Unfiltered

Hairdressers of the world: prepare to be cutting la frange for months. For where Emily goes, the city – or at least its tourists – follow. You only have to walk 10 paces along the Seine before spotting an Emily acolyte, instantly identifiable by her cherry-red beret, black-and-white plaid item and Eiffel Tower bag charm. Canny French tour guides are now even offering Emily-themed excursions, taking in every backdrop where the character has eaten, drunk, kissed and double-dated.

Collins got her first real taste of Emily mania this past summer. As with previous shooting cycles, she took an apartment in Paris for the four months of filming – with her husband, Charlie McDowell, a director and screenwriter, and their adopted pug-terrier mix, Redford. Between takes, the couple explored Paris on electric scooters. “We do apartments because you feel more like a Parisian – and you have your own space,” says the actor, who is finding that the French she learned (almost fluently) at school, and on family trips to Switzerland, is starting to come back the more time she spends in the city.

When in Emily mode, Collins was often confronted by fans who had given themselves a gamine glow-up – and things got weird. “It’s very funny and endearing, and so bizarre and sweet, to see people, visiting the city, dressing like the character and taking photos,” she says. “People came up to me and said, ‘I packed my bag according to what Emily would wear.’ If they saw me in character, it was very trippy.”

She’s become sanguine about being mixed up with her plucky alter ego. “I get called Emily all the time,” she laughs. “I respond to either one [Lily and Emily] now. I take it as a compliment.” She has a great affection for the self-confessed basic bitch she’s played for the past three years (the series has been renewed for season four). “She’s somebody who is optimistic and solution-driven, and to play someone like Emily can give me a boost when I don’t even know I need it,” she says. “Just to be able to feel a sense of positivity; that’s what Emily does for me.”

How would she advise our heroine to handle the conundrums of season three? “I feel very confident in the fact that she will make the most of any situation, even if it’s learning from a mistake.” She turns philosophical. “It’s really important to be able to tap into yourself and to understand what you need and want. I would have encouraged her to remember that moment when she broke up with [her Chicago boyfriend] Doug, and to say, ‘Remember when you chose yourself?’”

“I think I came out into the world wanting to do, wanting to tell,” she says when I ask where her drive originates. “I was very passionate, rambunctious, energetic. I’ve always been like that.” Her desire to share her lows as well as her highs has always marked her out from peers. She references To The Bone, the 2017 drama in which she played a 20-year-old battling an eating disorder, drawing on her own experiences – which she detailed in an essay collection released that year, titled Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. Today, Collins has more than 25 million Instagram followers; how does she decide where to draw the line? “It’s hard,” she admits. “I always have been someone who is very open; I’ve always been a strong believer in sharing and discussing feelings about things that are considered shameful or confusing. It’s always a learning curve. But I feel like I am able to have that balance. And I have a support system of people that I know will help me if I need help.”

2023 is looking bright for Collins. Having taken a producer role with Emily in Paris, she’s excited to be more of an active force behind the camera with Case Study Films, the production company she launched in November with her husband and their partner, Alex Orlovsky. The trio worked together on Windfall, a Covid-shot hostage movie in which she starred, and that McDowell directed – an experience she describes as “very special”. Among the projects in development are Razzlekhan: The Infamous Crocodile of Wall Street, based on a New York Magazine article about the so-called Bonnie and Clyde of Bitcoin, and The Accomplice, based on Lisa Lutz’s psychological thriller. Though Collins is slated to act in both productions, she insists this won’t always be the case. “I know I’m not the right person to tell all the stories that I want to tell, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a part of the telling,” she says.

On the subject of her husband, the Collins-McDowell domestic set-up seems to be a uniquely blissful environment. She mentions dog walks with no phones as her mechanism for switching off, along with the occasional reality-TV binge. “I wanna watch my Real Housewives!” she giggles. We return to an earlier theme – how to balance work with life. “Again, it’s very much like Emily, but I am unapologetically work-driven,” she muses. “I also love life, and I want to live outside of what I do. When I met my now-husband… he encouraged me to reflect on who I am, and what I need. That was an amazing moment.”

Another similarity between Collins and her onscreen counterpart is an appreciation of scene-stealing fashion. But, while Collins revels in megawatt moments – Ralph Lauren is a particularly trusted red-carpet collaborator (he made the custom Calais-Caudry lace wedding dress for her 2021 nuptials) – she’s also perfectly happy in casualwear. Today, she’s wearing jeans and a hippyish, multicolored cardigan, knitted by her late maternal grandmother, Jane. “I have six of them! Every time I wear them, people are, like, ‘Where d’you get those?’” she says, delightedly. She cites Les Merveilles de Babellou in Paris as a vintage treasure trove where she ended up picking out pieces for Emily, along with costume designer Marylin Fitoussi.

Working in Paris isn’t all Jean Paul Gaultier jackets, though. One of the quirkier days on set for season three involved a host of feathered co-stars. “The pigeons were the hardest cast members to corral,” Collins laughs, referring to a scene she shot with a bird in the Savoir office (the marketing agency where Emily works). “Because they cost so much, they have to have certain working hours. Some of them are trained pigeons, some of them are wild pigeons – and sometimes they just do the unexpected and land on you.” They poop, too. How did she handle it? “In my Emily way. Trying to be controlled while freaking out,” she smiles.

Season 3 of Emily in Paris is available on Netflix from December 21

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