Actress Billie Lourd has been thrilling us on the small screen with Scream Queens and, now, American Horror Story: Cult. However, there was once a time when Lourd was in the running to portray newly minted sci-fi icon Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, mirroring the heroic role that Lourd's mother, Carrie Fisher, held in the cinematic universe.
Lourd appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about her latest TV gig as well as what her year has been like following Fisher's unexpected death at age 60. During her conversation with the talk show host, she admitted that she was once considered for what would become Daisy Ridley's breakout role.
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"[Director, writer and co-producer] J.J. Abrams called me to come in for Star Wars because he couldn’t find someone for the lead," Lourd revealed to DeGeneres. "He ended up finding Daisy Ridley, who’s an incredible actress — so talented! But I went in and he ended up giving me this tiny role with a couple lines. I was super excited."
Though Lourd didn't score top billing in The Force Awakens, her small role put her in a scene with her mother, who appeared as General Leia (no longer princess!) in the 2015 film.
Everything happens for a reason — a sentiment that Lourd herself shared with DeGeneres — and though she won't be the successor to Luke Skywalker in her mother's famous franchise, she is turning heads with her new TV role on American Horror Story. There's even a theory that her character, Winter Anderson, is channeling a Manson girl. Appropriate, considering this season of the anthology is subtitled Cult.