Carrie Fisher’s daughter: 'Mama, you’ve made it’
"Star Wars" star Carrie Fisher received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday. Her daughter, Billie Lord, thanked the fans whom her mother "adored" and said Fisher would be "excited and grateful" for the honor.
The Force is strong with Carrie Fisher's family, friends and fans.
On Thursday, May 4 – also known as "Star Wars Day" ("May the Fourth"), the late actress who played the iconic Princess Leia in the beloved film saga was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her daughter, Billie Lourd, was in attendance and spoke about how much the honor would have meant to her mother.
"I'd like to say thank you so much to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for this incredible honor. I know my mom would just be so excited and grateful," she said during her speech. When speaking to the fans, she added, "The Force is obviously always with you."
Billie said her mother didn't think someone was famous until they became a Pez dispenser, but Billie said fame is when you have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now that Carrie has both, Billie noted, "Mama, you've made it."
Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia is shown in the infamous gold bikini on the set of the Star Wars film "Return of the Jedi." (Sunset Boulevard / Corbis / File)
'STAR WARS': CARRIE FISHER'S COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP WITH BELOVED FRANCHISE
Billie Lourd and Mark Hamill celebrate Carrie Fisher getting a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday. (Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images| Jared Siskin / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images / File)
The actress confessed that growing up she thought her mother was "a lot embarrassing" and that Fisher tried to change her perspective by showing her the "cool movie she was in, ‘Star Wars.’" Lourd said she would just "roll my eyes and yell, ‘It’s too loud, Mommy!'" She admitted she finally gave in and watched the movie when she was in middle school because boys started coming up to her and telling her they "fantasized" about her mother. Once she finally saw the movie, she realized what all the fuss was about.
"I wanted to hate it, so I could tell her how lame she was. Like any kid, I didn’t want my mom to be hot or cool. She was my mom. But that day, staring at the screen, I realized no one is or will ever be as hot or as cool as Princess Leia," she said.
Lourd also thanked her "space uncle" Mark Hamill, saying she adores him "beyond belief."
Billie Lourd revealed that she didn't watch "Star Wars" until she was in middle school because boys were telling her they "fantasized" about her mother as the iconic Princess Leia. (David Livingston)
Hamill made a quick comment to Fox News Digital when he was asked what it means to be there for Fisher.
"It's all for Carrie," Hamill said. "It means a lot."
When Hamill stepped up to the podium, he reminisced about the first time he met his "Star Wars" co-star.
"I met Carrie when she was 19 years old … we arranged to have a dinner so that we could meet each other. I'm thinking she's 19 years old, she's barely out of high school. I was a worldly 24," he explained.
"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. She started telling me stories, intimate stories about her family that I'm thinking, ‘Should I be hearing this?’"
Hamill got emotional when he told the audience that he had found what he wrote six years ago, not long after Fisher passed away, and that it was still relevant today.
"What I wrote was, Carrie was one of a kind who belonged to us all whether we liked it or not. She was our princess … and the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fiercely independent and ferociously funny take-charge woman who took our collective breath away," he said ,in part.
He noted that Fisher was tough but had a "vulnerability that made you root for her and want her to succeed and be happy." Hamill added that his friend was a "handful … but everything would have been so much drabber and less interesting if she hadn't been the friend that she was."
Fisher receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame comes amid some family drama as the siblings of the late actress battle with her daughter over not being invited to the ceremony.
Lourd was joined by her father, Bryan, as well as his husband, Bruce Bozzi, and their daughter, Ava, at the ceremony. The "Scream Queens" actress released a statement Wednesday, addressing the controversy involving Fishers's brother, Todd, and sister Joely.
"The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why," the statement obtained by the Hollywood Reporter reads. "Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject."
Todd and Joely Fisher both claim they were purposely excluded from late sister Carrie Fisher's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony by their niece, Billie Lourd. (Robin L. Marshall | Araya Doheny | Paul Archuleta)
"I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship. The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her," the statement continued. "Though I recognize they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way."
"The press release Todd Fisher gave to TMZ and the posting Joely Fisher placed on Instagram, once again confirms that my instincts were right. To be clear – there is no feud. We have no relationship," she wrote. "This was a conscious decision on my part to break a cycle with a way of life I want no part of for myself or my children."
Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd attend the 7th annual Governors Awards in 2015. (Jason LaVeris / FilmMagic / File)
Todd stated to Fox News Digital that he was specifically told that, at the family's request, he was not to be included.
Wanting to understand what "family," was making the decision, Todd reached out to other close members, including half-sisters Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher, only to learn that they, too, had not been invited to the event. Todd says Fisher's good friend and actress, Beverly D'Angelo, as well as her school friends didn't make the cut either.
Taking matters into his own hands, Todd claims he called Lourd's father, Bryan, directly. Wanting to come to the event, Todd asked Bryan how they could fix things.
"That's when he said, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t … because if you go, Billie's not going to go," Todd said.
Bryan and Billie Lourd attend the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for Carrie Fisher on Thursday. (David Livingston)
Todd told Fox News Digital he didn't go to the event because it wouldn't be "classy to arrive and cause conflict." (Michael Caulfield / File)
Admitting he hadn't spoken to Lourd in more than three years, Todd said he would not attend the event because "it would not be very classy to arrive and cause a conflict," although it was important for him to clarify why he would not be there. Todd said Lourd was never overly responsive to his text messages in the first place.
After Fisher died, Bryan reportedly told Todd that Lourd was struggling to process her mother's death and, therefore, should be given space.
A representative for Lourd did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Billie Lourd remembered her mother, Carrie Fisher, on the sixth anniversary of her death. (Kevin Winter / File)
"I've always been around her, her whole life," Todd told Fox News Digital "It's just the last handful of years that this problem has existed. But that was also when my sister and mother [were] around, everybody was very close because it was being orchestrated by a balance of the family. Now you have an unbalance in the force. And so this is what happens. … I love her and I respect her decisions, and I hope that she changes her mind on this when she understands how trite this all is," he added.
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Joely and Tricia issued a joint statement via Instagram, sharing why they, too, would not be in attendance.
"In response to all of you asking whether or not we will be part of the celebration….Strangely we won’t be in attendance to celebrate our sister, whom we adored. For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister’s career. This is something Carrie would have definitely wanted her siblings to be present for. The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking. We have all been grieving the loss of our favorite human for some years now…we have given Billie the space to do that in her own way," they said.
Carrie Fisher had two half-sisters, Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher. (Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic / Film)
"We have been nothing but loving and open, consistently. This isn’t about a photo op on Hollywood Blvd…this is about celebrating the permanency of Carrie’s legacy in this industry, taking her place with a star on the iconic walk of fame along side (sic) our parents. We thank the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for honoring our sister in this way. May the Fourth Be with you," their post concluded.
Speaking of his and Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, Todd believes she would say "everybody needs to get it together here and behave," if she were to witness this controversy.
He believes Reynolds would have told the family, "This isn't about us. This is about the star. It's about Carrie. It's about honoring the day. … My mother would've likened it to Christmas. … She would say, ‘We all get together on a holiday sometimes with family and friends that we don’t necessarily like that much, but we do it because it's the holidays, and we put our differences aside for a minute, and we celebrate the birthday of Christ.' Well this is the birthday of Carrie's star on Hollywood Boulevard. And I think she'd say, ‘We need to all get together, put our differences aside and celebrate that legacy.’"
Todd Fisher believes his mother, Debbie Reynolds, would have wanted the family to put the drama aside and come together. (Jason LaVeris / FilmMagic / File)
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