There’s an ease to the way Omar Sy carries a conversation. The French lead of Netflix’s international hit Lupin emits optimism, wit, a warm gregarious spirit, and a big unceasing smile. It’s only fitting that he’s become a global star.
Back home, Sy has been legitimately famous for over a decade. After a breakout role in the 2011 buddy comedy Intouchables, he won the Best Actor at the César Awards (France’s Oscars), and was crowned most popular personality in France in a national poll; he moved to Los Angeles in 2012. Now Lupin, in which he plays a modern version of the charming gentleman thief of early 20th century literature, is Netflix’s most popular show of the year, subtitles be damned.
The show, which just aired part two of its first season in June, is just as seductive as its star. Based on Maurice Leblanc’s classic Arsène Lupin stories, Lupin is a nail-biting thriller that rests on protagonist Assane Diop’s intelligence and cleverness (the homage is meta-textual—Assane is what you would call a total Arsene Lupin stan). The traps Diop sets for his enemies are Lupin’s bread and butter, but the program is also a strong critique of racism and class struggles in France. You don’t need a translator to understand how Diop’s father can go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
GQ chatted with Sy about the differences between racism in France and the United States, his comedy roots, Assane Diop’s legacy, Jordan sneakers, and the stigma behind Black Air Force 1s.
You went from being extremely famous in France to being relatively unknown in the States, and now you’re a global star. How are you settling into this newfound level of fame?
I don’t feel the global star feeling yet, you know? I don’t have that in my daily life. I cannot feel it. I’m the same guy. The switch in France was ten years ago — that was very unusual. I felt the side effects of it in my daily life. That’s why we moved from France to here. I couldn’t raise my kids in that environment so that’s why we moved. But today, my days stay the same, so I don’t feel I have to adjust to compensate [for] something.
That was actually my next question. You came to the States for some anonymity. But now you’re in LA and there are paparazzi all over the place. Is that something you’re worried about in the future, raising your kids in that environment?
No, because now my kids are older. When we moved it was ten years ago. They were small and it was different. Now, they’re old enough to understand and I don’t think I’m gonna have that life now. I’m not worried at all, because they have the mind to understand, so I’m relieved for that.
Lupin is a big cultural figure in France. How do you view Diop in that context? Do you see him as an icon like James Bond or Indiana Jones? What do you think his cultural impact will be in the future?
Lupin is really a part of literature, you know, something you learned at school. We had a lot of movies already, you already have a series about Lupin. For the next generation, Lupin is gonna be Assane Diop, which is really cool. I’m so happy and proud of that.
One of Diop’s trademarks is the Jordan 1s he wears. And I know you had some input on this character. Are you a sneakerhead?
[Sy lifts his feet, showing a pair of mid-top Jordan 1s]
Okay. All right, I see. I see you, man. I see you.
Of course. It’s because, like I said, Lupin is very, very famous in France, and when you grow up in France, you know who he is, what he’s capable of, and what he looks like. So if we wanted to have a new Lupin, we had to give Assane Diop a new look because the old Lupin is a French guy with the monocle, the [top] hat, the cape, and the cane. So the director of the three first episodes [Louis Leterrier] and I were talking about what that can be. So we had the hat, the long coat, which could be kind of a cape, and we wanted something else—something from today. Louis and I are sneaker geeks so we decided on something from today but classic, and the Jordan 1 is classic, so it was inevitable for us.
Are there any other sneakers that you love?
All of the Jordans. The 1s are the classics. But after that, I will say the 6s.
In the very first scene, within a minute of the show beginning, the first shoe we see Assane Diop wearing are black Air Force 1s. There’s a cultural context behind that shoe in America such that it’s understood to be often worn by criminals and thieves. I’m wondering if that was a joke that was intentional or if it’s just serendipitous and a coincidence.
It’s a coincidence because I did not know that. Even the coincidence is there to help us. I’m so curious about that, I’m gonna read about that. I do not know, that’s cool. Okay. So the black ones or all the Air Force 1s?
No, just the black Air Force 1s. They’re known for being worn by people who will rob you.
[Laughs] Good to know, I didn’t know. That’s really interesting. That’s funny.
Lupin is a very slick and entertaining show but it also incorporates critiques of race and class in France. How do you identify with those critiques?
It’s about our lives and our experiences. We wanted to share that in a way that we don’t really do in France. People don’t really know what’s going on. As important as it was to show how Paris is beautiful, we wanted to show that that kind of story can happen in France. What we wanted to have is a map of what Paris is today. So those differences with classes, differences with race, differences with social levels, were very interesting to tell. For example, Assane used the fact that people don’t really see him because he’s cleaning — it’s going to help him to rob them. So, it was really entertaining and fun, but at the same time, we’re saying something.
My experiences with racism probably aren’t the same as yours. But there are a lot of moments in Lupin that I definitely connected with — and other roles in your filmography, like Chocolat, too. Is this type of commentary something you’re looking for in your projects?
It’s not the main thing that’s gonna come when I pick a project, but I know as soon as I’m gonna act, and be a part of the project, it’s something that [is important], because it’s my sensitivity.
What are some of your sensitivities and experiences with racism in France?
I don’t know. I cannot be so precise about it because each time it comes, I always find a way to try to avoid or go above, you know? I always try to find a way to always move forward. Most of the experiences I have are people wanting to stop me or try to dominate me or something like that. All the time it’s the opposite effect on me. It’s something that gives me a lot of strength to be who I am today.
Have you experienced any racism in the United States?
Yeah, I did but it was more or less against French people and not Black which is really interesting. Because In the US, people see me more as a French actor than a Black actor. I realized that the first year I was here. I realized that I was more French than Black, which was confusing for me because I was in France trying to be considered a French Black. And I have to go outside to be seen as French. I was more seen as a Black man in France than in the US, which is really weird. It was confusing at the beginning.
What would you say the differences are between the way that French people and American people react to somebody’s race and nationality?
You know, it depends on the history—people always ask me, how can I compare that, but I cannot. There is no way to compare, it’s not the same history. It’s not the same relationship, you know, because France had a problem to see me as a French guy because my parents came from Senegal, they are not French. In the US it’s different. You guys are American, so the history is different. Between me and France [the history is about] colonization and in the US [there’s] slavery, so not it’s the same. There is no way to compare, that’s why I think it’s very important to be precise, you cannot just put everything in the same box, that’s not possible. That’s a mistake I think.
One of the things I like about Lupin is the way that the show captures power imbalances between the wealthy and the poor. Diop’s whole origin story is about that imbalance. Do you see Lupin as a sort of Robin Hood in the future?
He already did, you know, when he had the necklace and takes some of the stones and gives it to the wife of the guy he met in prison. We knew when we wanted someone like that. Just a normal guy fighting the establishment and having like kind of a Robin Hood spirit. We want him being that, so in the future we’ll continue to see him like that and to tell stories about him, you know, in that way.
In the US, there has been some criticism of Lupin because, while there are a few Black characters there’s a notable absence of Black women. What are the differences that you see in how the show is being received back at home in France and here in the States?
It’s having that show seen by American people, with American eyes on something French. It’s a French story, and in France, when you have someone like [Soufiane] Guerrab, who is a cop, and we have like, Shirine [Boutella] — these are all Arabic people, so it’s our diversity. Not just Black and white, we have Arabic people coming from other colonized parts. It’s a big step for us to have something like that made. On top of that, it’s a success. So we’re happy and proud of all of that. I understand because I live here, how it can be seen here, but people forget to put it in that French context. That’s the French Way. Of course, in the future, we’ll have, you know, more to say, we’ll have more characters and we’ll have for sure a Black actress. Everything will come but for the first season we already have something huge and I don’t think people see it like that. It’s already something massive and it’s a big impact in the French industry.
You’re in Tower of Strength, which is supposed to come out next year on Netflix. Tell me what to expect?
It’s a sequel [to 2012’s On the Other Side of the Tracks]. It was about one cop from the inside of Paris — I don’t know if you know how it works in France, but you have the center of Paris, which is the rich people, and on the outside are the poor, so the projects. So we have one of the cops from inside, and the other one was from outside. I was the cop from outside, and Laurent Lafitte was the cop from inside and they had to collaborate. And it was like, you know, kind of a buddy movie. They don’t get along at the beginning and they have that adventure and finally, they become friends. Now they come back together, but this time they have to go to the outside of France in the countryside for a new case and it’s gonna be like new drugs coming and they realize that it’s about kind of white supremacist terrorists planning an attack in France. That’s the plot. That’s the comedy.
Those are some pretty heavy themes for a comedy.
When you speak on a subject like that, it seems like it. I studied as a comedian to talk about all of this stuff in a light way because I think it’s easier for people to understand. You’re not judgmental, you’re just, talking about it in a light way. I think it’s easier for people to understand, and open their minds because at the same time you can relax. Of course, we need some time to be serious because it’s very serious and dangerous, but at the same time you can laugh about it, you know, and it’s good because I think the more serious and heavy it is, the laugh is more important in that moment.
After last summer, do you have any reservations about playing a police officer?
No, no, it’s more funny for me. After what happened last summer I was in [a movie called Police]. I was a cop. In France, we don’t have [your] white supremacists but we have extreme right, extreme nationalist French people. They were against me because I published an article blaming French police, so they boycott me. I know they don’t want me to be a [cop]. The best way for me to move forward is to play a police officer, so I’m going to do it again, again and again, and again. If you want me to stop — tell me to continue because I always do what you don’t expect.
You protested around the time that George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered. That was a real tipping point in the States. What was it like experiencing that through a Senegalese Frenchman’s eyes?
It was very shocking. And it was one of those things like I said where you can’t compare. There’s a lot of things where we can relate. We can relate to the fear. We can relate to the suffering. And that it’s always the same. When’s that gonna stop, for all of us? Because either way, even if we cannot compare because the politics and the history are not the same, we can relate to the fact that we’re suffering. The fact that we live in fear and we are limited by other people. That’s why I can relate to that and I have my kids that live here now, and so I have Black kids living in this country. How can they live like that? It has to stop. My way to [encourage change] is by telling stories, making people laugh about it because when you laugh about something, it means that you understood. And if you understand, you cannot say you don’t know.