The long-awaited season 3 of
Emily in Paris
will be available this Wednesday.
While Emily Cooper will have to make a major choice for her future, Sylvie will face new challenges.
Meeting with Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who embodies the very stylish and now iconic Sylvie Grateau.
A return of hype lived serenely!
At 59, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu has become the icon of cool for the whole young generation by playing Sylvie Grateau, the bitchy boss
of
Emily
in Paris
perched on her stilettos.
While season 3 of Darren Star's series will be online this Wednesday on Netflix, the actress, as warm to the city as her character seems odious on screen, returns to this role of earthy Parisian, falsely ruthless, which almost stole the show from the American Emily, played by the charming Lily Collins.
It is rare to see a female character over 50 as strong, independent and with such freedom of spirit as Sylvie Grateau. Do you feel a form of responsibility in terms of female representation with this role?
If they give it to me, I gladly take it without wanting to be a “role model” as we say in English.
I think this responsibility is very big.
I feel that there is something of that order that I am being asked to have and at the same time, as I am quite free, I want to free myself from that.
The only message is “be yourself!
Do not be a prisoner of the gaze of others, and be what you feel in the bottom of your heart.
As long as we don't cause harm to others, we are free to be whoever we want to be.
Many people, and moreover not only women, prevent themselves from overflowing.
Society encloses in an imagery and it is necessary to free it.
This question about women over 50 comes up often, we are not victims, we are just a little hypnotized by somewhat
mainstream
.
We are victims only of ourselves and of the limitations we put on ourselves.
This freedom that Sylvie has, is that what you liked in this role?
That's what I like about this role.
Darren Star is very free when he writes.
He writes for women in an absolutely magnificent way, we've known that for a long time and it's becoming clearer to me.
He said to me one day: “What can we learn from French women?
Well, that's freedom.
“I think he has a taste for that and he felt that in one place, we are not in the nails.
We have more freedom than Americans.
In some places, we are more subject to certain dictates, in others, we are much more free.
As soon as we allow ourselves to be who we want to be, we are probably more free than Americans.
You have to allow yourself to be who you really want to be.
How was your reunion with Sylvie Grateau for this season 3?
Season 2 introduced the fact that she had a very different life from what she showed in Season 1. Season 3 opens the door even more to who she was before.
We discovered in season 2 this woman who comes from the beach of Saint-Tropez and who went to Paris to make a career.
In season 3, we will see that all of this woman's past feeds her present and her future.
I want to say that in season 3, we will see that she is not afraid, really.
She particularly has a strength and a courage that I myself did not suspect in her.
The
New York Times
says that you are "completely consumed" by this role.
What is it about you in this character?
What does it bring you?
All the actors will tell you that the characters open doors in us that we had necessarily opened.
Sylvie releases things in me that I hadn't necessarily explored, about this strength, the fact of not being cold-eyed, of having nothing to do with what others think of me... C was already present in my house, but it is becoming clearer and clearer.
The freedom that Darren writes in the character of Sylvie, it contaminates me in a very positive way and I am very grateful to him.
It was something dormant in me that came to light with Sylvie.
I've been playing this character since 2019 and when you've been playing a character for a long time, you get a lot of who he is, you discover things in yourself that you bring to the character, I also discover things in Darren's writing... It's a circle.
How do you analyze the phenomenal success of
Emily in Paris
?
There's the fairy tale aspect of the story, and then that always really fun thing, which is taking a fish out of water, which is Emily arriving in Paris without all the codes and to confront it with all of French culture through Sylvie.
It's a very strong source of comedy.
The fact that it's on Netflix plays a big role too.
The three complicated years that we come from vice have made people want this lightness.
There is also this large box of chocolate side which is very desirable and which is very comforting.
There is lightness, but the series also tackles darker issues…
That's Darren's strength.
I look at Melrose Place which I hadn't really seen at the time.
Between season 1 and season 4, I noticed that the characters become more and more serious and black.
It kicks off with that cotton candy look and pulls people into darker things with that grace.
It's important and at the same time, we're not going to make a drama out of it.
Since
Emily in Paris
, you have become a style icon, has the series changed your relationship to fashion?
Yes and no.
I grew up with a mother who worked in fashion.
I wanted to run away from all that, because as a child, I found it a bit annoying after a while.
With
Emily in Paris
and the fact of having to dress in such a sharp way, I realized that the influence that my mother had on me was very strong, that I had a lot of fun with the clothes and that casually, I had an eye.
There is this freedom in this series of not being naturalistic at all with the clothes.
We treat costumes as fun.
For me, fashion is really fun.
In life, I'm more jeans and t-shirts, of pretty quality, but super simple.
There, what is funny is to put on 12 cm heels, a pencil skirt and a gold blouse to go to the office!
I really like fashion if there is humor in it.
I think it was my mother's thing too, she had a very original way of dressing, very chic, but always with a wink and I thank her for teaching me that.
Do these ultra-sharp costumes also condition your posture as an actress?
Not only do we evolve in the same way, but for me it was very important to have sore feet, because that tells something in the body about the effort that Sylvie made to become Sylvie.
I always said to Marylin [Fitoussi], our costume designer: “She is corseted.
She locked herself in because she comes from the beach of Saint-Tropez barefoot”.
In Paris, seeing sore feet allowed me to never forget that, to have it in my body, that little pain of Sylvie, or big, we'll see.
It's super important.
How did the success of
Emily in Paris
change your life?
I get stopped by people from all over the world on the street to take pictures, which is incredible with a platform like Netflix.
What I find so cute is that Filipinos love me because I have a name that makes them happy!
People passing through Paris are really amazed to be able to meet an actress they saw in a Netflix series.
It's super cute!
I don't get paparazed, it's quiet, and I have an invisibility cloak, when I don't want people to see me, they don't see me.
Above all, there are great proposals coming in, proposals to which I did not have access before.
This makes me very happy, because above all, I love to play.
I am delighted to have a wider and more interesting choice.
We also saw you in season 5 of
The Crown
.
Are you going to favor international projects?
I am open to all proposals, whether French or foreign.
There are talents that interest me everywhere.
What roles do you dream of now?
This question of the role we dream of that we often ask actors, I can't manage to answer it because I would never have imagined that Sylvie would do me so much good.
What I find beautiful in the life of an actor is to let yourself be surprised by the way others look at you and how they imagine you in roles.
Five years ago, I would never have told you, I dream of playing Sylvie, the boss of a marketing firm, and yet I am super happy to play her.
I let myself be surprised.
I think fate knows better than me what I need.
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netflix
