'Okja' star Lily Collins: 'I just want to start conversations'

June 19 (UPI) -- Lily Collins says she hopes her new Netflix film Okja gets people talking.

Collins, Steven Yeun, Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano star in the drama about Mija, a young girl played by Ahn Seo-Hyun, who is trying to keep a powerful company from abducting and killing her pet, a super-pig that eats little, has a limited environmental impact and can potentially feed many people. Collins plays one of the animal-rights activists trying to help Mija and Okja.

Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, the movie is to begin streaming on Netflix June 28. It had its premiere last month at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

"I just want to start conversations. I want to do films that prompt conversations -- whether that is positive, negative, indifferent -- just ones that you leave the theater wanting to know more, wanting to watch the film over and over again," Collins said at a recent New York press conference.

The 28-year-old actress said her habit of people watching often helps when she is trying to find her way into the minds of the women she plays on-screen.

"I find that sometimes when you want to create a character and you think, 'Oh, that's too much.' You walk down the street and you go, 'Yeah, it's too little.' Or, 'Oh that's so subdued.' And then you watch someone and you go, 'Actually, that's probably more the way I want to go with it,'" Collins explained. "I'm constantly surprised by human nature and humanity. And I think that's why I love what I do because I love to story-tell and bring new characters to life. And every time I play a new character, I discover more about myself as a human being, but I surround myself with interesting people. It doesn't matter just because I am in this industry. I think, in life, we want to surround ourselves with people who make us think and question ourselves and those are the types of films I want to do and the types of characters that I hope I get to continue to play."

Collins' other credits include Rules Don't Apply, The Blind Side and Mirror Mirror.