Victor Demarchelier/Town & Country
Billie Lourd opened up about how she was able to use humor to grieve the dual deaths of her mother Carrie Fisher and grandmother Debbie Reynolds.
The 25-year-old "American Horror Story" actress chatted with co-star Sarah Paulson for Town & Country magazine in her first interview since she lost the two Hollywood stars last December.
"If life's not funny, then it's just true and that would be unacceptable," Lourd said quoting her mom. "Even when she 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.'"
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View StoryLourd said the last time she saw her mother in person the two watched an episode of 'Scream Queens' together, after Billie was self-conscious about her performance.
"She told me, 'Come over right now. I want to watch this with you.' And she made me sit down and watch it, and she forced me to see the good parts," she 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.'"
She added that Reynolds was giving her career advice before her death too.
"Debbie was still encouraging me to put an act together. Literally three days before she died, she was like, 'What numbers are you going to put in your act? Who are you going to impersonate?' I said, 'I don't think people do acts as much anymore,'" she explained. "And she came back, 'That's why if you do one you'll be more successful than anyone else. The act is a dying art, and someone needs to revive it."
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View Story"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 went on. "I love being my mother's daughter, and it's something I always will be, but now I get to be just Billie."
One way Lourd will honor her mother is by keeping Fisher's famous compound, but she feels a lot of pressure to do everything the right way. 

"I went back and forth on it, but it's so magical. It's such a special place and I'm having a couple of friends move in with me, like an old-style commune," she said.
