Billie Lourd able to 'stand on her own' following family deaths

Billie Lourd is able to live her own life now she's no longer in the shadows of her famous late mother Carrie Fisher and grandmother Debbie Reynolds.

The 25-year-old lost her Star Wars actress mom on 27 December (16) and her grandmother, Singin' the Rain veteran Debbie, a day later.

In her first magazine cover since their deaths, Billie, who has kept a relatively low profile for months, has now opened up to her American Horror Story: Cult co-star Sarah Paulson about how she is finally able to be her own person.

"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," she said, for Town & Country magazine. "I love being my mother's daughter, and it's something I always will be, but now I get to be just Billie."

When Sarah asks if that is a scary prospect, Billie replied, "It is. It's a lot of pressure, because she had such an incredible legacy, and now I have to uphold that and make it evolve in my own way."

Billie also recalled the last time she saw her mother in person, was when she watching an episode of her TV show Scream Queens being critical of her performance, so Carrie told her to come round her house and watch it with her.

"She made me sit down and watch it, and she forced me to see the good parts," Billie said. "She was incredible like that. But she was really hard on me, saying, 'Shut up, you're great in this. Have faith in yourself. Be more confident.'"

Billie, who has decided to keep her mother's house and move some friends in with her, revealed that she got through the difficult time by remembering her mother's sense of humor.

"If life's not funny, then it's just true - and that would be unacceptable," Billie explained. "Even when she (Carrie) died, that was what got me through that whole thing. When Debbie died the next day, I could just picture her saying, 'Well, she's upstaging me once again, of course - she had to.'"