‘Emily in Paris’ Boss Breaks Down Emily’s Relationships With Gabriel & Camille
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 1 of Emily in Paris.]
Emily (Lily Collins) is in the middle of a not-so-typical love triangle at the end of the first season of Emily in Paris.
Just as hunky neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) is set to leave Paris to open his own restaurant in Normandy, Emily gives into the feelings they’ve both had for months but ignored due to his girlfriend, Camille (Camille Razat). But thanks to a little last-minute financial help, Gabriel can now have his own restaurant in the City of Lights, so he’s not going anywhere.
Upon hearing the news, the chef’s ex-girlfriend Camille texts her friend Emily, “Can we talk?” All series creator Darren Star would tease about what she wants to talk about is that it’s a “big question” for Season 2. (So let’s hope Netflix renews the series!)
Here, Star breaks down the key relationships in Emily’s life in the first season.
Emily’s love life kept getting more and more complicated — just as she and Mathieu (Charles Martins) were making plans, she and Gabriel finally got together! And now Gabriel’s staying. How is Emily feeling about that and her love life in general at the end of Season 1?
Darren Star: I really don’t think she’s somebody who is ever out to betray a friendship, which is Camille, and it creates a very complicated situation for her. I think she definitely can’t deny her feelings for Gabriel. They acted on them but it was more sort of a goodbye moment for them and just thinking that the two of them would have this moment together but it wasn’t something she really kind of thought was going to be in her future.
She spent the entire season carefully avoiding stepping… she was very respectful of Gabriel’s relationship with Camille and not wanting to go there. We don’t know at this point what Camille knows, what she doesn’t know, what even Gabriel is thinking. It’s very open-ended. Emily is somebody who’s really guided by a strong sense of loyalty to her friends but obviously they’ve got a very passionate connection, she and Gabriel.
(Stephanie Branchu/Netflix)
Can you talk about developing Emily and Camille’s friendship throughout the season and where you wanted to take them leading up to that cliffhanger?
I really felt like Camille was just, apart from Gabriel, one of the only true French female friends Emily made in Paris, and she met her not knowing what her relationship was to Gabriel. That was an important friendship for her and a win for her to meet a French girl who was going to be on her side because she was having a lot of tough experiences. Camille is really so sweet and open and warm and really likes Emily, so I think that friendship is important to Emily.
Speaking of Emily’s friendships, I loved Mindy and I need to see a Season 2 just to see those two as roommates.
Yes, I love Mindy, too, and I love Ashley Park.
How much did Emily and Mindy need to meet each other at this point in their lives, whether it was in Paris or somewhere else?
They both needed each other. Emily needed Mindy to loosen her up and shake her out of her comfort zone, and Mindy needs a friend like Emily who basically is strong and ambitious and will basically tell it to her like it is.
What did you want to do with Emily career-wise as she adjusted to life in Paris? We saw not only her social media presence evolve but how she dealt with business, boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), her new coworkers, and just the office in general.
Emily is a career-oriented person, and that’s why she’s there. Career is very important to her, work is very important to her, and it’s a challenge for her to fit into a French workplace, but also she’s somebody who wants to bring her skillset to that place and in the process she’s learning a new style of working and doing business in Paris.
(Carole Bethuel/Netflix)
Emily was supposed to only be in Paris for a year, then she’d come back and have that promotion waiting for her. Is that even on her mind anymore at the end of the finale?
The action of the first season is only the first few months, so she’s got some time.
If she were to return to Chicago after a year, how do you think her experiences, both professionally and personally, would change how she approaches life there?
She’d really come back a changed person, and she would have a different point of view already on work, relationships, and most of all, I think she’d have a different point of view on just the idea of travel. She’d be much more open to wanting to travel.
How would Sylvie and Lily’s Chicago boss Madeline (Kate Walsh) have worked together if circumstances hadn’t changed?
Maybe we’ll see them working together in Season 2! I think the dynamic would’ve been very different because Madeline would’ve come in speaking French. She’s somebody who’s more Sylvie’s age and Sylvie’s peer and I think she would’ve come in a little bit grateful to be there because it was more Madeline’s dream to go to Paris than Emily’s.
Emily in Paris, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
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