Dads, depression and girlhood: Lily Collias on her breakout role in Good One

Lily Collias is in the process of speed-tidying. That is, ​“the freak clean you do before your mom comes to see your place,” the actor says laughing, calling in from her apartment in New York. ​“It’s been a while since she’s been here and I’ve been feeling a little homesick, so I’m excited to see her.”

Having moved from Los Angeles last summer, the 19-year-old has very much hit the ground running – when it comes to her career, at least. Her breakout role in upcoming drama Good One, directed by India Donaldson, won her heaps of praise when it premiered at Sundance and showed at Cannes earlier this year. It isn’t hard to see why: Good One is a quietly powerful, contained film about queer teenager Sam (played with brilliant intensity by Lily) who goes on a camping trip with her dad Chris (James Le Gros) and his best friend Matt (Danny McCarthy).

You get the feeling that the pair’s friendship, however, is long past its sell-by date. There’s plenty of vaguely unkind poking and prodding between them, their shared anxieties about middle age, crumbling marriages, dodgy finances and tense familial relationships bubbling beneath the surface. Sam, meanwhile, is unassumingly wise, rising far above both Matt and Chris in clarity of thought, self-awareness and her general perspective on life. To make things more awkward, she’s missing out on having a good time with her friends, instead fulfilling her daughterly duties by going on this trip with her dad and his pal.

Surrounded by the lush landscape of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, some sad and other more sinister moments come to pass. Good One​’s distinct un-showiness makes it all the more disarming, as it tells the story of a very specific moment that, for Sam, results in a lesson that can’t be unlearned: that people, including your parents, can think and do terrible things, especially to women.

What drew Lily to the role? ​“India and I shared an understanding of this universal experience among women, of this time in your life that’s so significant and so subtly integrated, of constant things that are being said to you as you’re trying to understand yourself, while all these hormones are going through your body,” she says. ​“Sam is so introverted, and I really wanted to figure out how to show that. The idea of capturing that flashing moment in Sam’s life is what we were honing in on.”

Hi, Lily! Your character Sam has quite a big interior life. How did you get the hang of acting with your face and eyes, communicating big feelings without much dialogue?

It comes naturally, in a way – when you’re listening to interactions around you, they make you feel certain emotions, they make you twitch. When I was reading the script and only Matt and Chris were talking in a scene, I knew the majority of the camera would be on Sam. So what is this conversation to her? Is she tuning out? Does she want to hear it? Is it something that she’s observing? Is she ready to speak up?

So much of Good One is about that devastating moment when you emerge from childhood to realise that your parents, and all adults, are flawed, complex human beings. Can you recall that happening in your own life?

I didn’t have such an intense moment like Sam, gratefully. Obviously, parents… I don’t know if ​“disappoint” is the right word, but they will disappoint. And they’re human. Once I started to understand that, my parents started feeling more like my friends, rather than these superior adults. I think very highly of my parents, but I understand that they’re flawed, as am I. My dad never took me camping, so…

All the worst things happen while camping. Do you see any of yourself in Sam?

Only in very surface level things, like being a teenage girl and dealing with a dad. She’s much more internal than I am. When I think of the ways she seeks revenge and how she goes about that, I feel very differently from her. I would always make a scene.

What was your favourite moment from filming?

The moment where James and I went in the water was very significant to me. It’s still so visual in my brain. I remember thinking, this water is so fucking cold. I went in and completely blacked out for a second. But we got it in one take!

What do you make of the warm reception to the film?

I can’t believe it. I really didn’t know what I was getting into when I hopped on this project. It’s genuinely changed my life. Not only was I in something that was received really well, but I also feel so strongly about [the film’s message]. I want to advocate for people to watch it because I think it really does have something important to say. I’ve had dads come up [to me] with their teenage daughters, who I can tell are so shy and internal. The dads are so grateful that they got to watch that because it feels very awakening for them, too. Older women have come up to me and said they feel seen in some way. This is why I want to do [acting].

What are some of your favourite films?

For this project, I thought a lot about Aftersun by Charlotte Wells and Old Joy by Kelly Reichardt, in terms of having this individual, intimate experience that shifts things in a way that’s not in your face. Growing up as a younger sibling, I would watch whatever my brother was watching: Family Guy. Every now and then, though, my mom would show me fun French films – I remember growing up on Amélie. I’d watch it once a week. I also went through an intense phase of watching Hercules for a month straight. India and I talked a lot about [playwright] Annie Baker after I got the role, too. She brought me a fat stack of her stuff, I took a deep dive and now she’s my favourite playwright.

I heard you’ll also be starring in an A24 film soon…

Yes! I’m working on a new horror film called Alter by a really cool Russian director, Egor Abramenko, who did Sputnik. I’m working with actors I’ve looked up to for a long time. I’m excited.

Good One is out in the US from 9^th August

PHOTOGRAPHER Emily Soto HAIR Seiji Yamada MAKEUP Benjamin Puckey