As fans prepare for the arrival of Emily in Paris Season 5, Lucas Bravo is opening up about navigating the spotlight — and the fandom that comes with it.
A New Level Of Exposure
The French actor — who plays Emily’s on-and-off love interest Gabriel — appeared on a Dec. 8 episode of the Chicks in the Office podcast, where he responded to a question about the show’s “ginormous popularity” and the fans that come with it. For the most part, he said, viewers “don’t freak out” over him in public.
“When I run into people in the street, they’re very respectful,” he went on. “They connect with my work, they recognize me, but they talk to me like you would talk to a person you don’t know.”
But, he noted, some fan encounters can get a little more intense. “They don’t do it on purpose, but some people just point at me and say just, like, ‘Emily in Paris!’ in the middle of the street, and startle me,” Bravo said. “And I’m like, OK, what am I? Who am I? What’s my name?”
Bravo said he doesn’t “want to be the guy” asking those questions — but, he acknowledged: “Yeah, it’s a bit objectifying.”
Weighing In On The “Heartthrob” Label
Emily in Paris was Bravo’s breakout role — and in the years since the Netflix hit’s 2020 debut, he’s been open about adjusting to life in the public eye. “I was just like a heartthrob overnight. It feels a bit rushed. Too much attention for the quality of work I provided,” he told The Times in 2021, describing fame as “smoke” that “doesn’t mean anything.”
Elaborating on feeling like an “objectified overnight thing,” he explained: “All the little things that define who you are and make you human once you’re in that [heartthrob] category are perceived like a flaw. And I don’t want to be perfect. I’ve been working against that. In France, they don’t want good-looking. They want broken faces.”
If you’ve been keeping up with Bravo for a while, you know that he’s been just as outspoken about his character on the show. After voicing disappointment in Gabriel’s character arc in Season 4, he recently expressed hope for the chef in the latest installment (out Dec. 18). “I think Gabriel is going back to what he was in Season 1,” he said. “I think all of us wanted to bring back a fun Gabriel. I hope we addressed the demand!”
