Fans of ‘Emily in Paris‘ know Gabriel as the charming chef who keeps Emily’s world spinning, but Lucas Bravo’s journey to landing that role wasn’t as smooth as the show makes Paris look.
In fact, he came surprisingly close to missing out on the character completely, and the reason behind it makes his casting story even more interesting.
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Before the show began filming, Bravo actually believed he wouldn’t be part of it at all. The studio hesitated to cast him because they wanted a more established actor, and he later admitted this disappointment hit him hard. He told People that the makers “didn’t want to take a chance” on him because he “didn’t have enough background.” To clear his head, he escaped to Corsica, chose a quiet spot with no cell service so he could be completely unreachable for a while.
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While he understood the team didn’t want to take a chance on someone they felt didn’t have enough experience, he needed to get far away from anything related to ‘Emily In Paris‘. While hiking in the remote area, a stranger asked to borrow his phone to call his daughter, but had to walk almost an hour to find a signal. When the man came back, he told Bravo the phone had been buzzing nonstop, but he still didn’t check his messages until the next morning.
When he finally looked, he found 40 texts and 30 missed calls waiting for him, including several from the casting director asking where he was. But by then, Gabriel had already been cast, and when Bravo returned to Paris, he read for other potential love interests instead, thinking his chance at the chef role was gone for good.
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Even though someone else had the role, Bravo couldn’t fully escape Gabriel. Production asked him to stand in and read Gabriel’s lines for other auditions. However, he described it as tough because it felt like reopening a wound. But surprisingly, he soon did a chemistry read with Lily Collins, and he said it went really well. He felt that connecting with her on-screen came naturally.
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Bravo also shared a funny moment from that day, when the team asked why they couldn’t reach him earlier, he nervously rambled about being “in the mountains with a shepherd making goat cheese.” He said he talked about goat cheese for nearly 10 minutes because he felt so awkward, and he left completely convinced he had blown the opportunity again. Instead, he got a call the very next day telling him he would start filming in two days. And this time, he was officially Gabriel.
Bravo credits showrunner Darren Star for fighting to make that happen. He said Star believed he was right for Gabriel from the beginning and pushed back when the studio had doubts. Star later confirmed this, sharing that when Bravo read with Lily Collins, the chemistry between them stood out immediately.
Bravo later shared that he’d questioned whether he wanted to return for Season 5 because his contract ended at Season 4 and he hoped Gabriel would get back to a more fun, lively version of himself. After playing heavier emotions for several seasons, he felt ready for something different. Still, he will return for Season 5, which drops on Netflix on Thursday, Dec. 18.
