Lily Collins’ Netflix show Emily In Paris has definitely made quite the impact from the moment in debuted on the streaming platform back in October 2020. The comedy-drama series, created by Darren Star, stars Lily as Emily, an American who relocates to Paris for work. Her struggles in the workplace, search for love and friendships, and the culture clash she experiences are what the series revolved around.
The show earned its fair share of nominations and was heralded by critics and fans. However, there was also a lot of critique regarding the series and her character, too.
Well, Lily has seen and heard what’s been said, and she’s addressing the criticisms of Emily.
In a recent interview with Nylon, the 32-year-old actress and daughter of music legend Phil Collins responded to Emily being called “annoying” by critics. She acknowledged that Emily could come off as a bit over the top, but that’s the very thing that makes her so authentic. Lily said:
“A lot of the qualities that Emily has, if you put them on paper, would seem so annoying.
To have someone be optimistic, bright and bubbly—it’s sad to think that people would look and go, ‘That’s a lot.’ They’re such beautiful qualities, and the fact that she can partner that with being vulnerable and asking for help and making mistakes—she’s not infallible.”
She stated that she believes the dreamlike quality of Emily’s world is purposeful. Here’s why:
“I think that this is a heightened reality for Emily, to be moving to Paris, and what she experiences and what she sees. It’s just that when you put them all together in a TV show that also aesthetically looks the way it does, it’s a little less believable.”
Lily also said that she sees Emily as totally different from Carrie, the main protagonist in Darren Star’s Sex And The City:
“She’s in no way mimicking Carrie’s life.”
But she does admit this one adorable thing:
“Emily probably grew up having Carrie Bradshaw posters on her wall.”
Lily has likewise opened up about how the response to Emily In Paris’ first season helped shape the second season. Speaking with Elle UK, she stated:
“For me as Emily, but also as a producer on [the show], after season one, hearing people’s thoughts, concerns, questions, likes, dislikes, just feelings about it, there were certain things that spoke to the time that we’re living in and what’s right, and moral and correct and should be done. And [that was] something that I felt passionate about. [The producers] all believed in the same things.”
She said that diversity and inclusion were very important to her:
“I really wanted diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the camera to be something that we really put our focus on, in a lot of ways. Hiring new people in front of the camera, also giving new storylines to different characters, which was really important.”
And she talked about how working on the upcoming season was vastly different from the first because they began filming in the midst of the pandemic:
“I definitely got to know it better this time around, just because I wasn’t taking a lot of public transport because of regulations for filming. So I was walking a lot more. Charlie [McDowell, her husband] is great with directions and exploring and had marked places [to visit] all over Paris, even before I had the show. And so we were constantly walking and exploring. And, you know, our crew is all French. And so is most of our cast, except for Ashley [Park, who plays Mindy] and I. So you get to experience another side of Paris with them.”
Emily In Paris season two debuts on December 22 on Netflix.
