How Darren Star Casts His Leading Ladies, From Carrie Bradshaw to ‘Emily in Paris’

It’s written in the parlance: New York was the fifth character on “Sex and the City.” So it doesn’t take much imagination to pinpoint which bustling metropolis will be the stand-in on series creator Darren Star’s newest project, “Emily in Paris.” 

“I’ve had this idea for a while, wanting to do a show about an expatriate in Paris,” Star says. “I personally have always loved the city since I started going there as a kid. I just imagined, and sort of personally wondered myself, what it would be like to live and work there. And so it was a bit of a meta experience for me to do the show—and then also actually have the opportunity to live and work there.”

Dropping on Netflix Oct. 2, the series follows a Midwestern millennial transplanted to the City of Lights (or City of Love, depending on who you ask and on what day). That she knows nothing of the culture—or the language—ensures ensuing fish-out-of-water and meet-cute moments.     

“I just saw the humor in the situation,” Star says. “I wanted to do a show that explored cultural differences. And also, I love characters who have to leave their comfort zone and are challenged.” That Emily is played by Lily Collins guarantees both. 

In nearly every single scene, Collins carries the series on her back, a task that requires as much grit off-screen as on. “The one thing I did see even just spending time with her is the amount of toughness she’s got inside of her, that she brought to the character, which is really important to me,” says Star. “I think sometimes of Holly Hunter in ‘Broadcast News’: you still love her, but she’s tough. And Lily completely brought that.”

Rounding out the cast is Ashley Park, whom Star fell in love with after seeing her in “Mean Girls” on Broadway, Kate Walsh, and an otherwise entirely French cast—all of whom were actually cast out of France, which was non-negotiable for the showrunner: “I wanted the show to feel like we’re fully in Paris, and I wanted to have as much French flavor as possible,” he explains. “I loved the experience of this casting, just being introduced to a whole group of wonderful French actors that I hadn’t met before.”

READ: How Ashley Park Made ‘Fetch’ Happen

Whenever casting, Stateside or otherwise, Star hopes for auditioning actors to catch him off guard in some way; to see the lines written on the page and then read between them. “Sometimes it’s an actor that brings a different quality to the role, in a way I hadn’t thought about it,” he says. “I love anytime an actor walks in the room and it’s exciting because it’s unexpected, you don’t know what’s going to happen, and you don’t know how they’re going to interpret it. I just look for people that surprise me and that make me excited about thinking of them in the role.”

As he prepares to unleash his first new project of the 2020s, Star is aware he’s essentially had a tentpole series debut every decade (he also created TV Land’s fiercely loved “Younger”). But despite seismic shifts in the way we view, Star’s approach to the half-hour comedy has changed much less. From Carrie Bradshaw to Emily, his has always been a storytelling that centers people and the connections that define their lives. 

“When you’re doing shows that are character-driven, relationship-driven, a half hour to me feels like the right amount. Otherwise, I think it can get a little soapy,” he says. “I thought of ‘Sex and the City’ the exact same way [as ‘Emily’]. If you look at every season, it’s arced through a relationship. They weren’t separate standalone episodes. They had emotional throughlines that went through the season.

“The shows that I’ve done, you know, they’re romantic comedies,” he adds, “and I think ‘Emily in Paris’ is a romantic comedy feature on steroids.”