Next Gen 2011: Hollywood's Fastest-Rising Stars
Going from episodes of 90210 to portraying an iconic fairy-tale figure is a little mind-blowing for Collins, 22, who plays Snow White in Relativity's untitled adventure movie. Although she comes from a family of performers -- her father, Phil, got his start in theater before making a name in music, and her grandmother founded a theater school in London -- all she got were audition rejections while living in Los Angeles as a teenager until she landed a role in 2009's The Blind Side. A small part in the vampire actioner Priest and a romantic lead opposite Taylor Lautner in Abduction followed, but the Snow White project, which chronicles Snow's growth from sheltered girl to young woman, has taken Collins to the next level. And like something out of a fairy tale, it all happened in 24 hours. One day in March, Collins had her Snow White audition at 3:30 p.m., met with director Tarsem Singh at 6:30 p.m., then flew to San Francisco to promote Priest at WonderCon. While checking into her hotel, she received a call: The part was hers. "I feel like I literally grew as Snow grew in the movie, that our experiences paralleled," she says. "It wasn't a movie shoot for me; it was a life experience."
