Touring the ‘Emily in Paris’ Season 4 Set With Lily Collins (original) (raw)

Hi, AD, Lily Collins here,

and welcome to the set of Emily in Paris.

[upbeat music]

So here we find ourselves in Agence Grateau,

formally known as Savoir,

which is a very important and special set for me

because it's where Emily

really found her footing and groundedness in Paris.

I mean, let's not lie,

a lot of adventure happens in these rooms.

I'm going out to lunch. A long lunch with wine.

It's 11:00 AM.

Well, c'est la vie.

I was so amazed at how big this set was

the first time I ever saw it.

I didn't realize that each of us would get our own office,

and that it would be so spread out,

and it would look so livable.

We joked that we would put mattresses in here

and actually sleep here because the crown molding,

the colors, it's so calm, the floor,

everything about it felt as though

they'd just taken a Parisian apartment

and put it into an office workspace.

So my mind was blown. There are chandeliers.

I mean, they really went above and beyond on this set.

In terms of the agency, you know, I really talked a lot

about finding this Haussmannian building.

You know, Haussmann did all this fantastic architecture

all through Paris, and I love his buildings.

When we found the exterior of the agency,

which is Place de Valois in Paris,

my aim was to mix and match the exterior with the interior.

So we survey all the windows

and we adjust the whole set inside

according to the space and the backing.

What you see here is the real backing Place de Valois.

Inside, the real place never existed.

Here, we like to call it the bull pen.

Luke sits over there, Julien sits over there.

And if we make our way in this direction, we have my office.

It looks pretty much the same from season one.

There's usually a few little knickknacks

that change on the desk

because obviously one would acquire more things.

But for Emily Cooper,

I like to think it's pretty darn clean most of the time.

And what I find to be really cool, it's all in the details.

We have Agence Grateau cards.

We have papers with our names on it.

We have envelopes.

They literally make a deck for each brand

that we're pitching if they're real or fabricated,

just in case one of us chooses to open it in a scene

and use it as a prop.

Like I said, attention to detail is so impressive on this.

Season four, Alfie, for the first time

he comes to the agency,

which to me is one of my favorite sets on the show.

I come into the scene at the agency to take on a new deal,

and I'm not too impressed by the ideas

that Emily's brought to the table,

but obviously she comes through and delivers.

We have the conference room,

which is sometimes the bane of our existence

because we usually have so many cast members

and there's so many angles that we're shooting.

We're usually in there for a couple of hours.

And it's where I had my first pitch meeting,

where I was pitching myself as Emily Cooper

coming to Savoir, which was a very monumental scene for me.

I'm Emily Cooper, and I'm so excited to be here in Paris.

These are technically awards

that our company has won for best marketing,

which I just realized are fabricated for our show.

Apparently, Agence Grateau is doing a good job.

And if you keep following me this way,

we have a fully functioning kitchen over here

and the door to my boss's office, Sylvie.

Now, she'd probably kill me for taking you in here,

but I'm gonna do it anyway, so come on in.

Sylvie, just curious.

Customary to knock, wait for a reply, and then enter.

[Emily knocking]

Busy.

This office is where I have done many pitches to Sylvie.

It's where she's yelled at me,

told me I'm not doing a good job,

told me I'm doing a better job,

where I fought with my coworkers,

but this is where she sits, and usually it's not my view.

So I feel like today I'm, I don't know,

I have the upper hand a little bit,

but this office is also very calming to me.

I love the colors. I love the aesthetic.

I think it's really interesting

what Anne has done with this office

when it went from Savoir to Agence Grateau

and how she changed it.

I wanted different rooms to be really separate,

to give a depth of field.

And for Emily, she's like very girly,

so the color is slightly pink, but you don't really see it.

And from that, I went to Sylvie,

which is a bit colder because she's colder.

The conference room was a challenge.

The blue, it gives a very big contrast

with the other open space.

That's something I really like to do, is working on colors.

Bon appetit, ladies.

Bon appetit. [giggles]

I'd bon appetit him. [laughs]

[upbeat music]

That set was at the beginning of the first season

a real set.

We used a restaurant on the Place de l'Estrapade,

and we used the inside as well.

And then the next year we decided to make it bigger inside.

Anne Seibel made sure that we could have

a fully functional kitchen

so we could have a Michelin star chef

that actually created an entire menu

just for the restaurant.

The plates actually exist, but only in the story.

So whenever we were done shooting, I just ate the plates.

So we had red color matching the outside.

And then when his grandmother, Gigi, came in the script,

we decided to change a bit the look of it.

So we changed the table clothes, we moved the chairs,

we made the round table instead of just a banquette.

And the colors changed slightly.

Darren wanted something a bit more subtle,

more earthy, more Normandy.

So that's how it evolved.

This place got, gosh.

And maybe now it will evolve again.

We don't know what happened to Gabriel.

We're about to start shooting again,

and whenever I'm starting a scene inside the restaurant

and I'm like storming out the restaurant,

we cut and two weeks later I shoot it

in the actual Place de l'Estrapade.

It's a bit weird in terms of continuity,

but yeah, it's the magic I guess.

[bright upbeat music]

And finally, we are in my fabulous apartment,

which appears a little larger on camera. [laughs]

It's a confined space.

[Darren] Emily's apartment was inspired

by the chambre de bonne,

the maids' rooms that were on the very top floors

of Parisian buildings that still exist.

They have great views.

You know, they have pitched ceilings,

they're super romantic.

Oh my God, I feel like Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.

The stairs from the first season to the second season,

we had to build it

because the people who rent the stairs in the real location

decided to paint it and renovate it.

So we had no more continuity with our show,

so we decided to build it.

So you have the stairs that we built on stage from scratch

to be able to have it on the second season the same.

As an example of Easter eggs, in Gabriel's apartment,

we decided to make a like an homage to Darren Star,

the showrunner.

And there is a poster where Darren is a jazz musician.

It's in the bedroom of Gabriel.

And I don't think anyone noticed

that this name is big on the wall.

After we'd been filming there a while,

I sort of looked at it, I was like,

Wait a second. Is that that?

There's my name on that picture.

[upbeat music]

Little things have changed here and there

because they would, seeing as though Mindy and Emily

have acquired more memories and adventures.

And this is actually really fun.

I noticed this when we came this year

that they had put our Polaroids up on this pole.

We were just becoming close friends,

and it was so fun to just explore Paris together

in a way that neither of us ever had.

So I love these little memories.

There's a few other ones scattered around,

but these are a perfect placement.

Also behind me, the fashion wardrobe,

which, you know, it's a little small.

I like to think that downstairs

maybe we have like a storage facility

or maybe some of the floorboards open up

and there's like all of our stuff jammed in there.

There's some of my running looks.

There's outfits. Like this was at Versailles.

This was in Provence.

And so it's nice to see that we get to incorporate

our actual outfits.

Same with the shoes, of course.

It's nice to have little props from each season

so that it really feels like a home.

Tiny bed. It is a tiny bed.

It only took us until this season

to realize that the couch actually pulls out into a bed

because we've never really shot there as a bed before.

We always just assumed that we both shared the bed.

And I walked into set one day, and Ashley and I were like,

Why is there a bed here?

And they said,

Well, obviously one of you sleeps on the couch.

And our minds we're pretty blown.

Oh.

Em, hi.

Hey, hi. What's up?

I think the experience shooting in Emily's apartment

is always intimate.

Even if the scene's not meant to be intimate, it's intimate.

We've got all the crews in there

and everyone's kinda running around.

And until they say, Action,

you're always gonna be in someone's way.

But it's just kinda like make yourself as small as possible

and then when it's time to go, get in there,

get the job done, and try and get out unscathed.

Honestly, I haven't really used this kitchen that much.

I think Ashley's probably used it more than I have,

but I have used it enough to tell you

that it's a working kitchen.

The faucet works, same as the bathroom.

And at the beginning of season three

when I was in the bathroom

freaking out to myself in the mirror and I cut my bangs,

I feel like that was a real moment for Emily.

A really nice way of making the bathroom memorable.

And I'll never forget shooting that.

We only had one bang piece.

We had to cut it right the first time, but it was fun.

Emily, no.

[upbeat music]

All the locations are in Paris. Everything is here.

I've always been amazed at the number of real locations

we've been able to film at.

We filmed this fashion show in Versailles,

at the Hall of Mirrors.

We've filmed at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

We filmed at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs.

We've filmed in the Musee D'Orsay.

I think that's one thing

Emily in Paris does really well.

We have the key to the city

and they make the most out of it,

in building these sets as well.

It's a spectacle every time you come to set.

It's a joy.

Some really fun adventures that we've had this season

with different outdoor venues.

And a fall/winter season means new wardrobe, new looks,

new colors, lots of new hair and makeup.

I think we hit our record for looks this season,

so I'm very excited.

[Darren] To me, the show is about

transporting the audience somewhere.

And I think this season we do this in a bigger way

than we ever have before.

It has been so nice having you guys visit our sets,

but sadly, I have to go back to work now.

Hope to see you again soon. Merci.

[upbeat music]