Lucas Bravo, who portrays the handsome French chef Gabriel in Emily in Paris, did not originally make it to the cast of the Netflix series.
Bravo revealed that director Darren Star “went against the studio” and “fought” to keep him for the part.
Gabriel is one of the first love interests – and continues to be one – for the titular character, and it’s hard to imagine someone else other than Bravo filling in the memorable role.
In an interview with People Magazine, the actor revealed that he was initially passed on the role, which led to the mountains in the Mediterranean island to cope with the rejection.
“I wanted to be in a place where there's no service, and I could just talk to birds, so to speak,” he said. Although, his trip ended shortly after something “very weird.”
He recalled a hiker bumped into him during his trip and asked to use the actor’s phone to call his daughter. Since the only cell service about a 40-minute walk away the hiker then returned.
“He told me, ‘Your phone was vibrating left and right when I got service, so you should check it out.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no. I'm here to forget this Emily Paris thing,’” Bravo shared.
He changed his mind in the morning about checking his phone and discovered he had 40 messages and 30 missed calls. “It was the casting director telling me, ‘Where are you?’”
After his prompt return to Paris, Bravo was asked to Gabriel's lines during auditions for other roles, which he found a “bit harsh” as it was “still an open wound."”
“I was like, ‘I was in the mountain with this shepherd making goat cheese,’ and I was so uncomfortable I talked about goat cheese for 10 minutes,” Bravo told the team when asked of his whereabouts. “When I left the room, and I closed the door, I was like, ‘I can't believe I just talked about goat cheese. You're never going to get that part.’”
Despite his concerns, Bravo was called the next day and immediately told that he was starting filming in two days.