Actor provides primer in playing la Parisienne
Leroy-Beaulieu is an extreme version in ‘Emily in Paris’
PARIS— Francemay have gone back into lockdownlast month, but it still has an international ambassador on small screens everywhere thanks to actor Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, aka Sylvie Grateau in the love-to-hate-it Netflix series “Emily in Paris.” As the head of a luxury marketing agency who overdresses, smokes, mocks political correctness and oozesmeanness, she is the extreme version of the “Parisienne,” disseminating style and scorn in equal measure.
And though she inhabits the role so completely that it has made her into a star at 57, Leroy-Beaulieu has some very definite feelings about what is fact, what is fiction and what isworth considering. It’s a useful reminder that, while stereotypes are easy to sell— the French have described the series as a ragout of ridiculous clichés — the more complicated reality is often better.
“It’s funny because the series is notmeant to be real,” she said. “It’s what Americans expect of Paris. The French are good at mocking other people but don’t have a sense of humor about themselves.”
In real life, for example, Leroy-Beaulieu’swardrobe does not resemble that of Sylvie, whowears stilettos, pencil skirts and cleavage-revealing outfits even in the office, and rails against tourists in “cargo pants.”
“I loved being overdressed in ‘Emily’ because I don’t do it in real life,” Leroy-Beaulieu said.
“Iwouldn’twear those heels on Paris sidewalks,” she said, laughing, of Sylvie’s strappy open-toed
stilettos. “But it doesn’t matter. The ideawas to push all the fashion higher than real.”
Leroy-Beaulieu, who grewup inRome, moved to Paris as a teenager when her parents divorced. She drewinspiration for Sylvie fromher mother, who had been a designer of jewelry, handbags, scarves and knitwear forDior and whodied earlier this year. (Leroy-Beaulieu’s father was awell-known French actorwhomade his career in Italy).
In the series, Sylvie sways as shewalks, bending her elbows and dropping her hands. “My motherwas nonchalant, incredibly elegant, provocative, a littlemean on the side,” Leroy-Beaulieu said. “Shewasalwaysholdinga cigarette. The hand thing— I got it fromher.”
Leroy-Beaulieu also wore some of the jewelry her mother designed: cuff bracelets; a necklace with a long silver chain and an amethyst pendant; and a large gold brooch in the shape of an angel. “They aremy good luck charms,” she said. “They say, ‘Momis here to protectme.’”
As a teenager, however, they did not protect her fromridicule when she moved to Paris. Her high school classmates and teachers mocked her because shemade mistakes in formal written French dictations, sometimes calling her ethnic slurs.
“Itwas public, itwas humiliating, itwas horrible,” Leroy-Beaulieu said. “I hated the French. I hated Parisians.” In “Emily in Paris,” Sylvie calls Emily “la plouc”—“the hick”— to her face. Leroy-Beaulieu
said, “Iwas like ‘la plouc.’ Yes, there really are Parisians as mean as Sylvie.”
Sheworked in a few commercials to earn pocket money as a teenager, spent two years in acting school and got bit parts in film inherearly20s. Her role as the singlemother in the 1985 comedy “Trois Hommeset unCouffin,” a runaway hit in France, earned her a César nomination for most promising actress. The film was panned byAmerican critics butwas successfully remade by Disney in English as “ThreeMen and aBaby.”
Over the years, she has played roles as varied as Charlotte Corday(Marat’s assassin during the French Revolution), a drug addict, aRussian aristocrat, a psychopathic doctor turned police officer and a Polish-Jewish émigré in WorldWar II France. As withmany other actresses, the olderLeroy-Beaulieu got, the fewer the roles.
“Let’s be honest,” she said. “I entered a tunnel inmy career. I’ve never related tomy age in a concreteway, but there’s amoment in life that for the outsideworld, things change.”
Abreak camewhen director and screenwriter CédricKlapisch cast her in a small but key role in “Call MyAgent!” a French television series about four top film industry agents struggling to keep their business afloat, and their star clients content. Leroy-Beaulieu plays the beautiful ambitious wife ofMathias Barneville, the most senior agent, whobetrays her twice before she leaves him for good.
She landed the role of Sylvie in “Emily in Paris” by chance. Darren Star, the creator of “Emily in Paris,” asked JulietteMénager, an international casting agent, to find an actress to play Sylvie— the most challenging part of all the French rolesMénager had to cast. “I told her, ‘Listen, Philippine, you’re too old,’” Ménager said. “‘But energy-wise you don’t look your age, sowhy don’twe try?’”
The rolewas intended for awoman between 35 and 45, but LeRoy-Beaulieu was undaunted. “I said to myself, ‘I knowthiswoman sowell. I can see her right away,’” she said.
To prepare for the part, shewatched films with BetteDavis, Joan Crawford andBarbra Streisand. “Therewas something wild, like a panther, in them that I liked for Sylvie,” she said.
She brought Sylvie’s discipline and character to the set, so she and Lily Collins, the “Emily” of the title and Sylvie’s younger nemesis, kept their distance. “We stayed in our roles,” Leroy-Beaulieu said.
William Abadie, who plays a perfumer-client in the serieswho is also Sylvie’smarried lover, described that distancing as difficult. “To stay in character means you have to be willing to suffer the consequences,” he said. “People whocame onto the setwho didn’t knowher before— I’m not sure theywarmed up to her so much.”
Like Sylvie, Leroy-Beaulieu does not consider herself a feminist, which many Frenchwomen, according to polls over the years, equate with a negation of classic femininity.
“I’m not atwar with men,” she said. “That’s the most ridiculous idea in the world. In that respect, I cannot identify with feminism. I like itwhenmentry to seduce. Somedo it nicely, somedon’t. At least you have a choice.”