Lily Collins just added another Golden Globe nomination to her resume with “Emily in Paris.” In the romantic Netflix show, which also earned a Best Comedy Series bid, Collins is the eponymous Emily, a young American woman who accepts an opportunity at a Paris marketing firm despite not knowing a word of French. As a fan of romantic comedies, she was thrilled to get the chance to play a plucky heroine like Emily. “I have always been looking for a character like this,” says Collins in an exclusive new interview for Gold Derby. “To play a character in this world where she gets to dive into the unknown and see what that brings her and a sense of adventure and a sense of fun was something really special to me.” Watch the full video interview above.
While we meet several potential suitors for Emily through the first season, like the dashing chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), Collins offers that “Emily in Paris” is a show about “self-love.” Rather than who she necessarily ends up with,” the program is about “the idea that one’s romantic experiences and relationship with other people can help you define yourself as well,” she adds.
Part of the comedy of “Emily in Paris” is in seeing Emily clumsily adjust to a brand new culture, one that isn’t entirely impressed by her American idealism. In one early gag, Emily says she only recognizes Normandy because of “Saving Private Ryan” while in another scene she says she is “très excitée,” which has a decidedly more sexual connotation than she was intending. Collins notes that Emily is “in on the joke sometimes. She doesn’t take herself super, super seriously and I think that’s part of what makes her so relatable, at least to me.”
“Emily in Paris” was a big hit for Netflix the weekend it dropped in October. While Collins felt “a little piece of magic” was happening while they were filming the first season, she could not have anticipated how much audiences would take to the show’s whimsical escapism given the state of the world. In retrospect, however, Collins observes that the combination of the Paris setting and the warm visual design “allowed people to disappear for a little while and laugh together.”
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