Ilia Isorelýs Paulino on Her ‘Sex Lives of College Girls’ Character: ‘Who’s Gonna Fuck in a Muumuu?’
Jezebel spoke with Paulino, whose character, Lila, doles out the female gaze and grapples with becoming an authority figure in Season 2.
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Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, the 27-year-old fireball who’s gaining a reputation in the film and television industry as a “scene stealer,” knows she’s not the typical representation of an authority figure. But that’s not stopping her character Lila from getting a taste of power in the second season of HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls.
We initially meet Lila at the campus coffee shop, Sips, where she works alongside fellow student Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet). Paulino’s role in the first season was strictly comedic, balancing out Kimberly’s small town naïveté with sarcastic quips, unmitigated thirst, and a personality big enough to fill at least a dozen canisters of cold brew. But in Season 2’s sixth episode, Lila steps into focus, blossoming beyond secondary character limbo.
After the Sips manager vacates his role, the student workers find themselves desperate for new leadership. As Kimberly pushes Lila to apply for the gig, Lila is forced to reckon with the nausea-inducing idea of “working for the man;” to wrestle with the definition of “professional” and why it doesn’t include going braless; and to interrogate her own biases about who gets to ascend the corporate ladder and why. Of course, while they’re at it, Lila and Kimberly find time to rest their gaze upon rows of abs at fraternity fetés, respectfully turning the men around them into appetizing slabs of meat. I talked to Paulino, a Yale School of Drama alumna, all about Lila and her shenanigans over Zoom a few days before her episode dropped.
Earlier in the season, you do a lot of what I’ll call “female gazing” and objectifying of these muscled white frat dudes. Why do you think it’s important for us to see the girls in the show, and specifically Lila, get to objectify them?
One, because we do it everyday in real life. And two, I think there’s this notion that women aren’t as sex-crazed as men, and we are. And three, to show the men that, at least for me, it’s [just] about looking. Like yes, Lila gazes and she objectifies, but at no point do the men who are the object of her objectification feel unsafe. That’s that line that men cross.

Lila’s also always talking about or emphasizing her assets, and her tits are all over the place, which we love. Why do you think it’s so important to have a character like her—especially in a show that’s set in a college environment—who really doesn’t give a fuck what other people think about her?
I mean, first and foremost, it’s not lost on me that I am the biggest girl on the show. To have someone who isn’t a size 0, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 on an HBO show who is loving her body out loud in front of men, women, everyone is so important in today’s day and age. And I still have my days where I’m like, “Damn bitch, you shouldn’t have eaten that burger. I can see that roll.” But then I get to go and play Lila.
In the first season, I went to a fitting for some of the Sips scenes and—no shade to them because I think they were just trying to make me feel comfortable—but they wanted to put me in a muumuu or an oversized dress or t-shirt, and I was like no, no, no, no, no. She’s 18, and she’s fucking. Who’s gonna fuck in a muumuu? So as people have seen Lila on screen [in crop tops and tight-fitting clothes], I’ve started getting a shit ton of girls reaching out who are also on the chubby chunky side or on the fat side, and I think they felt seen. They felt like they had permission, not that anyone needs my permission, but oftentimes we feel like we do. So if I can give permission to other girls to go to the club and shake that ass and wear that miniskirt like any other girl your age, do it. You’re only gonna be 18 once. Are you gonna be 80 hoping and wishing that you could go back and shake ass? I wanna be shaking ass into my 80s, you know what I mean.

You and me both. So I wanted to talk about Episode 6, which is obviously your banner episode. Lila gives me big socialist “I don’t dream of labor” vibes, am I right in sensing that?