Emily in Paris actor Lucas Bravo has suggested he could quit the show after its fifth season, as he denounced the Netflix series as one that “does not tend to take the intelligence of viewers into consideration”.
The French star, who plays chef and Emily’s on-off love interest Gabriel, has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with his character’s storylines and has now doubled down that stance.
Speaking to French publication Le Figaro’s TV magazine, the 36-year-old criticised the nature of Gabriel’s relationship with Emily (played by Lily Collins), remarking: “Everything is based on a lack of communication.”
Gabriel, he said, would be better if he discovered “a bit of panache” following the fourth season, the storylines of which were described by The Independent’s critics as “scattergun” and “confusing”.
“It’s a bit archaic,” he continued of the communication between Gabriel and Emily. “These days, the new generation verbalises, they confront, and that no longer works in this case, we do not understand each other.
“People see this mechanism coming from miles away, and I don’t want to be part of a cog that tends not to consider the intelligence of the audience.”
Bravo also revealed that he had suggested his character should open a vegan establishment, which was apparently turned down by showrunners.
He seemed to say he was still contemplating his involvement in the fifth season, part of which is set to be filmed in Rome, where Emily’s new love interest is from.
“Life is short,” Bravo said. “It takes five months to shoot this series. Do I want to sacrifice them by telling [a story] that does not stimulate me?”
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In September, he admitted he had grown disillusioned by his character and the direction the show was taking: “I don’t really like what it’s becoming and where this storyline is going,” he said.
“You know, at the end of the day, I’m just an actor, and I’m here to say my lines, but, yeah, it’s kind of weird.”
He added of Gabriel: “I don’t understand him anymore. But we’ll see… Darren [Star] has plans. I’m just following it.”
Since appearing in the first season of Emily in Paris, he has gone on to star in films including Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, opposite Lesley Manville, Isabelle Hippert and Jason Isaacs, and Ticket to Paradise with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, both released in 2022.
He will next star in Libre, a French biopic about the notorious robber Bruno Sulak – known for a number of spectacular prison escapes – which is being released next month on Amazon Prime.
Bravo has also been cast in a forthcoming British thriller, Turn Up the Sun!, starring James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi.
He suggested these roles were offering more opportunities to fill ambitions that Emily in Paris perhaps could not.
The series was “good entertainment, an escape”, he said. “But I feel the need to raise awareness a bit of what I’m saying.
“I don’t really have any freedom [in Emily in Paris] and as people are starting to give it to me elsewhere, I am getting a taste for it.”
Speaking to The Independent in August, Bravo said he appreciated that the series had become “more nuanced” in its later seasons: “If season one was birth, season two was childhood and season three was being a teenager, season four is about growing into adult life,” he said.
“It was more interesting to shoot. It felt more substantial, a bit more nuanced.”
Created by Darren Star, who also created the hit Nineties series Sex and the City, the show has proved controversial in France for its stereotyping of Parisians and the French.