It doesn’t seem like he’s joking. In his view, he was “fired” from the Netflix series, in which he appeared in one season four episode as interior designer Giorgio Barbieri. “I did a scene in the latest season, and they told me, ‘Next year we’ll speak,'” he recalled. “I waited for them to call me—but ultimately, it never came, and they just fired me. Show business is always very difficult, from the beginning to the end. When they write the screenplay, they think they want you—but then things change, and they lose your character. I don’t know why.”
VF notes that a source close to the production contests Everett’s framing. They say that the actor was hired as a guest star, and his character’s arc simply reached its natural conclusion. That being said, this isn’t the first time Emily In Paris has engendered an extremely strong emotional response from someone involved. Last year, Lucas Bravo (Gabriel) went on a rampage against the show, telling IndieWire that it was “not fun for me to shoot or to see a character I love so much… being slowly turned into guacamole.” (Other great turns of phrase from that rant include the show’s stagnancy being compared to “a lot of souffles” and a lot of grousing about how the actor “really grew apart” from the “sexy chef” that was “very much part of me in Season 1.”)
Even French president Emmanuel Macron couldn’t resist the pull of Emily In Paris madness. “Emily In Paris in Rome doesn’t make sense,” he told Variety when the show deigned to leave his beloved city. “We will fight hard. And we will ask them to remain in Paris!” At least Everett can wade through this tragedy in good company.
