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Emily in Paris creator Darren Star on taking things to Italy
Unfortunately, I feel like it’s happened to a couple of locations in Paris. Like at one of my favourite spots, Café de Flore, where I’m suddenly waiting in line along with everyone else. People have said, “This is because of Emily in Paris.” It can cut both ways. Some people may want the attention. But I’m not sure the locals are thrilled about it.
Was it challenging to shoot the finale episode in Venice?
We had such a crack squad in terms of producers in Italy to navigate everything. I said, “I’d love to film in Venice. I know people have filmed there before, but logistically, it seems really tough,” and luckily, we had an Italian producer who actually lives in Venice. We did it. There were camera boats and you are navigating a lot of tourists. That’s Venice. But we did have some really beautiful locations in Venice. We filmed at the St. Regis Venice at Gio’s Restaurant. We also shot at the Hotel Danieli’s rooftop restaurant, Restaurant Terrazza Danieli, and Moro Restaurant. The fashion show was staged at Campo San Francesco della Vigna.
But beyond those, it was about getting into the city and following the characters wandering around Venice. I always think about it from the point of view of: What do I want to see? What I love in any city, Paris or Venice or Rome, is wandering around and getting lost. So I love having those moments where the characters are just walking and finding a couple of terrific locations. Andy Fleming, who directed these episodes, is a master of finding locations and stitching them together. If characters are walking, it’s not just down one street. We’ll combine it with a couple of streets that look amazing. Maybe people who live there will say, “Well, that’s impossible.” But for us, it’s about: visually, what’s going to look best?
Did you get to film in any new locations in Paris?
I wanted to go inside, but we didn’t go inside Notre Dame. We did get to film for a moment outside of Notre Dame. The resurrection of Notre Dame is such an amazing story. The fire happened right before we started filming and it was such a tragedy. To see it restored in its glory is amazing. Filming at the Fondation Louis Vuitton was beautiful. We filmed at LVMH. Going to the Bois de Boulogne and filming the characters on horseback was really great. It was somewhere I wanted to go. Filming at Maxim’s was fantastic.
