Ready to chic things up? Season 4, Part 1 of Emily in Paris is finally streaming on Netflix and I caught up with Darren Star, Lily Collins, Ashley Park, Lucien Leon Laviscount, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, and Bruno Gouery to discuss! Part 2 will follow on September 12.
After the dramatic events of Camille and Gabriel’s misbegotten wedding, Emily is reeling: She has strong feelings for two men, but now Gabriel’s expecting a baby with his ex, and Alfie’s worst fears about her and Gabriel have been confirmed. At work, Sylvie is forced to confront a thorny dilemma from her past for the sake of her marriage, and the Agence Grateau team navigates personnel shakeups. Mindy and the band prepare for Eurovision, but when funds run dry, they’re forced to get thrifty. Emily and Gabriel’s chemistry is undeniable as they work together towards a Michelin star, but two big secrets threaten to undo everything they’ve dreamed of.
“We’ve been filming it for five years, but it’s four seasons and we always see Emily like the day after the last season. So in our minds, she’s grown 24 hours, if not 12. Whereas every year we go back, I’ve had over a year of my life that I’ve grown and learned new things and had experiences that I can maybe impart some wisdom onto Emily. But I also have to kind of regress back to the day after what happened last time, so it’s been really interesting to reprise a role, having life experiences that she hasn’t had,” Collins, who is also a producer on the series, expressed to me about getting to reprise her role. “Because Emily’s experiencing all these things for a first time each time, it really makes things sometimes a bit more exciting for me, even if I’ve experienced something ten times because she gives me a new lease on life. And then, for me, I think I get to ground Emily in a way based on experiences I’ve had that I can lend to the show.”
“I think the Eurovision curveball was a really wild one for me, Ashley as the actor, and for the audience and for everyone to kind of see. I think that, as a singer, she had moved past doing these gig to gig jobs with busking and stuff like that and she was really gonna try to figure out what her solo sound is and such,” Park shared, previewing Mindy’s storyline. “We see her kind of find her own voice throughout this and what it means to be a solo artist and who she is, and I think that the biggest thing is also just it poses a big plot question for her in terms of how is she gonna get to Eurovision.”
As for Laviscount’s character, he commented, “Alfie’s got such a level of respect for Emily as a career-driven woman and also within their relationship, so I think he just needs to get some headspace to figure out what’s going on. His best mates kind of come in between it as well and I feel like Alfie’s just got to that point where he’s living in Paris, he’s got his crew, he’s got the partner, he’s got the girl he loves and then, it all just comes crumbling down. So, Alfie’s just trying to get that space to kind of get the perspective that he needs to move forward and by getting that space, he finds himself in a vulnerable space.”
“I look for chemistry between two people and when you see that… it’s like, actors, they just have to have it and I think Lucas and Lily have it. When you see that chemistry, I think it just reminds you inside of how wonderful love can be and I think that’s when you just sort of connect. I think it’s just like, this sort of idealistic representation of how things can be and also, how difficult they can be,” Star, who serves as the show’s creator, executive producer, and writer, told me regarding what he personally looks for in a TV ship. “People like to relate to that and see that other couples might have this wonderful romantic spark connection, but it doesn’t mean that it’s perfect.”
Bravo then continued by saying, “Weirdly, I like to see the things I like to see in reality and my own relationships, like vulnerability, truth, verbalization, and humor. But also, when it comes to a show, I like a bit of chaos, I like a bit of disruption because dismantling something means that there’s gonna be some rebuilding to do and it’s always interesting to see how our characters are gonna find their way back to each other with all the elements at stake and with all the obstacles on the way. So, I like a little chaos, I like a little disruption, and a hint of misunderstanding.”
“Well, I feel like splitting it into two parts, I know that it’s a bit of a torture for the audience,” Arnold explained, reflecting on this season being released in two parts. “When I’m watching my favorite show and episodes come once a week or in two parts, I’m like, ‘Nah, why do that to me?’ But [for] me, [and] us as actors, it allows us to have this experience of Emily in Paris coming out for a longer time and we get to experience all this fervor and all this hype for longer. So, we actually enjoy that, you know what I mean? When you’re on that side of it.”
Gouery added, “Yeah, and people are binging right now. There is something incredible for me that the day after when Emily go on show, I receive [a] dozen hundred messages saying, ‘When is the next season?’ It’s the first day! So it’s better to wait, you know?”
We talked about the experience of continually revisiting a role, what elements they each look for in a TV ship, what’s ahead for their characters in the new season, and more.
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