Minka Kelly

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If Minka Kelly isn’t the current reigning Queen of Netflix, she’s certainly in the royal court. The first season of her Texas-set series Ransom Canyon was a huge success: It spent four weeks in the global top 10 list and reached the top 10 in 77 countries. Netflix immediately ordered a second season, which Kelly is currently filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she grew up.

This month also marks the release on the streamer of Kelly’s first ever rom-com, Champagne Problems. In the holiday romp, Kelly, an effortlessly young 45, plays Sydney Price, an American executive who flies to Paris to execute a takeover of Chateau Cassell, a family-owned Champagne house. Of course, on her first night there, she has an epic date with a man who turns out to be the heir to the company after a meet-cute at a French bookstore. (Art imitates life imitates art: Kelly’s own first stop in Paris is usually Shakespeare and Company, the bookstore on the Left Bank.)

With its musings on Ratatouille, swoonworthy scenes of the City of Lights around Christmas and equally swoonworthy romance, Champagne Problems goes down like, yes, a glass of bubbly.
“I’ve always wanted to do a rom-com, and Paris is my favorite place in the world, so when the script came, I said, ‘Great, I’d love to,’” recalls Kelly. “To think I would get to do a rom-com in France, that was very exciting. It’s such a nice breath of fresh air. We laughed all day.”

During filming in Paris, Kelly rented a flat in the Marais. “For me, it’s all about food, and I ate a lot,” says Kelly, who only speaks a little bit of French. “I love to go out to eat by myself, especially when I’m out on the road. I go exploring and watch this culture happen around me.”

One of her favorite haunts is Chez Janou on Rue Roger Verlomme. “Whenever anyone is going to Paris, I always send them there. I just love how French it is. They’re famous for their chocolate mousse that comes in this huge bowl, and they just come over and lop it on the plate,” she says. “I’d order this delicious beef stew and an entire baguette with salted butter and a glass of wine, and I’d just sit and eat at the bar and watch all the waiters be so lively. The whole French people being rude thing—I haven’t experienced that.”

In addition to the time spent in her favorite city, making the movie “was everything I’d hoped it would be,” says Kelly. “I’m a bit of a goofball, and I got to let loose and let my personality show. It was nice to be silly. It was a really nice respite from being on a drama and being so emotional.”