W MAG – For W’s second annual TV Portfolio, we asked 26 of the most sought-after names in television to pay homage to their favorite small-screen characters by stepping into their shoes.

“I’m playing the most American character I’ve ever played,” says Lily Collins, the star of Netflix’s hit comedy Emily in Paris. “I’ve never felt more American, but in my real life, I feel very British. And yet I felt so disconnected from my European side, having to be Emily.” Collins is speaking from Paris, where she has begun filming season 2 of the series—which is coming off of a recent Emmy nomination that left her and her costar Ashley Park in bits. “[We] were together on set in my apartment when she read her phone and said, ‘Were we? Are we? We were nominated for the Emmys!’ ” the actor recalls. “We didn’t know they were being announced, and then we just started screaming and had to yell, ‘Cut!’ ” Collins, who was born in Guildford, Surrey, in the English countryside, might star in a Paris-based show as an American girl, but her roots, she says, are firmly planted in the U.K. This is part of the reason she chose to honor The Great British Bake Off for W’s TV Portfolio, in which she embodies judge Prue Leith—also, because she herself loves to bake. “There are these specific chocolate chip cookies that I make, which I’ve been asked many times for the recipe,” she says of her signature dessert. “Eight years ago, I started Googling ideas, and at this point, it’s all just based on memory and sight.” We’d like to think she’d do well against Paul Hollywood’s judging eye.

When was the first time you saw The Great British Bake Off?

I saw the show’s first season. I feel so at home in the English countryside, having grown up there, and I love any show about baking and cooking. I love being surrounded by the British accent, especially if I’m not in England; there’s something very nostalgic about it. I just watch every season, even when they were changing hosts. I can’t stop watching. I binge it.

Can you bake?

I do love baking. I see it as very therapeutic. I like to think of it as a bit of a puzzle piece, as well, because I bake a lot of gluten-free, vegan things, which a lot of the time people think sounds not so fun or gross, but I get such a kick out of making something with vegan chocolate, or more ingredients, and seeing if it works. And when my little brother told me that my cookies were absolutely amazing and he loved them and ate five, I told him it wasn’t real chocolate, and his mind was blown.

How did Emily in Paris come to you? How did you first get the project?

I saw Darren Star from across the room at a charity event years ago. I was with my mom, and I’m like, Oh my god, that’s Darren Star. I really wanted to say hi, but I was nervous. I just didn’t say anything. Cut to almost a decade later, I got the script for the pilot, which was the first two episodes combined. I thought, This is what I’ve been waiting for, this is the role, because I shot two episodes of the reboot of 90210 years ago, which, obviously, is Darren Star. I was the drunk girl, Phoebe, at prom who really wanted to be prom queen and ended up barfing in a toilet. I remember thinking, Oh my god, I love Grosse Pointe. I love Sex and the City. I love 90210, all of the above. I love Darren Star shows. So they brought me in to meet with Darren. We had a great chat. Then a couple of weeks later, I auditioned. I threw together a wardrobe from my closet. I had one of my best friends come over, and we planned this look of what we thought Emily would [wear]: a J.Crew white shirt with a cashmere vest on top, a tartan skirt—which might’ve been an old Abercrombie skirt that I still had in my closet—and boots. I looked very collegiate and like I was trying too hard. I really felt it was Emily—definitely not the Emily we’ve created, but it was something. I arrived, and I auditioned for Darren. I felt good about it, but you just never know. I just wanted it so bad. On my 30th birthday, I was on set in Alabama, shooting in a bunker underground, and Darren called me and said, “Would you like to be my Emily?” I was very confused, because I just hadn’t heard anything [until then]. And I was like, “Me? Really?” It was a very Emily reaction, now that I think about it.

Do you get to keep any of Emily’s wardrobe?

I wish. I did get sent the white orchard dress that I get splattered with paint on last season. I got a clean one—the designer sent me one with a pair of shoes, so I get to keep that for memory’s sake. But I think a lot of my new favorite outfits are from this season. The wardrobe even went up more, which I didn’t even know was possible. From last season, I go back and forth. The opera house look felt like it was such an iconic moment for her. I can’t help but reference the Eiffel Tower silk shirt, because I just felt like that, with the Mona Lisa hat, was a real tongue-in-cheek Emily moment. She embraces “more is more.” She’s shamelessly herself. And I feel like she’s always in on the joke, and that just perfectly represented that to me.

Have you thought about your wedding dress for your upcoming nuptials to Charlie McDowell?

As a fashion lover and a person who’s obsessed with looking [for my own wedding dress], it’s a fun thing to start Pinteresting. I’ve always loved [a] fairy tale [look], but fairy tale in a very classic way. I like whimsy, but I also really love a classic look. So it’s trying to combine all of that, and it’s not something that you take lightly—you want to make sure it’s just right. I didn’t grow up with the ideal image in my head of what it had to be, so it’s really fun to think about that as an adult.

Lily is on the cover of Byrdie! You can check out some photos in the gallery, a video, and her interview below.

BYRDIE – On the surface, everything about my lunch date with Lily Collins appears normal. We’re dining in the outdoor restaurant of one of L.A.’s most storied hotels, frequented by Hollywood legends like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, and famous for its ivy-lined walls, currently filtering in L.A.’s seasonless sunshine. But there has been nothing “normal” about the year of 2020, as the entire world grapples with a deadly virus, and the words “pandemic” and “contagion” spell out our reality (instead of an apocalyptic film featuring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow). This explains why Lily, dressed in a pewter Maje blazer and dark jeans, is palpably hesitant when the hostess leads us to our table in the center of the outdoor space, flocked in every direction by groups of chattering guests. Los Angeles has only recently eased its dining restrictions to allow for outdoor service, and thus, something as “normal” as an afternoon lunch interview carries with it the added weight of months of social distancing, optics, and the unease of safety protocol (are the tables really six feet apart, I wonder…).

“This is the first time I’ve eaten at a restaurant since quarantine started,” Lily whispers to me, eye wide as we sit down. She seems slightly shell-shocked, which is understandable since the beginning of quarantine was in March and we are now dining together at the tail-end of October. I flag down our hostess and request a quieter, more socially-distant table. Luckily, there happens to be one in another area of the restaurant, and as we sit down, Lily visibly relaxes with a sigh. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I haven’t been around this many people for so long,” she apologizes, swirling liquid Stevia into her hot black tea. “It was a lot.”

Now that we’re alone(ish), I begin to experience what can only be described as the Lightness of Lily. I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly—her openness, easy laugh, or maybe just her smile—but there’s an unmistakable aura of happiness emanating off of her, made more noticeable by the fact that it’s so rare to encounter this type of joyful lightness during such a difficult year. Seconds after sitting down, she immediately dives into stories about her road-tripping adventures with her fiancé, writer and director Charlie McDowell. “It’s the best way to create a sense of adventure,” she tells me earnestly. “You’re taking yourself from A to B. You’re part of nature. We go camping and we’re in the middle of the Redwoods or driving through cities that we never would have gone through before.” She credits these road trips and moments in nature for keeping her grounded as everything else in the world feels so uncertain: “You’re literally breathing in clean air. You’re not feeling at a loss of creativity and you’re doing things with your hands and getting outside and building fires, and feeling really at peace in a time when there’s just been so much darkness.”

Each time her fiancé comes up throughout our interview, Lily’s face lights up. The pair was recently engaged during one of her aforementioned road trips through Santa Fe and Sedona, and though it happened after only a year and a half of dating, Lily says she wasn’t surprised at all by how quickly it happened. “I’ve known he was ‘The One’ since the very beginning,” she says frankly. “All my friends joked with me at first. They’re like, ‘How can you know’ I’m like, ‘I know. I just know.’” When the proposal happened—which she describes as “a surreal moment that you just replay over and over in your head”—she said yes without hesitation. She beams as she tells me this, then stirs her tea: “Can I just say? Honestly, I’m so excited to be a wife.” I ask her to expand. “I don’t think of it in any way, shape, or form to do with whether or not I’m a feminist,” she clarifies. “To me, it’s more like, I can’t wait to be with this person, and now we get to plan something that we’ll have for the rest of our lives.” When she explains it like that, it’s hard to argue. The Lightness of Lily—it flickers stronger.

Read more at Byrdie.com

Lily graces the new cover of Backstage magazine. You can read her interview below!

BACKSTAGE – Lily Collins wants to tell a story. No, really—that’s why she’s Zooming from her Los Angeles home on a mid-October day, talking about why she became an actor. “I have always loved telling stories, since I was a kid,” she reflects. And as the child of Phil Collins and Jill Tavelman, it’s only natural that she got bit by the performance bug. “I knew that, as an adult, I wanted to take people on that journey with me. It’s a form of escapism. There’s such a magic to those worlds that we create onscreen.”

She’s been creating that magic for the last 11 years, from her feature film debut in “The Blind Side” to worlds horrific, thrilling, fantastical, comedic, dramatic, and beyond. She’s escaped typecasting, instead disappearing into stories near and far, past and present, each one different from the last. Her two most recent projects are both for Netflix, but they continue the trend of falling on opposite ends of the genre spectrum.

Just before the industry took a pandemic-induced pause in 2020, Collins was jumping between France and Hollywood—first to lead Darren Star’s “Emily in Paris,” on which she plays a millennial marketing executive who becomes a fish out of water after she’s transferred to the City of Lights for work, and then opposite Gary Oldman in David Fincher’s “Mank,” which charts the Oscar-winning screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s co-writing of “Citizen Kane.”

“I love every genre, in a sense. I don’t want to ever say I’ll never do one, because an incredible filmmaker may put a bizarre, interesting twist on a genre that you never thought you’d associate with, and all of a sudden you’re going, ‘I couldn’t imagine not being a part of this,’ ” Collins says. “I want to feel like there’s something I’m going to learn about [myself] through a character, and then there’s something that people will be able to learn about themselves.”

Collins’ bold beginnings in acting make it clear why she uses each role as a chance to learn. In fact, her whole career in acting has been self-taught. “I was part of plays and musicals when I was a kid, and I think I was 16 years old when I thought, OK, I actually do want to do this. Not just at school—I really want to pursue this professionally. I started auditioning for jobs to get more experience, but I was told no,” she remembers. “I mean, I was still so green. I was auditioning, and I didn’t really understand what ‘green’ meant. I would ask for feedback, and they would say things like, ‘You just need to keep doing it. Just train, in whatever way that means, practice, and do more research. You’re new, and that’s fine.’ ”

And while rejection is something most teenagers will go out of their way to avoid, a burgeoning modeling career and aspirations to become a broadcast journalist gave Collins some experience with the feeling. When she developed her acting convictions, she knew she’d be faced with more of the same. “I waited until I was at an age where I felt I was strong enough to continue to be told no. If I had felt that it would discourage me too much, I would have known to not pursue it, I think, but I really felt strongly about it.”
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THE NEW POTATO – We sat down with the beauty Lily Collins (#eyebrowgoals) – star of Amazon’s The Last Tycoon, which comes out tomorrow – to discuss everything from restaurants, beauty routines, body image and Renaissance fairs. The actress shared her love of tea (she prefers it to coffee), her affinity for gluten-free baking, and her dream dinner party (Audrey Hepburn makes an appearance). We know you’ll be as smitten with this interview – and her authentic nature – as we are; we’d even forgo our coffee-addiction if it means tea time with Collins…

From start to finish, what would be your ideal food day?

I love oatmeal, so in the morning I would probably have some form of oatmeal with cinnamon and vanilla. I like it kind of sweet, so it tastes like a treat – like a dessert with some fruit. For lunch, I would probably try to keep it lighter, like a salad with grilled fish or a piece of salmon with some quinoa or a grain. I always have a Chai or Earl Grey tea at some point during the day. I don’t drink coffee; I’m a tea girl , that’s my form of caffeine. For dinner, I’m a huge sushi fan. I also love a really good Indian Curry. What I love the most about going out with my friends for dinner, though, is that they’ll surprise me, and we’ll go somewhere new. Sometimes, the surprise meals are the best because you can’t pre-plan your menu. For dessert, I’d go to Salt & Straw; I just went there for the first time, and they have the most amazing vegan coconut Stracciatella. I like places that have options. My ideal day would, honestly, be having someone take me out to experiment with different things.

How do you practice beauty from the inside out?

Working out is my private time. I love sweating to get out your emotions; I always feel better afterwards, always more energized and just more clearheaded. I always drink a lot of water, too, to really purify. I sometimes try to meditate with music, or just have quiet time. It really allows me to center myself and get away from the craziness of work and the city. I really believe in laughing and smiling a lot. I think it’s really important, because when you feel the most confident and the most happy, that’s when you feel your most beautiful and look your best. I always say that a smile is your best accessory.

What are your morning and nightly beauty regimens?

In the morning, I’ll wake up and splash some cold water on my face to wake myself up and then I use the Lancôme Énergie de Vie products. They’re designed to take get rid of all of the pollution your skin takes in from the environment; they’re very clarifying. I use the face wash, the serums, and the creams; they’re all amazing. I have to put on sunscreen to protect my skin; I’m really into Kiehl’s sunscreen. I use their lip balm as well. Obviously, at night, it’s always super important to take off your makeup. I must. I can’t go to bed with anything on. I’m a big fan of using the Lancôme Hydra Zen Anti-Stress Moisturizing Cream at night; it’s not too thick, but it really moisturizes.

What’s always in your fridge and pantry?

I’m a big fresh produce person, so I always have fresh apples and other fruits and veggies around. I also love my tea, so I have a collection of teas. I love baking; I always have every baking supply that I could possibly need in case I get inspired. I like to have all the different gluten-free flours, extracts, dark chocolate, quinoa, some kind of grain, and obviously San Pellegrino and sparkling waters. You’ll also always find some form of takeout. If I go out, I don’t like leaving things, so I always take leftovers to go. If I get a salad, and I really like the dressing, I ask for a few extra to go, too, so I can put them on my own salads at home.
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WWD – Lily Collins had it easier than most imagining what life would be like for an ambitious scion of a showbiz family navigating the professional, personal and gender politics of Thirties Hollywood. In her new Amazon series “The Last Tycoon,” loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel, she’s never far from the storied history that pervaded her youth.

Along with being a second generation star, the daughter of pop icon Phil Collins has been time-traveling to Tinseltown’s Golden Age since she was a kid, her mother Jill has long been involved in preserving, restoring and showcasing historical sites in the Hollywood region, including Beverly Hills’ grand 90-year-old Greystone Mansion, which serves as her character Celia Brady’s family home.

“I grew up spending a lot of time there; I used to run around the hallways doing homework and watching people in the house,” Collins laughs. “So now it’s like it’s gone full circle.”

Collins chatted with WWD just before shooting a scene set during the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony — in the same Biltmore hotel ballroom where those actual Oscars were presented. “It plays with your mind,” she says. “You look around and everyone’s spotlessly perfect of-the-period, and you really forget that you have a cell phone waiting for you at your chair.”

Chief among the series’ extravagant effects is the lavish wardrobe concocted by costume designer Janie Bryant. “Celia’s the fashionista, really, of this show, and Janie gets to throw lots of different things on me,” Collins says. “My Oscar dress is pretty amazing. It’s a lilac silk tiered number in the back with this amazing sequined capelet.”

The ruched bodice, puff sleeves and the A-line skirt were crafted from silk and duchesse satin.

Taking on her first TV series since “Mad Men,” Bryant was ready to immerse herself in an entirely different place and time. “After eight years, as much as I loved working on that show, I felt ready to design something new,” she admits.

“Everything about the Thirties is so different from the architectural, minimalist Sixties. The cuts, the parts of the body that are accentuated, the color palette. The Thirties is about being very soft and dusty, and silk charmeuse-y. Really, it is about the facade of Hollywood that the studios created, and all of the glamour that entails. They made sure the actors were untouchable.”
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DIGITAL SPY – Lily Collins has defended new Netflix movie To the Bone, and said she’s just grateful that a conversation about eating disorders is taking place.

The 28-year-old actress plays Ellen, a young woman with anorexia who attempts to conquer her eating disorder by entering an inpatient facility where she bonds with fellow sufferers.

Keanu Reeves plays the charismatic lead doctor, while True Blood’s Carrie Preston stars as Ellen’s stepmother. Collins – who has spoken openly about her former battle against an eating disorder – chose to lose a lot of weight to play the part.

The film has prompted a mixed reaction from critics and viewers, with some praising its positive message that recovery is possible, while others have accused it of glamourising or romanticising anorexia.

“I’m just so pleased that a conversation is being had around this subject matter,” the Okja star told Digital Spy. “I don’t think Marti [Noxon, the writer-director of To the Bone, which is based on her own experiences] and I started the conversation, we just made one a lot louder, and I think that’s really important.”

Collins also suggested that some people may have been put off before actually seeing the movie, and revealed the response she’s had from fans has been positive.
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SHAPE – Have you ever watched a woman in a movie get a beauty makeover and a new wardrobe and acquire instant confidence (cue the triumphant music)? Sadly, it doesn’t happen like that IRL. Just ask Lily Collins. To celebrate her debut on the cover of Shape, she went to dinner with two elementary school friends after the shoot and reminisced about how awkward they all felt about their bodies as teens. “We wore boys’ board shorts over our swimsuits!” she says. The irony that Collins, 28, was unwaveringly confident and at ease on set all day in one revealing swimsuit after another was not lost on her. “I never dreamed I’d be posing in a bikini on the cover of Shape. It’s a complete 180 for me. It’s a magazine about what it means to be healthy,” she says.

You see, for Collins, the struggle to get healthy was, and still is, real. And she’s refreshingly candid about it. Although she’s fit and radiant now, for more than half a decade she suffered in silence from an eating disorder that had her restricting her intake of food, bingeing and purging, abusing laxatives and diet pills, and perhaps more significantly, hiding it all from her friends and family. But after years of destructive behavior, Collins, who is extremely close to her mom (her dad is musician Phil Collins), realized that she needed to be held accountable. So she came out about her disorder. “My perspective on other people’s view of me was based on this disorder being a secret. But the more open I became about it, the more I was able to be myself,” she says. (More on that here: Lily Collins Reveals Her Past Struggle with Eating Disorders )

Speaking her truth to her inner circle eventually set Collins free to share her story with the world—and because of her journalism background, she had the chops to do it. At 15, she became a correspondent for Elle Girl U.K. (she spent a lot of her childhood in England), and in 2008 she reported on the U.S. presidential election for Nickelodeon. She was later a contributing editor for CosmoGirl and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Her recently published book, Unfiltered, details her experience with her disease and ended up being “even more honest than I was intending,” she says. “I didn’t realize I’d cover so much.” But she was ready to talk. And that’s a good thing, because she has a lot to say. Here are the chapters on her recovery.
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V MAGAZINE – In To the Bone, Lily Collins plays Ellen, a 20-year-old illustrator whose battle with anorexia has brought her to the brink of death. Collins, petite even by Hollywood standards, had to lose serious weight in order to play Ellen. It’s the sort of role that someone who once suffered from an eating disorder, as Collins did, might shy away from. But she embraced the complicated challenge in a healthy way. “[The producers and director] were all female and they were very motherly,” she says. “We worked with a nutritionist, and [the weight loss] was done in a specific, calming, loving way.”

Collins read the script for the film—based on director Marti Noxon’s own struggle with the disorder—in the midst of writing Unfiltered, a book of personal essays. She had just finished a chapter on her eating disorder. “It was like the universe throwing it at me, saying, ‘I think this is something important for you to go through.’” Having overcome her issues, Collins is able to bring a sense of hope to the role. “I had all of the stages there to give to Ellen,” she says. “She doesn’t know how to reach them yet.”

From the very beginning of the film, there’s a steely strength to Ellen. The same can’t be said for other characters at the group home where Ellen is admitted. That’s the reality of addiction: many addicts never recover, but the hope is that movies like this can help. “I would have loved to have seen something like [To the Bone] when I first started having my problems,” says Collins. In the end, Collins lived with the character for the month it took to complete the film. “It was a really long month,” she says. “But how awesome to face a fear head-on like that?”

To the Bone will be released worldwide on Netflix July 14.

Why she didn’t always love her brows
My mom always said the quirky things that make you different are what make you beautiful. But when you’re younger, they’re normally the things that make you insecure. For me, it was my eyebrows. They were overly thick and luscious. So I went to town and plucked them. When you get older, [you realize] the things that define your differences are beautiful.

What she learned from writing her book, Unfiltered
[My book] is all about my experiences growing up and what it is to become a young woman in today’s day and age. I talk about a lot of the taboo things young girls don’t like to discuss. But the second we do, we realize we’re not alone. That includes self-confidence issues, body image issues, and accepting things that are different about yourself. It doesn’t matter what feature you’re talking about, whether it’s a physical feature or an insecurity about your personality. It’s what defines you as who you are. So it’s all about embracing that inner you, almost as a superhero and saying, “We all have flaws.” But sometimes those flaws can be turned into our greatest strengths.

The treatment she can’t live without
I love getting oxygen facials because I travel a lot. My skin gets pretty dry with all the airplanes. Also, I love Lancôme’s Genifique Serum, which comes in a mask now. They’re gooey and strange. But the next morning, you see the radiance in your skin.

Lily Collins, 28, is an actress and the author of the memoir Unfiltered.

VARIETY – Born in England and raised in Southern California, Lily Collins, daughter of singer/songwriter Phil Collins, started acting at a young age, with credits that include “The Blind Side” and “Mirror Mirror.” She stars with Alden Ehrenreich in Warren Beatty’s “Rules Don’t Apply,” with Beatty as Howard Hughes. The film bows at the AFI Festival before its big-screen launch Nov. 23.

What was it like being on set with Warren Beatty?
He wore so many hats, as director, producer, writer, actor. He’s so lovely and so mentorish to me. You always hope someone will take you under their wing and teach you — when it’s Warren Beatty, it’s like, “Oh my god, how is this real?”

What was the best advice he gave you?
Allow yourself to surprise yourself. And, the instant you give it up to the moment and are present, something happens. But it only happens when you trust the people around you. I trusted him, Alden, and the rest of the cast and crew.

Describe your character.
Marla is an extremely optimistic, passionate young woman who comes to Hollywood thinking she knows it all. She thinks she has a certain set of rules to be successful. Through her trials and tribulations here, she realizes it isn’t all what it seems.

Can you relate to her?
Completely. I think she’s very open in her turmoil in the beginning — she’s very vocal about it. Maybe some of the other characters I’ve played have been more closed off, and not been as honest about how they feel, emotionally.”

What was the most interesting thing you learned about Howard Hughes?
I knew basics. I knew who he was, and I knew his influence in film and some in aviation. But I didn’t know he was so forward-thinking — or how political he was, or how vast his influence was. He’s an enigma, but at the same time he was so present in many facets of different industries.
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