French star Omar Sy steals hearts in Lupin
Oui, Lupin is back! And French star Omar Sy couldn’t be any prouder to be reprising the lead role in Part 2 of the Netflix mystery thriller/ heist series following the global success of the first season.
Lupin is the modern retelling of the French author Maurice Leblanc’s literary legacy from more than 100 years ago, The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, about the escapades of the mysterious “gentleman thief.”
The hero of the Netflix series, Assane Diop (Omar), is a fan of Lupin whose work inspires him to execute his own daring schemes and burglaries amid present-day issues.
Part 1 of the series robbed audiences’ hearts based on these figures: 76 million households watched Lupin within 28 days of the launch; it’s the first French show to land on Netflix’s US Top 10 list; 140,000 copies of Leblanc’s books sold in France and French-speaking countries; the new official edition of Hachette’s novels of Lupin, Gentleman Burglar topped the list of Young Adult best-selling books for 10 weeks; and pageviews of Wikipedia for the town of Etretat (which is featured in the Part 1 finale) up by 400 percent at the time of the show’s release. In the Philippines, it also made the Top 10 most-watched content on the platform.
Lupin is written by no less than George Kay, the British screenwriter behind the series Criminal and Killing Eve. Much of the credit for the reception to the show also goes to the portrayal of Omar, one of France’s brightest stars.
Asked how he landed the project, Omar said, “It all began when Gaumont (the production company behind the show) reached out to me with a pretty simple question that still blew me away, ‘What character would you like to play?’ It didn’t take me long to come up with Arsène Lupin.”
“When you grow up in France, you know who Lupin is, what he looks like, what he’s capable of. He’s one of our heroes. I was more acquainted with the manga version of Lupin, and so I was introduced to the character in the ‘80s through the Japanese take on Maurice Leblanc’s creation. When I joined the project, I began reading the books and I watched all of the filmed adaptations again.”
In Lupin, Omar’s character is on a quest for revenge after he lost his father as a teenager. “It’s about a kid who comes across a book (laughs)! More seriously, it’s about an orphan who finds a father figure in a book — he regards a fictional character as a surrogate father in the book that his actual father bequeathed to him. With this legacy — with this tool — he means to avenge him. Because Lupin is a multi-layered character — he’s a kid intent on avenging his father, but he’s also a father who must stop being obsessed with his own father to be a father himself! All the while being a gentleman burglar, obviously.”
But unlike Leblanc’s hero, Assane is a master at disguise sans the help of make-up. “We couldn’t possibly use the Mission: Impossible mask effect again, so we went for a very simple option: Assane is defined by a sense of injustice — the fact of being ignored, of being invisible — which has become his trauma. He uses that. As he changes costumes and trades, he blends in with the crowd,” Omar said.
“I embraced that wholeheartedly because it’s something I totally relate to. In my experience as a TV comedian, I know that all it takes to change identities is a beanie and a pair of glasses. Assane only needs very small things to move up in society, because these days people tend to focus more on what people do than on who people are.”
Omar also gave some insights into the developments of his character in Part 2. There’s a change in his relationship dynamics with authorities, as he sympathizes with police officers trying to catch him.
He also develops a closer relationship with his son. “Assane has trouble both being a son and being a father. When he focuses on avenging his own father, he acts a bit childishly and shirks his responsibility as a father, and when he spends time with his son, he forgets to some extent about his revenge quest. The show is also about legacy: Assane’s father gives him a copy of Arsène Lupin. What will he do with it? And how will he pass it on to his own son?”
Ahead of the global premiere of Lupin Part 2 on June 11, The STAR had an exclusive interview with Omar. It was just five minutes of his time because everybody literally wanted to have a piece of the star of the most successful French-language original on Netflix.
What is it like playing “France’s James Bond”?
“I’m very very happy, and I was so proud to have the opportunity to play Lupin because Lupin is this huge, charismatic French character that we have in our literature. So, I was so happy to be him on screen. And I was so proud that we could have a very new version of it because you had a lot on TV, movies and other novels so we had to find something very different for him. And the fact that we put the book, you know, in our story, or give the books like a real place in the show, was very interesting. And also, Lupin is kind of like the French James Bond and every actor wants to play James Bond, so I’m really happy.”
In what ways are you similar to your character Assane, besides his heists of course?
“We don’t have that much (similarities), you know. It’s just fantasy, I think, for a lot of people to do what Assane does. It’s very interesting, the robberies, having that panache, being so delightful and such a smart-ass. Being a mastermind like that, it’s something I would love to be like — but I’m not. So, living that through Assane is just very, very fun and just a dream (come true). I’m really, really not like Assane. Even if I rob a candy, you can see it in my face (laughs). So being able to rob the Louvre, it’s something so big... so no. Except the fact that he’s French and grew up in France with an immigrant background — it’s maybe the only way I can relate to Assane. And maybe the fact of being a dad, but that’s it!”
Why do you think Part 1 was a global hit?
“You know, I think it’s because of a lot of things. It’s a mixture of luck, a combination of a lot of things that happened. I think the fact that maybe Assane is fighting the establishment is something that people love and maybe something that the global world would love, especially today in our world. It’s something that people want to see, you know.”
How was the filming of Part 2 amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
“Oh, it was special. Because we had to stop, you know, abruptly. We were shooting and the shoot started very certainly so we were shocked because the world was turning in a way that we would never expect. And we were surprised and we were afraid.
“So after three months, you know, after the lockdown, we went back to shoot. And I remember we were shooting in Paris and there were only two (productions) shooting in Paris, so we were so happy and grateful that we were part of those two, you know. It was very exceptional to go back that soon.
“The shoot was very complicated, all the masks, the social distancing. It was a new way to shoot, and we had to just adapt to that way. It was not simple, not easy, but we were so happy and grateful to be back on track and that we just did it! When I look back today, I just realized that it wasn’t that simple, but we did it somehow and I’m happy that we could go back on early to shoot.”
You started in the industry as a radio comedian, what can people learn from your story?
“That I think you should never stop learning. So, I always try to see things differently, try to have a new way to think or see, just to try to learn every day. I learned that you never stop learning.”
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