Some people have jobs so cool we'd actually enjoy attending their marathon Zoom meetings. Even the ones that could totally have been an email.
Not to say we don't cherish our all-important responsibility of bringing you every last piece of need-to-know information about the casts of Bridgerton and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, but we don't have our own glam squad or a Rolodex filled with famous names, now do we?
But the impossibly cool people we'll be profiling in E! News' latest series totally do. Plus access to things like private drivers, designer garb and the type of professional titles we'd drop with wild abandon at parties, dinner dates or while chatting with the barista at Starbucks. Welcome to A Day in the Life...
Having directed the likes of Hilary Duff and Sutton Foster on Younger and now Lily Collins and Co. on Netflix's escapist smash hit Emily in Paris, one might imagine Andy Fleming's days are filled with the sorts of conversations you'd love to eavesdrop on. And, let's be real, they probably are.
But the series' directing producer ("I work with all of the directors and try to make sure we're all making the same show") would argue they might sound kinda similar to the chatter you overhear in your cubicle.
Take the small talk he shared with Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu (a.k.a. Emily's hard to impress boss Sylvie) as they were preparing to roll on a scene from the end of season two, premiering Dec. 22.
He had remarked how his signal that an actress is ready for her close-up is when she swaps her comfy Uggs for exquisite, yet often excruciating, stilettos. "That's a sign of complete readiness, when the actresses put on their shoes," he explains to E! News. "And that's true of every show that has fashionably dressed women on it."
So as he chatted with Philippine, "I was trying to calculate with her the percentage of my work life that I have been watching woman put shoes on and having the conversation about how uncomfortable they are," he continues. "There's a direct ratio between pain and beauty with women's shoes."
In other words, stars are just like the rest of us mere mortals, hoofing it to the office in our walking flats.
Of course the commute for the Emily in Paris crew might involve, say, an Eiffel Towel drive-by and the reminder that they're filming in one of the most romantic cities in the world. "I'll be trying to do my homework in the car on the way to or home from work and sometimes you'll look up and there will be, you know, the Île Saint-Louis and its sunset and it's just so beautiful," Andy says, "and you'll think, like, 'Oh, this is better than the 405.'"
So, no, he doesn't mind leaving L.A. behind for a few months of filming in the City of Light. Thankfully he let E! News tag along this past summer as he directs the remaining two-episode block for the series' sophomore outing. (Metaphorically speaking, anyway. We didn't actually hop a flight to France, though we put on our favorite beret to get in the spirit.)
"What is most exciting about the show is I think it knows much more what it is this season," Andy teases of what's to come. "It's more complicated. It has more layers, more conflict, it's a little edgier. And it's just more, I think. We did bigger set pieces and more locations and we really went for it."
Dare we say it has that extra je ne sais quoi?
9:01 a.m. (CET) This is so the sort of thing Emily would document for the 'gram. Leaving his Parisian rental to head to set, "I took a picture of my staircase because it's this gold wooden spiral staircase that's like the staircase in Emily's apartment," Andy shares. "And every day I walk down and I think of it."
Admittedly, he's already in a pretty nostalgic space as he prepares for one of the final filming days on season two. "It was actually kind of an emotional day because we were shooting in locations that we used when we did the pilot and the first couple of episodes," he explains. "So it was kind of like coming home, revisiting beginnings."
9:30 a.m. Aaaaaaand, action! Having spent his half-hour drive to their location—Place de Valois, which serves as the exterior for Savoir, the marketing agency where Emily works—reviewing his plans, Andy is ready to get to work the moment he arrives.
"In the car, on the way, I always look at the scenes and I look at the plan that I came up with," he notes. "There's always a million ways to shoot a scene, so I try to think of the best way that's the elaborate version and the best way that's the most simple version and I usually land somewhere in between the two."
Blocking out the scene—an exchange between Philippine and Lily—is both relatively easy and enjoyable. "It's fun to work with the two of them," Andy says. "That relationship is really feisty and funny and they're both really good actresses." Plus it gives him the chance to share his whole the sexier the shoes, the less comfortable they are theory. Chatting with Philippine, he continues, "She thinks it's hilarious that I pay attention to these kinds of things."
12 p.m. Since the French "don't believe in snacking between meals," says Andy, there's no craft services on set. And on this particular morning, "I was getting kind of hangry," he admits. "And somebody sensed the dip in my mood and brought me a sandwich and it was salmon and arugula and it was really f--king delicious. And then I felt better."
Which is good as the next scene between Lily and Ashley Park (Emily's BFF Mindy) requires some emotional fortitude. Moving across the street to the Palais-Royal Garden, they shoot on the exact bench where the two had met in the pilot. "I was looking at the shots from the first scene that we did there and trying to kind of emulate them for this episode because there's kind of a big turning point in this scene," he teases.
But mostly he was trying to keep it together. "We hadn't shot there in a long time," he explains, "and we all got kind of emotional just because, you know, so much time had passed." In the moment, it's hard not to reflect on the time he met up with Lily last year—one of his first social interactions after months of isolation—"and we were like, 'Are we ever going to make movies again? How do we do it? Will there be a vaccine?'"
2 p.m. Bon appétit! Though Andy and the rest of the crew usually head to catering for their lunch break, "because we were in the middle of this nice part of town, we just went to a café," he shares. "It's one of the many things that's nice about shooting in Paris—there are cafes and it's a longer lunch here. You take an hour instead of 30 minutes and you can really decompress and rest and eat."
Among the other perks: The warm reception they've received from the locals. Early on while filming the first season inside the building that serves as Emily's apartment, "Somebody came out their front door and there were 45 people camped out with all this equipment," Andy recalls. "And he said, 'What's going on?' And somebody said in French, 'We're filming.' And he said, 'Oh, how interesting.' And then he kind of looked around and said, 'Would anybody like a coffee?' I was just thinking, That would never happen in New York or L.A. They would try and kick you out, they would call their lawyer and then call the cops."
3 p.m. Sated and (relatively) stress-free, they returned to Bistrot Valois on Place de Valois to film one of the season's final moments. (No, we didn't get any spoilers beyond it was "a very important scene" and a "big surprise.")
While it was a complicated and long shoot featuring four characters and a lot of action, "It was nice to be doing a scene with all the regular main characters from the show," describes Andy. "I know them all well and I remember thinking I felt very much in my element. That I like my job and feel connected to everybody on the crew and the cast."
Such feel-good moments are fairly common, he continues. "We've all gotten to know each other really well and there's a great amount of affection and respect and closeness. I mean, it's not necessarily the case on a show in season two for all of the actors to be enjoying each other's company. It's rare."
He credits much of that to the top of the call sheet. "Lily is so kind and professional and conscientious that everybody kind of follows suit, I think," he notes. "She's really extraordinarily professional and committed. I've never seen her lose her cool even once. And that helps."
9:30 p.m. One last shot. Though the summer sun is beginning to set, they squeeze in a little promotional video ("I think it was the first time we had everybody in the cast in one frame—and it was cool to do that") before wrapping a little after 10 p.m.
And with Andy's boyfriend set to leave town the next day, they head to one of his favorite spots, La Terrasse des Archives, for dinner—a nice deviation from his usual weekday agenda. "I wake up, I go to set. I come home, I have something to eat and I go to sleep," he details. "It would be a pathetic life if the job wasn't as fun as it is."
And though he's just finished the longest shoot day they've had in two seasons ("I slept like a rock!"), it's more than worth it.
"I mean I've been making movies since I was a little kid," notes Andy. "I love putting shots together and making a scene. I love framing things up. I love telling actors how they can maybe make the scene slightly better. I love putting it together. It's a very challenging job, but if you're working on something interesting with good people, it's the best, most fun job. This one producer said to me today, 'Are you having the time of your life?' I said, 'I guess I am.'"