Why Karen From Abduction Looks So Familiar

Thanks to its recent addition to the Netflix library of streaming offerings, 2011's "Abduction" is currently getting a second chance at winning over audiences. Some come for the instant burst of nostalgia endorphins inherent to watching Taylor Lautner exist on a movie screen. Some thrill at the prospect of a previously overlooked mystery thriller. Still others are just Dermot Mulroney devotees, which is easy to understand — the man is a treasure.

Throughout the film, Lautner's character is accompanied by one Karen Murphy, a fellow student who gets swept up in a plot best described as the highest-stakes Ancestry.com advertisement in recent memory. Karen's face might be familiar to viewers, and for good reason — she's played by Lily Collins, daughter of Phil Collins and a critically acclaimed performer in her own right. Here, we'll examine some of Collins' most significant roles, and maybe nail down which movie or TV show you're positive you've seen her in before.

There's some confusion as to where Lily Collins got her start in the business. Multiple sources state that her first acting gig was on the short-lived British adaptation of "Growing Pains" when she was just two years old, but her IMDb profile makes no mention of the pint-sized appearance.

Her first verifiable onscreen work was actually on the fourth iteration of "90210" back in 2009. Across her two-episode run on the program, Collins played Phoebe Abrams, a teenager hellbent on doing alcohol even though anyone with a cursory knowledge of after-school specials could have told her that it's so not fetch. Again, it was 2009. "Fetch" very nearly happened back then.

Drama being the watchword of the 90210-verse, Phoebe's plans were halted by wily, conniving adults. Thankfully, by the end of her story arc, she managed to party real hard and throw up, proving once and for all that you don't need to drink to have fun, bro.

Some of Collins' highest-profile work came in the form of "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones."

It was 2013, and dystopian young adult action fantasies were in high demand thanks to Jennifer Lawrence shooting some arrows at things. Every studio head with half a brain was trying to get in on "The Hunger Games'" dramatic combination of perfectly symmetrical teen angst and weird first names.

In one particular case, that meant producing "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," and casting Lily Collins as protagonist Clary Fairchild, an angst-ridden and symmetrical teen with a weird first name. After a fateful nightclub visit, she learns that supernatural beings are all around, and that demons are being hunted by angels with all the ferocity that a PG-13 rating will allow. She joins a contingent of Shadowhunters: regular Joes given the Steve Rogers treatment through injections of angel blood. With the benefit of hindsight, the whole thing really does sound like a good time at the movies.

Unfortunately, while the film was expected to kick off a franchise, a lukewarm reception at the box office stuck a fork in those plans.

There are few things that we can all agree on in these troubling times, but there are two things that everyone loves: a good fish-out-of-water story, and staring at Netflix for five hours with only brief pauses to go to the bathroom or reheat some baked beans.

In 2020, Collins gave viewers the opportunity to experience both of these pleasures with "Emily in Paris," the Netflix original series that cast her as its eponymous Emily. Her character, a social media specialist, is thrown into an unfamiliar world when her job takes her, quite unexpectedly, to France. There, she spends an entire season sort of stumbling her way through work, interpersonal relationships, and a whole lot of private-time, grown-up stuff. Ballets are attended. Dresses are put on display. At one point, Emily knocks out the power to her block, and her methodology might surprise you.

If all of that sounds like a good old time, you'll be tickled to learn that a second season of "Emily in Paris" is on its way to Netflix in the coming months. While you wait, why not give "Abduction" a spin, and test the power of low expectations.