Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s role as the ballsy PR boss Sylvie has won the French actress many new admirers — including our writer Robert Crampton. So what happened when they met? We’re in Shoreditch, in the fashionable East End of London, enjoying some rare sunshine in the courtyard of one of the many photography studios hereabouts. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, whom I’ve decided to refer to as PLB to save space, has just completed a shoot wearing a succession of outfits, each one raunchier and skimpier than the last.
“Do you,” I ask, attempting a twinkly, flirtatious tone but managing to sound, I realise later when listening to the recording, both judgy and pushy, “normally dress like that?” “No,” she says with a smile. “Look at me.” She has changed into jeans, flats and a summer jumper for the interview.
It’s a polite answer, given the astounding stupidity of the question, it being hardly likely she pops out for a croissant at home in central Paris wearing six-inch spikes and fishnets. Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where she lives, used to be edgy, but not for many decades. A bit like Chelsea.
Mind you, she’s used to it — the heels at least, not the fishnets — in her professional life, playing Sylvie Grateau, the head of a luxury marketing agency in Netflix’s Emily in Paris . “After four seasons my feet are killing me,” she jokes. “All the girls on the show are like, ‘Oh my God, only tennis shoes now.
’ " Most women, she admits, don’t g.