Watching Swiped, Hulu’s docudrama based on the rise of Tinder and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, you may something off about its star, Lily James. The former Downton Abbey actress certainly looks more like herself in the feature than she did in the limited series Pam & Tommy, and yet, still not entirely like herself.
What may click a few minutes in is that James’ eyes match those of her character’s real-life inspiration. Contact lenses were used to change the actress’ irises from brown to blue. It’s a more minute change than the prosthetics — facial and otherwise — that James had applied to play Pamela Anderson, but the effect is transforming.
And that sort of shift is important to James. “I think it’s so fun as an actor to have a big physical transformation and even small ones,” she told Gold Derby. “To stand in your costume fitting and go through hair and makeup, you feel the energy in your body change. You think, ‘I’ll stand like and create this rhythm of a character.'”
For James, alterations to her physical appearance — even if it’s only a couple of contact lenses — can be just enough to put some separation between herself and the character she’s been hired to portray. “Physical changes help with that so much. With the blue eyes [in Swiped], I love wearing contacts. I love looking in the mirror and not seeing me. It feels like freedom from my own s–t. It allows this character to take the front seat.”
Embodying the app founder (who for legal reasons could not have any input on the making of the movie) required James to review footage of Wolfe in order to pick up not just her physicality, but also the speed with which she thinks.
“With Whitney, it’s probably not as obvious, particularly in comparison to when I played Pam Anderson, but I spent a lot of time studying her mannerisms and her energy and how she speaks,” James said. “The biggest thing to me was the speed of her brain. Those thoughts are coming in at a million miles per minute.”
