I’ve now seen both seasons of Emily in Paris, and one of the worst parts of the show is Emily’s terrible fashion. That being said, I love the way the supporting characters dress. Camille (Emily’s blonde friend) has great style, and I love a lot of what the Sylvie character wears. To me, Sylvie looks and dresses like (what I think of as) a “real Frenchwoman.” Sylvie is played by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who is 58 years old. Sylvie is Emily’s boss at the French marketing firm and she spends much of the first two seasons being disgusted by Emily. Sylvie was sort of a one-dimensional character in the first season, but the writing around all of the supporting characters improved a lot in the second season. Philippine is happy with the show, which surprises me, and she thinks French people need to lighten up about the show:
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu thinks her countrymen could stand to lighten up. The 58-year-old, who plays the always impeccably dressed Sylvie Grateau in “Emily in Paris,” believes the Gallic backlash to the show boils down to one thing:
“The French know how to laugh at other people but they don’t know how to laugh at themselves,” she tells Page Six. “They always get hurt and upset when people laugh at them, they don’t realize that [creator] Darren [Starr] is also making fun of the Americans, very much — they don’t realize that. They don’t have a sense of humor, that’s what I think!”
Despite her countrymen’s stance on the show, the Italian-born actress says the rest of the world has kinder words for her role: “People from the Philippines are so excited my name is Philippine,” she relates delightedly. “It’s really cute,” she says, adding she’s surprised and “really touched” by “young people, 20-year-olds, [who are] interested in Sylvie’s character” and leave “incredible comments on Instagram.”
Leroy-Beaulieu’s gratitude to Starr is twofold. She’s thankful for being cast in a role she says “was written for a younger woman like 35, 40” and has fun playing the “nasty, but not really” character. “It’s an opportunity to do things and say things you never do in life because you’re never that French,” she explains. “I’m never that French!”
Leroy-Beaulieu confesses that she doesn’t feel quite like the sex symbol her character — who embarks on a steamy affair with a sexy young photographer Eric DeGroot (Søren Bregendal) this season — gets tagged as, but says she’s “always very honored when they say that to me.”
“People my age should be freer than we are … being freer and being bolder and having more fun and just live,” she offers by way of advice on how to age like Sylvie. “You know how hard it is when you pass 45 or even 40 and people start thinking, ‘Just get out of the scene.’ But there’s so much we can do and transmit. We have a lot to teach the younger girls.”
I’ll be honest: I’m shocked that she’s 58!! I thought she was in her mid-40s, or maybe her late 40s (tops). They really put her in a skimpy bikini in the second season and gave her a hot young lover who adores her, how wonderful for her. Anyway, I love what she says here – it must be a lot different for her, to experience this as an actress in her 50s, enjoying herself on a silly American show.
Photos courtesy of Carole Bethuel/Netflix.
I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of this but she was the best thing about it. Her character is on my “style” pinterest board.
If you want more of her, please watch “Call My Agent!”
I love her vibe and her presence.
It’s not that french people don’t know how to laugh at themselves it’s different when other people are making fun of you based on stereotypes than when it’s your own people. A french person making fun of french people would have more nuance than an american it’s not that difficult to understand.
I agree. There are some great comedies mocking French or French „habits“ like say the „ch‘tis“. But it‘s coming from an inside and insight perspective.
I completely agree with her.
I have mostly negative experience from living in France and also later vacationing in France as an adult and visiting my grandparents there.
My mom was born and raised just outside of Paris and worked in Paris as a neurosurgeon until I was 12 years old.
We moved to my dad’s hometown of San Francisco when I was 12 and now I’m 28 years old.
I found the French exceptionally rude, snobbish and obnoxious, they also seem to lack a sense of humor, mostly about themselves.
Sylvie is my favorite character from Emily in Paris.
Sylvie’s fashion reminds me of my mom’s style, she is also 58 years old.
Classy, elegant with a hint of sexy, no pounds of make -up, applied by a snow shovel like the Kardashians, thank goodness.
Emily’s fashion is such a mess.
I love her character, her and the Paris sights are the reason I watch the show.
She’s the best thing in it. Both the actress and the character. Emily is the most annoyoing boring character.
OK, what’s the deal with those suitcases? I don’t watch the show, so I have no idea why Uncle Fester would be on suitcases. And probably expensive ones, at that.
@beaniebean, the guy on the suitcases is a character on the show who is a major designer. He was a very classic designer who was somewhat inspired by Emily and a younger generation of designers to start creating more flashy (and some would say trash) looks. The suitcases are part of that new aesthetic. Also the PR firm is representing him and a suitcase company and everybody somehow cross-promotes on this show. So it is meant to be as insane as it looks.
I’m so glad you wrote about her! She is my style icon I just googled her clothes the other day I wish I could find a detailed wardrobe write up, I so want that little black suit with the petite peplum. She is so beautiful – she is beauty goals for how to age and be sensual!
Love sylvie and the actress. Totally agree that Emily’s wardrobe is absolutely hideous – she’s humiliating as an American.
Yes, she’s the best part of the show. Her reaction to Emily is realistic. And so is Camille’s reaction to Emily this season. Like so many main characters, Emily is self absorbed and awful at times.
Yes! Camille’s reaction “leave me alone, you illiterate sociopath” was incredible.
Hahahhha that was the best moment. The weird letter writing ghosts were so funny
By far my fav part too
She looks fabulous! What a sexy, chic beautiful woman but I could absolutely tell that she is over 50 years old. She looks her age but fabulous, that’s the difference. I like what she had to say about the French because I think it is true. But I also think that a lot of Americans who love France love to put the French (especially Parisians) on a “snobby, we’re better than you” pedestal too.
She’s my favorite part of the show.
Love her so much in this. I feel about Emily in Paris the same as I do about Flack – you could remove the main character and leave the rest of the cast, and I would be 100% on board. If you haven’t seen Philippine in Call My Agent, do – I want so many of the clothes in that show, and it’s actually really, really good as well
Agree, love call my agent and she is fing fabulous in it.
Call my Agent was one of my favorite shows that I watched last year. Absolutely loved it and I thought she was stunning. Beautiful and stylish but natural as though she has put no effort into it.
@ Megs totally agree with you about Flack….it would be an absolutely great show if Anna Paquin’s character went back home.
I love her character! But I disagree with her, French people can laugh at themselves no problem, they are one of the most fun spiritied cultures.
nonsensee.. i have met plenty of French people who can laugh at themselves…
I think the same goes for Americans. I often find Americans don’t have a sense of humor when they are made fun of or criticized. That primal “USA! USA!” chant is very ingrained in us. And I think this probably applies to a lot of countries across the world, inherently nobody likes to be made fun of based on their cultural stereotypes.
As for Philippine, I follow her on Instagram and she’s one of the best parts of the show (she’s also on Call My Agent in a smaller role). Her fashion is definitely very Parisian and very French and I bet it’s the French costume designer who does the fashion for her and all the French characters. I have a feeling Patricia Fields (the US costume designer from Sex and the City) only does Emily and Mindy’s wardrobes (and I guess Kate Walsh’s character). I think I liked two outfits that Emily wore this season and they were two of her more lower key outfits. But I pretty much wanted everything from Sylvie’s wardrobe!
Love her character. Also this explains why her Italian was flawless in that one episode! Didn’t know she was from there.
I think there’s a nuance between French people making fun of French people and Americans making fun of French people. It’s like when someone insults your sister and you’re like “hey! No one can talk to my sister like that but me.”
Adore her style and her character arc.
I love her character in Emily in Paris.
She is a beautifull and elegant woman but come on, she doesn’t look like she’s in her forties, you can tell she’s in mid to late fifties by her arms and neck.
In these pictures they look fine but in the show it was noticeable imo.
Lily Collins is 32 and it’s doesn’t look like they only have a 15year gap.
Haha I’m from the Philippines and I *do* love that her name is Philippine!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I love this actress and this character. Best part of the show for me. S1 was mostly horrific but S2 was much much better mostly b/c of the greater focus on the supporting characters, like Sylvie.
Phillipine’s Sylvie is the reason to watch Emily in Paris. And her annoyance with Emily and Kate Walsh’s character is appropriate. You don’t move to another country and start telling your boss what to do without first learning the language and what’s appropriate. Everybody in the office shouldn’t be speaking English just because Emily never bothered to learn French.
I remember Natalie Portman mentioning moving back from Paris where her husband a ballet dancer choreographer worked, and she loved how friendly people were to her son in an elevator they smiled and said hi. She sadly seemed blown away by this which said something about how not warm people were to her and her kid in Paris. She’d play with him on a playground and other parents looked at her like she was crazy
Maybe this is how Parisian/big city French women dress but it sure as heck isnt how most small city/town women dress. Im in rural Dordogne near two fairly large towns but I have to say most of the women I see dont dress this way, they arent paid enough to dress like this. Plus it seems that older people in general buy and keep good quality clothing rather than fast fashion and at the prices they charge for clothing im not surprised!
Yes, of course Paris is a big metropolis, it’s odd to compare it to smaller cities.
I’m 28 years old and instead of following fashion, I invest in good quality, very classic, elegant well made clothes in neutral colors in order to build my wardrobe.
I follow the less is more rule.
Fashion is not going to be dictating what I will wear, my personal style does.
A great pair of round toe black and neutral sling back shoes goes with almost anything, but a pair of lime green pants is limiting and I will not invest my money in trends.
This just stuck with me:
“But there’s so much we can do and transmit. We have a lot to teach the younger girls.”
Because I realized that this kind of ageism and sexism against women has another shade of patriarchy I’ve never thought about before.
I’ve so often thought about the dead beat losers whose bullshit I didn’t know any better than to eat up when I was in my twenties. And as someone who is 40 yo, I frequently feel so pitted against younger women, and I don’t want to be. And this quote makes me realize that this societal shunning of women over 35 has another effect than just asking us to disappear. It also tells younger women not to listen to older women, because we are just old/past our/prime/bitter/etc. And thus, the John Mayors, the Justin Timberlakes, the Ross Gellers of this world get to continue their subpar behaviour, and another generation of young women pay the price.
Ladies, we gotta stick together.
French woman here, living near Paris.
I haven’t seen the show yet but my friends did and none of them were offended by the way the show despicts french people.
Actually, they were mostly annoyed by the lack of diversity. Paris is a Worldwide city, every nationalities live here.
Here’s a roughly map of Paris communities :
– In the north : West Africans, North Africans, Indians.
– In the east : South East Asians, Jewish, Italians.
– In the south : South East Asians, Koreans, Latinx, Spanish, Portugese.
– In the west : Eastern Europeans, Saudi, Jewish.
– In the upper center : Jewish, japanese, LGBTQ+.
– In the lower center : greek.
(I may have forgotten some communities, sorry).
So Emily should have seen POC everywhere.
Otherwise my friends actually enjoyed the show.
As someone who lives in Paris (the 7th), you live outside of Paris so you see more diversity. And Paris is diverse but mostly it’s white. I remember when I lived near Passy and I saw a black (American) family. I was like woah wait a minute that looks odd and that’s because the only “black” people in Passy are security guards and workers in Monoprix. Not even Zadig and Voltaire or Tara Jarmon has POC working behind the register. French people love to talk about how “diverse” Paris is without admitting that they’ve pushed all of the POC into the suburbs or the bordering arrondissements (13, 19, 18, 20). It’s the most racist city on the planet. I have african and middle eastern friends who prefer America because they’re “not as racist there” and “can get better jobs there”. My best friend went to Columbia and PolySci and cannot find a job because in France you have to put your picture on your resume and he’s black. It’s France’s dirty little secret. Look at French politics, French corporations, anything higher than blue collar work and I’m betting it’s less than 1% POC. If this sounds like a rant it’s because I’m tired of French people talking about how they’re not racist, and France is “so diverse”, but living here and seeing how obviously racist it is. I’m white and even I can see ‘hmm something isn’t right here’.
I completely agree with you and I believe so many people are annoyed with the show because it does actually tell the truth through its exaggerated non-PC sarcastic portrayal of cultures and cross-cultural communication.
Of course not everyone in Paris is white and Christian but you know that people of color and Muslims are discriminated and shunned in so many ways, so yes in fact, the show’s portrayal of France reflects what France wants and pretends to be very much.
Just like all the idiotic comments and behavior of Emily’s reflect that often seen American ignorance, lack of culture and education, especially when they come in contact with non-english speaking countries.
I am personally laughing hard at all the snarky commentary that Emily gets from French people mostly because it is all true, albeit less in your face in real life.
So while the show is an exaggeration, the point it makes and the stereotypes it shows very much exist.
I’ve watched a couple episodes of the first season. It’s seems to be a fun, campy show. Every person is a fluffy caraciacture stereotype of who they are representing. I think if it had been shown only in the US, it might have not gotten the type of criticism it did. I found it a little silly, but it is really interesting reading the criticism from French people and others. I wonder if a French production had done the opposite, created a New York based show, with a French character, showcasing American stereotypes, how I, as an American, would have felt about that? As other commenters pointed out, making fun of yourself vs someone else making fun of you, are two very different things.
I guess the trick is appreciating and enjoying each others cultures, while trying to find a polite way to say, ‘you know that American thing you do…it’s annoying! stop it!’ (and vice versa)
Please someone make that show! 😀
Gorgeous and a testament to power of sunscreen