What better day to honour the legendary Carrie Fisher than May the Fourth (aka Star Wars Day!)?
The late actor who portrayed Princess Leia in the franchise, has finally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, eight years on from her passing. Her daughter, actor Billie Lourd accepted the honour on the famous boulevard, wearing a dress featuring an image of her mother in character. She was joined by actor Mark Hamill, R2D2 and C3PO!
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“Like most kids, I grew up thinking my mum was a little bit – okay, a lot – embarrassing. She tried to alter my opinion by showing me this ‘cool movie’ she was in, Star Wars. I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of it, I haven’t,” Billie jokes.
“She used to love to tell the story of how every time she would try to put it on, I would roll me eyes and yell, ‘it’s too loud Mummy!’ or fearfully question, ‘is that lady in the TV you?’ It wasn’t until middle school that I decided to watch it on my own accord – not because I had suddenly developed a keen interest in 70s sci-fi, but because boys started coming up to me and telling me they fantasised about my mum!”
Billie continues, “So, I went home to investigate who this person was they were talking about. I finally watched the movie I had forever considered ‘too loud’ and finally figured out what all the fuss was about the lady in the TV. I wanted to hate it so I could tell her how lame she was. Like any kid, I didn’t want my mum to be hot or cool. She was my mum! But that day, staring at the screen, I realised no one is or will ever be as hot or as cool as Princess Leia.”
She goes on to explain how over the years, she would discover how “widespread and deep” the love for her mum is around the world.
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“I realised then that Leia is more than just a character, she’s a feeling. She is strength. She is grace. She is wit. She is femininity at its finest. She knows what she wants and she gets it. She doesn’t need anyone to rescue her because she rescues herself, and even rescues the rescuers. And no one could’ve played her like my mother.”
Billie adds that beyond Leia, Carrie was “an incredible actress who infused her wit and strength into every character she played” as well as an impactful author: “her candour about her mental illness and drug abuse have inspired people around the world to speak more openly about their struggles.”
She ends her speech with one of her mother’s favourite quotes: “‘Take your broken heart and make it into art.’ My mum was glitter. She covered her world in it both literally and metaphorically. She left a mark of her sparkle on everyone she met.”
Billie even took a moment to sprinkle some glitter on her mother’s star.
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Fellow Star Wars legend Mark Hamill also took to the podium to share some words about his late co-star and friend.
“I remember thinking, ‘she’s 19 years old, she’s barely out of high school'”, he says of the first time they met. “I was a worldly 24, and every expectation I had was just obliterated. She was so charming, so funny, so adorable, so wise beyond her years. I just couldn’t believe it. And brutally frank!” he laughs. “She also had a wisdom that seemed to be far beyond what a 19-year-old should be expected to have.”
Mark shares that he struggled to find the words to do Carrie justice on such a special occasion but decided to go back to the post he shared shortly after her passing in 2016: “She was OUR Princess, damn it, and the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fiercely independent, and ferociously funny, take-charge woman who took our collective breath away.”
Watch their heartfelt speeches in full below:
(Feature Image Credit: Matteo Chinellato / Shutterstock.com)