Lucas Bravo hints at exit from Emily in Paris amid 'frustration' with character

Lucas Bravo hinted at his exit from Emily in Paris one month after calling the part of Chez Lavaux head chef Gabriel - who doesn't even have a last name - 'unstimulating.'

'The "sexy chef" was very much part of me in season one and we grew apart season after season because of the choices he makes and because of the direction they make him take. I've never been so far away from him,' the 36-year-old Frenchman lamented to IndieWire on Tuesday.

'In season one, there was a lot of me in him. But as they made him kind of unaware of his surroundings, of the dynamic, always victimizing, and always being completely lost in translation and oblivious to anything that is happening around him and being manipulated by everyone, it kind of became not fun for me to shoot or to see a character I love so much and brought me so much, being slowly turned into guacamole. I really grew apart from him.'

Gabriel serves as the on/off love interest to his upstairs neighbor - American marketing executive Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) - who thrives in France despite never learning the language after four seasons.

'There is only so much I can do in the limits of a script. I tried for seasons to bring nuances but we don't have much liberty on set. We cannot change a word or an emotion. They know what they want and we just have to comply,' Lucas scoffed.

'It makes me question if I want to be part of season five...because my contract ends at season four. I really want to see if Gabriel gets back to his fun, cheeky, playful, alive self. Because three seasons playing melancholic, sad, depressed, and lost is not fun anymore. It's a comedy, everybody is having fun around me, everybody is jumping around, and I'm just slowly sinking into god knows what.'

Bravo went on to shade the producers, screenwriters, and directors - who want to play it safe and not 'change the recipe.'

'Anything that could go off road is carefully taken back. It's a lot of souffles,' the former sous chef noted.

'Pregnant? No, fake positive. Going to Rome? No, coming back. There are a lot of things like that. There is a lack of risk.'

Despite his outspoken criticism, Lucas stressed that he still 'loves the show and the people in it' whom he affectionately calls his 'Femily.'

'I feel like I am not being nice or grateful, but when you love something you want it to be, you want the best version of it,' Bravo explained.

'I'm not going to lie, I've been frustrated with the direction by character is taking. But we'll see where it goes. The show is not over.'

The 6ft1in heartthrob has been hard at work promoting his new role as the late jewel thief Bruno Sulak in Mélanie Laurent's romantic thriller Freedom, which premieres this Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

Lucas' other upcoming projects include Jean-Baptiste Delfaon's Dangerous Liaisons prequel series Merteuila for Max, as well as Jamie Adams' thriller Turn Up The Sun! and holiday comedy It's Christmas!

Bravo got a bit of a leg-up in show business as the nepo-baby of footballer Daniel Bravo and singer Eva Bravo.