“Antoine is just super jealous,” Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu tells Tudum matter-of-factly over Zoom. Leroy-Beaulieu plays Sylvie Grateau, Emily Cooper’s (Lily Collins) cool and exacting boss who’s always ready to arch an eyebrow at her American employee. But Sylvie is also someone who pursues her passions, as can be seen throughout Emily in Paris Season 2, as she not only piques the envy of her ex, Antoine Lambert (William Abadie), but also sets about getting everything else she wants. By the end of the season finale, “French Revolution,” Sylvie is on the precipice of establishing her own luxury marketing firm, has a handsome boyfriend named Erik (Søren Bregendal) by her side and a silently supportive secret husband waiting in the wings. Antoine? He’s a distant memory to a woman whose life is exponentially improving. We’d be jealous too.

“She’s slowly detaching herself from this past — going forward in a different way,” Leroy-Beaulieu says. “I really want to see what her plans are. She’s changing as a person and as a woman. She’s becoming more independent.” 

In Season 1, severely chic Sylvie acted as a foil for Emily, whose wide-eyed, fracas-prone Midwestern energy was somewhat out of place in Paris, at least in the eyes of her colleagues. But Season 2 breaks open Sylvie’s seemingly fearsome shell, revealing many of her secrets — and even some vulnerabilities, like the fact that she’s actually married to St-Tropez beach club owner Laurent G. (for Grateau!), played by Arnaud Binard. 

“I like the idea of a secret marriage,” Leroy-Beaulieu admits. “At the end of Season 1, [creator Darren Star] said, ‘She probably has a husband.’ But I didn’t know it was going to be this kind of relationship.” 

Below, Leroy-Beaulieu shares more of her thoughts on Sylvie's unconventional marriage and how she was the real winner of Season 2.

Did you ask Darren and the writers for more of Sylvie’s background, or did you find it in the script? 

It was totally [the writers’] idea. And I was really grateful. It was quite surprising, actually, since we ask but we don’t ask. They look at us. And they see us live. And then they get inspiration from who we are. 

Did you have anything in mind last season about who Sylvie is? Did that adjust in Season 2? 

We have to adjust all the time, because we’re getting the scripts as we’re filming. But for some reason, I had an intuition that Sylvie was hiding something at the beginning of Season 2, even though I hadn’t read everything. When I started reading the scripts, I realized that everything I had thought of was totally what was happening. It’s funny to see how our psyche kind of melds to the author’s universe. 

How was it exploring Sylvie’s past in St-Tropez? 

There are two sides to St-Tropez. There are all the millionaires and billionaires who come there with yachts. Then there’s the older side of St-Tropez, which is the early years of Brigitte Bardot and her freedom. I see Sylvie more on that side. I would imagine her being somebody that was wild as a young woman. 

How did that influence how you played her this season?

Sylvie has to tame the beast. She’s working in Paris — it’s all about impressing. That’s why I always wore these really tight dresses [in Season 1], because I thought she had this constraint somewhere. I didn’t know what was going to happen in Season 2, but then it made total sense. Suddenly it was like, “She’s really somebody who had to tame the beast to become ‘Sylvie.’ ”

Knowing her past now, do you think she sees a piece of herself in Emily that we wouldn’t have originally expected? 

Sylvie saw that [in] Season 1, when Emily came in with all these ideas. Sylvie was already thinking — because that’s what I was thinking — “This young girl, this really bold [girl]. That’s how I was when I was a younger woman in this business, where everything is really hard. It was mainly men. And I had to make my way up to the top. Now this younger woman comes with these ideas from a different culture?! And a different generation?!” But she respects that, even though she’s very irritated. Since the beginning, she saw that Emily was part of her. 

Is that why she offers Emily a job at the new marketing firm in the finale? It would be much easier to leave this “irritating” American in the past. 

Sylvie has a relationship of love and hate — it’s not even hate... It’s tough love for Emily. She’s [been] educating her since the beginning. It’s a mentor relationship. Emily’s going through trials and obstacles that Sylvie’s throwing at her to make her grow. Sylvie really cares for Emily a lot, [but] she will obviously never show it.

At least she shows affection in her romantic life. What was it like to explore Sylvie and Erik’s very cool relationship?  

It was kind of intimidating in the beginning. I thought, “I don’t want to look like a cougar.” I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and Sylvie, too. But the actor who played Erik is young but very grounded, very centered. He doesn’t look like a little boy at all. I was happy. [That’s] Darren’s talent, not to choose somebody who looks too “little puppy.” And he’s also a great person. It was really easy to build something with him as a character. 

Sylvie’s sensual season is signaled by her trip to St-Tropez. What was it like to have your Bond Girl moment, sauntering out of the water in a bathing suit? 

That was a lot of work after I don’t know how many months of lockdown eating chocolate and drinking wine. [laughs] But it was fun. It was an homage that was paid to a woman of my age, which I thought was really nice. I was embarrassed at the beginning. And then I thought, “You just have to forget about what you look like because otherwise you’ll go crazy.” It was fun to have that [piece] of Sylvie. It really brings people somewhere else with her. They think of her in a different way.

Do people in Paris know about this part of Sylvie? Or is this something she is genuinely that good at hiding, like you said? 

Luc [Bruno Gouery] knows. We still haven’t used that path, but that’s a string we’re going to have to pull. Because Luc knows a lot. I’ve told Darren, “We have to do something!” He’s like, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll do something with that.” I don’t know when [we will]. But Luc knows. 

By creating her own agency, do you think Sylvie is finally making Paris conform to her, and not the other way around? 

She’s empowering herself. She’s not a victim of the situation now. She’s taking things in her own hands to make things happen. It’s a totally different [experience]. That’s why I think she’s growing at that moment. I would like for her to have the support of her husband — her longtime husband. 

Sylvie sells her shares in Laurent G.’s to start her firm. What does that say about her growth over the season? 

It’s like a divorce, and they do talk about that when he gives her the papers. She says, “No, not all at once!” Her husband is like a brother who she doesn’t want to let go of. She really needs him. I feel she’s always going to have him as a brother, as a friend, as whatever. 

Do you think Sylvie needs to get a divorce next season, or is she good where she is? 

For the moment, she’s good where she is. 

But why is Erik the only one who sees a problem with his girlfriend secretly being married? 

Right?! I’m going to ask Darren to solve that in Season 3. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.