The ‘Emily in Paris’ star is remembering her feature film debut and how much she learned from Sandra Bullock
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Lily Collins learned a lot from her onscreen mother Sandra Bullock.
On the set of 2009’s The Blind Side, Collins, now 35, “was mothered by Sandra Bullock,” she told Sky News in a recent interview.
Bullock, 60, “really took me under her wing during that experience and showed me the ropes,” said Collins, who made her feature film debut in the movie as the real-life Collins Tuohy. The sports biopic earned Bullock a Best Actress Oscar statuette for her performance as Tennessee mom Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took in burgeoning football star Michael Oher (played by Quinton Aaron).
“I really appreciated and respected the way that she handled a set and herself,” Collins said, noting that she and Bullock stayed in touch after the movie’s completion.
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“Even when she didn’t know she was teaching me, she was teaching me because I would watch her on set,” she added. “The way that she spoke to everyone, treated everyone, the questions she asked, and how she just valued her character in ways that I didn’t know going into it that you can value.”
As the lead of her own television series now — Netflix comedyEmily in Paris, which released the first part of its fourth season on Aug. 15 — Collins said watching Bullock on and off-camera while filming The Blind Side “made such an impact on me as my first experience to have this amazing, strong, kind female lead the way.”
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The Blind Side, based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, became a box office success and Best Picture Oscar nominee. Oher, its central real-life subject, has since objected to the movie’s depiction of his life. In a recent interview with the New York Times Magazine, the 38-year-old former NFL star said he “was defined” by the “narrative” crafted by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. He filed a lawsuit against them last year alleging that the family exploited his likeness to make “millions,” resulting in the termination of his conservatorship.
The second part of Collins’ Emily in Paris season 4 will premiere on Netflix Sept. 12. Among Bullock’s upcoming projects is Vigilance, a remake of a French thriller.
