Lily Collins Reflects on Falling in Love During Emily in Paris
lily collins is remembering a moment when fiction and real life moved in step. While speaking at PaleyFest in Los Angeles on Friday, April 10 ET, the actress said she and her husband, filmmaker Charlie McDowell, were falling in love while she was filming season 1 of Emily in Paris. For Collins, the show’s early days were not only about playing Emily Cooper’s romantic life, but also about living through a relationship that was quietly becoming central to her own.
What did Lily Collins say about filming in Paris?
Collins described those months as shaped by behind-the-scenes moments that stayed with her. She pointed to overnight shoots at the Royal Opera House as part of the memory she carries from the first season. The setting mattered, but so did the timing: the romance on screen was unfolding while her own life was changing off camera.
That overlap gave her reflection a personal edge. The actress said the experience of working in Paris was especially meaningful because it happened alongside a growing bond with McDowell. The moment connects the series’ glossy romance to something more ordinary and more fragile — the way real relationships can deepen during work, travel, and long hours far from home.
How does this personal story connect to Emily in Paris?
Collins framed the series as more than a collection of love triangles. She called it “a love letter to exploration of oneself, ” saying its appeal comes from friendships, work relationships, and personal growth as much as romance. In her view, the show is “a romance with the city, ” “a romance with oneself, ” and about finding oneself.
That description helps explain why her memory of season 1 stands out. lily collins was not only playing a character drawn into Parisian fantasy; she was also living through a relationship that was growing in the middle of that same world. The result is a rare overlap between a scripted emotional arc and a private one, making her recollection feel rooted in place as much as in feeling.
What is the broader human story behind the romance?
The broader story is not simply that a television set brought two people together. It is that work can become a backdrop for life-altering moments, especially when the setting is as immersive as Paris and the schedule includes overnight shoots and long production days. Collins’ memory suggests that the atmosphere around a project can shape what people carry with them after the cameras stop.
Her comments also underline how audiences often read romance as an ending, while real life treats it as a beginning. The relationship with McDowell had already begun in 2019 on the set of his film Gilded Rage, then progressed during Collins’ time filming abroad. The couple later got engaged in 2020, married in 2021, and welcomed their daughter, Tove Jane, surrogate in January 2025. Those milestones were not the focus of the event, but they give context to why her memory of season 1 feels especially vivid now.
What do the reflections suggest about the show’s next chapter?
The conversation around Collins’ comments arrives as Emily in Paris prepares for its next season, with production beginning next month and new settings including Greece and Monaco. Creator Darren Star said the locations fit the series’ fantasy and aspiration, while director Andrew Fleming said the point is to give viewers the dream life.
For Collins, though, the heart of the series remains tied to self-discovery as much as spectacle. She said that while the show amplified that romantic energy, her own nature was already inclined toward it. In that sense, lily collins is describing two stories at once: the one viewers see, and the one that unfolded quietly around the edges of the set.
Back in Paris, the overnight shoots and the Royal Opera House still sound like the kind of details that fade into production memory. But for Collins, they now carry a different weight. They mark the place where a television romance and a real one crossed paths — and where the city became part of both.
