Emily In Paris creator and executive producer Darren Star opened up to Deadline about the upcoming cast changes in season 5 of the Netflix show. Despite negative comments about his time on the show and the direction the writers were taking, Lucas Bravo is returning. Star promises his frustration at playing Gabriel was just a “misunderstanding.”
Bravo declared himself “frustrated” with Emily in Paris and that playing Gabriel was “not fun anymore” as the character was “being slowly turned into guacamole.” In a scathing interview, he made numerous disparaging comments about the writers and his character in the show.
“I think the latter, just a misunderstanding,” Star clarified in the recent interview. “I think he never intended not to come back.” So, looks like there are no hard feelings between the actor and the creator, well at least not in the public eye.
Lucas Bravo’s problem with playing Gabriel in Emily In Paris
Bravo told IndieWire while promoting the movie Freedom that while he is indebted to Emily in Paris for being his breakout role, he was unhappy with the direction they were going with his handsome chef, Gabriel.
According to Bravo, the Lily Collins show is now full of narrative “souffles,” or a “lack of risk” with the character arcs. The actor admitted that he struggled to recognize what the series had turned into.
“The ‘sexy chef’ was very much part of me in season 1 and we grew apart season after season because of the choices he makes and because of the direction they make him take. I’ve never been so far away from him,” Bravo told the outlet.
He added that he saw a lot of himself in how Gabriel was portrayed in the first season of Emily in Paris but they soon made him “unaware of his surroundings,” frequently victimized him and created a character who was “oblivious to anything that is happening around him and being manipulated by everyone.”
Bravo even admitted that he tried to voice his concerns to the writers and asked them to bring nuance but revealed there is not much “liberty” on set for the actors. He was so offended by the way his character was being written, he wondered if he was going to return to the fifth season.
“I really want to see if Gabriel gets back to his fun, cheeky, playful, alive self. Because three seasons playing melancholic, sad, depressed, and lost is not fun anymore. It’s a comedy, everybody is having fun around me, everybody is jumping around, and I’m just slowly sinking into god knows what.” Bravo explained, wondering if the writers failed to recapture the magic of the early seasons and we desperate to find it.
Despite claiming his contract ended after four seasons, Bravo has returned with Star claiming the whole thing was a misunderstanding and the actor was never going to quit. Ultimately, Bravo appreciated what the show did for him and how it turned the actor into a household name. “I feel like I am not being nice or grateful, but when you love something you want it to be… you want the best version of it. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been frustrated with the direction my character is taking. But we’ll see where it goes. The show is not over.”
Along with Bravo, Lucien Laviscount is returning as a lead cast member to Emily in Paris after only appearing in a handful of season 4 episodes. The English actor plays Emily’s former love interest, Alfie. Lily Collin returns as Emily Cooper alongside Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie, Ashley Park as Mindy, Samuel Arnold as Julien, Bruno Gouery as Luc and William Abadie as Antoine.
Eugenio Franceschini’s Marcello, who was introduced last season as a new love interest for Emily, also returns. Don’t expect Emily’s love life to get any easier. “Her love life is always complicated,” Star told the outlet. “We have Marcello, Lucas Bravo is going to be back this season, so we have some interesting, surprising developments in terms of her love life.”
Someone not returning is Camille Razat, who was a season regular for the first four series. Razat played Camille, Emily’s former friend and love rival. “I think her story kind of had a natural finish,” Star said about Razat’s departure.
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