Books & Music -- 11 days ago
Lucien Laviscount: “I have David Beckham to thank for all of this.”
The Emily In Paris actor speaks to Gentleman’s Journal about how he landed the job of a lifetime, and where he goes from here
Words: Zak Maoui
The Emily In Paris actor speaks to Gentleman’s Journal about how he landed the job of a lifetime, and where he goes from here
Words: Zak Maoui
Five years ago Lucien Laviscount was in a little bit of a rut. He had found his footing as an actor, sure, with roles in Snatch and Waterloo Road, but he hadn’t quite found the role that he was looking for. The role that was going to, as with a lot of actors on the up at that time (Paul Mescal after Normal People, Timothée Chalamet after Call Me By Your Name), change the trajectory of his life. Then Alfie Peterson came along.
Emily in Paris is now in its fourth season and 32-year-old Laviscount is, undeniably, one of the most recognised faces on TV. According to figures released by Netflix, Darren Star’s programme was streamed by 58 million households worldwide in 2020, and the sickly sweet show, which follows protagonist Emily as she embarks on a career in Paris (the name gives it away), has scooped Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, and was crowned the streaming service's most-watched show in 2022.
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Laviscount’s character Alfie, a London-born happy-go-lucky type of character that falls for Emily, joined the second season. “Coming into it and already knowing the success the show had comes with a lot of responsibility,” Laviscount tells me as he lies back on a sofa, following shooting for the Gentleman’s Journal, in a South West London studio just one week before season four of Emily In Paris is scheduled to drop on Netflix. “Any new job is daunting, but I was welcomed with open arms. It’s also crazy how the character has been received. Like things could have been really different.”
Burnley-born Laviscount, now behind a major character at the centre of the main love triangle storyline in the fictional show, wasn’t actually meant to have made it this far. “I was only meant to do four episodes to begin with, but I got a round of applause after episode three and thought, oh cool that’s a wrap, off I go and was going to just head home.” On his way home, he got a call from the show’s creator, and mastermind behind Sex and the City, Darren Star, who asked him to head back to set. Everyone was so impressed with Laviscount’s performance as the cheeky London boy, that they thought it impossible to let him go. “I bring a bit of myself to every character,” Laviscount says. “It’s about tapping into different versions of yourself. Alfie is a cool cat to play and I think everyone needs an Alfie in their lives. He says the awkward thing in the awkward moment, and I’m a bit like that. He’s just a likeable guy.”
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Laviscount, while ready to tackle the role of a lifetime as Alfie, wasn’t quite logistically set up for it. “I was in New York having dinner when I got the phone call from my manager to do the audition tape,” he explains, marking the time as early 2021. “He said ‘Darren Star wants to see your tape for Emily In Paris’ and so I pulled up a camera. I don’t think I’ve learnt lines so quickly. A friend of mine ran over from the nail salon and still had tin foil on her nails, and we shot a segment and sent it off. Like most actors in the game, once you send a tape off and it’s in the ether, you sort of have to switch off, forget it and let it go.”
The actor got a call from “someone on Star’s team” shortly after, who said that the producer-director-writer really wanted to set up a Zoom call. An hour later Star and Laviscount were chatting for 45 minutes, although it’s all a blur for the young actor. “I can’t remember a single thing we spoke about,” Laviscount says. “I had learnt my lines and was focused on remembering them while listening to him, but he never actually asked me to read. And an hour after getting off the Zoom, I got a call saying you’re off to Paris in four days, you got the part.” But times were strange, and moving to Paris then wasn’t as easy as today. “We were coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I had to quarantine for the first ten days that I was in France. I was in Paris, and it was my first ever time, but I couldn’t actually do anything.”
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It’s unsurprising that Laviscount got the part so quickly, nor that he took a shine to Star, a veteran of the television industry. Laviscount has the charisma you’d expect from an actor ready to embrace the limelight. Upon entering the studio today, he filled the room with an exhilarating “let’s do this” energy, captivating everyone in his orbit, which any producer would want on their own TV or film set. Take a look at him at fashion week a couple of seasons ago, where he commanded the crowds outside the Autumn/Winter 2023 Louis Vuitton show in Paris when he jumped up on the car he arrived in. Indeed, it’s this energy that helped him even land a spot in the acting industry in the first place.
“Being an actor came up when I was quite young,” he says with his signature Lancashire twang. “I was on a modelling gig for a project with David Beckham back in the day and he recognised something in me and got his assistant to call an acting school in Manchester. Next thing I know I was in an acting class, and things sort of went on from there.” Laviscount believes that it’s down to Beckham that his life path changed. “I bumped into him a while back and said to him, ‘thank you, you changed my life.’ It’s a great example of how the simple things you do can change someone’s trajectory and how your actions can have results on someone else in a certain way. That small gift of kindness, and I’m sure he doesn’t remember, changed not just my life, but my friends and family’s lives.”
Laviscount, however, hasn’t let that get in the way of who he really is. Life has changed in terms of job opportunities - he was recently in a music video alongside Shakira and Cardi B, and was a Church’s brand ambassador - but he himself has remained the same he says. “I will always be the lad from Burnley, and I have great people around me who keep my feet on the ground,” he tells me, explaining that his family are the all important factor in his life. “I’m too busy thinking about being a better person to worry about all the bullshit.” When asked what it’s like being a globally recognised actor, he has an answer ready. “I get spotted a lot and it’s an interesting thing,” he says. “It’s amazing how much reach the show has had with Netflix and you get people from all around the world and different nationalities coming over and saying how much they enjoy the work you’ve put in. And do you know what, it takes two minutes to make someone’s day.”
In fact, Laviscount, aside from when he has to work in places like New York City, London and, of course, Paris, has sort of put the glitz and glamour, and overwhelming arrogance of the entertainment industry to one side. His energy is large when it comes to work, but he’s grounded in a sense of calm elsewhere. So much so that he now resides in Antigua, the birthplace of his father, as opposed to some all-glass bachelor loft in a major city. “We used to go back when we were kids,” he explains. “And I was working in New York in 2019 and I booked a holiday - 27th February 2020 - for three weeks and ended up staying for seven months through the pandemic.” After returning to London for a bit, Laviscount decided that it was actually Antigua where he wanted to spend the majority of his time, and he now calls it home. “It gave me the space to figure myself out,” he says. “It’s a place where I can be who I want to be. I realised I didn’t need to be anywhere else, surrounded by people who can influence your decisions. I’ve got my beaches and my crystal water and great energy that the country brings. Mum and dad live there with me now too.”
Laviscount is hopeful that Alfie can find some sort of peace. “I want Alfie to get the girl,” he says, showing genuine care for his on-screen counterpart. “Alfie gets the rug pulled out from under him, and he has set his routes and foundations in Paris and hopes for life with Emily, but that’s sort of falling apart. I hope he has some luck.”
And while Alfie’s future is up to Darren Star and his team of writers, Laviscount has a little more control over his own path. With Emily In Paris season four wrapped (the first half is on Netflix now, with the latter half airing later this year), he’s beginning to think about what might be next. More Alfie, sure, but something different.
“My mum is a brilliant storyteller and I’ve had that in my life for as long as I can remember,” he says. “A song can change your day, but a movie can change your life. I think Alfie is someone that I’ll carry with me forever, and he’s come at a stage in my life when I’m transitioning into a new me, but I’m ready for a new challenge. I’d like to do a British police drama, or play someone based on a real life person. Equally, the [Marvel] universe has my name on it.”
Credits:
Styling, Zak Maoui
Photography, Joseph Bishop
Creative direction, Freya Anderson
Hair, Fluffy Original
Make-up, Letitia Sophia
Studio: Haus of Hutch
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