- Hi, I'm Lily Collins.
And I'm gonna take you through a scene
from "Emily in Paris" shot by shot.
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful foreign music)
So the beginning shot of Emily walking across the street,
where it starts on her shoes and goes up
and you see the Opera House,
that was a really hard one to coordinate
because we had to stop traffic.
It's a pretty heavy traffic area and also pedestrian area.
We were shooting at night,
so it was a little less crowded
but harder to stop all of the cars.
So our entire camera crew was in front of the Opera House,
but all the way back.
And then they were on the ground, tilted down at my shoes,
and then had to like work their way up.
And had to coordinate their tilting
at the same time as me running.
So we had to coordinate those two things at the same time.
And we had to try and control some of the city lights,
which is, as you know,
it's a city of lights, Paris is known for,
so that's really difficult.
But having to light the Opera House in exactly the right way
and have all the background interact
in a very specific way to part the waves
in order for me to then enter into the door.
So we did it quite a few times,
But we also couldn't hold traffic up.
So I think we did it probably in like 15 minutes.
And then once I made it into the Opera House,
all of the camera crew were behind me
and it was on a dolly shot.
And they had to go to the side
and watch me as a profile enter into the frame.
It was definitely a bit of a dance
between the camera crew and I.
There were so many things to coordinate.
There were so many people in the background,
there were so many camera angles on camera shots
to get within this scene
to kinda amplify the beauty of the location.
- Emily, you look beautiful in that dress.
But not as beautiful as you look without it.
- Well, you're looking pretty handsome yourself.
So this standoff was actually written
a couple of different ways,
or rather, we did it a couple of different ways.
It was always supposed to be on the steps
where you're looking up at the two of them,
kind of on equal levels.
But he, Thomas's character,
always felt like he was a little bit above Emily in a sense.
So there was also trying to be a bit of an element of
playing with that, like height and feeling quite above
and looking down on Emily,
and playing with the camera angles on that one.
- So now we have the bad ballet and an awkward encounter
with an overrated designer to look forward to.
- Oh my God, you are a snob.
- Excuse me?
- You really just don't like to like anything, do you?
We wanted it to stay playful and not too aggressive
because that's just not who Emily is.
But she also is like quite passionate.
- You go, and I'll meet you afterwards,
and I'll treat you to some amazing sex.
I think we'd both like that better.
- Thomas, since you're a Professor of Science,
I'm sure you won't have any trouble recognizing this one.
In this specific moment,
it wasn't always planned
that the sign that he would be reading was that.
there was some dialogue written instead.
And then we thought, "Well, let's just be extra sassy
and give a bit of a finger."
And then they ended up keeping it.
So (laughs) there were so many different ways of playing it.
- That's more of a gesture.
(opera music)
- Monsieur Cadault.
- Do I know you?
- So this is Emily second standoff of the night
with Pierre Cadault,
who is an incredibly eccentric character
who I loved so much.
I just came here to apologize
for the other day for offending you,
and to let you know that, you're right.
I am a basic bitch with a bad charm.
I in my mirror had gone over the scene over and over again
and said this speech, a million times.
But once we were on set,
I think we did one rehearsal and then just started rolling
'cause it was really late and,
I kind of just wanted to get it all out
before I got too tired.
In fact, you, do you wanna know why I got that bag charm?
Because my friends and I were obsessed with "Gossip Girl."
We all wanted to be Serena van der Woodsen
in her gorgeous, crazy expensive couture.
But the only thing we could afford
from any of those designers
was a clip-on bag charm from a outlet mall in Winoka.
So we played this a couple of different ways,
some where it was quicker and faster
in the way that I said it.
But then that seemed a little bit
unfair for the character to have to kind of listen to her
verbally, kind of go crazy at Pierre Cadault.
And then I kind of found like a happy medium,
where Emily's frustrated at the situation,
but she's also understanding of Pierre's perspective.
But she just admits that she is
kind of exactly what he thinks she is.
And she is determined to explain to him
why that's actually a good thing.
You think Ringardes don't respect designers?
We worship designers so much
that we spend all we've saved on a dumb accessory,
just to feel like we're somehow on your runway.
You may mock us.
But the truth is, you need us.
Without basic bitches like me, you wouldn't be fashionable.
- I couldn't believe it was Dan.
- What - "Gossip Girl."
We watched the entire series to find out, it's Dan.
- The lovely man playing Pierre Cadault,
actually and ironically didn't know much about "Gossip Girl"
and didn't really know who Dan Humphrey was,
which made it kind of funny to explain to him in that scene.
But he got it, got it away.
And I just love that Emily and Pierre are able to connect
on such a pop iconic TV show.
And I think it just
allowed the two of them to have something in common.
I truly believe that Emily grew up loving
"Sex and the City."
She loved "90210," she loved "Gossip Girl."
It's like all those shows
that I know that I grew up watching.
So for her and Pierre to have that in common
allowed Emily, I think, to ultimately win him over.