The unexpected hero of Emily in Paris, French actor Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu is the leading lady women want – wearing the boldest looks of SS22.
March 2022, Vogue Arabia. Photo: The Bardos
Outside the neoclassical Palais Brongniart, Paris’s former stock exchange, a crowd of millennials is screaming. It’s fashion week and the cast of the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris is doing the rounds. Exiting the Fendi show inciting the furor is actor Camille Razat, who plays Camille, wronged girlfriend of Gabriel and frenemy of Emily, played by Lily Collins, Vogue Arabia’s November 2020 cover star. “She’s the best actress on the show,” Razat exclaimed moments earlier inside. She was referring to Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, the French actor in the role of the witty, tonic, sharp-tongued boss, Sylvie Grateau. The actor has won fans the world over, with many admirers bidding for a spin off with Leroy-Beaulieu in the lead role.
The morning before meeting her at Paris’s Café de Flore, a Google search reveals that Leroy-Beaulieu is trending online. A few clicks and images of the sinewy actor in a dress resembling pantyhose light up the screen. “Oh, that was by mistake,” laughs the actor inside the café, hair loose, face void of makeup, and dressed in a gray polo neck, ticking all the boxes of effortless French chic. It’s a stark contrast to the ebullient star who held sway in the latest SS22 collections just a few days prior at the photo shoot. “Ami lent me that dress for the show and when I tried it on, I couldn’t tell that it was see-through.” The actor’s warm eyes flash and it is decided then and there, the conversation will not “explore” reductive topics.
March 2022, Vogue Arabia. Photo: The Bardos
Born and raised in Rome until her family moved to Paris when she was 11, the young Leroy-Beaulieu was accustomed to a full house with visiting artists of every kind. Such was the stirring life of the daughter of acclaimed French actor Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu and the late Françoise, an interior decorator who went on to lead accessories at Christian Dior. “What I saw was their vulnerability,” reflects Leroy-Beaulieu of her parents’ grand friends, particularly women who worked with her mother in fashion. “I knew that I was also vulnerable, and I was scared, but I wanted to be an actor, too,” she says. “I wanted to be with my dad,” she smiles. “I went to set with him sometimes.”
After her film debut in Roger Vadim’s Surprise Party (1983), she was startled to find that she was already making headlines. The comedy Three Men and a Cradle (1985) would come next, with Leroy- Beaulieu playing the distraught mother. “That was a big success,” she nods of the French movie by Coline Serreau that reached cult status for its humorous take on a few bachelors giving fatherhood a try. It also sparked a new level in her budding career, with Leroy-Beaulieu earning a César nomination for most promising actress. The roles kept coming. At 25, Leroy-Beaulieu was cast in the French drama The Possessed (1988) by Andrzej Wajda, alongside Isabelle Huppert and Omar Sharif. “He was like an Arab prince with all his generosity and panache, and at the same time, he was a fabulous actor. He was passionate about his job,” she says of Sharif. “I remember this one scene, he was on his knees in the snow, there was an exchange between us, and I cried afterwards,” she remarks, searching for the memory and recalling the emotion instead. “He was someone who was very intense. The patriarch of the team. There was a great restaurant in Warsaw, and he would invite all the cast and treat everyone to caviar.” Wary of the traps of fame, Leroy-Beaulieu dove into what she refers to as the “real world” and became a mother at age 26. “I tried to take care of my baby first and not lose myself in something that wasn’t real,” she comments.
March 2022, Vogue Arabia. Photo: The Bardos
Of her monumental success today – Emily in Paris was viewed by a whopping 58 million people in the month of its debut and subsequently renewed for three more seasons – she is grateful the attention is happening later in her life. “I’m more able to cope with it given my age,” she states. “I don’t think too much of myself and take it as it is – a fun moment.” Leroy-Beaulieu’s success is so wide-reaching that she is as recognized as France’s grandest actors – the likes of Catherine Deneuve and Marion Cotillard – only Leroy-Beaulieu has the distinct advantage of being adored by millennials (upon exiting Café de Flore, giddy squeals peppered the air around her).
Leroy-Beaulieu refers to the series by hit-maker Darren Star, who was also the creator behind Sex and the City, as a “bonbon,” a sugary pick-me-up, and a fantasy escape from the everyday. While Emily has her head somewhat in the clouds – which are rarely a Parisian gray – Sylvie is grounded. On many occasions, where other characters blurt their feelings, Sylvie makes hers known, lips pursed. The art of observation is a quality Leroy-Beaulieu attributes to real women. “Women don’t need to talk so much because we know a lot. It’s very tiring to always be fighting for your ability to exist. It’s also somewhat useless. I wasn’t like that when I was younger – I used to be very vocal – but now, knowing more who I am, I don’t have to prove what I think. The entitlement – being offended against everything – people think they are doing justice by being like that when in fact they are making things worse. I think it’s also the sign of a society that is fragmenting,” she says. “Truth is something that is very relative. Even though there is a big truth – love – the rest is relative. I am also interested in people’s opinions. They can’t shake me, but they can modify me if I’m open to what they have to say. Sometimes we find truths in what we hear, sometimes we don’t. It doesn’t have to be a fight all the time. It’s about being more open and tolerant with time.”
March 2022, Vogue Arabia. Photo: The Bardos
For the past two years, Leroy-Beaulieu has been on a path to understanding new things about herself. She studies the works of pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, and she considers her obstacles to be opportunities. Considering life pre-pandemic, she notes, “I’m under the impression that between then and now we can’t be so infantile. Women in particular – we’re not these little girls anymore, spoon-fed, no effort for anything. Now, we must take on life with more responsibility. We are not victims of anything, except maybe ourselves. We can be joyful, mischievous, and have fun, but it doesn’t mean ‘little girl.’” Perhaps, in a nutshell, therefore women are gravitating en masse to the actor’s interpretation of Sylvie, in Paris – the rebel with a cause, the unexpected hero.
March 2022, Vogue Arabia. Photo: The Bardos
Read Next: Emily in Paris Renewed for Seasons 3 and 4: Everything We Know So Far
Originally published in the March 2022 issue of Vogue Arabia
Style: Elena Psalti
Fashion director: Amine Jreissati
Hair: Tie Toyama
Makeup: Houda Remita
Creative production: Laura Prior
