Lily Collins would like a do-over.
The actress, who is pretty much everywhere these days as the lead star on the Netflix sensation Emily in Paris, stirred up quite the unexpected controversy this week.
Collins, who stars on this comedy as Emily Cooper, a young marketing executive who gets sent to France for a year as part of her job and experiences many professional and personal ups and downs there, was asked a few days ago about her title character.
Specifically, about her age.
“I don’t believe we’ve ever given her a specific ‘number’ for her age, but I believe that she’s pretty fresh out of college. Maybe this is her first year after graduation,” the actress told British Vogue.
“I want to say she’s like, 22-ish. She’s had enough experience at her company in Chicago to have earned the respect of her boss…
“She’s gone to school for this, and she’s completed internships.”
This simple hypothesis took Netfllix viewers aback. Like, WAY aback.
How could Emily only be 22, they asked?
She has a Master’s Degree on the show. She has a very expensive, Chanel-themed wardrobe. And she sleeps around… a lot. (No judgment!)
“Emily has a MASTER’S DEGREE she is not 22!!!! Lily Collins plz,” one fan tweeted, while another chimed in as follows:
“Excuse me but Emily is supposed to be 22?! And get that job transfer to Paris fresh out of college? Alrighty then.”
Apparently aware of all these questions and the scandal she accidentially created, Collins has now walked back her response.
“Emily looking at me when I get her age wrong,” the actress, 31, captioned a GIF of her alter-ego via her Instagram Story on Friday, October 16, adding a laughing emoji.
“Sorry girl,” she also wrote.
Collins proceeded to take the lighthearted response one step further.
“You might not be 22, but I gotta say – you do act like it sometimes!!!” she concluded.
Elsewhere in her British Vogue interview, Collins defended Emily’s level of experience.
“She’s not the person who traveled during college. She was really, really focused on her jobs in the Midwest, and I don’t think she’s been abroad,” the star said.
“Basically, she’s always kind of been a big fish in a small pond — and then suddenly in Paris she’s a fish out of water.
“If she had gone to a different company in Chicago, she would have been taken seriously — but in Paris, she’s not prepared for the cultural shift that she experiences at Savoir.”
As for how she feels about some of the criticism leveled at Emily in Paris, like how it’s full of cliches and that her character is very one-dimensional and shallow?
“She is a woman who is both romantic and work-driven – you don’t have to be one or the other,” Collins said of Emily.
“It’s refreshing to hear a woman say, ‘I love my job, it makes me happy.’ …
She’s in a city that’s extremely foreign to her, and it’s tough – and, yeah, she could probably get on a plane and go home, but that’s just not who she is.”
That’s great and all — but how old is she?!?!?!?!?