Make way for Lily Sheen - and also a brand new subseries of Collider Ladies Night called Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party! In an effort to shine an even bigger spotlight on emerging talent, we’re expanding the Ladies Night brand to include a series of stripped-down long-form interviews with industry newcomers to give you the opportunity to get to know them, learn more about their first big projects, and to get a sense of their career goals moving forward. No games, no cutaways — just an in-depth conversation focusing on the guest’s passion for their craft and future ambitions. And who better to start with than Lily Sheen? Someone who’s had a foot in the industry her entire life courtesy of her parents, Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen, and is now breaking out on her own with a major role in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
The movie stars Nicolas Cage as a fictional version of himself. Not only is he struggling to find fulfilling work and pay off some serious debt, but Nic is also drifting away from his daughter, Sheen’s Addy. He desperately wants to share all of his passions with her, but has a hard time understanding and staying open-minded when she expresses different interests. In an attempt to make progress with one of those challenges, Nic reluctantly accepts a $1 million offer to attend a superfan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party in Mallorca. However, while there, Nic is shocked to find a kindred spirit who shares his love of storytelling, and also someone who inspires him to prioritize other elements of his life, like his family.
With The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in theaters nationwide, Sheen helped us kick off Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party with a 20-minute conversation covering her journey in the industry thus far. She was drawn to acting at a very young age but credits a stage performance of High School Musical as the experience that proved she had an itch to act that she would need to keep scratching.
“I was a part of a lot of amateur kid theater when I was growing up, which was really fun. One of the performances we did was High School Musical and, of course, I’m eight, I want to be Gabriella. I want to be the pretty girl. So I had auditioned and everything and they put me as Mrs. Darbus, who is the adult woman. She’s probably the only adult in the entire thing. I had on the gray wig and glasses and everything, and I remember being really upset about it because obviously, I wanted to have a fun costume, wear a cheer costume, or whatever, you know? And being on stage, there was one time when we were doing the performance and I remember standing there and wearing the costume and feeling this feeling in my stomach. I was supposed to be yelling at someone. I think I was yelling at Troy or something like that, and feeling this feeling of, ‘Oh, I’m really angry. I’m really angry at him.’ And I heard someone in the audience go, ‘Oooo.’ And I went, ‘Oh, okay. This is it. I’m done. I’m gonna have to do this forever.’”
Sheen did get the opportunity to add some credits to her filmography early on, but after the 2009 release Everybody’s Fine, you’ll notice a significant gap until Massive Talent is added to the list in 2022. What was Sheen up to during that period, and why was Massive Talent the right project to jump back in with? Here’s what she said:
“I went through school. My parents were very adamant about me having an education, which I really respect, and having some semblance of normalcy through my life. So I think throughout the years I’ve just been trying to kind of learn how to be a human person, you know? So that’s what I’ve been up to. But when I moved to New York for school, that’s when I started auditioning again and trying my best. I’ve been putting in the hours and I’m very lucky to have this helping hand through my family to kind of lead me through the industry a little bit. But I’m trying to just work as hard as possible, and that was what I spent the last few years doing. Just working on trying to actually book something and then finally, this script came about and I think maybe it’s a testament to how much I just loved the script and loved the project and was such a fan of Nic, that I really put my all into these auditions.”
Sheen’s instincts were on point — Massive Talent really does boast an exceptional script — but even with sky-high enthusiasm for the material, Sheen did face a rather intimidating challenge joining the project because it would mark the very first time she'd make a movie without her own family there. However, it turns out, the environment on the set of Massive Talent wasn’t much different from sets like Underworld: Evolution. Here’s how Sheen put it:
“It’s very interesting because obviously I was working with my own family on Underworld, so it was that kind of feeling of support and it felt like a family a fair. And interestingly enough, it was the same feeling on this set for Unbearable Weight. It was amazing to walk into a set that was really embracing me, and embracing all of the actors and wanting everyone to do well, and that’s kind of a cornerstone of family. So I would say my experience on Underworld probably set me up to have this fantastic experience on Unbearable Weight.”
Looking for more from Sheen? Be sure to catch our full 20-minute conversation in the video at the top of this article. You can also listen to the interview in podcast form below: