Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu: The French Actress Is A Netflix Star
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu is a French actress who is best known for her roles in Emily in Paris and The Crown.
For the bulk of Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s four-decade career, she has starred in French films and television. Her name might not be as well known in the United States, and one would probably have a difficult time picking her out in a lineup. But industry folks know she does exemplary work. Just ask Netflix. So, let’s see where one may have seen Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu in French films and TV or specifically on some Netflix series.
PHILIPPINE LEROY-BEAULIEU IS 60 YEARS OLD AND WAS BORN IN ITALY
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu was born on April 25, 1963, in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of French actor Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu, and he tried desperately to convince his daughter not to follow in his acting footsteps. Well, we all know how that turned out.
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu grew up in Italy for her first 16 years when she chose to go against both of her parents’ wishes and head to Paris to study drama. She was barely 20 years old when she made her screen debut in the 1983 Roger Vadim French film, Surprise Party.
Her first taste of American cinema actually came early in her career. In 1984, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu starred in the American miniseries Mistral’s Daughter. The four-episode series starred Stephanie Powers, Stacy Keach, Lee Remick, Ian Richardson, Robert Urich, and Timothy Dalton, a short three years before he would be shaken, not stirred as James Bond in The Living Daylights.
Mistral’s Daughter tells the story of Maggie Lunel (Powers) who arrives in Paris in 1925. She is broke and becomes an artist’s model and eventually the toast of Paris. Her notoriety catches the eye of painter Julien Mistral (Keach), who starts to paint portraits of Maggie.
Mistral’s work catches the eye of a rich American woman (Remick), who eventually becomes his wife. Meanwhile, Maggie has a daughter, Teddy, who grows up, falling in love with Mistral. The two end up having a child together and name her Fauve (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu). As Mistral ages, he begins to realize how terrible and selfish he was in his past and how he needs to rectify things in order to leave his daughter a beautiful legacy.
It would be a long time before Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu would appear in an American film or TV series. Right after starring in Mistral’s Daughter, Leroy-Beaulieu would then star in the French film, 3 Hommes et un Couffin. This film would be remade three years later and star Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg, and Nancy Travis in what we would know as Three Men and a Baby.
From time to time, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu would appear in an American film. In 1995, she had a small part in Jefferson in Paris, a film that starred Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson, the third United States president.
In 2004, she would appear in Two Brothers, a film about two tigers separated as cubs that also starred Guy Pierce and Freddie Highmore.
SHE STARRED IN THE FRENCH SERIES CALL MY AGENT!
For the most part, though, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu stuck with French films and television. In 2015, Leroy-Beaulieu starred in the hit French comedy series, Call My Agent! It was such a big hit in France that Netflix purchased it to show on the streaming network. The series ran for four seasons and introduced Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu to an American audience.
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu continued to appear in French films and TVeven recently, when she grabbed a one-episode appearance on the Netflix hit, The Crown.
In this one, Leroy-Beaulieu plays the real-life character, Monique Ritz, wife of hotelier Charles Ritz. He was the son of Swiss hotelier César Ritz and Marie Louise Beck and he took over the reins of the Ritz Paris after his father passed away in 1918.
The Crown is a series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, so it may not be immediately apparent the importance of Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s Monique Ritz. But she was, in a way, connected to the royal family. After Charles Ritz passed away in 1976, Monique took over the Ritz Paris. Unfortunately, she was not a true businesswoman, and the hotel began to decline.
In 1979, Monique Ritz decided to sell. She sells the hotel to Mohamed Al Fayed, an Egyptian businessman, and this is where the Ritz connection to the royal family comes in. It was on August 30, 1997, that Princess Diana spent the evening at the Ritz Paris with Dodi Al Fayed, Mohamed’s son. That very next day, both were tragically killed in a car accident.
PHILIPPINE LEROY-BEAULIEU STARS IN EMILY IN PARIS
Before Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu would get her role on The Crown, she took on what may be her most popular role, at least here in America, when she got the role as the tough and bitter boss, Sylvie Grateau, in Netflix’s Emily in Paris.
The series stars Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror, Mank) as Emily, an American midwestern woman who is hired by a Paris marketing firm to provide them with an American point of view as well as a social media presence.
Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu wasn’t even sure if she was going to get the part of Sylvie when she got a call from casting director, Juliette Ménager. As Ménager explained to her, she had a role for Leroy-Beaulieu but the part was for a 35- to 40-year-old (Leroy-Beaulieu was 57 at the time) but wanted to know if she wanted to read for it anyway.
After she read it, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu called back the casting director and told her, “I know Sylvie Grateau. I know her by heart!” Then Leroy-Beaulieu explained to Variety, “My mother worked in the fashion industry [at Dior] so I got to meet many women like Sylvie. I thought it’d be stupid to not give it a try, even if the story was built around a younger character. I did a first casting call and didn’t hear back for a month and a half. When I got the callback, I almost fell off my chair. I didn’t think I’d make it.”
Made it she did, and she has made a name for herself as Sylvie. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu relishes her role, not even minding the revealing outfits she is tasked to wear. “It gives me the arrogance of Sylvie. The fact that she’s overexposing her body and wearing very uncomfortable shoes give her that arrogance. It’s all the things she’s had to do to thrive in the Parisian scene.”
To date, Emily in Paris has run for three seasons with its last episode airing on December 21, 2022, on Netflix. The series has been renewed for a fourth season, although Netflix has yet to announce a premiere date.
PHILIPPINE LEROY-BEAULIEU IS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
When Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu isn’t filming in France or America, she keeps herself quite busy on social media. She is active on Instagram, oftentimes showing off her Emily in Paris character.
She also likes to show off her fun side as well.
