"Emily in Paris" cast showcases deep friendship at PaleyFest LA

The Emily in Paris cast reunited for PaleyFest LA and the panel featured discussions about the show's evolution, the development of its characters, and the most recent plots in the story. Lily Collins (Emily Cooper), Ashley Park (Mindy), Lucas Bravo (Gabriel), Samuel Arnold (Julien), Bruno Gouery (Luc), Lucien Laviscount (Alfie), creator and writer Darren Star, and director Andrew Fleming shared anecdotes about memorable scenes. The cast and creatives discussed the transition from Paris to Rome, the unique experiences during shooting, and the joy of performing in various settings.

The conversation started by discussing how the cast sees their characters' evolutions from Season 1 to Season 5. Lily Collins stated that at the beginning of the show, Emily definitely felt like she had all the answers, but as seasons have gone on, she has grown accustomed to vulnerability and accepted she sometimes needs to ask for help.

"I think that there is growth in knowing to ask for help. Strength following weakness is really important."

Lucas Bravo added that the biggest difference is that they have been filming the show for six years, which means the actors themselves have evolved from who they were when they first started filming.

"I feel like we're completely different human beings. We have to come back and step into the shoes again, and I have no memories of who I was when I started the show."

Andrew Fleming also commented on the show's evolution, going from flashy, quirky, and youthful to a more sophisticated and grown-up version of itself. He mentioned that this evolution mirrors Emily's journey throughout the show. Darren Star chimed in: "You have to keep the characters evolving and changing to keep them entertaining to an audience. We're always pushing ourselves to think about what makes each of these characters grow."

They also discussed the big transition that was shooting in Rome instead of Paris. The creators wanted the show to take some chances and not become stale in Paris, as well as just open up a whole new world of stories for its characters. They wanted to bring a new adventure Emily's way.

Lily interpreted Emily's new environment as an outlet for her imperfection to come up. She said that it was exciting to have things not work out for Emily:

"I really appreciated the openness of all the writers in providing more space to just observe her feeling and discovering."

It was fascinating for her to internalize all of these events happening in a young woman's life, one who's moving across the world and falling in and out of love. Emily from Season 1 couldn't have let herself go, but Season 5 Emily has grown into a fearless woman.

The highlight of the event was how Lily's and Ashley's friendship came up over and over in the beautiful, effortless ways they interacted with each other. They discussed multiple scenes during the filming process in which they had to act out fun moments of friendship between Emily and Mindy, but they describe them as great moments for their real friendship.

Ashley reminisced about recording the montage in Venice: "We were just being ourselves." It was just two best friends getting to know a new city. She felt it was a full-circle moment to film that sequence since she realized Lily and her had done a very similar one in Paris for Season 1. It reminded her of all the years they have been at each other's side.

Lily stated that one of the most fun scenes to film this season was the one where they are doing face masks. Even though it seems like an unimportant scene, they couldn't get through it because they kept crying in laughter. She said it took double the amount to film that scene because the masks kept falling due to their laughter. Ashley replied that a moment like that is very similar to what they would do in their real lives as friends.

Lily Collins: "It felt like we wouldn't have been able to have that in Season 1 because we had just met, but to be able to have a scene like that now is one of the more memorable moments because it was us talking as best friends, but it was also Emily and Mindy being best friends too."

The conversation then shifted to Ashley's musical performances on the show. She explained the way she views Mindy's performances as an evolution of her character and a tool that drives her storyline forward. She reminisced about how she went from singing "La Vie en Rose" a cappella by herself in a park during Season 1 to her performances now:

"To be told you're going to sing in a martini glass before dancing with Italian sailors... I was surprised."

Ashley also said that she worked hard to embrace the creativity and diligence that her performances needed. She compared her experience on Broadway to the rehearsal schedule of the show, stating that it's different to rehearse the same 8 songs over and over for a year than to learn new material every time.

Both Lucien and Lily praised Ashley's hard work and talent. Lily commented that it's really easy to get shots of Emily watching Mindy perform since Lily herself is always amused while watching Ashley.

"I feel this way every time I watch Ashley perform. I don't think everyone knows how much work goes into those scenes for her. It's always an honor to witness it."

Lucien added that his dancing scenes with Ashley during Season 5 were his favorite to shoot. The moderator, Janine Rubenstein, mentioned how natural the dancing looked between those two, to which both Ashley and Lucien cackled.

"That's a testament to Ashley and her patience. It was Ashley's birthday, and she was having an extra dance rehearsal just so I would get it down. She was giving me that confidence to step onto the set."

The cast and creatives then discussed some of the most memorable scenes in Season 5. Andrew brought up the gay pride sequence by sharing a fun fact about its shooting. He said that the B-roll for the scene was shot at the real gay pride in Paris, but the performance was recorded in another location at a later time. What he found out the day of shooting was that the production team had also handed out flyers during pride to recruit real LGBTQ+ people instead of extras for the performance.

"They showed up and they had this amazing energy. They had flags. They dressed in drag. It was really an amazing experience."

They also reflected on the American Embassy scene, where Emily goes on a date with an American guy and finds out there's a snack pantry in the embassy's basement. Darren noted that there was the American expat community, which they hadn't touched upon on the show yet. "Emily needed a break from everything French and Italian. We just wanted to give Emily a breather."

Andrew described how he came up with that scene. He was invited to the American Embassy and had a lovely tour of the place. They showed him the store in the basement, which was a replica of a 7-Eleven. He lost his mind when he saw all the imported American products that you can't find in France. He also said that they were not able to film in the real embassy, so they recreated it.

"It took months. We used the basement of our soundstage, and we built a 7-Eleven. They spent months getting hundreds of American products that you can't buy in France. A lot of work went into that, and it went by very quickly."

Lucas Bravo said that his favorite scene to shoot was the sequence where Emily and Gabriel say goodbye at the train station. He looked back at how crowded the station was, yet both he and Lily created a very intimate feel for the story. He thinks it was a beautiful goodbye for their characters to let go and finally say 'you were a good friend.'

"The station was still operating, and yet we felt like we were in this emotional bubble. It was emotional shooting it, and it was perfectly written."

Finally, they were asked about the new season, to which Darren's automatic response was, "I promise it's going to be the best season yet." He said he loves working with the cast and writing these characters. Then he shouted out the writers who were sitting in the crowd, and the audience gave them applause. The only spoilers they mentioned were some of the locations they'll be shooting at for the sixth season.

"We're going to go to Greece, Monaco, and a lot of other places in France. Emily is doubling down in France."