Why Billie Lourd Says Her Last Showgirl Role ‘Reminded Me So Much of My Mom and Grandma’ (Exclusive)

Recording The last showgirl was more than just a job for Billie Lourd.

While speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Friday, September 6, Booksmart star, 32, reflected on what it meant to her to play her character in the Gia Coppola film.

“It’s so weird, a movie about Vegas and mothers and daughters… did I relate to that? 100 percent,” jokes the actress.

Billie’s mother Carrie Fisher died in December 2016 at the age of 60, and her grandmother Debbie Reynolds died a day after her daughter at the age of 84.

Lourd says she “fell in love” with Coppola’s script the first time she read it because she connected it to her family’s history.

Billie Lourd attends the premiere of “The Last Showgirl” during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Robin Marchant/Getty

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“I was so excited to get involved because it reminded me so much of my mom and grandma,” she says of Fisher and Reynolds. “My grandmother was an entertainer in her own right, and my mother was a bit of a character for me to play.”

“So it was really cathartic and amazing to be in this movie and play this role. It was really cool,” she adds.

Lourd stars in the film alongside Pamela Anderson’s Shelley. According to TIFF’s official synopsis The last showgirlShelley “tries to reconnect with the daughter she barely knows” (Lourd), after learning that her job at the last traditional Vegas show is ending.

Actress Carrie Fisher (L) and her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds in 2007.

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Trying to reconcile “proves to be just as difficult as losing the only job she’s ever had,” the synopsis says.

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Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds pose during TNT’s 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards 2015.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Reynolds signed a historic $1 million contract for a residency at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1962, according to the Las Vegas Neon Museum. Fisher and her brother Todd also appeared on the show with their mom.

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Source: HIS Education