Just call her a leading lady! Billie Lourd might have grown up in a famous family, but the Booksmart actress is taking on Hollywood in her own right.
Billie is the daughter of late Hollywood legend Carrie Fisher, who died in December 2016. Her grandmother, Debbie Reynolds, was also an actress, died one day after Carrie.
“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,” Billie shared during an interview with Town & Country from August 2017. “I love being my mother’s daughter, and it’s something I always will be, but now I get to be just Billie.”
Despite coming from a famous family, the Scream Queens alum recalled wanting more normal aspects of childhood.
“I always wanted siblings. I was bummed that I didn’t have any — even just to be a witness. Sometimes when crazy things were happening, I wanted to ask, ‘Is this just me?’ My mom tried to adopt a kid,” Billie recalled. “You know when you ask for a puppy? I asked for a sister. One year I was like, ‘Hey, Mom, I want a sister.’ We tried to adopt — like, we did a whole thing, and, no, the home study was not strong. But now I have a little sister. My dad got married a year ago and I have a 9-year-old little sister who’s absolutely awesome. She’s kind of like my daughter, too.”
Other than her acting career, Billie has also created a family life of her own. She married Austin Rydell in 2022, and together they share two kids. However, she’s still reflecting on her life, which has “changed so much,” since her mother and grandmother’s deaths.
“When they were alive, I feel like I really tried to avoid doing things in their shadow. We got offered all these random photo shoots and all this weird stuff that happens in my life, but I didn’t want to do them when they were alive because I wanted to make sure that people knew me separately from them,” Billie shared on the “New Day” podcast in October 2021. “Now, I wish I could run back and do all of those photo shoots and do anything with them, really. But I guess I just tried to separate myself from them while they were alive and now I feel like I kind of I am kind of trying to do the opposite. I try to connect myself to them because I miss them.”
Click through our gallery to see Billie’s Hollywood transformation over the years.
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