Following the premiere of ‘The Exception’ alongside Jai Courtney, Christopher Plummer and director David Leveaux, Lily has posed for a portrait session in Burberry during the Toronto Film Festival.

Lily attended the premiere of her upcoming film The Exception during the Toronto Film Festival. She looked so beautiful, be sure to check out the gallery for photos! More will be added tomorrow!

PRESTIGE – Lily James is having a moment right now. Even if you’ve somehow missed the phenomenon that is Downton Abbey, you would have to have been living under a rock this past year to miss the buzz surrounding this young actress. From the controversy over her tiny waist in Cinderella, to her beautiful portrayal of Natasha Rostov in the critically acclaimed BBC adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s literary classic War and Peace, to her budding romance with fellow Brit actor Matt Smith, aka Doctor Who, it seems hardly a week goes by when she isn’t making headlines.

When we meet, she’s in the middle of a four-month stint on stage in London’s West End, taking on yet another iconic role: the female lead in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Richard Madden – best known as Game of Thrones’ Robb Stark – plays Romeo to her Juliet, and Kenneth Branagh steps out as director. Having worked with both men on Cinderella, it’s a familiar crowd for James, which one can’t help but hope takes the pressure off somewhat, as she seems to be one of the busiest people in showbiz. Several projects are either in process or about to be released, War & Peace has just finished airing, she’s on stage eight times a week for four months, and she’s just been announced as the new face of Burberry’s fragrances. It’s a wonder she finds time for a personal life, but then again dating a Time Lord must have its benefits.

Not that she’s complaining. Despite being on voice rest (she sings in Romeo & Juliet, as with many of her other roles), any fears of a quiet interview and quick answers are allayed within a few minutes of meeting her. Warm and chatty, she makes it easy to forget she’s a serious rising star. Her speech is peppered with laughter, a chuckle that verges on the dirty, but with an undercurrent of nervousness that makes it truly endearing. She has a habit of wistfully repeating questions after they’re asked, as if she’s really invested in giving the best possible answer.

As the new face of Burberry fragrances – and the spokesperson for the newly launched My Burberry Black – she’s following in the footsteps of British style icons Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss. Though James differs in a lot of ways from her predecessors, she also represents many of the same things that Moss and Delevingne do, in particular an authenticity that resonates with women. “They’re both genuine people and they’re very real,” says James, “and I’d hope that would be true of myself.” Added to this is a sense of humour, which James sees as inherently British. “I feel there’s a sensibility of getting on with stuff and taking the piss out of stuff,” she says of fellow Brits. “It makes me happy.”

As chief creative officer of Burberry, Christopher Bailey has been on a mission to seek out the best emerging talent from the UK, and has proved time and again that he has the eye for it, as James is quick to point out. “I really respect [Christopher] … He has an eye for talent and I felt really honoured considering the people who have been a part of the brand, you know: Felicity Jones, Emma Watson, Eddie Redmayne … the list is endless.
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PEOPLE – Lily James loves all things beauty and fashion.

The Downton Abbey actress, 27, became a total red carpet darling when she went on her global press tour for Cinderella last year, and has kept up an interest in fashion and beauty ever since. This month, she was even named the face of Burberry’s new My Burberry Black fragrance (for which she posed topless in the campaign).

So when we caught up with her to chat before the Burberry launch, we had to wonder, what has she totally fallen hard for now that she’s, well, in it?

Scroll down to see her top five obsessions.

1. Carrying lipstick everywhere.
“In my bag right now, I have my lip gloss and about four Chapsticks,” she tells us. “In my normal handbags, I usually have quite a few lipsticks. They sort of mound up. My Chapsticks are regular, and my go-to lipsticks are the Burberry Kisses lipsticks, which I truly love. I’m really into that nude tone that’s quite mellow and effortless.”

2. A good contour stick.
“Because I have quite a round face, I love to accentuate my cheekbones as much as possible,” she explains. “So I use a lot of contour sticks. I also like to look quite natural, so I like foundation and a little shading and some blush to make you feel like you just crawled out of bed but not too heavy.”

3. Keira Knightley’s look.
“She has such a strong structure for her face,” says James, “I can’t stop looking at her face!”

4. Her Berlin Film Festival Dior gown.
“I loved one of my first red carpets, when I did the Berlin Film Festival,” says the star. “I wore this pink Dior dress, and that was my first fashion moment. From never wearing certain clothes to be able to transform in that way was really exciting.”

5. Shapewear!
“I love a pair of Spanx,” admits James. “I don’t go too extreme. I know there are some crazy contraptions that people wear now but a good ol’ fashion pair of Spanx never goes amiss, but it’s not for everyday wear.”

DEADLINE – Focus Features is reteaming with Working Title Films and Joe Wright on Darkest Hour, which will now hit U.S. theaters on November 24, 2017 with Universal Pictures International launching overseas on December 29, 2017. Production begins this fall. Darkest Hour marks Wright’s fourth feature with Working Title and Focus after Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Anna Karenina. Wright also directed the Focus thriller Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan.

Wright will direct Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in the film penned by Theory Of Everything‘s Anthony McCarten. He is producing as well with Lisa Bruce and Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Also on tap for Darkest Hour is John Hurt as Neville Chamberlain (who Churchill succeeded as Prime Minister), Lily James as Churchill’s personal secretary, Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, and Kristen Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife Clementine.

Darkest Hour‘s plot is described as follows: Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.

Wright’s canon with Focus Features and Working Title has amassed two Oscars, two Golden Globe Awards, and four BAFTA wins.

No word yet whether Darkest Hour will go wide or limited. Pic will encounter Fox’s Murder On The Orient Express, Disney/Pixar’s Coco and Universal’s romance title Let It Snow.

DEADLINE – Kaiser Wilhem, last emperor of the German Empire, ended his reign as one of the most hated men on earth. Held largely responsible for the disaster that was World War 1, he was as despised by his own subjects as he was by the world at large, and after Germany’s defeat was forced into exile in the Netherlands, where he spent the last 25 years of his life. He has largely been forgotten in popular culture however, thanks of course to the far worse monstrosities of the Nazi regime, but the upcoming TIFF drama The Exception aims to shine a light on the complicated and difficult man. Starring Christopher Plummer, the World War II-set film follows the complex political machinations within the former Kaiser’s Dutch household and his own contradictory tendencies, and in the exclusive clip above, we get a glimpse of that as he shows leniency towards the personal affairs of his household staff.

A humanistic portrayal of the man and his bundle of contradictions has a lot of promise – Wilhelm was a man even Hitler hated (which would normally be a recommendation to his character but, alas, he was sternly opposed to democracy, enjoyed Germany’s conquests in WWII despite his exile, and was kind of a bigot). We’ll have to wait a while to see it for ourselves, alas. The Exception has its world premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by David Levaux from a script by Simon Burke, the film stars Christopher Plummer as Wilhelm, along with Janet McTeer, Jai Courtney and Lily James.

A few years ago, Lily starred in a short film called ‘Chemistry’ alongside Tom Riley and Al Weaver. We have finally found the full release and the gallery has been updated with HD screencaptures. You can watch it below, enjoy!

Johann, a brilliant young scientist, conspires with his friend Eric to perform a dangerous chemical experiment with an exhilarating goal: the secret of eternal life. Their fraternal relationship is tested to the limit by the addition to their duo of the beautiful, capricious Ines. A compelling blend of humour and anxiety, CHEMISTRY is the dark tale of Johann’s naïve obsession as he finds himself caught in a perilous love triangle.