Billie Lourd Gives Moving Speech During Mother Carrie Fisher's Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony

May 4 was not just another Star Wars Day, as Carrie Fisher also received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her daughter, Billie Lourd, and her Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill both shared touching tributes to Fisher, who died on Dec. 27, 2016, at 60. Fisher's star is located near the El Capitan Theatre and across the street from her mother Debbie Reynolds' star.

In her speech, Lourd said she avoided watching Star Wars for years, but that changed when she heard about boys fantasizing about her mother in it. "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 with the lady in the TV," Lourd explained, notes The Hollywood Reporter. Lourd hoped she would hate the movie because, like any kid, she didn't want to think her mom was ever "hot or cool." She loved it though. "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.

A few months later, Lourd accompanied Fisher to Comic-Con, where she saw firsthand just how beloved her mom was. She saw people from around the world dressing up like her mother. "People waited in line for hours just to meet her. People had tattoos of her people named their children after her," Lourd said. "People had stories of how she saved their lives. It was a side of my mom I had never seen before, and it was magical."

The convention experience helped Lourd understand just how much Princess Leia meant to people. She is way more than just a fictional character. "She is a feeling. She is strength. She is grace. She is wit. She is femininity at its finest," Lourd said of the princess. "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 have played her like my mother."

Lourd, 30, went on to play a minor role in all three films in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and has become an obsessive Star Wars fan herself since her mother died. She is now passing on that love to her children, Kingston and Jackson. "I feel so lucky that even though they won't get to meet my mom, they will get to know a piece of her through Leia," she said. "I will get to tell them that the little lady in the TV is my momby, their grandmomby."

The American Horror Story star added that she was also proud of how Fisher inspired others to talk about their struggles with mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction. "One of my favorite quotes of hers is, 'Take your broken heart and make it into art.' And she did just that," Lourd said. "And I hope to pass that torch, or in this case, lightsaber of wisdom onto the next generation of fans. Take your broken heart and make it into art."

Stormtroopers, R2-D2, and C-3PO also attended the event, with plenty of Star Wars fans in the crowd. When Hamill took the stage, he recalled how she was "so charming, so funny, so adorable, so wise beyond her years" during their first meeting. "She started telling me stories, intimate stories about her family that I thought, 'Should I be hearing this?' But that was Carrie," Hamill said. "She also had a wisdom that seemed to be far beyond what a 19-year-old should be expected to have."

Although it was sad that Fisher wasn't there, Hamill ended his speech on a bright note. "I know it's sad that she's not with us today. That would've made it perfect. But she wouldn't want us to be sad," the actor said, reports Entertainment Tonight. "She'd want us to have fun. She'd want us to laugh. She had that sort of Auntie Mame ability to seize every day and make the most of every moment that she had. So thank you all for coming. Thank you, Billie. And thank you, Carrie Francis Fisher."

There was some drama to the event, as Fisher's siblings Todd Fisher, Joely Fisher, and Tricia Leigh Fisher, were not in attendance. In a rare statement about her family, Lourd confirmed she did not invite them, noting that they "never consulted me or considered how" their actions after Fisher and Reynolds died would affect her. "To be clear – there is no feud," Lourd said. "We have no relationship. 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, who wrote My Girls: A Lifetime With Carrie and Debbie, disputed Lourd's claims that he did interviews and wrote his book for financial gain. He also insisted that Fisher would have wanted him to attend her Walk of Fame ceremony. "I am big enough to say that I know that Carrie would want us all not only to be friends but to have a relationship," Todd told Entertainment Tonight. "I would be always open to having a relationship with her, but if she doesn't want one, I certainly don't have any intentions of making an effort to force it upon her."