Star Wars actor Mark Hamill gives a touching tribute to his friend and co-star Carrie Fisher ahead of her posthumous Walk of Fame star. In his speech, he honors Fisher as a genuinely original woman that faced the world with determination and sly humor.

Hamill recalls how he officially met her before they started filming Star Wars over a dinner date. The then-24-year-old Hamill “was completely unprepared for the person [he] met…in the sense that she seemed so much wiser than her years.” He was amazed by 19-year-old Fisher’s incredible sense of humor and candid personality, especially when discussing her parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and their torrid history. According to Hamill, her candid personality became even more prominent as soon as she donned the role of Princess Leia.

Her frankness and self-reflective sense of humor continued throughout her life as she flourished in her acting career. Hamill recalls how they all struggled with the overwhelming fame from Star Wars, but he also notes how Fisher took to her fame and reveled in their fans’ adoration and love for the franchise. “She embraced it in a way that was far beyond me. She loved going to the conventions, meeting the fans,” he says. At the same time, she was able to find more work outside of Star Wars, not only landing roles in films like The Blues Brothers and The ’Burbs but also using her life experiences as a basis for her writings, destigmatizing mental health and exploring her troubled past with a tongue firmly in her cheek.

Her daughter Billie Lourd shared tender moments with her mother on the sequel trilogy set: “Getting to watch her be Leia this time made [her] feel like the proud mom.” While usually private, Lourd is protective over her mother and grandmother’s legacies enough to not invite her aunts and uncle to Fisher’s Walk of Famer ceremony. Lourd claims that they capitalized on Fisher and Reynolds’ deaths through their near-immediate memoir publications. She acknowledges their freedom to publish what they like, but “their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life.”

Regardless, both Hamill and Lourd’s words show Carrie Fisher’s incredible impact on both the film industry and those close to her. “She did it from every different direction. … She really was just such an original,” Hamill reminisces.