Lily Collins is utterly surprised that people applauded her weight loss to portray the lead role on Netflix’s anorexia-themed series To The Bone and explained why.
In an interview with The Edit, Collins recalled an encounter with a longtime friend that left her with mixed emotions.
“I was leaving my apartment one day and someone I’ve known for a long time, my mom’s age, said to me, ‘Oh, wow, look at you!’” she recounted.
After witnessing her friend’s reaction, Lily Collins began explaining that she had to drastically lose weight for the role she was portraying in the Netflix series when her friend interrupted, saying, “‘No! I want to know what you’re doing, you look great!”
Baffled at first, the To The Bone star then spoke about people’s obsession with having a slim figure and its direct link to the very existence of the disease.
“I got into the car with my mom and said, ‘That is why the problem exists.’”
For the uninitiated, Lily Collins had a personal connection to the character she was portraying because she also suffered from anorexia , something she only recently revealed in the July-August 2017 edition of Shape magazine.
The 28-year-old actress talked about feeling a new sense of body pride as she reveals what she thought “healthy” meant before and after suffering from anorexia.
“I used to see healthy as this image of what I thought perfect looked like—the perfect muscle definition, etc. But healthy now is how strong I feel,” she told the magazine.
“It’s a beautiful change, because if you’re strong and confident, it doesn’t matter what muscles are showing. Today I love my shape. My body is the shape it is because it holds my heart.”
Now, Lily Collins is sharing something a bit more personal — and sad.
Recalling one scene in To The Bone where she was asked to strip down before her onscreen stepmother weighed her, she admitted to feeling a genuine heartbreak.
“There’s a scene where I’m taking my clothes off to be weighed by Carrie Preston, my stepmom in the movie, who takes a photo on her phone and shows it to me,” she told The Edit.
“I didn’t think she’d actually take one but she did. I saw myself in the photo and my heart dropped.”
She also revealed how her mom reacted to that particular scene after it was aired on Netflix. According to the actress, who also starred in several hit movies like The City Of Bones , what her mother saw in the scene wasn’t the role she was portraying but Lily Collins’ real emotions.
“So when my mom saw the film, she saw Lily’s reaction because she knows me the best,” she explained.
After To The Bone premiered on Netflix, social media users — both regular people and celebrities — took to Twitter to praise and critique the show. In fact, even those who suffered from anorexia were inspired to recall their battle and victory over the illness.
A word on To The Bone, below. A beautiful film made with a lot of heart and respect by director @martinoxon and star @lilycollins https://t.co/9d5z0Faz8T
— Netflix (@netflix) June 23, 2017
One even noted how the disease was more terrifying than it was portrayed in the series.
Sorry but if they were to make To The Bone realistic, it would be a horror. Anorexia is a monster, not a romantic disease.
— Lucy E B (@lu_edington) June 22, 2017
Others expressed their high hopes for the series, saying that the Netflix series should raise awareness about the illness and not glorify it.
Still, there are those who believed that the show might be a trigger for those who have eating disorders.
It sickens me how many people will magically develop an eating disorder when “To the Bone” comes out.
— ??? (@ednoslia) June 28, 2017
The “To The Bone” trailer has started a complicated discussion about eating disorders https://t.co/9yZoydkkrO pic.twitter.com/HatPjeonVa
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) June 21, 2017
Do you have something to say about Lily Collins and Netflix’s To The Bone ? Sound off in the comments section below.
[Featured Image by Netflix]
