Jeremy O. Harris guest-stars as a fashion designer on season two of "Emily in Paris ."- The actor told Nylon he initially didn't get the hair care he needed as a Black actor on set.
Actor Jeremy O. Harris said
"When I first got to 'Emily in Paris,' there was sort of a weird translation issue around my hair and what I needed for my hair as a Black performer," the Tony-nominated playwright, 32, told Nylon in a story published on Thursday.
Harris, who joined the season two cast in May to guest-star as a fashion designer, said word of the situation eventually reached Collins, a producer and lead on Darren Star's Emmy-nominated Netflix show.
"When Lily found out she was like, 'You do know I'm a producer, right?' and immediately went into producer mode, texting and calling everyone, making sure that I felt comfortable for my first day on set," he recalled.
Though some might make snap judgments about Collins because she has a famous father, the drummer Phil Collins, Harris said his experience with the actress is a testament to her individual character.
"Actresses who have had the wild privilege and access that she's had through her family lineage, there's an idea that these people are frivolous or dilettantes - and it's 100% not true of Lily. It's such a delight to meet actresses who want to be advocates for people with less privilege or less power than them," he said.
Before Harris secured a role on season two, which hits the streaming platform on December 22, he spoke about the public's polarized reception to the soapy comedy after its October 2020 premiere.
"The thing about 'Emily in Paris' is that it's not good. It's not bad. It's 'Emily in Paris,'" the actor explained to Interview magazine, using another one of Star's creations, "Sex and the City," as a point of reference.
"You have to just accept that, the same way 'Sex and the City' wasn't good or bad, it was 'Sex and the City,'" he added.
Harris said that today's audiences let plenty slide in the late '90s sitcom yet refuse to extend the same treatment to "Emily in Paris." But regardless of their gripes with the campy, lighthearted show, he's confident people are still devouring it, whether they admit it or not.
"We accept the transphobia, we accept the gay men in white women's bodies. We understand all of that because it's 'Sex and the City.' I don't know why people aren't giving the same leeway to 'Emily in Paris,' even though they secretly are because they're watching it like a guilty pleasure."