Lily Collins covers the latest issue of Nylon, mostly to promote the new season of Emily in Paris. She’s not just the star of the show, she’s also a producer, and the Nylon piece is full of unexpected flexes about how she brought in more diversity in front of and behind the camera. Her coworkers adore her, because she uses her enormous privilege for good (and she actually admits that she grew up a bicontinental rich girl). Lily also chats a lot about her recent, rustic, Colorado wedding to Charlie McDowell, which she planned while she was working in Paris. Some highlights from Nylon:
Her Colorado wedding: “I was in the midst of planning it while shooting the show, nine hours ahead. Finishing filming and then Zooming with people and answering emails… [It] was very exciting and great; it was just all happening at once.”
Emily in Paris isn’t Sex and the City, but there is a similar-ish vibe: “She’s in no way mimicking Carrie’s life,” Collins says of the comparison, though she concedes, “Emily probably grew up having Carrie Bradshaw posters on her wall.”
Emily is not two-dimensional: “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.”
Lily to the haters: “I think that this is a heightened reality for Emily, to be moving to Paris, and what she experiences and what she sees,” says Collins, who studied broadcast journalism at USC and still forms her consonants like she’s practicing for the anchor seat. For what it’s worth, some of the classically Parisian pratfalls that American audiences have called out as evidence of the show’s let-them-eat-cake obliviousness happened to Collins while she was living there, from stepping in dog shit to going a week without hot water in her apartment. “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.”
She & Charlie went to Copenhagen on their honeymoon: “It was very much an adventure, foodie trip that is atypical of a honeymoon. It was really experience-driven,” she says of their Scandinavian tour, which included “these incredible places that are very eco-friendly and about sustainability, embracing nature, and what is indigenous to the area.”
She loved her outdoor wedding because it reminded her of the UK: “It was very reminiscent of the rolling hills and forests in England. We’re both dual citizens, so it was something that we wanted to lean into.”
Now she’s someone’s wife: “It’s so nice to be able to finally say that I’m a wife, [but] sometimes it makes me feel very old.”
It didn’t even occur to me before now that they’re both dual citizens, they’re both British-Americans with a foot in both countries. That’s kind of cool. I bet their parents are completely thrilled, don’t you? As for the Emily in Paris stuff… I feel the same way about it that I felt about all of the negative energy towards Girls back in the day: there are legitimate criticisms to be had, but at the end of the day, just choose not to watch shows which annoy you. People feel the need to “hate-watch” sh-t just so they can complain about how awful it is, when they could just… not watch it. We’re living in a golden age of programming and streaming options. Just click on something else.
covers & IG courtesy of Nylon.
I haven’t watched her show at all and it’s not on my list. So many shows besides her show have a lack of diversity and aren’t called out on it.
I just don’t understand the concept of hate- watching. Why waste your own time & get angry/ stressed because of it.
I’ve been following her husband for awhile on Instagram. He’s directed some stuff that I really like. Also they have the best cutest dog that is worth a follow just to see.
See, her claiming that the things portrayed on the show are accurate might be what makes people mad. I took the show as an exaggeration, I mean, do people in Paris really stop and clap at the girl singing La vie en rose?
Big Winona Ryder beetlejuice energy in these photos.
I hate watch the show because I live in Paris and it’s so ridiculous, I write about it on my blog to teach people what Paris is not.
The mother applauding her son for having sex with an older woman? A French girl helping you on the street and becoming your best friend? And let’s not forget how easy she finds a job and gets to keep it despite pissing off her boss. No one French would put up with her crap, much less keep her employed.
And the way she keeps making excuses for her fluff show has actually made me dislike her. Now to find out she’s a pretentious half citizen it all makes sense. I know a girl who is just like her, 40 year’s old, no life and lives off her parents money. She constantly complains about Americans and says she’s more British and Americans are scum. But happily uses that American passport when she wants something.
As for “Emily” So many girls from California who attend AUP are Emily. I have avoided those people all 7 years I’ve lived here. They’re exhausting and have no concept of life (without their parent’s money). That’s probably why I hate Emily so hard; I know she actually exists and Collins is making it okay for them to be open about it.
I used to like Charlie McDowell when he had that website where he wrote about the two girls who lived above him but I seem to recall there was some weirdness with Rooney Mara? And Hollywood nepotism is not something I support. These two are peak nepotism.