French actor Lucas Bravo, who plays Gabriel, the stunning chef on the Netflix series Emily in Paris, just arrived in Tel Aviv to film an ad campaign for the Israeli fashion label Renuar, alongside model Yael Shelbia, and said he had an unusual reason for wanting to work here: To meet his Israeli therapist.
Interviewed on the Keshet 12 program, Good Evening with Guy Pines, Bravo answered, “My therapist is from Israel… So every time we finish a session, she says, ‘Bye, motek [the Hebrew word for ‘sweetheart’]. So that’s the first word I’ve learned.”
He said his therapist lives in Israel, that they had been meeting on Zoom, and that he was going to meet her in person for the first time after he finished shooting the commercial.
Asked whether the Netflix hit, which started out in Paris and moved to Rome for most of its fifth season, should film in Tel Aviv next time around, he replied, “Why not?”
While he admitted he was not sure if he would be back for the next season of Emily in Paris (“It’s a mystery… It’s not written yet”), he said that he was looking forward to doing some sightseeing in Israel and going to a restaurant with a Michelin star for dinner, like the one his character runs on the series. Told that restaurants in Israel do not receive such stars but that any establishment he would visit would probably get a star soon, he smiled.
“I’m proud to be part of it,” he said, speaking about the campaign, and deflected questions about the anti-Israel climate in France, as his manager stood nearby. Bravo also took part in an Israeli Nescafé Taster’s Choice ad about four years ago.
In addition to Emily in Paris, he is known for his role in HBO Max’s The Seduction, a loose adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, and appeared in Ticket to Paradise as Julia Roberts’ boyfriend.