The effortlessly charming and charismatic Omar Sy stars in the role of Assane Diop, a man inspired by the adventures of the ultimate master thief Arsene Lupin, a legendary French character created in the early 1900s. French-born Sy, 43, is best known for the film The Intouchables (2011) as well as X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Jurassic World (2015), Two is a Family (2016), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).
Sy resides between homes in Montfort-l’Amaury, Ile-de-France as well as Los Angeles with his wife and five children.
If you had to steal something from a museum what would it be?
Oh, let’s say Mona Lisa because I saw her and I spent 15 minutes with her alone while we were shooting Lupin. I was alone in that room for 15 minutes. A great privilege. I don’t know if a lot of people can say they’ve done that.
The relationship Assane has with his father, who passed down the book about Lupin, is integral to the show. What did your father pass on to you?
Well, he’s Senegalese and in West Africa its more about oral tradition than books. Teachers, of course, teach from books but my parents told stories rather than reading from books.
There are a few sequences with you on a bike riding through Paris at top speed. How much fun was that?
It’s really, really fun to act on the bike, riding through the Jardins du Luxembourg, where you’re not allowed to bike that fast, but I was allowed to do it for the show. It was fun but I have to be honest I did, like, 10% of what you saw.
Your character is the ultimate smooth guy. How smooth are you?
Oh, I think he’s smoother than me. I think I would be more stressed [if I was going through what he goes through]. My life is more chill.
How has your Covid experience been stuck at home with five kids in LA? How is the home schooling going?
(laughs). They have been home schooled for a year now. I try to help them with school but it’s not that easy because my English is not good and math is different [from how they do it in France]. I have to give praise to my wife because she’s the one doing it.
As a Frenchman, how is it raising American kids?
Well, they are not really American because we are French and our culture at home is French. They have American friends, they have Senegalese grandparents, they are a lot. They are not only just American.
Are your kids trying to teach you how to lose your accent?
(laughs). When I came to America I learned English and I learned very early that after 18 years old you cannot lose your accent, but actors work here with their accent and I’m going to do the same.
You’ve been married for thirteen years in real life. How do you reconcile that lifestyle with your character who plays the charming romantic guy who gets the girl onscreen?
It’s not something that is in opposition with each other. You can be charming and have the same wife, because having one wife in your life it means that you have to charm her a lot – and all your life (laughs).
