“Emily in Paris”: Playing an extra in Netflix’s global chick flick hit a humble way to spend a sunny day

Living in Rome for the last 12 years, the only thing I hate more than American pizza is ugly tourists – and I don’t mean the obese set. True ugly tourists pour out of tour buses like they’re disgorging from a cruise ship. They go to ancient monuments and only take selfies without looking at said monuments. They take pictures of locals like they’re bears in a zoo. 

So what was I doing pouring out of a tour bus, taking selfies in front of ancient monuments and bugging locals for photos?

Acting, of course. I would never shove a cellphone in old people’s faces as they’re sitting on their patio, regardless of how cute their patio is or picturesque their weathered faces are. But that’s what I did in one long day in May as part of one of the biggest blockbusters in international television.

I have resumed my side gig as a film extra.  I appear in one episode of the current Season 5 of Emily in Paris, Netflix’s colossal global TV hit. The series has changed the viewing habits of prime ministers. It has sparked tug-of-wars between nations. It has sparked wild competition between designer brands. It has made the second most touristy city in Europe even more touristy.

And I played a part, however big it is walking silently past a camera a few times in Episode 4.

Emily in Paris synopsis

If you’re not familiar with Emily in Paris, it’s about Emily Cooper, a 29-year-old American whose Chicago public relations firm sends her to Paris to inject an American point of view and social media savvy into a staid, old French PR agency.

Emily in Paris is a chick flick on estrogen. Homeland this is not.

List all the French stereotypes you can think of and they’re all there: The swarthy French men, all of whom are impossibly handsome, impeccably dressed and constantly flirtatious. Her butchering the language. The over-the-top rude French, especially her boss. (OK, many of you will say that’s not a stereotype. That it’s true. I happen to like the French.)

Emily is played by Lily Collins, singer Phil Collins’ 36-year-old daughter who’s a serious, successful actress and won critical acclaim for roles in The Blind Side (2009) and Rules Don’t Apply (2016). In Emily in Paris she is very naive, a little ditzy and wide-eyed enamored by the attention she gets from all the potential French lovers. 

She is also dressed to the nines every day, wearing outfits that a mid-level PR salary could in no way in hell afford. It’s consistent with creator Darren Star’s other cable hit, Sex and the City, where Sarah Jessica Parker’s character dressed and lived comically beyond the means of a salary given to an alternative newspaper columnist in New York.

Telling you something about the mentality of today’s generation, Emily in Paris has become must-watch TV around the world. It’s M*A*S*H with better costuming.

Emily in Paris popularity 

The numbers are massive. When the series premiered in October 2020, it attracted 58 million viewers the first month and placed second globally among English-language series.  Credit the shut-ins from Covid who were craving something to watch but the numbers kept going up:

Season 2: 21.2 million viewers the first week.

Season 3: 21.4 million viewers the first week.

Season 4: 19.9 million viewers the first four days.

Season 5 was released last month and it has received the most positive views of all. Rotten Tomatoes ratings:

Season 1: 61 percent.

Season 2: 61 percent.

Season 3: 67 percent.

Season 4: 68 percent.

Season 5: 73 percent.

Paris, Europe’s second-most visited city behind London with about 18 million visitors a year, is experiencing what is called the “Emily Effect.” A survey last summer indicated that 25 percent of those surveyed came to Paris because of the show. 

No wonder. Every episode shows Paris like a 60-minute postcard. Sunny. Chic cafes. Walks along the Seine. It doesn’t show the rain, the rats, the tour buses. 

For years Emily in Paris pilgrims have poured in. They take pictures at Café de Flore, the 19th century cafe Emily uses for coffee and meeting men. Paris’ tourism board even lists the top 10 film locations on its website.

Birgitte Macron, the wife of French prime minister Emmanuel Macron, loves the show and made a cameo appearance. Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he rushes home to watch it with his wife. When the show hinted about moving Season 5 to Rome, Emmanuel Macron playfully fought with Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri to keep the series in Paris.

High-end French fashion brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Dior, have lined up to outfit Emily.

It has received mostly positive reviews. It scores points for its whimsical nature, for giving us something easy – very easy – to watch while doing taxes, escaping news or curing cancer. 

Bazaar magazine’s Lydia Slater, who lived and worked in Paris, wrote last month of Emily’s character, “Her optimistic nature and lack of cynicism was such a refreshing change from the relentless negativity of the news and the culture warriors on social media … It’s a pastel-pretty buffet in which nothing important really happens.”

Daniel D’Addario of Variety called the series “a delight that poses the question of what it really means to grow up, against a truly inviting backdrop.”

Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly added, “If you need a five-hour brain vacation, Paris is a worthwhile destination.”

When it premiered, the French roasted it, saying it portrayed the French as lazy, rude and having the sexual libido of bunnies on Viagra. Others still are barbecuing it. While calling it “a jewel, make no mistake,” Kristen Lopez of IndieWire said the series is “… like scrolling through Instagram. It’s a great way to waste time looking at pretty pictures with no depth.”

Giving the series one out of five stars, The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson wrote, “… if it is an attempt to fluff up the rom-com for the streaming age, then it falls over on its six-inch heels.”

I watched about half of Season 1 and bailed. Living in Rome and reading shallow writers stereotyping my adopted city as this perfect kaleidoscope of romance and beauty, I tired of Emily bouncing from rude Parisian to amorous lover. But it was beautifully shot, every woman was hot and Paris never looked better.

I could only imagine what they’d do in Rome.

My day as an extra

My part in the series could’ve been more than just walking around a cute piazza. I was asked to try out for an actual speaking part. You not only get more exposure, you get a credit and more money. 

But we film extras are basically human furniture. We’re dressed up and told where to stand. It’s easy. You, dear reader, could do it. So could everyone you see on the street. I did have one of the first lines in Episode One of HBO’s The New Pope in 2020. 

But normally my acting range bounces between mild astonishment, accented with a slightly dropped jaw, and a raised eyebrow, my attempt at conveying skepticism.

Asking extras to speak is like asking cats to sing.

Nevertheless, I did a self video of me, playing a tourist, marveling at the cheap price of the convent where I’m staying. It was intended to be directed at Luc, Emily’s French co-worker played by Bruno Gouery.

After seven takes, each one sounding more like I’m reading English as a second language, I sent it in with little hope which the casting director predictably fulfilled. I didn’t get a call back, just an email saying to be in Ostia Antica at 6 a.m. on May 28.

The Rome neighborhood of Ostia Antica is known for two things: One, the well-preserved remains of an Ancient Roman military base and one-time wealthy city; two, one of the cutest, most picturesque piazzas in Italy.

Piazza della Rocca is small, intimate and lined with small, pink and ochre buildings draped with ivy and flowers of pink and purple. Homey bars with outdoor tables under umbrellas serve espresso during the day and wine at night. The 15th century Castello di Giulio II, with its tower of turrets, hovers over it all.

The production team spruced it up with more tables and potted plants. Add a sunny day in May and you have an Italian village as cute as a cat calendar. For visuals alone, Emily in Paris should win an Emmy.

I was told to come in my own clothes, preferably light, pastel colors. No white. No black. Waking at 4:50 a.m. and taking a train to Ostia Antica, I arrived in khakis and a turquoise short-sleeve shirt under a blue and white striped, no-collar shirt, unbuttoned. I hung sunglasses around my neck. They added the American tourist’s trademark: a generic ballcap.

I looked ready to storm the Colosseum. All I needed was a Lonely Planet.

Over the next 10 hours, we shot all of five scenes, none longer than 90 seconds. I, along with about 100 other extras, were told to pour out of buses, rush under the piazza’s arched entrance and behave like rats out of a cage.

Other extras played locals and I spent the day sticking my cellphone in their face and backing off when an old man in his chair threatened my life. I wandered through the piazza pointing at the castle and taking selfies. I teamed with an Iraqi who came to Rome 13 years ago and took turns taking each other’s photos, hopefully on camera.

Each scene took 10-12 takes. Between takes, I asked no one in particular, “I wonder if pornography has this many takes.”

Said a young Italian man with a smile, “We’re only human.”

In every take, Lily Collins was spot on. I won’t spoil the plot but she is blamed for turning this little village into what her boss called “Disneyland.” From what I gathered from other extras and bit actors, Lily is very nice, laid back and considerate. Like other stars I filmed with in the past such as Jude Law, John Malkovich and Diane Keaton, she wasn’t the least bit condescending.

She showed for the day’s shooting in a Mercedes town car and walked into the piazza, looking even more petite than she does on screen, wearing a long robe and sneakers. I was blocking her path while tying my shoes. I hurriedly got up and she said softly, “No, you’re OK.”

For a film extra, whose contact with stars is traditionally greeted with public flogging, that is brushing with Hollywood fame.

On screen

Three weeks ago, Netflix finally released Season 5. I had seen the last episode of Season 4, which had scenes from Rome. Of course, every business meeting seemed to be at a rooftop restaurant overlooking a monument at sunset. Every person was dressed for a catwalk. Darren Star obviously hadn’t seen how scruffy Roman men can dress.

I sat down on my couch and hit Season 5’s Episode 4. An extra being seen on screen is a major crapshoot. Depending on where the actors are and camera angle, you could get a closeup or just be a passing body. Maybe you’re human furniture, just taking up a small part of the screen.

I was a passing body, moving back and forth in front of the camera two or three times. Unless you know what I wear, my own family wouldn’t recognize me. 

It’s a long day for accumulative air time of about 2.5 seconds. But I met some great people from around the world, saw Lily Collins’ professionalism up close and got to spend a beautiful, sunny day in the high 70s in one of the prettiest piazzas in Italy.

I’m with Mayor Gualtieri. Emily can come back to Rome anytime.