The Connexion November 2020 connexionfrance.com Interview 13 Emily in Paris is clichéd, but What it’s about Emily in Paris tells the tale of a 22-year-old American who moves from Chicago to Paris for work. also based on real life - mine She is asked to bring an Netflix’s blockbuster Emily in life and Emily’s started to intertwine. American point of view Paris has been accused of “I said here’s my life, take everything, to a luxury-brand French and just shared all my anecdotes. marketing firm. not being realistic but much Darren Star created this character, but It brings a clash of of it is spot on, says the there’s a lot of me in it.” cultures as she adjusts American woman whose So, what about the criticisms that to life in France while Emily’s Paris experience is not juggling her career, realistic? Ms Leffler concedes that experience of moving to friendships and love life. Paris and working in a luxury Emily, played by English actress Lily Collins, daughter of rock star Phil, marketing agency inspired would probably not have a wardrobe the script. Joanna York met of designer clothes, or an elegantly decorated 40m2 chambre de bonne her for coffee… waiting for her on arrival in Paris. Her client wouldn’t send her lingerie – especially in the Me Too era – and OF all the criticisms levelled at she added: “My neighbours never Netflix’s Emily in Paris, the most looked like Lucas Bravo [the actor who Photo: Photo: Joanna York frequent is that it is not realistic. plays Emily’s love interest Gabriel].” Rebecca Leffler moved to Paris from the US 16 years ago and has Commentators from Vogue to the The show has been criticised for experienced much of what Emily has encountered in her French adventures Financial Times have accused the portraying a lack of diversity in Paris, show of being “absurd”, “cliché- something Ms Leffler believes is at immigration and crying.” After have an American flag stamped on my stuffed” and “frankly misleading”. accurate of the marketing and fashion working as a journalist and film critic, forehead” when she is in Paris. However, behind Emily’s fantasy industry, and a real problem. Ms Leffler began to write books. She admits: “I’m a cliché. I live in world lies the life of a real American English actress Lily Collins plays Emily The harshest critics of the show, in As well as working in a marketing the Marais. I’m an American in Paris. in Paris who worked with the Ms Leffler’s experience, have not been agency, she writes vegan cookbooks I do yoga. I am a vegetarian. There are producer and scriptwriters to provide they’re not as friendly and open.” French viewers. Her French friends and has also written a French- a lot of things about me that are super the inspiration for many of Emily’s Ms Leffler’s journey to Paris was, have mostly enjoyed the series and the language novel, La Fleur Bleue, about cliché American. on-screen escapades from her real-life though, different to Emily’s in one most disparaging comments have her experience of moving to Paris. “I still take pictures of a beautiful experiences. significant way: she arrived speaking come from expats who have moved to Central to the story were themes sunrise or sunset. When the Eiffel Rebecca Leffler says that, if anything, the language, having studied French Paris but not had the same charmed that are also explored in Emily in Tower sparkles, it sends shivers down while parts of the show are exaggerated, and cinema at college. experience as Emily. Paris: friendship, fitting in and my spine and I love to sit at the Café many of her stories got toned down. After spending a semester in the “It’s because we’ve all really had to independence. de Flore.” She gives the example of Emily’s hunt French capital during her studies at work [to live in Paris]. I’ve had to When researching her novel, she She has noticed changes in Paris too, for a plumber when her shower breaks Dartmouth College, she returned after suffer through a lot of merde. found there were plenty of memoirs especially the impact of globalisation. and she finds it almost impossible to receiving a postgraduate grant, which “And she just comes, she posts a about American women who moved She believes the dislike of Americans get it fixed because of her apartment’s led to an internship and then a job at picture of a croissant, she’s really to Paris because they “married a we sometimes glimpse in the show no old plumbing. Le Film Français. succeeding, and she has all these guys French guy”. “They’re a fish out of longer exists to the same extent, as so When this happened to Rebecca, the She became French correspondent throwing themselves at her.” water and they learn to navigate the many Americans visit and live in plumber she eventually hired left the job for The Hollywood Reporter and a film However, Emily in Paris was always situation. For me, I came on my own France, and vice versa. unfinished, and a refrigerator in the critic on talk show Le Grand Journal supposed to be a fun piece of light- and learned how to be independent. Netflix has not yet confirmed a middle of her flat. When she got hold of on Canal Plus. hearted escapism. “No one wants to “I just fell in love with the city. That’s second series of Emily but, due to the him to ask why, he gave what he It was on a work trip to the Caesar watch a show about someone trying a whole different story.” show’s global popularity – and knack considered an acceptable excuse: je suis Awards that she met a film producer to find an apartment or waiting in line She is proud that in the first series for stirring up discussion – it seems tombé amoureux - I fell in love. who would play a key role in her we see Emily doing it all herself, with likely. Ms Leffler says her professional involvement in the Netflix show. a resolute smile on her face. The In future episodes, Ms Leffler would experiences in a French luxury One morning, she had an interview character she inspired has, in turn, like to see her on-screen alter ego go marketing agency match up almost scheduled with that well-known inspired her to remember who she through some changes of her own. exactly to the show. She had a boss American producer and the two was when she arrived in Paris and tap “She has a lot of growing up to do,” who bore a striking resemblance to became friends. into Emily’s positive, can-do attitude. she said. “It would be great to see her Emily’s tough, glamorous boss Sylvie Years later, the producer was having Ms Leffler, now in her late 30s, has explore and learn more about herself. (“She was like, who was this young lunch with Darren Star, creator of Sex lived in the French capital for 16 years, “I would like her to have more American idiot?”). When she first and the City, who handed him a script I’m a cliché. I live in with a few stints in New York in French friends and succeed at work started working in a French office, for a new show he was working on: “ between. Her time in France has but let herself go a little bit. It would no one asked her to go for lunch. Emily in Paris. “He said, Darren, I the Marais. I’m an confirmed some of the more American be great to see her not so aggressive.” “I was the loud American and hate to tell you – you created this American in Paris. I do aspects of her personality and changed Most of all, she hopes Emily does not everyone would look me up and down fictional character, but she already others – notably her sense of style. lose her joie de vivre, her independ- and not talk to me. That’s how it was. exists. Her name is Rebecca Leffler.” yoga. I am a vegetarian. She went from wearing “sorority butt ence, or her sense of who she is. “That has been my experience – me Mr Star called Ms Leffler one Friday There are a lot of things pants, sweatshirts and winter jackets” in For Ms Leffler, success came when – being this smiley, optimistic American afternoon at her Paris office and asked the US to “fancy dresses on red carpets”. rather than feeling like a fish out of dealing with French people. Even the if she could be in the writers’ room for about me that are Culturally, she is now in the water – she started to embrace the ones who are wonderful, kind people the show – in Los Angeles – by no-man’s land so many expats find things that made her different. are not necessarily, as I would say, Monday morning. super-cliché American themselves in – feeling too French This is also a journey she would like effusive. When you first meet them, Throughout the writing process, her Rebecca Leffler when she returns to the US but “like I to see Emily go on. Netflix gives restaurant taste of global fame ITALIAN restaurant Terra Nera’s distinctive red by the Covid-19 health crisis. Takings have featuring burrata, tiramisu and a perfectly awning is perhaps more familiar now to gone down 30% and could go down to 60% due cooked beef tenderloin – a nod to Emily passers-by as Les Deux Compères – the to the effect of the new curfew rules. “During trying rare steak for the first time in neighbourhood restaurant where the character this difficult time, having the show. Gabriel works as a chef in Emily in Paris. the series come out now has Now, their fingers are In real life, the family business is run by certainly been good,” Mr crossed for a swift end to owners Valerio Abate and Johann Baranes. Abate said, even if they the health crisis and a The restaurant, with period features, has have not been able to fully second series of the Netflix featured in a few smaller shows but life has profit from the global show, featuring their changed significantly since Emily aired. success of the show, as restaurant. Mr Abate said: “So many people come and few international “I hope we can have as take photos of the restaurant. Some days, I feel tourists are visiting Paris many visitors as possible, Johann Baranes like I’m in front of the Eiffel Tower!” at the moment. Photo: instagram@terra_nera including tourists, who and Valerio Abate’s The attention has come at a good moment. The restaurant has, Filet d’Emily is the main dish of the want to visit Emily and restaurant is famous Joanna York Like all restaurants, Terra Nera, in Paris’s however, introduced an Emily in Paris set menu at Terra Nera, Gabriel’s restaurant,” said for more than its food

Sorbonne district, has been drastically affected Emily in Paris set menu, also known as Les Deux Compères Mr Abate. Photo: