Spoilers for Emily in Paris Season 5 ahead. Not all friendships are perfect — including Emily and Mindy’s. In an exclusive interview with Bustle, Emily in Paris stars Lily Collins and Ashley Park break down their characters’ major fight on Season 5, which hit Netflix on Dec. 18, and it involves one of Emily’s most beloved ex-boyfriends.
In the season premiere, as Emily (Collins) is in Rome, Mindy (Park) reconnects with Emily’s British ex Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), which ends up getting more romantic and emotional than expected. They don’t act on their newfound connection until they head to Rome and start hooking up, but promise to keep it an Italian fling. Naturally, that plan fails.
As soon as she read the script, Park “panicked immediately,” and turned to Collins, who is also an executive producer on the show, for confirmation.
“I’m always like… ‘Help me,’” she recalls. “I think I panicked because I think Alfie’s really into [Emily], and what people love so much about Mindy is her friendship and loyalty to Emily, so I was like, ‘Are we completely demolishing these characters?’”
When Emily finds out through her petty colleague Geneviève (Thalia Besson) — who she had just fired — it causes a rift between the BFFs, leading Mindy to move out of their apartment. But of course, the two end up coming back together stronger than ever, which made Park grateful for the storyline. “It actually brought out so many more dimensions and incredibly deep strength and layers to the sisterhood as well,” she says.
How Lily & Ashley Prepared
Given how close they’ve grown since meeting on the Season 1 set, Collins and Park were daunted by the prospect of having to argue. However, before filming their confrontation scenes, the actors agreed that “they really have to go there” for the payoff to be worth it.
“They have to make it super relatable and also lengthen the fight because it can’t just happen and then it’s OK,” Collins says. “There needs to be tension because it’s something so big in the friendship, and we’ve never had that before. We just knew that it would be hard to film because we’re so close and it would feel uncomfortable.”
However, the two are eager to clarify that no “method acting” was involved, with Collins noting that she’s “never passive-aggressive” and Park calling her co-star “a luxury of a scene partner.”
“We’re really thoughtful about what our character needs here; what are the intentions?” Park explains. “I’ve never spoken that way to Lily. She’s certainly never spoken that way to me. We’re always so honest with each other. So it was fun because we were like, ‘Whoa, I guess we’re going to try out a new voice with each other.’ It felt like a totally different thing.”
