Ashley Park on 'Emily in Paris' tryst - 'Thought I was being punked'

Spoiler alert: This story includes details from Season 5 of “Emily in Paris” (now streaming on Netflix). Avoid making a faux pas by watching before reading.

Lily Collins had time to get used to the shocking love affair introduced in Season 5 of “Emily in Paris.”

In the 10-episode installment, now streaming, Emily’s confidante Mindy (Ashley Park) sleeps with Emily’s ex Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) while on vacation in Rome. Their dalliance continues in Paris, and Emily finds out before the pair can tell her.

“It had been teased as an idea last year, as a joke,” Collins says, in an interview with USA TODAY, seated beside her on-and-off-screen bestie, Park. “And then I heard about it and I thought, ‘Well, I'm not going to say anything yet because if it's not true, I don't want to stress anyone out. And then when I read it, I thought, ‘Wait for the phone call,’ and then Ashley called me.”

“I was really shocked and thought I was being punked,” Park says, “and I immediately called her, not only because she's a producer and my best friend and my best friend on the show… Lily was so good in supporting me, and we figured out that we really trust − and we think the audience so trusts − this deep sisterhood and friendship.”

“I think our fear was, ‘Is this going to make them drift apart forever? Will they ever be able to recover and reconcile?’ ” Park continues. “And I really do think that the way we built it, and the writers and Darren (Star, series creator) did as well, we get to have the audience rooting for this friendship in a way they've never been asked to, and so we were really excited.”

Collins wanted to ensure the conflict felt true to life and lasted “longer than half an episode. It needs to live and breathe in this uncomfortability because that's what real life is and that's how we can show the makeup at the end,” she says. “You cannot just have this be a quick thing because it's not, and that's the only way that it will seem real and believable.”

Mindy and Alfie plan to tell Emily at dinner in Episode 5. But before that can happen, Alfie ends things with Mindy when he learns her billionaire ex, Nico (Paul Forman), has reemerged. Later in the episode, Emily's young coworker Geneviève (Thalia Besson) reveals that the two have been sleeping together. By the end of Episode 6, the twosome makes amends. The actors themselves agree that the betrayal, while a violation of girl code, isn’t friendship-ending.

“You can reconcile through anything,” Park says, “but if it happens again, that means that you're not listening to that person, then that would be a cause for some drifting.”

“I think it's all about communication,” Collins says. “The biggest problem is that Mindy assumes she knows what Emily's going to say and doesn't allow Emily to speak for herself in her reaction, and Emily just would've wanted them to be happy because she genuinely was OK with it. That may not be the case for everyone in this situation, but for this specific situation, it just highlights how important communication is.”