04 September 2014
Newsdesk
Lily Collins doesn’t think the level of press intrusion Kristen Stewart gets is normal.
The English-American actress is the daughter of singing superstar Phil Collins, but has carved out an acting career for herself away from her famous family.
Lily counts fellow actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart as good friends, but she’s unimpressed with the level of attention they get from the media.
Jennifer has recently found herself at the centre of a phone hacking scandal, when private photos of the star were leaked online, but Lily thinks the press should lay off the star.
“It's definitely not normal,” Lily confessed to Marie Claire on the subject of scrutiny Jennifer and Kristen receive. “There are preconceived ideas about them and the media wants to prove them wrong or find fault in them. They feel that, because they've known them since they were young, there is an ownership of their personal life.
“Jennifer and Kristen have done such a great job of navigating that; they're witty, strong, funny, cool, young women. It's really just nice to see that it's possible to go through something like that and still be genuinely awesome people.”
Lily’s movie career is going from strength to strength, and she has four new big screen projects in the pipeline. Her acting path could have taken a very different turn though, as the 25-year-old originally set out to be a TV star.
“I tested for Gossip Girl. I wanted to be in it so badly, I thought at the time it was the end of the world,” she admitted.
The show went on to cast Blake Lively and Leighton Meester in lead roles, but Lily now realises Gossip Girl’s loss was actually her gain.
“But now I think, 'Well I would have got pigeon-holed, have had to move to New York, leave high school and be signed away for six years.' I wouldn't have done the films I've done, and everything would have been so different,” she smiled.
