blazer. Acne Studios
shirt. Marni
opposite
suit. Giorgio Armani
shirt. Ralph Lauren
tie. Tom Ford
From Los Angeles, Paul Forman answers the call. He appears quite relaxed; he has been enjoying his time with his friends and fellow actors in California. He is cooking fresh pasta, watching tennis, and barbecuing in the garden. Recently, the actor from Emily in Paris has been splitting his time between L.A. and London, where he grew up.
Even though Forman can’t recall much about his childhood, one thing is certain is that he attended a French school, and grew up bilingual. He even surprised us by speaking Spanish during our interview. In the Netflix series, he portrays Nicolas de Léon, a French businessman who attended boarding school in Switzerland. Although their stories might seem similar, their characters are quite the opposite. “Nicolas is wonderful for me to play, cause he’s so grounded and business-oriented, even slightly controlling, which are probably the three antonyms to describe myself,” he explains. But thanks to his upbringing Forman was certainly the perfect choice to play this role. “It was important for me to do it justice as someone who is bilingual. So although he does have an accent in English, I gave him an international one. Often in cinema, they tend to fall under the stereotype of the French accent. I wanted to make it more dimensional.”
boxers. Calvin Klein
bracelet. Cartier
opposite
shirt. Marni
trousers. Entire Studios
watch. Cartier
Forman’s start in the third season of Emily in Paris happened incredibly fast. He received a casting call from his agent, submitted his tape, and by the next day, he was already in a Zoom meeting with the producer. Just 48 hours later, he was confirmed for the show and had to fly to Paris to start filming, learning his lines over the weekend. “I had no time to get nervous about anything. I just had to get straight to it. I’m so grateful for it now in retrospect. It just catapulted me into it without all the bullshit that comes with getting a part. The self-doubt, the logistics…” he recalls.
But it was not always this quick. Before his big break, Forman pursued acting straight out of University, where he studied mathematics. He enrolled in the Drama Studio London and later got scouted as a model, which helped him pay for his acting classes and rent in London. However, his passion for acting remained his primary focus. “I’ve never thought about a plan B. One thing I’m proud of myself for is that I’ve never underestimated this industry. This is why I left my math degree to go to drama school because I knew this was going to be the hardest journey that I’ll ever be on.”
Forman gets candid and shares with us that he would often find himself longing for more and more opportunities to showcase his talents, almost becoming fixated on the future. Despite his strong desire, there were times when he found himself without a single audition for an extended period. “It’s thought, it takes time and delusion almost. To say: Yes, I’m an actor and this is the right choice that I’ve made. You need to keep going, which I was starting to struggle with,” he explains.
tank top + boxers. Calvin Klein
bracelet. Cartier
opposite
trousers + belt. Balenciaga
He first appeared on screen in 2019, in the Austrian-German movie Nevrland which allowed him to live in Vienna for a few months. He portrayed the character of Kristjan, a young artist who forms a friendship with another man on a cam-chat site, leading to a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery. Later on, he was cast in the short movie Dreams and made various appearances in the series The Spanish Princess, Frank of Ireland, and Doctor Who. “It’s so sparse and oversaturated, there are millions of people who are wonderful actors. But it never quite happened for me, until relatively recently,” Forman admits. “But as soon as I stopped picturing the future… Bang! Everything happened, it’s crazy. I was always looking ahead, I was obsessed with the future and recently I had to adjust those expectations of what my future should look like. Just enjoy being present and what I have right now, and it’s genuinely changed my life: professionally and personally”.
Just like the rest of us, Forman binge-watched Emily in Paris when it first came out during the pandemic. What he didn’t know was that this show was going to change not only his career but also his personal life. After filing the third season, his on-screen girlfriend, Ashley Park, became his real-life partner. What began as a friendship slowly evolved into a love story. “We started out as friends. I’ve never dated an actor and I’ve never wanted to. She only dated actors and she didn’t want to. And you know, this was also a big opportunity for me. There was no way in hell that I was even gonna fathom the thoughts of becoming romantic with anyone on set. I was just there to do my job,” Forman asserts. “But it’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Like I’m the luckiest man. Our first kiss is actually what you see on screen. It’s that scene where we go on a date.” After all, who hasn’t had a crush on their friend or even someone at work?
tank top. Calvin Klein
opposite
blazer. Acne Studios
shirt. Marni
boxers. Calvin Klein
tie. Ferragamo
Forman calls himself a bit of a matchmaker. He firmly believes that anyone can fall in love with a friend or with a co-worker. His advice is to go for it with no fear; this is the only way to live without regrets. According to him, it’s not about making the right decisions but making the decision right. ”You’ll learn from it. It can be a lesson. Life is so short and fleeting and fragile. You should experience things and be daring, even if it doesn’t go how you want. I think that’s a wonderful experience. Amazing, that it didn’t go the way you thought and you learn from that and you grow from it. You don’t know what might happen next. You never know where that leads to,” he affirms.
When he’s not playing Cupid, Forman is marathon-watching as many series and movies as he can. So far, he is finishing A Gentleman in Moscow and is about to start Rings of Power and Kaos after that. But most importantly he is watching Stags, the new series he appears in, where a group of friends go on a stag do in South America. “I try to watch everything, I’m absolutely obsessed with cinema and television. I’m the perfect consumer I binge everything and I love it.”
Although Forman cannot say much about the end of the fourth season of Emily in Paris, he is willing to share one of his yet-to-be-revealed projects. He is writing a play, which he will be producing. He has been working on this script for a long time, and it seems it will finally come to life. “It’s a comedy-drama, more of drama than comedy actually. I’m loving the process of writing, it’s so therapeutic learning another side of myself and of this creative industry that I’m in,” he explains. What we do know is that Emily is heading to Italy this time. In parallel, Nicolas, Forman’s character, will be dealing with numerous personal and professional challenges. It seems essential to binge-watch the remainder of the fourth season of Emily in Paris, or perhaps we should say Emily in Rome, to discover the full extent of their adventures. A new location means more romance, more drama and a whole new language to master.
suit. Giorgio Armani
shirt. Ralph Lauren
tie. Tom Ford
Emily in Paris is streaming now on Netflix.
photography. Mekhi Turner
fashion. Jordan Dorso
talent. Paul Forman
grooming. Candice Birns @ A-Frame Agency using STMNT Grooming Goods
creative production. Clara La Rosa
fashion assistant. Joshua Johnston
interview. Mehdi Bensalah
