Lily Collins says J. R. R. Tolkien and his wife Edith Bratt shared a Hollywood love story which "stood the test of time".
Lily Collins at Tolkien premiere
The 30-year-old actress plays Edith in the much-anticipated biopic 'Tolkien' - which premiered in London on Monday (29.04.29) - and tells the story of the English writer, (Nicholas Hoult) who wrote literary classics 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings', who was married to Edith for 55 years and used her as inspiration for many of his characters.
The 'Love, Rosie' star has insisted that the pair were each other's "one and only love" who survived "everything you could throw at them" and says the couple gives her hope that true love exists.
Speaking on UK TV show 'This Morning', she said: "They were both orphans together. [They met] in the home they both lived in as orphans she was already living in a house with a benefactor and Tolkien and his brother were brought in and they just became fast friends and then pretty much each other's one and only love.
"They stood the test of time, war and kind of everything that you could throw at them and it's almost as if it could be written for the movies, only in the movies but it was true and it kind of gives us all hope it exists."
Lily went on to explain that although there wasn't much information about Edith for her to use as research, she took inspiration from some of Tolkien's characters who were based on his wife.
She said: "I did all the research that I could, there's very limited on Edith unfortunately but plenty on Tolkien and knowing that the inspiration Tolkien took from Edith. You know the eleven princess and a lot of those mythical characters are based off of her. So I had to try and learn to distil those fantastical elements into a real life person."
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