With the fifth season of Emily in Paris officially streaming on Netflix, I’m thrilled to share my spoiler-filled interview with Lily Collins and Ashley Park, who star as Emily Cooper and Mindy Chen. We discussed the importance of avoiding outdated female tropes and how they inspire each other.
Now the head of Agence Grateau Rome, Emily faces professional and romantic challenges as she adapts to life in a new city. But just as everything falls into place, a work idea backfires, and the fallout cascades into heartbreak and career setbacks. Seeking stability, Emily leans into her French lifestyle, until a big secret threatens one of her closest relationships. Tackling conflict with honesty, Emily emerges with deeper connections, renewed clarity, and a readiness to embrace new possibilities.
This season, Emily is hurt and upset when she finds out that Mindy has been hiding her new relationship with Alfie rather than just being honest with her about it. Rather than make this conflict all about a boy, the storyline focuses on their bond and reconciliation.
“Our worry really was we care so much about this friendship and what it means to so many people, and so making sure that we were taking the care with it, and the fallout and the eventual coming back together felt very organic and very earned and nuanced,” Park expressed. “Initially, I immediately panicked. I called Lily, and I was like, ‘Is this really happening? How can this be happening,’ because it’s the first time, really, Mindy’s doing something where I would never do that, so I was judging the character, which is never a good thing to do as an actor. I think that what we saw, and you [Lily] pointed it out to me yesterday after you watched the first two episodes, but with a lot of those scenes of keeping it a secret, it felt like an eternity for Mindy to be keeping something from Emily, but trying to approach all the scenes of is this an appropriate time. Also, Mindy’s trying to figure out if it is a thing to even talk about, is it a productive thing to even bring up because she doesn’t even know what that is, you know?”
“This year was interesting for me just in that it was the first time I was working as a mom, and thank God for my husband being there to support and really help pick up where I couldn’t when I was working, but I will say, thank God for Ashley as well because it’s really hard to balance both,” Collins said of her real-life friendship with her co-star. “It’s really difficult, and I’m still figuring it out. I’m still learning about it.”
Watch my interview below:
