I just spent the best eight minutes of my life listening to the beautiful Omar Sy speak with his adorable French accent on Jimmy Kimmel. Some days I really love my job. Omar appeared on Jimmy Kimmel to discuss Lupin’s second season, which was released on Netflix last Friday. Lupin is the most popular foreign language show on Netflix in the United States. Omar, who is Senegalese and from France, told Jimmy that he tried to learn how to speak English while watching CNN when he moved to the U.S. with his family. He said that the commentators were speaking too fast and he couldn’t keep up. So Omar decided to flip through the channels. Omar learned how to speak English by watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. Here are a few highlights:
He learned English from watching Keeping up with The Kardashians
When I came here I tried to learn English. I started to watch TV and I watched CNN. They were talking so fast. I tried another channel and I started with the Kardashians. It was easier to understand.On trying to keep French traditions with his family
I speak French at home, I try to cook French cuisine, Senagalese cuisine. I think my kids are 60% American, 30% French, 10% Senagalese. It’s a real fight.On how popular Lupin is in France
He’s part of a culture. We grew up with all the books, we have a lot of shows, even movies. I play a character who is inspired by the book. We gave the book a place in our show. It is a character itself.
I am cringing a bit that watching the Kardashians was how Omar learned how to speak English. They are not a good example of English speakers. However it would seem that Omar has expanded on his English language skills because he speaks it better than the whole Kardashian clan.
I am so excited that Lupin is doing so well in the U.S. I feel that it will open even more doors for Omar in the English speaking market. He is already hugely popular in France. I love a good crossover star. Did I mention that Omar is nice on the eyes? I think it is awesome that Omar is infusing all parts of his culture into his everyday life so that he can expose his children to his French and Senegalese roots. I also think it is hilarious that Omar said his kids are mostly American. I know I will be watching Lupin part deux this weekend because I love the show. But I must admit, I also love looking at Omar Sy.
Full interview:
Photos via Instagram and credit: Emmanuel Guimier for Netflix
My guess is he figured out that the K-clan vocal fry is not how most people speak.
Dude. I came here to say this exact same thing.
Love him! It’s amazing to see how far he has come from his SAV days. Lupin is an excellent show as well, highly recommend it if you haven’t watched it yet.
He was hilarious on SAV with his sidekick. I’m really glad people on the other side of the Atlantic are being introduced to him. He’s a treasure, inside and out. A great actor and a very kind soul, too.
I love Lupin! So much fun. Omar great in it. Great interview too. And he is one attractive man. I look forward to many roles opening up for him now in the US.
Tu viens plus aux soirées ? 😉
I agree, it’s amazing to see him have such a great career. He’s immensely talented, he deserves all of it and more!
I binged season 2 this past weekend. Love Lupin & Omar.
Me too. Smart series and wonderful actors.
Loving Lupin on Netflix. My family and I learned English many years ago watching The Price is Right.
I am starting Lupin this week!
For the KUWTK: when you arrive in another country you are still figuring out the language you take whatever you can the Kardashian were easy to understand, to follow, and probably it didn’t even seem like studying, and it’s ok.
When me and my ex boyfriend moved in France he didn’t speak a word, we watched A LOT of television, and the things he was able (I have studied French for about 7 years at school) to follow were documentaries, or stuff like “Des racines et des ailes” . He learned a lot.
I can relate the Kardashian thing 🙂
Oh my god I LOVE des racines at des ailes! I’m half French so no real issue following but when I’ve been in France with my BFF to visit my family it’s a popular choice because we all love it and she can mostly keep up.
Lol “Des racines et des ailes”, I automatically hear the theme song in my head.
KUWTK must have been easy to follow, not a wide vocabulary at least.
I think KUWTK as an entry level to english is fine. He probably moved on to more complicated things. I mean they are not using the most sophisticated language and the plot is not complicated so it’s easy to follow of you’re learning. I’ve been watching the office in french on amazon to brush up my skills
He is absolutely dreamy.
Isn’t he though? And tall and big in the best way 😉
I want all the best for him! Lupin was great and he was spectacular in his breakout role in The Intouchables (watch it if you haven’t yet). He’s obviously a smart guy so it’s clear KUWK was just an entry point for his ESL journey.
The Intouchables was the first film I saw him in years ago. Its amazing! I always watch any film or show hes on. I will admit I did not anything the lupin books or history, I only watched because of Omar but I loved it. My while family got hooked on the show
KUWTK is the perfect way to learn English. They speak very slowly & not every interaction has tons of speech so you have time to process all the talking.
We are watching Lupin at the moment, and really enjoying it. The old millionaire is absolutely repulsive, a true villain! Omar Sy is so delicious, and his wife is absolutely gorgeous.
I am loving that multi-colored sweater on him. This man has style!
I just finished season two of Lupin and I love it. He’s so magnetic.
If you haven’t seen it, watch The Intouchables on Netflix. It’s a really, really good movie and Sy is amazing in it.
Love him!
Ahahahahaha. Sick burn Omar 😉 I like him even more now.
Then he uses the word “like” incorrectly and way too often
Like, what’s wrong with that?
It’s really hard learning a second language as an adult. Cut him some slack. I thought he did great.
This is actually one of my fave jokes on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt where her boyfriend Dong has learned English from KUWTK and so he keeps having their unmistakable Calabasas intonations. (Tried to find a link to a clip but couldn’t…)
I just started watching it this past weekend. I literally thought that this show is so good! I must be late to the party. lol I hope this does bring him more roles here because he is absolutely great on Lupin.
It’s the vocal fry that I can not tolerate from the K Klan. Don’t get me wrong! I love them and their mess but when I did watch (yeeears ago) it was with closed caption!!
Not a black women in sight in that entire show. BW we need to stop supporting our erasure and exclusion on these shows.
Absolutely right.
binge watched Lupin S1 and was incredibly frustrated with it for reasons i could write an entire essay on. that said? none of those reasons involve Omar Sy himself. he was excellent in it and the only reason i managed to make it to the end of the season, and also the only reason i’ll consider watching S2.
i really hope he becomes popular here in the US – and gets some shows with better scriptwriting.
Good lord, hide this man. If they know a hot black guy is out there even tangentially speaking of them their alert will go out. Keep him safe.
omg. lmao
That is literally the only good thing I’ve heard of in terms of watching their programme.
Poor guy – he shouldn’t have admitted this, now all the single KtrashKlan will be fighting each other to get to this guy first. Stay away, they are sub humans.