Lily Collins has slammed the fashion industry for casting "extremely small girls" in catwalk shows.

Lily Collins

Lily Collins

The 28-year-old actress, who forged a career as a model before she broke into the entertainment industry, believes France's debate to include models with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18 on the runway was "really important", but she believes another conversation on model's weight and health is to be had.

Speaking about the business to The Hollywood Reporter, the brunette beauty said: "I think the BMI conversation was really important.

""But then you do watch fashion shows and you do see extremely small girls walking down the runway, and a lot of them are really young and haven't become women yet. It's like their body shape hasn't changed. Some girls look like they're about to pass out.

"I think there's still a conversation to be had there about runway sizes."

Lily portrays a female battling with anorexia, Ellen, in the drama film 'To The Bone' and the star has revealed she has recently been criticised for her rapid weight loss, which was in preparation for the role, and she wished the public would be more sensitive to those who are a "victim" of the eating disorder.

She said: "I hate that because you just don't know if someone is struggling. I was a victim of that when I was losing the weight for this movie.

"I was photographed looking a certain way, and all of a sudden it was like plastered everywhere, and I wasn't allowed to talk about the movie yet."

Meanwhile, Lily - who is the daughter of musician Phil Collins - has already moved onto another project and is set to appear in 'The Last Tycoon', which will premiere on July 28, and the star is hopeful the show will get a follow-up in the future.

She said: "Hopefully we get to go into more seasons. It's brilliantly written. And there are so many different relationships and stories going on. It would be a shame not to be able to share them all."