🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
In the first season of Emily in Paris, when Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) first arrived in the City of Lights, she clashed with many of her French colleagues — especially co-worker Julien (Samuel Arnold) and boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu). While those relationships quickly righted themselves — so much so that Emily left her American marketing agency for Sylvie’s newly formed Agence Grateau — the conflict between Emily and Julien surfaces again in Season 3 in a big way.
Halfway through the season, Julien tells Sylvie he’s fed up with the way Emily interrupts his presentations and steals the thunder in pitch meetings.
“It was such a joke at the beginning of the first season where he was the diva of the office and the colorful character. And then she comes with her colorful style and everything, and he’s like, ‘Oh, she’s not going to take my place’ or whatever. But it was all fun and teasing,” he tells Tudum. “And in this season it gets pretty serious.”
Emily’s tendency to steal Julien’s thunder is noticeable to the audience, too. “He’s got a point,” Arnold says — and he’s not just defending his character. “Julien is excited, and loyal to his peers and his friends and co-workers. There is a huge sense of positivity between all of us. [Agence Grateau] is a new beginning, until they encounter the different obstacles.”
Like, for example, Emily’s spotlight hogging. But don’t worry, Arnold says: “Julien is standing up for himself, and I think the audience will be very proud of him.”
Digging deeper into the lives of the Agence Grateau employees is a major part of the third season, and Arnold says it couldn’t have happened before now. “I feel like in Season 1 we’re all here to support Emily. And now [the show’s] giving us each a storyline, a little world of our own, within the world of Emily in Paris. The universe is expanding.”
While Julien’s storyline is still firmly work-related, perhaps it could extend to Julien’s love life in the future.
“I think Julien is a player, but I’m also very happy that they focused on the work side of things,” Arnold says. “We’re not lacking romances in the show. So I’m very happy to [play] the character that tackles another subject in such a good way as well.”
And don’t worry — this does not spell the end for Emily and Julien’s relationship.
“I actually believe that there’s a very strong friendship there, and like in every good friendship, it goes through thick and thin,” Arnold says. “I think that no matter what happens, [there will be a] happy ending. I’m not writing [the show]. Maybe I’m fooling myself, but I’d like to think that everyone is going to be OK.”
Three seasons of Emily in Paris have bled into Arnold’s real life, too. Julien has some outrageous fashion moments in Season 3 that have influenced the actor’s own taste.
“Playing a character like Julien really gives me confidence in real life to wear things that I wouldn’t necessarily wear,” he says. “I just experiment, because I feel like, ‘Oh yeah, it works. I can pull this off.’”
Emily in Paris Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
Additional reporting by Ruth Kinane.
