Lucas Bravo reveals he wasn’t originally cast as Gabriel

Lucas Bravo was initially told he wasn’t going to Paris. Indeed, the Emily in Paris star, who has played Gabriel-a love interest vying for Lily Collins’ Emily’s heart-since season one of the Netflix series, was almost rejected from the show entirely.

The 36-year-old-who had only appeared in smaller independent films prior to his Netflix casting-noted to People that Paramount initially “didn’t want to take a chance” on him because he “didn’t have enough background.”

Naturally, the budding actor decided to head off the grid upon hearing the disappointing news, and took a trip to the French island of Corsica.

“I wanted to be in a place where there’s no service,” he admitted to the publication. “I could just talk to birds, so to speak.”

But soon, Bravo’s solo endeavor was interrupted by a fellow hiker, who asked to borrow his cell phone to call his daughter, walking a 40-minute trip to an area with service. And when he returned, he had news.

“He told me, ‘Your phone was vibrating left and right when I got service, so you should check it out,'” Bravo recalled. “I was like, ‘No, no, no. I’m here to forget this Emily Paris thing.'” The next morning, though, Lucas checked his “40 messages and 30 missed calls,” and found pleasant surprise, noting, “It was the casting director telling me, ‘Where are you?'”

And so Bravo returned to Paris and was swiftly called in to read again for Gabriel in front of Paramount producers, writers, the show’s creator Darren Star and Collins.

“It went super well,” he gushed. “Lily is very generous. When you dive into her eyes, it’s really easy to be connected to her.” As for how Bravo was reigned back into the running? He found out that Star had “fought” for him and “went against the studio,” knowing the actor “was the part from the beginning.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Star has expressed his confidence in choosing Bravo for the role.

“The chemistry was undeniable,” the Sex & the City creator explained to the Los Angeles Times earlier this month. “He just has this natural charisma and this twinkle in his eye and an amazing sense of humor. I just wanted to go with my gut.”