Lily Collins and Jack Huston talk of coming from celebrity families

Los Angeles — Lily Collins and Jack Huston both come from famous families. Lily, 31, who headlines upcoming rom-com TV series "Emily in Paris" is the daughter of singer Phil Collins.

Meanwhile, Jack, 37, who is featured in "Manhunt: Deadly Games," "Fargo" and "Antebellum" is actually the nephew of actress Anjelica Huston and the grandson of American director John Huston.

Below, the two tell us what's it like to come from famous families.

Lily Collins

Courtesy of Janet Susan R Nepales/HFPA

How did you discover that your father was famous?

I just had this moment where, I remember being at Disneyland and we were walking around Disneyland and I was on my Dad’s shoulders and we saw a guy walking towards us.

My dad's face was on his t-shirt and I didn't quite get it (laughs) and then the guy saw my dad and then asked for a photo.

So it was a weird moment. Why does he want a picture of my dad? Why is my dad on his t-shirt? And then slowly but surely, I started to understand and realize. But it was definitely a funny kind of weird experience.

How was Paris for you?

Well I grew up going to Paris quite a bit, being born in England. Then I’d go for work quite a bit or press or for filming or for fashion week but I’m never there more than a couple days.

So for me to be able to go there for four months and be a resident, be a local of sorts, was really special. I think I went to every arrondissement. I experienced all of the different areas; you know we filmed in so many areas but also during the weekends exploring.

But I had experiences like my character Emily, my heating stopped working for two weeks! I didn’t have hot water for two weeks. There was construction everywhere around me, my elevator stopped working. So I had a lot of experiences that were somewhat similar to Emily.

But what I love is, (producer-writer) Darren Star and the writing team actually wrote a majority of the episodes while living in Paris, so it was a lot of experiences that we all had and we all shared that, got written into the show or they were things that they had heard of happening from their friends that they met in Paris.

And I shared a lot of the different experiences that Emily goes through with friends of mine who are Parisian and they loved them. They laughed. They found it funny. They gave input as well to Darren.

Jack Huston

Courtesy of Janet Susan R. Nepales/HFPA

When was the moment when you realized that the Huston last name was more than just a last name? When did you realize that your grandfather and your aunt were who they were?

I grew up in England as you can probably tell by my accent, so I think if I was in America the name Huston would have been quite a different thing. And it was actually to my benefit that I grew up in England and I felt quite removed from that.

So I had a very normal…when I say normal, I was at boarding school from seven, so as normal as it could be. But that’s rather common in Europe.

But I had the wonderful experiences from time to time getting to visit my aunt Anjelica on a movie set. The first one I ever remember visiting her on was “The Witches” and she was in full costume as the grand high witch with the long nose and the long fingers. And my brother was petrified whereas I instantly went over and just wanted to poke and prod her because I was fascinated. I always loved watching things and the performance of things but I realized, 'oh you can actually do this as a profession.' And she was acting out a book that was being read to me at that time.

So that was amazing. It was Roald Dahl. It was “The Witches.” We were reading at that age and it was amazing because you’re able to say…as a child your imagination goes wild, you imagine what things look like and see. And then I went and saw her do it and I just fell in love. From that moment, I knew I just wanted something to be in that business in a way. But I was very lucky.

I find it extremely rare that my children can watch their great, great grandfather, Walter Huston, on screen in many, many different movies and they can get an idea and a semblance of who this person was. So if anything he’s been immortalized by the cameras for my family. So I find that from a very dear sweet sense, I’m incredibly lucky and grateful for those things.

As a father, how are you keeping your family safe during this pandemic?

One travels a lot in this profession and that's one of the really hard things and I find it incredibly hard ever since having children especially it's been even harder every time I leave the door. It feels like it gets harder each time.

Thank God for things like FaceTime and Zoom and things where you can actually experience and see people's faces because I always think what that must have been like for our parents and our grandparents when they had to leave.

I found this time rather amazing. It's been an extended holiday where I've actually got to see my kids every single day so as much as I tell them, “Look, this isn't fair. You should be out experiencing the world making friends and doing everything.”

I also said we are given a very rare opportunity to really be together. And to try to use that time as best as we can. I'm not going to say it's not without its perils. And there are moments where tempers flare, etc. I would love to leave them with a sense of belonging about feeling that family. I've always in a sense, even from afar felt a very strong sense of family. And it's done me very well, because I always feel like they've got my back and I got theirs. And as long as my kids feel like I'm always there for them, I've got their back then. I think I've done half the job. — LA, GMA News