Lily Collins compares 'Emily in Paris' to 'SATC,' talks engagement: 'I just kept shaking'

On the surface, Netflix's "Emily in Paris" seems to have gotten a little Carrie-d away.

Lily Collins' new series, now streaming, and HBO's "Sex and the City," which said goodbye to the small screen in 2004 after six seasons, were both created by Darren Star. The two also use Paris as a character of sorts. But while Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw typed away of all the things she "couldn't help but wonder" about on her Mac, Collins' Emily builds a social media following using the handle @EmilyInParis, which depicts the Chicagoan's time in the French city, where she's arrived to help a high-end marketing company.

Finding herself single after ending a long-distance relationship, Emily is free to mingle with the French men she encounters, including one neighbor, who unfortunately has a girlfriend. (Her romances are much less bawdy than "Sex and the City.") Emily also faces cultural differences, language barriers and co-workers who don't immediately take to her sunny, go-getter demeanor.

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Collins found the combination of Star, filming in the City of Light, the "bold, vocal" character of Emily and the series' rom-com tone "super appealing."

"When I met with Darren the first time, and he mentioned Patricia Field might be doing costumes, I thought, 'Oh my God!,'" Collins, 31, recalls. "The pairing of those two together are just so incredible. I wanted to jump at the chance – whatever I could do – to have a shot."

Field, whose credits include "The Devil Wears Prada" and the "Sex and the City" series and films, signed on for "Emily in Paris," and even alluded to some of Carrie's fashion moments in the new series, says Collins.

"There are certain elements to (Emily's) fashion that sometimes we did a little nod," Collins says, "but we very much didn’t want it to be like trying to create a new Carrie, because there’s only one Carrie Bradshaw. And we wanted to make sure that Emily stood out as her own."

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Still, Collins, who "grew up watching 'Sex and the City' " felt a thrill walking in Carrie's (Manolo Blahnik) footsteps.

"We got to shoot in the Plaza Athénée, which is the same hotel where she and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) shot," says Collins. "For me to be able to be in some of the same locations that Carrie got to work in and shoot in was pretty incredible."

Collins also counts a night shooting inside the Opéra Garnier as an unforgettable highlight.

"I was running around the halls in hotel slippers in between takes with this incredible outfit on just feeling completely out of body, going 'How are we here?'"

She shared the moment with her now-fiancé, writer/director Charlie McDowell, who proposed recently while the pair were on a desert road trip that included stops in New Mexico and Sedona. Reports of the couple dating first surfaced last summer.

Collins announced her engagement to McDowell, the son of actors Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, with a pair of Instagram posts Friday.

"I’ve been waiting my lifetime for you and I can’t wait to spend our lifetime together..." she captioned a series of pictures, one with McDowell, 37, on bended knee.

Days later, Collins says she still feels the elation of her love's proposal in New Mexico.

"I am just completely over the moon and so excited," she says. "I am so excited to be his fiancée, and it was a magical experience that I’ll just never forget."

"I just kept shaking," she remembers of the moment with a laugh. "It was so surreal, and it’s just one that I keep playing over in my head, over and over and over again.

"I just keep referencing it as this deep knowing feeling where I feel I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, with the person I’m supposed to be with, feeling the way I’m supposed to feel," she continues. "It’s just that knowing feeling that takes over your whole body, and just being uncontrollably happy. My cheeks just kept hurting, and I feel very grateful."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lily Collins on Netflix's 'Emily in Paris,' proposal: I 'kept shaking'