Lynn Collins: it's been her crush on the bard that's driven her to the boards

Reached in Luxembourg, where she's shooting The Merchant of Venice, Lynn Collins is frenetic. Her hotel telephone is on the fritz, she's exhausted, and she's late for dinner with Al Pacino.

Born in Houston, the twentysomething actress spent six years in Singapore, where she racked up her first credit: Mrs. Claus in a Christmas pageant. But it was back in Texas, where Collins landed the part of Ophelia in a high school production of Hamlet and "wrapped my mouth around Shakespeare," that she fell in love with acting: "I was done. I knew it was for me."

So it was on to Juilliard for the "avid astrologer and tarot reader," and then to a blink-and-you-miss-it movie debut in last year's Down With Love. She played a jilted lover in February's 50 First Dates, a role she reprises in this month's Jennifer Garner-Mark Ruffalo romantic comedy, 13 Going on 30. "I'm getting used to being the girl who gets screwed over," Collins jokes. Still, it's Merchant that she really itches to talk about. In Michael Radford's adaptation of one of the Bard's most controversial works, Collins plays Portia to Pacino's Shylock and Jeremy Irons's Antonio. "Portia is so challenging! I'm donned as a man half the time, and her monologues are brutal. But I like getting dirt under my fingernails. And, God, I've been getting guidance from Al Pacino. But I try not to hog him. He needs to be shared."

Scott Lyle Cohen is Interview's senior editor. Above: Lynn Collins wears a dress by HUSSEIN CHALAYAN. Cosmetics by CHANEL. Styling: DEEP KAILEY. Hair: DEJAN CEKANOVIC/ Streeters. Makeup: SINDEN/Streeters. Fashion details page 181. Photo: WILLIAM SELDEN.

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