Billie Lourd's 'Scream Queens' Look Was a Secret Homage to Her Mom Carrie Fisher

Billie Lourd, the daughter of the late Carrie Fisher, found breakout success with her role as the oddball sorority mean girl Chanel No. 3 on FOX’s Scream Queens. But even though Lourd was standing on her own as an actress, she wanted viewers to know her mom was always with her.

That’s the reason her Chanel No. 3 constantly wore fuzzy earmuffs. “They are a little bit of a Princess Leia homage,” the 24-year-old revealed to Seth Meyers during a Dec. 8 appearance on Late Night. “It’s kind of a family tradition.”

Of course, she’s referring to Fisher’s famous Star Wars character and the Cinnabon-sized buns she wore in her hair. It was a unique look director George Lucas told Time he was inspired to create by looking at turn-of-the-century Mexican fashion — and one that would go to become an iconic fashion moment.

But when the fuzzy earmuffs were sitting in the Scream Queens wardrobe fittings, no one was thinking about Leia.

“No one wanted them! They tried to give them to [Abigail Breslin]. They tried to give them to [Emma Roberts],” Lourd told Today in a Dec. 13 interview. “I was like ‘I need these!’ … I was drawn to them because of genetics.”

“I saw them in the fitting and was immediately gravitated towards them because I had to be,” she added on Late Night. “I just went into the fitting, saw them, [and] recognized my family heritage – which is to have weird things over your eyes and cover them all the time.”

The look was eventually written into the show by Scream Queens writer Brad Falchuk — explained as an accessory Chanel No. 3 wears daily to protect herself from a guy who was so obsessed with her ears that he threatened to cut them off if he ever saw them again.

But for Lourd, it was always about Leia.

“This is the ideal cult thing for me to wear,” she told Live with Kelly on Dec. 12 of the fan throwback. “…I got so deeply attached to them in a weird way, that it became a part of my character.”

As for the comparisons it would inevitably bridge to Fisher, Lourd said she wasn’t worried. “I try to do my own thing but when I’m wearing something like this, it’s kind of hard to escape the comparison,” she told Today. “It’s her hairstyle.”

Fisher, 60, suffered a massive heart attack aboard an 11-hour flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday when she went into cardiac arrest. She died Tuesday morning.

“She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly,” Lourd said in a statement on Friday. “Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”