MARTI NOXON: Tell me about writing Unfiltered. Have you always thought of yourself as a writer?
LILY COLLINS: As a kid I used to write poems and song lyrics. I wrote for magazines aged 15 – I found the editor’s number in the back of the magazine and just cold-called her. With Unfiltered, my intent was to encourage others to use their voice, but I don’t think I realized that in doing that, I was actually finding my own
MN: When do you think that transition happened?
LC: It was while we were shooting To the Bone and I was writing. I had written the chapter on my experience with eating disorders a week before I got the script. Nothing’s by mistake! I got to go to an anonymous group with you and share my story and get told the facts for the first time. When I went through my eating disorder, I never sought medical assistance. I created myths in my head about how I should get through things, so the idea that I could surround myself with truth and feel comfortable enough to speak mine allowed me to breathe. There’s a scene in the film when we’re in group therapy talking about the euphoria we experience – I’d never heard that weird enjoyment we feel from being in the disorder worded that way before – and in that moment, you caught Lily understanding it as opposed to just Ellen, my character.
MN: When we were editing the film, I felt really connected to that moment. A little, “A-ha!”
LC: From a young age, I’ve had a desire to put forward this perfect image, whatever perfect was. So even though there was all this un-prettiness going on inside of me, I wanted to make sure that my appearance and composure were a certain way. I imagined that people knew I had these secrets and they’d be judging. Now that I’ve put things out there I feel like I’m starting from a clean slate, so when I play a character I can let go more
Read the full interview at The Edit.
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