the article. Sara Paulson, whom Lourd is joining for the upcoming season of American Horror Story, interviewed the young star. Paulson shared a special friendship with Carrie Fisher and knew Lourd when she was a child, so she was delicate with her questions. She asked whether Lourd thought it scary "to be just Billie," as Lourd put it. Lourd explained,
It is. It's a lot of pressure, because she had such an incredible legacy, and now I have to uphold that and make it evolve in my own way. And a lot of people have had experiences like mine, too. Tons of people grow up with mentally ill parents who have drug problems.
But the serious nature of Carrie Fisher's drug use was not something Billie Lourd seemed hung up on when she talked about her mother. In the interview, Sarah Paulson revealed that Fisher used to urge her to find the humor in life. Lourd supported that way of thinking and said finding comedy in mundane or sorrowful moments is something she, too, tries to apply now that her mother is gone. Lourd joked that when Debbie Reynolds died the day after Fisher, she thought her grandmother probably saw it as Fisher attempting to upstage her. Such witty thoughts help her to move forward and keep a smile on her face.
Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds died one day after each other in December of 2016. Afterward, Billie Lourd took some time to collect herself but then re-emerged at a Star Wars event in the spring of this year to pay tribute to her mother. It has not even been a year since Fisher and Reynolds died, so it is remarkable to see Lourd moving forward with such poise.
