Can Lily Collins speak French? Accent and more explored amid 'Emily in Paris' Season 2 launch

On Wednesday, December 22, Lily Collins returned as Emily Cooper with the second season of her hit show, Emily in Paris. In it, Lily's character cannot speak French well, which often causes hilarious lost-in-translation comedic moments.

However, in a recent interview with The Netflix Afterparty, actor and comedian David Spade questioned Lily Collins about faking Emily's French-speaking skills. On being asked if it is weird to fake being bad in French while being able to speak the language well in real life, Lily said:

"Yeah, it's very weird."

The 32-year old further added that she grew up learning French in school with her little brothers, who are half-Swiss.

---

How well can Lily Collins speak French?

During her appearance on The Netflix Afterparty, Lily Collins revealed her history with Romance and Neo-Latin language, saying:

"My little brothers are half-Swiss, so I started speaking French with them at a young age, and I started dreaming in it and reading it."

The Mank star also added how portraying Emily in the series affected her French. Lily Collins said:

"Emily is so bad at French and I'm playing a character who's the most American I've ever felt in my entire life… It was very difficult for me to decipher between the two, so my French, I think, got worse."

However, Collins also mentioned that she had begun practicing French once she was done with Season 2. The actress also promised that she would get better at it.

Lily also drew comparisons between her and Emily's prowess over French, in a 2020 interview with L'Officiel USA. She said that Emily was far worse at French than her.

Lily is also reported to have traveled to Paris multiple times before her involvement with the Netflix series. This included her participation in the 2007 fashion event in Paris called Le Bal des Débutantes, where she went as an 18-year-old debutante.

---

Lily Collins and her bygone British accent

Lily Collins was born in Surrey, England, to English singer-songwriter and drummer Phil Collins. However, after her mother Jill Tavelman and father split in 1996, Lily had to move to Los Angeles. The actress completed the rest of her education in the USA, where she attended the University of Southern California for a degree in broadcast journalism.

In October 2020, during the promotions for Emily in Paris Season 1, Lily Collins revealed to Hello! magazine about how she lost her native British language. She said:

"I was the new girl with a very sweet, strong but specific British accent. I was trying to say the names of my classmates but I just pronounced vowels in a very different way and so I got made fun of."

The British-American star further explained that she regretted losing her accent just to fit in at Los Angeles. In her Wired interview back in 2018, Lily revealed that she used to watch Peter Pan and recite the dialogues in an American accent to practice.