Lily Collins Explains Why COVID Doesn’t Exist in ‘Emily in Paris’

Want a break from the doom and gloom of the pandemic? Try watching Season 2 of “Emily in Paris.”

Producers of the Netflix series decided that COVID doesn’t exist in Emily’s fabulous — and very fashionable — life in the City of Light.

“Season 1 allowed us an escapism when it came out that it felt it was something that needed to continue — not addressing it because it brings a sense of escapism and joy and laughter in a time that we need it the most,” star Lily Collins told me Wednesday night at the Season 2 premiere at the West Hollywood Edition hotel.

Obviously, filming during the pandemic did have its obstacles. “Shooting a show in a city that is highly populated where people are wearing masks, yet we’re shooting in a world that doesn’t exist with COVID — so it’s making sure that when we’re rolling the masks are off and when we stop rolling they come back on,” Collins said. “There were a couple of times when they started shooting and I was like, ‘Wait, half the people in the scene are still wearing masks.’”

Emily’s looks in the new season certainly outdo the show’s freshman outing. No spoilers here, but wait until you see the ensembles that Collins and her co-stars get to wear this time around. “We do our fittings separately, and then we get to see what the other is wearing when we get to set,” star Ashley Park said. “It’s so much fun.”

Tony-nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris joins the cast as an eccentric fashion designer. Show creator Darren Star called him with the offer. “Acting is the thing I started out doing,” Harris told me. “One of the reasons I stopped acting and started writing was because I felt like there weren’t roles that I wanted to be in. I was like, I’d rather write my own. But finally someone wrote a role where it was like, this is exactly the kind of person I would love to be.”

Even so, Harris will continue writing. “People have done it — look at Sam Shepard,” he said. “I wouldn’t be mad if I became the next Sam Shepard.”