Shropshire Star

Lily Collins: I have felt frustration at not being taken seriously

The actress said it is hard not to just be seen as the daughter of her famous father, singer Phil Collins.

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Lily Collins in The Last Tycoon

Lily Collins has spoken about how much she has struggled to be taken seriously as an actress on her own merits, and not just be seen as the child of a famous father.

The daughter of singer Phil Collins said she felt incredibly frustrated as a teenager because people were dismissive of her ambitions.

Phil Collins with Lily in 2008 (Ian West/PA)
Collins with her on-screen father, played by Kelsey Grammar (Amazon)

“I wanted to produce, I wanted to write, I wanted to do all the things Celia did and I would go into rooms and pitch ideas at 16, and so I could relate to Celia and that frustration of people not taking you seriously or thinking you’re too young.”

Lily Collins as Celia (Amazon)

She said: “It’s funny, it didn’t resonate with me really until after I shot the pilot, I didn’t quite realise.

“It wasn’t something that I saw right away. It seems ridiculous, but it wasn’t as obvious to me at the beginning.

Collins plays the daughter of a studio boss (Amazon)

“It wasn’t the ‘dad element’ that I really responded to the most at first, but then afterwards I thought ‘oh isn’t that ironic?’

“It was like an after-thought and then obviously when we shot the series it was very obvious in my brain.

The Last Tycoon is available on Amazon Prime Video now (Amazon)

“She wants to separate off from that and have her own opinions about things and she wants to be able to start from the ground up and have people take her seriously and not just be the ‘daughter of…’, so there were a lot of similarities, but at the same time it is slightly a different business.”

Her on-screen father is played by Frasier star Kelsey Grammer, and Collins said starring opposite him was a surreal experience.

Kelsey Grammar (Amazon)

“He brings such a great energy to set and he obviously everyone respects him so much  so to have him play my dad is something I never would have thought.”

The Last Tycoon is available on Amazon Prime Video now.

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