Returning as a YSL fragrance ambassador, American actor Austin Butler stars in the French house’s campaign for MYSLF Le Parfum.
Photo: Courtesy Yves Saint Laurent
A more intense edition of the MYSLF fragrance family, the powerful new scent combines uber masculine notes of textured woods, spiced amber, and evocative black pepper with a contrasting hit of orange blossom and sweet vanilla. In an exclusive interview with Vogue Arabia’s beauty editor, Michaela Somerville, Butler discusses how he’s found his own authenticity, the new perfume’s Morocco connection, and what made his most recent role in The Bikeriders feel particularly poignant.
This is your second campaign for YSL, how do you feel about your part in launching the new fragrance?
I feel privileged to be a part of this, and the team has been so wonderful. I’ve been a longtime admirer of the YSL house and of the man himself, so I feel honored to be a small part of his legacy.
The new fragrance is a more intensified, stronger version of the original. Did you want to talk us through the notes and how you perceive the concept?
I love that you’ve said that, that’s great. The first person I’ve spoken to today who touched on that. That’s exactly what it is, you know, with the Le Parfum, it’s that intensification of the previous eau de parfum. So it’s more floral, and it’s more woody and ambery. It’s longer lasting. It still has the orange blossoms but it’s got this black pepper notes through it, and this sensual velvety vanilla that really is warm on the skin.
When you’re wearing Le Parfum, what kind of emotions or feelings does it bring up for you?
It’s sensual, romantic, energizing.
Photo: Courtesy Yves Saint Laurent
Are you much of a fragrance guy?
I really appreciate fragrance, and have done since I was a kid, you know, with my father’s cologne and my mother’s perfume. I love that it’s an extension of this atmosphere that you can create around yourself that you can carry with you all day.
What are some of your earliest fragrance memories?
I have memories of being very young and spraying and mixing both of my father’s and my mother’s fragrances together. My dad wore more of these spicy, woody, fragrances, and then my mom had more little bit sweeter, more floral fragrances that she used to wear. I like the combination of the two.
MYSLF has similar spicy and sweet floral notes, with Tunian orange blossom, and Moroccan lavender among them making the MENA region a reference point. And Yves obviously loved the region, with his home in Marrakech…
[La Jardin Majorelle] is a place I’ve always wanted to go. What what the perfumers told me, which I loved and I admire so much in them, is that’s where they got the idea of the orange blossoms. They said that that you would be smelling these orange blossoms as you walked around.And so it was sort of encapsulating [Saint Laurent’s] experience of being in Marrakech. I love that element in it. There’s the combination of how the florals have a relationship with those more woody and black pepper notes. Together, it just balances out very, very beautifully.
The new campaign continue the MYSLF message of being different and true to oneself, is this a philosophy you personally live by?
One hundred percent. One of the most fulfilling parts of this journey has been all these conversations I’ve been able to have about authenticity and exploration of our own individuality, and sort of getting to the core of not comparing yourself with others, but instead finding out what you truly find blissful.
Photo: Courtesy Yves Saint Laurent
And this outlook seems to reflect in your choice of film roles – we saw you as the iconic artist in Elvis, and then in Dune: Part Two you played more of a chaotic and menacing sociopath as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Were you deliberately switching between these two poles when choosing your roles?
I think that’s the type of career that I’ve always dreamed of having, challenging myself in different ways. I’m also incredibly driven by directors and because it’s their vision that I’m in service of. The opportunity to get to work with Denis (Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve), regardless of the role is intriguing, but then getting to play somebody who was so vastly different than anything I’ve done before, that’s the type of career that it really inspires me. When I look at what Heath Ledger did and Gary Oldman, and Christian Bale, these are people that I’ve always looked up to. It’s really just about exploring these different facets of my own humanity and I find that exhilarating.
Your newest film, The Bikeriders, has another genre switch for you, what drew you to the role?
What really drew me to the project was Jeff Nichols, the director. I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time and I really feel that he’s a beautiful filmmaker and the way that he explores humanity is with such care. Getting to work with him and, and then also the source material of the images and the interviews that are in the Danny Lyon book. So getting to explore that world with, with actors that I sort of can hardly fathom that I get to share that experience with, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy, and Michael Shannon. Getting to learn from these powerhouse actors. And, the other thing is simply how cool motorcycles are! To live within that world and ride old 1960s motorcycles and explore part of that subculture is really exciting.
