عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

Lily Collins Has Found ‘Emily 2.0’ in Paris 

This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
TT
TT

Lily Collins Has Found ‘Emily 2.0’ in Paris 

This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)
This image released by Netflix shows Lily Collins in a scene from "Emily in Paris." (Stephanie Branchu/Netflix via AP)

The new season of “Emily in Paris” will have many of the same elements as the first three: daring fashion, flirty romance and workplace drama. One thing that has changed? The lead actor’s confidence.

Lily Collins, who plays Emily Cooper, said her life has mirrored her character’s growth since the series premiered in 2020.

“Walking onto set season four, I was a different person than walking onto set season one,” Collins said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I’m a more well-rounded and understanding human in this space now because of the show.”

In addition to starring in the series, Collins produces it. The first season marked her first producing gig, and she’s taken on several other projects since.

“With the growth of Emily, there’s come a real growth in myself within my role as an actor, but also as a producer,” she said. “Being so collaborative with the writers and Darren (Star, series creator) and the other producers on this and having a voice on the show has really given me the confidence with other projects out there to do the same or want the same.”

The upcoming fourth season follows Emily untangling a messy love triangle, but she’s in a more stable place professionally than when we first saw her struggling to fit in at her new job in a new country. Even her French has improved as the series went on. Collins said some of her character’s self-assurance has rubbed off on her.

“I’ve grown more confident as Emily, but also with Lily. I’m asking deeper questions about the entire project, more so than I would’ve season one,” she said. “They’re not just about aesthetics anymore, it’s about the core values of the show and how to change things and how to bring new ideas to the table.”

Some of those new ideas include adapting Emily’s headline-making wardrobe with each season, a process that Collins said required two eight-hour fittings. She said they broke their own record by securing 82 looks for the fourth season.

The costuming, by designer Marylin Fitoussi, is a crucial part of the story, showing Emily’s evolution from an expat sporting looks emblazoned with the Eiffel Tower to outfits more like that of an authentic Parisian woman. But the costuming is also a crucial part of Collins’ process of stepping back into Emily’s shoes — both literally and figuratively.

“It’s the best way for me to start to feel like Emily again, but Emily 2.0,” Collins said. “We really do tell a story with clothing in this.”

Collins said at Wednesday’s premiere that the depth of Emily’s character has been a rewarding part of the process for her, especially in seeing how fans connect with Emily or are inspired by her.

“It means the world,” Collins said. “I love playing a woman who’s unapologetically herself and loves to work, and that’s a positive thing, and that she’s still struggling to find a work-life balance because I think that you’re always trying to find what works for you. So not having it together all the time is actually an OK thing, and I love playing a character that celebrates that.”

The fourth season of the show, which premieres its first half on Thursday, has been hotly anticipated among its growing fanbase since the third season was released two years ago. Netflix has yet to renew the series for a fifth season but Star, known for “Sex and the City” and “Beverly Hills, 90210,” said he thinks the audience and popularity are only growing with time.

“It’s not like it was a product of the pandemic and people not being able to travel so they liked to watch Paris on the screen. They can travel now and the show’s increased in popularity and, in fact, it encourages people to travel, which was my biggest dream of the show,” he said.

Even with his belief in the series, Star said it’s always “gratifying” when audiences respond well to the final product. As a veteran in the television world, Star knows audiences’ reception and viewership can be unpredictable.

“You just can never, ever know how the audience is going to respond and what the outcome’s going to be, so I just really get mostly attached to the process and feeling happy about the season,” he said. “I’m really happy about this season, I hope the audience loves it.”

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

The Humor and Heartache of Gena Rowlands

The Oscar-nominated performer brought her deep range of emotion and expression to a number of original and moving films. Patrick HERTZOG / AFP
The Oscar-nominated performer brought her deep range of emotion and expression to a number of original and moving films. Patrick HERTZOG / AFP
TT
TT

The Humor and Heartache of Gena Rowlands

The Oscar-nominated performer brought her deep range of emotion and expression to a number of original and moving films. Patrick HERTZOG / AFP
The Oscar-nominated performer brought her deep range of emotion and expression to a number of original and moving films. Patrick HERTZOG / AFP

US actress Gena Rowlands, whose six-decade career garnered Oscar nominations and other acclaim, died Wednesday at age 94.
No official cause of death was immediately given, but her son Nick Cassavetes said earlier this year she had been battling Alzheimer's disease for five years.
The Oscar-nominated performer brought her deep range of emotion and expression to a number of original and moving films that are considered classics of US independent cinema, most shot by her late husband, John Cassavetes.
For three decades starting in the 1960s, the couple formed an enchanting and explosive on-screen partnership that explored themes of passion and self-destruction against a backdrop of alcohol and infidelity.
In what many consider her finest role, Rowlands captured to devastating effect a descent into mental illness in 1974's "A Woman Under the Influence," bringing her the first of two Oscar nominations.
"Incapable of an unreal moment," said Woody Allen of the actress, whom he cast in his 1988 film "Another Woman."
"Whatever I say about Gena isn't enough because she's so incredible," said Winona Ryder, quoted in the LA Times in 1992 when the two co-starred in Jim Jarmusch's "Night on Earth."
"There's a nobility, strength and class to her work that nobody else holds a candle to, and she's so beautiful -- you just kind of marvel at the way she moves."
Making it true
From her earliest work there were shades of Marilyn Monroe in Rowlands -- the blonde hair in a wavy bob, the arresting on-screen beauty, and the undertone of sadness and vulnerability in her performances.
But she always challenged the idea of women as objects of desire in her performances and came of age as Monroe went through her own struggles, finally ending with her suicide in 1962.
"She can just play. Give her anything and she'll always be creative. She doesn't try to make it different –- she just is," said Cassavetes in a 2001 interview collection.
"Gena is very dedicated and pure. She doesn't care if it's cinematic, doesn't care where the camera is, doesn't care if she looks good -– doesn't care about anything except that you believe her."
A woman falling
Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin, into a cultured middle-class family. Her father was a state senator and her mother was a painter and occasional actress.
She enrolled in New York's American Academy of Drama and in 1953 met Cassavetes, a fast-talking and exuberant Greek-American. A year later they were married.
It was their collaboration that generated her stand-out performances, the highlight arguably being "A Woman Under the Influence," which also brought an Oscar nomination for Cassavetes as director.
Rowlands was captivating as housewife Mabel, who descends into madness after years of quiet, complicated dominance by her hardworking and silent husband, played by Peter Falk.
In a rare moment of defiance, and one of Rowlands's most memorable scenes, Mabel fights back, rising at the table after a meal of spaghetti with friends and family, pleading to everyone to stand up for her -- just this one time.
The room is silent, and soon Mabel is institutionalized. When she emerges she is a shadow of her former, vivacious self.
The impact of the film and Rowlands's performance "has resonated throughout the American cinema ever since," said The New Yorker in 2013, citing Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee as two Hollywood figures under her influence.
Glorious 'Gloria'
One of her last films with Cassavetes was the more irreverent "Gloria," a 1980 gangster comedy about a woman on the run from the mob, in high heels, wielding a revolver and with a small child in tow.
Taking on the role with evident glee, in turns self-mocking and entirely convincing, Rowlands earned a second Oscar nomination and the film was awarded the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.
In 1989, Cassavetes died from liver failure after years of alcoholism. Rowlands continued to make films and also worked in television, winning four Emmys.
She and Cassavetes had three children, all of whom have gone on to have careers in film and television. Her son Nick directed her in "The Notebook" alongside Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 2004.
In 2012, she married her second husband, retired businessman Robert Forrest, and in 2015 was awarded an honorary Academy Award, the same year she retired from acting.