Miss Lily Collins sat down with Collider and talked about the passionate fan of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, working on The English Teacher (out May 17, U.S), looking meneruskan, ke depan to filming Love, Rosie and much more.

The indie dramedy The English Teacher tells the story of Linda Sinclair (Julianne Moore), a 40-year-old, unmarried high school English teacher in small town Pennsylvania. With no children and no relationships to speak of, her life is uncomplicated, which is just how she likes it. Her greatest passion and her biggest fulfillment comes from helping her impressionable young students discover their own creative voices, until a former bintang student (Michael Angarano) returns and threatens to undo it all.

Collider: How did anda come to be a part of this film? Was this a role anda auditioned for, atau did they come to anda about doing this?

LILY COLLINS: I read the script and I was drawn to the tone of the story. I thought it could go so many different ways, depending on how the director wanted to take it and whether they wanted to hype up the comedy aspect of make it lebih dramatic. So, I had a meeting with Craig [Zisk], the director, and I liked his perspective on it. I hadn’t done an independent film before, so I was really curious about the process. But also, it’s really hard to not cinta the idea of this project that involved Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane and Michael Angarano. I’ve been a fan of Michael’s work. I think he’s an incredibly talented young actor. I had just worked with Nathan Lane (on Mirror, Mirror). And Greg Kinnear is Greg Kinnear. You’ve gotta cinta him. And then, Julianne Moore is someone I’ve admired since I was little. She’s an amazing woman. It was a marriage of the cast, as well as the story, that drew me to the project. Even though Hallie is a smaller character in this very collaborative project, I saw an amazing opportunity to have an experience going head-to-head with Julianne. These characters really do have conflict, and Halle is the catalyst for her spiral downward. It just was a fun character to play and I cinta all the people that were involved.


When anda work with people like that, do anda just watch and absorb absolutely everything that anda can?


COLLINS: Completely! I’m such a believer in going to set, even when you’re not work because I think the best things to be learned, anda don’t necessarily get from your own scene atau from someone speaking to anda and telling anda advice. I think it’s all about watching and just taking it all in. It’s not even when the cameras are rolling, necessarily. anda can see how they interact with the rest of the crew, and how they deal with being a character and then being themselves.


How did anda find the experience of working on an independent film? Did it inspire anda to want to find a balance between bigger films and indies, from now on?


COLLINS: Completely! It’s definitely influenced my taste, in looking at different kinds of projects. I’ve always loved membaca all sorts of genres and different types of scripts, but having that experience of everyone being on a set and working towards a common goal that wasn’t about the money atau the following of a story was literally about the collaboration for the particular project and the passion of acting. I’ve since done another independent because I loved this process so much. It’s lebih fast-paced than any other project I’d done before, and that really allows me to be really creative in a short amount of time. You’re all working towards a common goal because, at the end of the day, anda know anda have 20 days to shoot this movie and, if anda don’t get things done, then things don’t get done. So, it was a really great entrance into the indie world and I’m very fortunate to have gotten the chance to work on it.


Was it fun to get to do the scenes with the play rehearsals, where anda got to play around a bit?


COLLINS: It’s great when improv is encouraged. It’s a really fun thing. It depends on who’s in the movie and how their process works, as well. It takes a director who is open to that because anda have a script, but then something funny could happen on set. So, to have people around anda who encourage improv is really exciting because it’s something I’ve always wanted to experiment with. It taught me a lot, going meneruskan, ke depan to other projects, because when anda have two atau three months of filming, as opposed to 20 days, it gives anda lebih time with your character to think about things that aren’t written. It definitely taught me a lot for the bigger projects, as well.


Did anda enjoy getting to shoot the actual play and getting to wear all of those costumes?


COLLINS: That was actually kind of terrifying because I didn’t know, until the hari of, right before we started shooting, that there was going to be a live audience. I didn’t know there were going to be 300 people there. So, I opened the curtain to see, like I would have done if I were in a high school play, and I just froze. I was like, “Oh, my god, there’s an actual audience here!” I thought they were going to shoot that separately. And after every take that we did the play, the audience would yell and clap, as if they were a real audience. It was really invigorating to have an actual theater filled with people. I really wasn’t expecting that.


After the trailer for The Mortal Instruments debuted, did anda see the overwhelming response for it online? Are anda prepared for the level of excitement for that film?


COLLINS: I did a Q&A at The Grove where there were about 500 girls, all asking questions. Some of them were close to fainting and they were hyper-ventilating, and I was like, “This is so weird!” I was a fan of the buku before I was cast, so I get being a fan of the series. But then, it’s really weird to be the actress who’s playing the role that people admire so much. It’s like, “I’m just me! Why are anda so excited for just me?!” It doesn’t click for me. But, I’m so proud of this project and I’m so excited to share it. It’s something that I believe in so much, and I would cinta to play Clary for as long as I can. I’m a firm believer in whatever happens, happens, and just go with the flow, but if that means that people are in cinta with the movie and support it and continue to be fans, then that’s a blessing. That’s amazing to have.


In just a few years, you’ve developed an akting career that many young actress will only ever dream about. Have anda been very careful and deliberate about the roles that you’ve decided to do, atau do anda just feel very lucky?


COLLINS: I do feel very lucky in how quickly it happened. I did a tampil when I was two, but I didn’t start acting, as a child. I wanted to go to school, every day, and be with my friends and really have that experience. I purposely waited to start auditioning and akting until I was ready. I’ve been very careful about keeping my private life private and trying to do this the right way, for me. Everyone has their own process. Regarding scripts and projects, I’ve always been open to membaca all sorts of genres and never closing myself off to one because anda never know what anda might find. I’m very specific about what I respond to, what I cinta and what tugs at my heart. This other project,Stuck in Love, that comes out in June was a passion project, to the extreme. I read it and fought for it for six months. I knew that I had to play the character and I was totally prepared to fight for myself because I believed in it. I feel very lucky that the casts that I’ve worked with have taught me so much and have been so supportive, and that I’ve been able to stay outside of any box with the choices that I’ve made. I fight for roles, all the time. It’s not like things are just handed to me. And I like to fight because I feel like, at the end of the day, it makes it that much lebih special when anda have something that you’re really proud of and that anda worked hard for. anda have to prove to people that anda can do different things and anda can be different types of people and that you’re not a one-trick pony, and that’s fun.


Do anda know what you’re going to shoot next?


COLLINS: I’m shooting a movie in May in Dublin, called Love, Rosie. It’s based in England, but we’re shooting it in Dublin. It’s a British romantic comedy. It’s got a lot of heart. There is a lot of comedy in there, but it’s a romantic drama. It’s starring Sam Claflin, as well. I’m really excited about that because I haven’t shot in eropa before, and I get to be British, which is my natural accent and who I am. I’m really excited to get to play around with the accent and do all of that. So, I’m super excited about that.