Carrie Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd adds a touching detail to her Hollywood star unveiling

Virgin Radio

5 May 2023, 08:40

Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher has finally received her much-deserved Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and her daughter, actress Billie Lourd, added a touching sprinkle of sparkle in her memory. 

On Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you!) the late actress was celebrated during the prestigious ceremony, in which Billie and Carrie’s co-star Mark Hamill both delivered heartwarming speeches. 

Speaking about her famous mum at the Star unveiling, Billie, who wore a gown embellished with a picture of Carrie as Princess Leia, said (via Variety): “My mum used to say you weren’t actually famous until you became a Pez dispenser. Well, people eat candy out of her neck every day.

“I say you aren’t actually famous until you get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. My mum is a double-whammy — a Pez dispenser and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame now. Mama, you’ve made it.”

Once the Star’s cover was lifted, Billie, flanked by C-3PO and R2-D2, approached the paving with a bag of glitter in her hand, and told the crowd: “I brought some of my mum’s glitter, because she was glitter. She loved glitter, which will probably be on me for way too long.”

Carrie’s Star Wars companion Hamill also took to the podium to deliver a touching speech based on a note he wrote shortly after Carrie's death in 2016. 

After admitting it was “really hard to come up with words to do Carrie justice”, the Luke Skywalker star said the note was “as relevant today as it was when I wrote it.”

He shared with the crowd: “Carrie was one of a kind. She belonged to us all, whether we liked it or not. She was our princess, dammit! And the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fearlessly independent, ferociously funny, take charge woman who took our collective breath away. 

“Determined and tough, but with a vulnerability that made you root for her and want her to succeed and be happy. She played such a crucial role in my professional and personal life. Both would’ve been far emptier without her.”

Carrie played Princess Leia in the original three Star Wars movies, A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), and then reprised the role in The Force Awakens in 2015.

The actor sadly died of a heart attack in 2016 at the age of 60. She appeared in the release of 2017’s The Last Jedi after her death, and archive footage was used for her appearance in The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.