“The Last Showgirl” brought Billie Lourd closer to her mother Carrie Fisher

An emotional Billie Lourd described her experience at Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl “extremely cathartic” and said it brought her closer to her late mother, Carrie Fisher, and her grandmother, Debbie Reynolds.

“I was sobbing backstage, so excuse me in advance,” an overwhelmed Lourd said after taking the stage with her collaborators, including her co-stars Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, following the film's world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.

“This film was very meaningful to me,” she continued. “When I met Gia, I talked about my mother and grandmother's relationship. Playing this character was extremely cathartic for me because it felt like [Anderson’s character] Shelly was my grandma and I got to be my mom.”

“I got to know my mother on a deeper level than I ever have before and it was a beautiful experience,” Lourd said. “And to do that with Pamela was an absolute gift. She is a wonderful mother and was a wonderful mother to me in this film and I feel so lucky.”

In response, Anderson gave her co-star a big hug on stage.

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Fisher died on December 27, 2016 at the age of 60 from a cardiac arrest. Reynolds died one day after the death of her daughter from a stroke at the age of 84. In conversation with grief therapist and New day In an interview with podcast host Claire Bidwell Smith in 2021, Lourd said losing her mother and grandmother at the same time was “really, really brutal.”

“I still hesitate and stutter because it's really hard for me,” she said. “I miss my mom every day.”

Lourd plays Hannah in The last showgirl, a drama centers on Anderson's Shelly, a Las Vegas showgirl for 30 years and the centerpiece of the last remaining traditional show in Sin City. When Shelly's stage manager Eddie (played by Dave Bautista) announces that the show will close for good in two weeks, she and her colleagues must grapple with their future – which “looks different when you're 50 instead of 20 and your only professional skill is dancing,” according to the synopsis.

All the while, the desperate Shelly tries to reconnect with her estranged daughter Hannah, “which proves to be just as difficult as losing her only job.” With her best friend Annette (Curtis), a cocktail waitress “who laughs a little too loudly and too often,” at her side, Shelly must find her place in the world beyond the glittering lights and the stage. Also starring: Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and Jason Schwartzman.

With additional reporting by Mike Miller.