Lily Collins "weirdly" craves "nervousness".
The 31-year-old actress plays the role of Lauren Monroe, whose father, the patriarch of a wealthy and powerful political family, passes away and leaves her an envelope containing directions to a cabin, in the upcoming indie thriller ‘Inheritance’.
In the cabin, the woman finds an imprisoned man, who opens the door to secrets that will threaten to unravel and destroy their lives and everyone around them.
And Lily – who is the daughter of Genesis star Phil Collins and his ex-wife Jill Tavelman – has admitted that through playing the character, she dug into "emotional places" she’d never been through before, which was scary, but she believes it’s the only way actors can get "better" by reliving difficult experiences from the past through their work.
She told Collider.com: "I’m constantly looking to just explore different sides of myself and the craft, that I haven’t before.
"And so, through Lauren, I was able to dig into emotional places that I hadn’t and put myself into her headspace, and those were ones I hadn’t been in with any other character before.
"So, I was definitely nervous, but it’s a nervousness that I weirdly crave because I know that it’s pushing me.
"It’s such a weird, twisted way thing that actors get to do.
"You work through emotions and experiences in your past, but at the same time, you can move through things and move past them.
"You always wanna keep a little bit of those things that you can tap back into, for emotional scenes in films and for your work. It’s a bizarre thing that we have to, but I think it just pushes you and makes you better, as an actor."
Meanwhile, Lily – who has opened up about her battle with anorexia and bulimia during her teenage years – previously admitted that her father’s separation from third wife Orianne Ceveyn was the catalyst for her eating disorder.
She said: "My life felt out of control. I couldn’t handle the pain and confusion surrounding my dad’s divorce.
"I was having a hard time balancing being a teenager with pursuing two different grown-up careers – both of which I’d chosen myself but focused heavily on how I looked."