Pamela Anderson and Billie Lourd costar as a mother-daughter duo in ‘The Last Showgirl,’ premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6
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Billie Lourd has one word to describe Pamela Anderson: queen!
While attending The Last Showgirl‘s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, Lourd, 32, describes costar Anderson, 57, as a “queen” to PEOPLE when asked about working with her on the new movie.
“It was amazing. She is the most hard working, dedicated actress ever,” Lourd says of her costar. “She put everything into this role and she cared so much about every scene, every line, and I just could not be more grateful to have gotten to work with her. She’s inspo. Full inspo, as the kids say — I’m still trying to be a kid, so I stay stuff like inspo.”
Lourd and Anderson acted alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka in The Last Showgirl, which was directed by Gia Coppola. The movie follows Anderson as a Las Vegas showgirl at risk of losing the job she has held for 30 years, according to an official festival synopsis.
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Shipka, 24, also tells PEOPLE that meeting the Baywatch icon proved to be a thrill.
“I’d always admired her from afar, but getting to know her took everything to such a new level because she is truly such a genuine, kind, beautiful person,” Shipka says. “Just a pure soul of a human. And I just adore her and she’s so unbelievably good in this — every time that she did a scene I was like, I’m in awe of her. She’s amazing.”Anderson most recently appeared on-screen as the subject of the 2023 documentary, Pamela, A Love Story, which was co-produced by her son, Brandon Lee, and received two Emmy Awards nominations.
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“It’s so weird! A movie about Vegas and mothers and daughters! Did I relate to that? 100%. That’s why I fell in love with it,” Lourd tells PEOPLE of the movie, noting that its story, setting and characters reminded her of her late mother, Carrie Fisher, and late grandmother. Debbie Reynolds.
“My grandma was a showgirl in her own right, and my mom was a little bit of the character that I got to play, so it was really cathartic and incredible to get to be in this movie and play this role,” she says. “It was really cool.”