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Recently Fox Searchlight brought Collider and a few other journalists to London to visit the shooting location of their upcoming J.R.R. Tolkien biopic, Tolkien.

Tolkien hits cinemas on May 10th, and we were fortunate enough to speak with several people who worked on the film, including Tolkien co-star Lily Collins. Collins portrays Tolkien’s wife Edith Bratt, who famously inspired the elven beauties Luthien and Arwen. Collins is no stranger to genre movies having previously starred in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  

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Image via Fox Searchlight

We spoke with Collins about the gravity of bringing to life the legendary “dancing scene” between Luthien and Beren. Much of Edith Bratt’s story through Tolkien is heavily inspired by the fiction she later gave birth to, since very little is known about her early life (the same can be said for Professor Tolkien, himself). Most of her scenes in Tolkien involved working directly with Nicholas Hoult, given the fact that she is the only main character who did not attend Oxford University and how important her working relationship with Hoult was.

Check out what Lily Collins had to say in the player above, and below is exactly what we talked about:

  • The direction - or lack of direction - she was given about being a “dancing elf”
  • Fun with accents and dialects
  • Which moment in Tolkien Collins is most proud of
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Image via Fox Searchlight, Chernin Entertainment

Here is the official synopsis for Tolkien:

Tolkien explores the formative years of the renowned author’s life as he finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists at school. Their brotherhood strengthens as they grow up and weather love and loss together, including Tolkien’s (Nicholas Hoult) tumultuous courtship of his beloved Edith Bratt (Lily Collins), until the outbreak of the First World War which threatens to tear their fellowship apart. All of these experiences would later inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-earth novels.

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