Lily Collins: My dads name was never a free pass in my acting career
Lily Collins covers the December-January issue of Vogue France to promote Emily in Paris’s third season (out December 21). I love Emily in Paris, I don’t even care. I know I’m not the target demographic or anything and the show can be very dumb (especially Season 1). But I also enjoy it – it’s light and silly. Lily is very good at playing Emily, the fish-out-of-water marketing pro from America, sent to work with a bunch of Parisians. She lives, she loves, she wears terrible clothes. No Frenchwoman would wear Emily’s clothes. Very few American women would either. Anyway, Lily is a nepo baby – her father is Phil Collins, and she’s obviously had a leg up in the industry. But to hear her tell it, her dad’s fame, success and money has nothing to do with how she made it in Hollywood. Some highlights from Vogue France:
She shunned the idea of getting any special treatment for being Phil Collins’ daughter: “It was out of the question that people would think that I use a free pass thanks to my name. I’m proud of my dad, but I wanted to be me, not just his daughter. For that, I was ready to wait to break through.
While she loves to sing, her real love is acting: “By dint of failed castings, I learned to focus more on my work, and I managed to make acting my job. But I’m not resting on my laurels: this environment is very competitive and places are expensive! I love to sing. But as I wanted to make my own way, far from the paternal genius, I preferred to be an actress. I played in a few musicals because it’s the only setting in which I allow myself to sing. Frankly, I would be too afraid of comparisons!’
She didn’t know Emily In Paris would become a hit: “Even if while reading the script, I felt that something could happen… Moreover, we were several young women hoping to get this role. I’m incredibly lucky…”
She thinks the pandemic helped with EIP’s popularity: “Being confined to your home, but seeing the scenery, laughing, crying a little: this is what Emily in Paris has allowed, arriving at a time when the public, but also us, the teams, needed it the most.
[From People & The Daily Mail]
Something I appreciate about EIP is that Lily actually listened to the good-faith criticism of the show’s first season (the one-dimensional characters, the absurd plots, the racial stereotypes) and actually used her power as a producer to make positive changes which made the show a lot better in the second season. The secondary characters became much more fleshed-out, Emily fails in big ways, there are consequences, etc. As for Lily and her belief that she got where she is all on her own… yeah, her dad’s name got her in a lot of doors. She also grew up wealthy and she’s never had to worry about making the rent if she didn’t book a job. Why can’t any of these nepo babies just admit that?
Cover & IG courtesy of Vogue France.
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