Lily is Vogue Australia‘s December cover star! The issue will be available on newsstands in Australia on November 29.

Lily Collins on Emily In Paris season 2, working with her husband, and her blindingly bright future

With her career soaring to stylish new heights courtesy of Emily In Paris, and newly married to the love of her life, Lily Collins is just trying to live in the moment.

Lily Collins says she’s jet-lagged, but there really is no evidence of that. Here she is on Zoom, friendly and fresh-faced in an oversized chambray shirt, the day after she returned from her month-long Scandinavian honeymoon with her husband, filmmaker Charlie McDowell. The 32-year-old is framed by big windows pouring in all that gauzy California late-afternoon sun. It’s almost golden hour and the effect is stunning.

It’s been a lazy kind of day. This morning, Collins took her dog Redford to be groomed and squeezed in a facial. “Got to get hydrated!” she jokes, before her Vogue Australia photo shoot. Life is good. It’s the eve of the release of season two of her phenomenally successful Netflix series Emily In Paris and Collins is really savouring being in the moment.

“I think when I was younger I was far more focused on the future, because I knew so badly where I wanted to go and where I was headed. Or hoping to head,” the actor reflects. “That was my focus, and I lost sight of present moments, and the ‘now’ moments. My real focus and passion was with my work. It’s not to say I didn’t enjoy being with my friends, of course I did, but I was always so work-driven and future-driven.” Recently, that balance has shifted, Collins says. “But now, what I really want to find in my future is what I have with my husband and our dog, so that’s caused me to focus far more on the present, and the future will come.”

Being present is important to Collins, something she achieves through meditation and keeping a daily gratitude journal. But she says she is still “innately a planner” and has “always thought long-term, big picture”. So when she does let her mind wander further afoot, what are her hopes? “Being a mom,” Collins says. “When that happens. Having a family. And just being able to continue being a part of the creation of stories in front of and behind the camera,” she adds of her expanding role as producer on Emily in Paris—but more on that later.
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