Leroy-Beaulieu not the villain, but a role model
Her character may be most interesting on ‘Emily in Paris’
There’s a moment early in the first season of “Emily in Paris,” Netflix’s colorful fish-out-of-water comedy about an American marketing executive abroad, when our protagonist’s frosty, intimidating, effortlessly chic Parisian boss, Sylvie Grateau, called out the heroine’s cliched behavior — and arguably established herself as the show’s most interesting character.
“You come to Paris, you walk into my office, and you don’t even bother to learn the language,” Sylvie, played by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, says to Emily. “You treat the city like it’s your amusement park. And after a year of food, sex, wine and maybe some culture, you’ll go back to where you came from.”
Sylvie is definitely not always the boss you want to have, but with Leroy-Beaulieu’s finesse, the layers underneath her cool facade have made her a compelling, if somewhat inscrutable, antagonist. Armed with a raised eyebrow of judgment that can singlehandedly deflate American cheerfulness, Sylvie struts around Paris in slitted skirts, plunging necklines and sky-high heels, embodying the sophistication and blase elegance of the ultimate Frenchwoman. She is feared and revered — but she is good at her job without losing her identity to it.
Sylvie, not Emily, is the character we wish we had the audacity to be. And she comes into focus like never before in the show’s third season, now streaming on Netflix. The series left off with Sylvie unexpectedly resigning, along with employees Luc and Julian, after clashing with her superior at Savoir, a prestigious French marketing firm bought by an American conglomerate. The new season follows Sylvie as she sets out to open her own luxury marketing firm.
As Leroy-Beaulieu explained recently, she appreciated the development for its willingness to show the power of a woman of a certain age, and at a certain stage in her career, being unafraid to take risks.
“It’s very empowering to play somebody like Sylvie,” she says, “because it’s a fantastic exploration of your own courage, of your own stubbornness, of your own faith and life. Playing Sylvie really made me realize that I had some aspects of my personality I didn’t know I had, and it gave me much more confidence. I also saw my demons much more — I love shadow work, that’s something I adore, and that’s super interesting, because you can use your demons much more if you can keep them on a leash. It’s really made me grow intimately a lot.”
With her fan-favorite turn in “Emily in Paris,” Leroy-Beaulieu is one of the most recognizable French actors of the moment. She even had a small role in Netflix’s “The Crown,” playing Monique Ritz, widow of hotelier Charles Ritz.
It’s quite the career turnaround for an actor who was never all that concerned with achieving international fame.
Leroy-Beaulieu made her acting debut in Roger Vadim’s film “Surprise Party” in 1983 and a few years later earned a Cesar nomination for most promising actress with her role as a single mother in the comedy “Trois Hommes et un Couffin,” a runaway hit in France that would eventually be remade in America as “Three Men and a Baby.” The majority of her career has been in France, where she has performed in films and TV shows.
The actor credits “Call My Agent,” the popular comedy about film industry agents struggling to keep their business afloat and clients happy, with breathing new life into her career after it launched in 2015. In it, she plays Catherine Barneville, the scorned wife of the firm’s most senior agent, whose extramarital affairs prompt the breakdown of their marriage. It’s the sort of character Leroy-Beaulieu now says she isn’t interested in playing anymore.
“She is totally not a Sylvie because she is a victim of something much more,” Leroy-Beaulieu says. “That was a character that brought pain. And today, I don’t want to be that character anymore. There’s something about the ‘victim’ (aspect) of Catherine that I don’t want to play anymore. I guess, never say never. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked her. She was endearing even though she was misunderstood.”
There’s more than meets the eye with Sylvie too. The hard edges that painted Sylvie as a harridan boss and villain of the series have steadily softened, though never dulled completely. She leans into happiness in her love life, albeit with complications, and viewers glimpse her dynamic with her mother.
“As the writer putting myself in the shoes of an audience member, I just wanted to know more about her,” says Darren Star, the show’s creator. “I wanted the character to have this sense of mystery about her. And I love that feeling of putting out some breadcrumbs, and Philippine’s performance just makes you crane your neck and want to know more even if the character doesn’t allow herself to be known. With the third season, because we’re seeing her from the perspective of different characters on the show, not just Emily, I feel like we get to know her better.”
Star is quick to say Sylvie is not a villain, but rather a role model: “In terms of how she sees life and her point of view,” he says. “I never think of her character as a villain. She’s difficult as far as the relationship with Emily’s concerned. Emily is constantly trying to rise to the level of Sylvie. I think Emily’s fascinated by Sylvie, and I think by extension, so is the audience.”
As Lily Collins, who plays Emily on the show, put it, Sylvie “brings out something completely different in my character than my other co-stars do just by the nature of their relationship.” Despite the cultural gap and generational divide, they are mirrors of each other.
“Sylvie recognizes Emily’s talent right away, and that’s why she’s scared,” Leroy-Beaulieu says. “She sees how bold and smart she is, and she recognizes that as something that she probably was when she was younger, in her own time, with different tools. But Sylvie knows that she was the one that opened all these doors for women like Emily to be able to walk through them. It’s not really in the story, but it’s somewhere. It’s a meta thing.”
But three seasons in, she has learned the fun of playing Sylvie is in letting go.
“She’s so multifaceted, and she expresses all these different sides of her with a lot of freedom,” LeroyBeaulieu says. “… Sylvie, she knows who she is. She does something in season three that really could mean the end of her career … but she does it with such confidence. I love that. It feeds me a lot.”