‘I feel like one of us will start crying’: Lily Collins and Ashley Park on the unexpectedly emotional road to 'Emily in Paris' season 4

Lily Collins and Ashley Park are, by their own admission, not okay. Twinning in hard-shouldered black blazers with gold buttons (Lily’s full-length and paired with oversized jeans and clogs; Ashley’s cropped, embellished, and worn over a black mini and stilettos), their feverish excitement—at being reunited, and celebrating the release of the eagerly awaited fourth season of Emily in Paris, the Netflix hit which made them household names back in 2020—is contagious, even over Zoom. But they’re also surprisingly emotional.

Yes, Darren Star’s air-light soufflé of a rom-com is a full-blown romp—a frequently improbable, head-spinningly fizzy cocktail of love triangles, eye-popping fashion, and bonkers marketing campaigns—but the road to its latest instalment has been sombre, to say the least. At the very start of the year, Park, the 33-year-old Tony, Grammy, SAG, and Critics’ Choice Award nominee also recently seen in Beef, Joy Ride, Only Murders in the Building, and Girls5eva, found herself hospitalized after a case of tonsillitis developed into critical septic shock. She was still in recovery when she flew to Paris to resume filming, only a month behind schedule. Collins, the 35-year-old Golden Globe and Emmy nominee who’s also appeared in the likes of Mank, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and Les Misérables, is a close friend of Park’s offscreen, too, and remained by her side for the duration of the shoot.

Related: Everything you need to know about 'Emily in Paris' Season 4

Recover she did, though the pair become choked up and hold hands when they recall those early days of being back on set. It’s remarkable, then, that when watching their spirited high jinks in the show’s first five episodes (which are streaming now) without the full context, you’d have absolutely no idea what was going on behind the scenes.

Onscreen, their characters—the titular American marketing executive and her friend, the effervescent musician Mindy—are still living the dream: sharing a flat, chasing career milestones (for Emily, a Michelin star for her client and longtime crush, Lucas Bravo’s Gabriel; for Mindy, Eurovision) and deciding between romantic prospects. Should Mindy pick her dashing bandmate, Benoît (Kevin Dias), or the charismatic heir to a luxury conglomerate, Nicolas (Paul Forman, also Park’s partner in real life)? And can Emily salvage her relationship with banker Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) after her friend Camille (Camille Razat) accused her then-boyfriend Gabriel of being in love with Emily and left him at the altar in the Season 3 finale? (FYI, Camille is also pregnant with Gabriel’s baby and having an affair with Melia Kreiling’s bohemian Greek artist, Sofia.) As they navigate these various conundrums, Emily and Mindy, unquestionably, form the show’s central relationship.

As the first half of the new season lands on the streamer—with the second half to follow in September—Collins and Park discuss the covert flirtatiousness between Emily and Mindy, their favourite Paris hangouts, filming part two in Rome, and Collins’s upcoming West End debut.

Vogue: Season 4 was, of course, delayed by the strikes, but before all that, do you remember what you were both most excited for this time around?

Lily Collins: I always get so excited to be back with our cast, but also our crew, because we’ve basically had the same crew from day one and it really feels like a reunion every time we come back to work. Which is so nice—and rare.

Ashley Park: And also, we feel at home in the city and in our characters. So, stepping back into their shoes is always like… a little hug?

LC: The first fittings are so crazy and fun. It’s like two days of eight-hour fittings where you’re just constantly trying things on and then, all of a sudden, you’re finding yourself again and finding the character. It’s the perfect segue back into their shoes.

AP: And just for us personally, too, we’re always all over the place in terms of where we’re located, so these four months of filming are when we just get to be together.

And the start of filming was obviously a difficult time for you, Ashley, as you were still recovering after being hospitalized with life-threatening septic shock. How was it being back on set after all of that?

AP: I think I’m still processing it now. It was so sudden and so scary in so many ways. I wasn’t able to come home and I had to go straight to Paris, but I don’t think I could have filmed this season if it hadn’t felt like coming home, in a sense. Having Lily and Paul there with me was pretty vital. Every year has its own challenges, but this year, this was very unexpected and I could not have done it without her in some of these scenes. [Squeezes Lily’s hand.] Watching the first few episodes was wild because… I came a month late to filming. I’m kind of in disbelief that I’m here right now, and very grateful.

I’m so happy that you’re okay, and it’s wild because if I hadn’t known that this had happened, I wouldn’t know it at all from your performance.

LC: There are some amazing moments for Ashley this season and, having been there with her and being aware of what she was processing, I’m even more proud. Watching it back, I’m like, Oh my God, you served it up! It’s an incredible season for you.

AP: I will say, though, it was our first time doing a season in the winter, so to come to that… you’d had a really bad flu when I first came back to set, and I’d had my sepsis, and one of our first scenes was the first scene you see in the show, and we’re pretending like it’s August and we’re in bathing suits and it was freezing. And we were like, [mimics shivering] “Here we are again, Season 4, yay!”

LC: [Laughs] Like, “We’re gonna make it! We’re gonna make it!”

You’re in so many fun sequences together this season. Do you have any favourite moments, looking back now?

LC: Well, there’s one, but it’s in the second drop of episodes, so I can’t really talk about that yet, but it’s a really amazing sequence for Ashley. And also in terms of the physical comedy in this season… we’re stepping more into that this time.

AP: Our scenes in Rome, too. That was pretty unforgettable for both of us.

LC: And there’s actually one moment that’s in the trailer, which I’ll never forget because it’s such a minor moment, but it’s something that you did that was so Ashley, not Mindy [laughs]. I’m like coming home after something exciting has happened, and you were on the bed, on your stomach listening to me, and you’re like, “Oh my God!”, like batting your legs and freaking out. It was the funniest and so sweet, and a totally not-scripted moment. It’s so you and me. It’s amazing to be able to add things like that in.

AP: When you see these two characters in those scenes in the apartment, it really does feel like it’s their home together now.

And it must have been emotional for you, Ashley, to get to sing in front of an audience again, and for you to watch that, Lily.

LC: I always love watching Ashley. Specifically in Rome, though, I was in awe. I always cry!

AP: She’s so generous [laughs]. It’s like, I’m shooting all day and she doesn’t even have to be watching or in the scene, and she will just be on set all day to support me.

LC: She puts everything out there for any performance—choreography, the studio time on weekends. It takes so much out of you, and then you get up there and it looks so seamless. So, whenever I’m watching, even if I’m supposed to be happy, I’m like, the tears are gonna come!

AP: These interviews are hard for us because I feel like one of us will start crying.

LC: We’re not okay [laughs].

I also have to say, maybe it’s always been there and I’m just noticing it more this season, but there’s definitely a flirtatiousness between Emily and Mindy?

AP: I love that! [Laughs.] You need to talk to our writers.

LC: I’ve never really thought about it that way [laughs]. What if that’s the twist? Like we do this for many, many more seasons, and then at the end they get together? I think it’s so funny because I like to think that Emily always had a bit of sass in her in Chicago, but when she comes to Paris and meets Mindy, even though she’ll say, “Mindy! You can’t say that,” it kind of rubs off on her. And then, when she does it, Mindy’s the first person to be like… [gasps].

AP: I feel like that happens a lot in Season 4. A lot of her has rubbed off on Emily and she’s owning it. And Mindy’s like, “Yaaaas!” And with that coquettish flirtation thing, maybe it’s also because… with both of these characters, they’re in these love triangles, so it’s nice that they can laugh about things like this together.

LC: They’re also flirting with the idea of the unknown. It’s just our chemistry.

AP: I love that you’ve asked us about this because I do remember at one point, in one of the later episodes, I was like, “Again?” To the writers, I was like, “Alright…”

LC: Yeah, like, “Is Mindy, like, hitting on Emily, always? Like, what’s happening?”

I need to ask you both about Rome as well. Did you get to explore the city a bit during filming?

LC: We love Rome. It was magical. Filming there was such a nice way for us to end the season. I’d never spent that much time there, and to just wander the streets—the culture, the food, the warmth, the people, the architecture. Everything is steeped in history.

AP: It was kind of like when we first filmed Season 1 and we were discovering Paris for the first time. I remember you saying, Lily—and you were there a week before I was there—“Oh my gosh, I haven’t had this in a while, like just walking around and being new to a city?” Ugh, I just got goosebumps thinking about it [laughs]. And almost feeling like Emily at the beginning again.**It was kind of like when we first filmed Season 1 and we were discovering Paris for the first time. I remember you saying, Lily—and you were there a week before I was there—“Oh my gosh, I haven’t had this in a while, like just walking around and being new to a city?” Ugh, I just got goosebumps thinking about it [laughs]. And almost feeling like Emily at the beginning again.

LC: Yeah, we were there a week before the rest of the cast came, and it was the show, but also not the show? [Laughs.] It was the weirdest feeling of being like, wait, when are my friends coming?

AP: So meta.

LC: It was! And then, everyone started sprinkling in. And it just felt like… she needed that time alone in order to have that new experience. And then everyone joined, and it became this other thing again, and it was the closest I’ve had to Season 1.

AP: And especially after shooting in the winter, it was the best [laughs].

And you must know Paris really well now, having shot so many seasons there. Where do you hang out when not working?

AP: This season, frankly, we were homebodies [laughs]. We lived in the same building and so, on the weekends, we’d go over to the other’s place in PJs and play video games. I obviously wasn’t well this season, health-wise, and so Lily and her husband Charlie would come over and we’d go for a walk with their dog, or they’d sit with me and do a puzzle.

LC: We love spending one-on-one time together when we’re not on someone else’s schedule. When we do go out, we like wandering around the Marais, Canal Saint-Martin, or the Jardin du Luxembourg.

AP: The Louvre area as well. We eat at Loulou’s all the time, in that terrace bit.

LC: And Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, which has the most stunning view of the city and is a gorgeous place to have picnics. Oh and also, the Olympics were gearing up, so there were a lot of things being renovated and beautified. So it was exciting to be wandering around and be like, “There’s a skate park there now!” It was fun to see the city come alive in another way.

I also wanted to touch on your costumes, because both Emily and Mindy evolve in different ways this season in terms of their wardrobes. In one scene, Mindy’s judged for dressing so flamboyantly, so she doubles down. And with Emily, there were a couple scenes where I felt like she was almost becoming more Parisian?

LC: I think Emily is also very much inspired by Mindy this season. Like, there’s a moment that actually wasn’t scripted, in the second drop, when Ashley and I are dressed up to go out. Originally, it wasn’t scripted that they were dressed up, and we decided, no we’re gonna dress up! And my outfit is very inspired by what I think Mindy would have encouraged Emily to wear, and it’s just two women out, on a night out for themselves.**I think Emily is also very much inspired by Mindy this season. Like, there’s a moment that actually wasn’t scripted, in the second drop, when Ashley and I are dressed up to go out. Originally, it wasn’t scripted that they were dressed up, and we decided, no we’re gonna dress up! And my outfit is very inspired by what I think Mindy would have encouraged Emily to wear, and it’s just two women out, on a night out for themselves.

AP: We loved that, and we love using the costuming to add to the storytelling. Somehow, I got to wear a lot of pyjamas this season, though [laughs]. I was like, “C’mon! She’s in a fleece, she just came down from the apartment.” Mindy’s fashion used to be, like, she’s gonna walk into the room and you’re gonna know exactly where she is, but now there’s this spectrum of really structured stuff but also very soft and textured stuff. I think both Emily and Mindy are coming to terms with what they view as making them feel confident and sexy.

LC: And I do think Emily is more and more inspired by Paris, too. I got to wear a lot more monochromatic looks this time—and suits! There’s a lot of tailoring this season, trousers, a lot of flat shoes—loafers, boots—especially because it was winter, but also we wanted fewer dainty heels and more solid shoes, because she’s owning the ground she’s walking on. She’s more confident.

AP: Thinking about Season 1 now, Emily used to wear stuff that was very literally Paris, like it literally had “Paris” on it. And this season, I remember being like, oh my gosh, that’s chic. You look like a Parisian.

LC: Thank you! [Laughs.]

Also, with all the love triangles, squares, and pentagons in this show, I wanted to ask you: Lily, who would you pick for Mindy, Nicolas or Benoît? And Ashley, who would you pick for Emily, Gabriel or Alfie?

LC: Nicolas—and Paul—all the way. They’re literally the sweetest.

AP: And, oh my God, this Alfie and Gabriel thing. [Sighs.] I just want Emily to do what her heart wants. This back and forth between the two of them—it’s so realistic, and it’s constantly Emily’s heart versus her brain. And it’s wild as her friend, as Mindy, because it’s like, Again? We’re going there again? But also, we see her growth in how she’s navigating it.

LC: I will say that, in the second drop, you get to experience like a real, grounded vulnerability in the romance of it all for Emily.

AP: And I think in terms of whatever love triangle both characters are in, it’s really not a question of who they’re gonna choose. For Emily, especially in the second drop, you really see what it means for her to choose herself. And we really haven’t seen that from your character.

Related: Soon you can snatch up the Stine Goya piece spotted in season 4 of ‘Emily in Paris’

And finally, Lily, we’re so excited for your West End debut with Barcelona in October. How’re you feeling? And Ashley, will you come watch, and when will you be going back on stage? I’d love to see you in something together.

LC: Oh my God, we’ve talked about that for so long, like, “What are we gonna do together?” I could not be more excited. It’s a childhood dream come true to be on a West End stage. Bess Wohl wrote an incredible original play, and Lynette Linton is the most kick-ass director, and I’m so pumped to be able to work with her and Álvaro [Morte] on this. So, I’m excited and, creatively, very nervous, which I’m told is exactly how I’m supposed to feel [laughs].

AP: I’m so—sorry, I was about to swear—thrilled for her. I think Lily is one of the smartest actresses working today, and it’s so fun. It’s been a long time coming. The last show I did on Broadway was actually an original play written by Bess Wohl and Lily came to see me in that right before COVID, and I could not be more thrilled that they’re doing this together. And also a two-person play is its own kind of feat. I’m so excited—I will be the show’s biggest fan.

The first five episodes of Emily in Paris Season 4 are streaming now on Netflix, with the second set of five episodes set to drop on September 12.