Lily Collins transforms for seedy drug-scene shoot in Kingston for Close Personal Friends

Lily Collins has been photographed filming a drug-scene sequence in Kingston, Surrey, for an Amazon MGM project titled Close Personal Friends. Dressed in a burgundy beanie, a dark denim jacket and Adidas trainers, the 36-year-old actress appears unrecognisable from her polished Emily in Paris character as she buys a wrap of crack cocaine from a street dealer in a graffiti-strewn alley beside a party-supply shop.

The scene, shot late at night in a seedy back street near a fancy dress and balloon shop, features Collins’s character exchanging the drugs with a cyclist who quickly pedals away. The production also stars Brie Larson, Jack Quaid and Henry Golding in what is described as a comedy about a couple who befriend two celebrities during a trip to Santa Barbara, California, leading to plenty of awkwardly funny moments. The Kingston location sits adjacent to Partica, a shop well known to locals for its costumes and props, underscoring the film’s tonal shift from high-glamour to grittier, comedy-driven scenes.

Collins, who has been balancing acting with motherhood and a high-profile marriage to filmmaker Charlie McDowell, recently wrapped production on the fifth season of Emily in Paris, much of which was filmed in Rome after her character, Emily Cooper, moved there. Off the screen, Collins and McDowell welcomed a daughter, Tove, earlier this year via surrogacy, with the couple expressing gratitude to their surrogate and those who helped along the way.

Filming in Kingston marks another edge of Collins’s career as she continues to diversify her roles beyond the chic, fashion-forward narrative she is known for in Emily in Paris. No release date has been announced for Close Personal Friends, but the project adds to a slate of high-profile collaborations involving Amazon MGM and a cast that includes some of Hollywood’s rising and established stars. The production’s nocturnal Kingston shoot underscores the film’s aim to juxtapose glamorous celebrity culture with more offbeat, offbeat comedic situations, as audiences are invited to watch the intrusion of a celebrity-tinged world into ordinary life evolve into humor and, at times, tension.