[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for the second season of Emily in Paris.]
From show creator Darren Star (Sex and the City, Younger), the Netflix original series Emily in Paris is back for a second season with twenty-something ambitious marketing executive Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) trying to feel a little less like an American outsider and immersing herself more in French life, all with the hope of gaining some respect from her still skeptical co-workers. With a best friend and roommate (Ashley Park) who’s ready to have fun at a moment’s notice, the romantic at heart tries to focus on things other than her feelings for her off-limits neighbor, which leads to a new romance and an unexpected but life-changing choice.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, executive producer Star talked about the growing complications in Emily’s life, the Emily-Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) dynamic, pulling off the elaborate Versailles fashion show, how the choice Emily is faced with doesn’t have just one right answer, how far ahead he has planned things out for the show, the collaborative relationship he has with Collins as a producer on the show, and why he trusts her instincts.
Collider: First of all, congrats on being Netflix’s most viewed comedy series of 2020. That must be at least a little bit exciting.
DARREN STAR: Yeah, it was amazing to hear that.
The first season of the show really was an introduction to these character in this world, whereas the second season feels like it goes much deeper into every aspect of the show. Setting all of the weirdness of shooting during COVID aside, what did you most enjoy getting to really dig into this season and what are you most excited for fans to get to see?
STAR: Season 1, for me, is really just the beginning of a movie. It’s Emily getting her feet wet in Paris. And in Season 2, she’s really working hard to assimilate. It’s not so much about cultural differences as it is about her life in Paris, which is getting a lot more complicated. She has a lot of complications to deal with from the end of Season 1, and Season 2 incorporates so much more of our ensemble. Really, it’s about them, in a really significant way. We get to learn so much more about Sylvie, about Cami, about Mindy. They all really get to spread their wings in Season 2. In Season 1, they were just very peripheral to Emily. In Season 2, they really take off as significant characters, themselves.
In the first season, Emily found herself torn between her feelings for Gabriel and her friendship with Cami. In the second season, she’s still in denial about her feelings for Gabriel, and then she meets Alfie. As a storyteller, does it ever feel mean to set up a relationship like the one with Emily and Gabriel, and then keep throwing roadblocks at them, or is that the fun of it?
STAR: Certainly, it’s what keeps it interesting. Emily and Gabriel are not an easy relationship. There are a lot of complications surrounding it. Emily, being the person that she is, is somebody who doesn’t wanna cross a line with a friend. She makes mistakes and is doing things that, in hindsight, she’s not proud of, and yet, that’s also at odds with her own true feelings, so she’s constantly struggling with that. She’s also thrown into a culture that tells you, “Just follow your passion.” She has to follow her head, and she’s someone who’s very much in her head, all the time. She struggles with being in her head too much. So, at a point where she wants to follow her heart, she finds herself stumbling and making mistakes.
When you start exploring a relationship like that, do you know what the ultimate endpoint will be? Is there a definite decision in your mind, as to whether they’ll end up together or not, or does that change a lot?
STAR: I think it changes, in terms of you’re constantly creating new circumstances in the storytelling. A lot is driven by the chemistry between the actors. You see that chemistry. Also, we see what strong actors we have in our ensemble. I love Camille Razat this season. She comes into her own this year and I think people are gonna be surprised by a character they thought, in some ways, seemed one-dimensional, but definitely isn’t.
What was it like to put together and shoot and pull off the Versailles fashion show? I absolutely loved everything about it and how visual it is and how delightfully over the top it is, but it seems crazy to try to do something like that.
STAR: The crazy thing is that it was actually filmed in one day. We only had one day there. That’s a testament to our crew and to our director, Andy Fleming. It’s a little bit of a military operation, with a lot of planning and just holding your breath. Our DP, Steven Fierberg, is an unsung hero of the series, in terms of how fabulous he makes Paris look. His camera work is just so beautiful.
Clearly, not everything is wrapped up by the end of the season, which leaves plenty of possibilities for a third season. We learn that Emily has made a decision, but we don’t know what that decision is. Do you know what that decision is, and is it a decision that she is very clear on or is it one that we might see her having second thoughts about?
STAR: She has a decision in mind. She has a lot of doors to go through. There’s no one right door. At the end of Season 2, she’s left with a choice where there’s no right choice. There’s just a choice.
Do you have a pretty clear sense of what Season 3 would look like? How far ahead have you thought about this story in these characters?
STAR: I definitely have some ideas about Season 3, but in terms of many, many seasons, to me, with series, your characters become more complex, as you find new layers to your characters and you find new avenues of storytelling. When we have an ensemble like this, I’m constantly looking for new openings, in terms of little sprouts that come from the characters, as they become more defined. That dictates the story, in a sense, as it continues. Ultimately, it’s about characters. The more dimensionalized your characters are, the more you’re curious to know, as an audience and as a writer, what’s happening next. For anyone that’s spent time in a foreign country as an expatriate, I’m always fascinated by the learning curve of what it means to be there. How do you assimilate? And then, how do you assimilate to the point where you almost feel more like a native of your new home than you do of where you came from?
As a storyteller, when you start a show, do you always know what your eventual endpoint will be and it’s just about figuring out the middle, or do you feel like you never really know exactly where that final endpoint will be?
STAR: For a TV series, I don’t think you wanna know where that final endpoint is. For a movie, because you have a very defined beginning, middle and end, you better know what the ending is before you start writing your script. Otherwise, you’re gonna find yourself in the weeds. But a TV series is the reverse, in that you wanna create more and more and more possibilities for your characters.
You’ve created a number of TV shows that have female characters at their center and you’ve collaborated with quite a few different actresses, as leads and producers of those shows. What’s it been like to work with Lily Collins on this show? What does she bring to the table? What is it like to work with her, as number one on the call sheet, but also as producer?
STAR: I wanted Lily to be a producer on Emily in Paris to be fully invested in the show. It’s her life. I want her to feel like she also has a hand in what we’re doing and understands what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. As the star of the show who’s in just about every scene, it’s her attitude that really drives the whole production. She has such an amazing, wonderful attitude and wonderful work ethic. Even for myself, I can be aggravated about certain things that are happening, just logistically on the show, but she shows up with a smile on her face every morning, so I’m like, “Okay, I’ve gotta find her attitude.” It’s really key for the lead of your show to have that quality. She’s so special. I find her to be a very disciplined person, in that sense. She’s so prepared, when she comes to set, and she’s so all about Emily in Paris, when we’re making the show. I also trust her taste. Ultimately, she is the audience this show is for, so I trust her instincts.
Emily in Paris is available to stream at Netflix.