NEED TO KNOW
- Lily James admitted she’s never actually used a dating app herself while promoting her new movie, Swiped, based on Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd’s life, in a news interview
- “I try to stay really private, as private as I can. To be on a dating app feels a bit counterintuitive to that desire,” James said
- James has been romantically linked to actor Matt Smith and rock musician Michael Shuman in the past; when asked if she is single, she said, “I would never tell”
Lily James may be playing Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in a new movie, but the actress has never actually waded into the world of dating apps herself.
While James, 36, spoke with Who What Wear to promote her upcoming movie, Swiped, for a story published Wednesday, Aug. 13, the actress confessed that she’s never used a dating app.
“I’ve never been on a dating app, personally,” James told the outlet, when asked if she’s ever used Bumble or Tinder herself. “However, in research for the character, I went on my friend’s Bumble account just to get a sense of the app that I’m pretending I created.”
For James, using a dating app would betray a sense of privacy she likes to maintain — and she was never single when they first became popular, as she explained to Who What Wear. “I was always in relationships when the apps started. today, I just don’t know,” she said. “I feel a bit self-conscious. … I try to stay really private, as private as I can. To be on a dating app feels a bit counterintuitive to that desire.”
20th Century Studios
Despite James’ personal unfamiliarity with the apps, the actress described feeling impressed with tangible examples of people she knows in real life who cultivated successful relationships through dating apps.
“One of our producers, Jen Gibgot, met her partner on Bumble,” the actress said. “My best friend met her husband on Bumble. You start talking and you realize, like, how many matches, how many babies. That’s the profound effect that these dating apps — Bumble in particular — have had. It’s wild.”
In the past, James has been romantically linked to actors like Matt Smith, whom she costarred with in 2016’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Queens of the Stone Age band member Michael Shuman. However, she left her relationship status up to speculation when Who What Wear asked if she is single, stating, “I would never tell.”
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20th Century Studios
Swiped will mark James’ second movie to release this year following Relay, which debuts in theaters on Aug. 22.
She costars with Jackson White, Myha’la, Ben Schnetzer, Pierson Fodé, Clea DuVall, Pedro Correa, Ian Colleti, Coral Peña and Dan Stevens in the movie, which follows Herd’s career “as she uses extraordinary grit and ingenuity to break into the male-dominated tech industry and launch an innovative, globally lauded dating app (two, actually), paving the way to becoming the youngest female self-made billionaire,” per an official synopsis for the movie.
Swiped will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9 before streaming on Hulu starting Sept. 19.
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