Esquire UK interviewed Rob on the release of the new Dior Homme. Here is what Rob had to say. You can read the full article to catch up on what Francis Kurkdjian had to say on creating the scent:
Esquire: Hello Robert. Who is the character you play in the new promotional film for Dior Homme Parfum?
Robert Pattinson: I guess it’s a continuation from the first campaign in 2013. The original character was someone who’s really listless. There’s a kind of aggressive longing. Of not really fitting in anywhere. [The team] were drawing from archetypal characters: James Dean and Marlon Brando. My character wants to experience everything. He’s never quite at home. He’s trying to define himself in quite a passionate way. And I think as the campaigns have progressed he’s become more romantic and sensual.
Your job is to sell a sense (smell) by creating a feeling and an atmosphere within a commercial. That’s quite a strange gig. Does the scent inform that?
Robert Pattinson: I mean, I’m absolutely atrocious. I’ve realised over the last few hours how bad I am about talking about scent at all [we are speaking at the end of the day, during which Pattinson and Kurkdjian have been doing multiple interviews]. I do have the ability to turn my sense of smell on and off, though – which I find quite a useful skill. It’s interesting to see how Francis approaches his work. The scent was developed a long time before any of the campaign came around. So, yeah, I guess it’s all just really a response to Francis’s work.
Robert, what did you mean when you said had the ability to turn your sense of smell on and off?
Robert Pattinson: [Starts laughing, perhaps at being asked to talk about something as esoteric as smell one more time] Even if I give the best answers, there’s no good answers.
Come on, you can do this.
Robert Pattinson: It’s strange. I just noticed it in the last job I was doing. Because for some reason people kept apologising for how they smelled. And I just realised that I couldn’t smell anything at all. Then I realised that when I’m working, I just don’t have any sense of those moments…. I’m almost completely inside my own body. I’m not aware of anything other than people’s facial expressions. I don’t know. It’s a strange ability to have!
What you’re saying is that you’re such a terrific actor, you’re just completely in the moment at all times.
Robert Pattinson: [Mock seriously] Yes. It’s just extreme focus. Someone could just do the worst fart around me and I just wouldn’t even know.
What smells remind you of childhood?
Robert Pattinson: Well, you’re talking to someone from London [he was born in Barnes]. And there’s a very particular smell of London. Landing in Gatwick Airport – I think, because whenever I went on vacation when I was a kid, we always seemed to go from Gatwick – and landing there has a very, very, very potent smell to me. So that always reminds me of a childhood. I think that’s extremely nostalgic.
Gatwick smells better than Heathrow?
Robert Pattinson: Yes, not so much Heathrow. That just feels more “regular”. I guess if you’re going on holiday Spain, or whatever, you’re always going to go from Gatwick. So, I very much associate that Gatwick Airport smell with childhood. There’s also something particular about going to Dorset. Dorset beaches always bring it back to childhood.
Are there scents you associate with characters you’ve played?
Robert Pattinson: Definitely the scent of the cowl, with Batman – very much.
What does that smell of?
Robert Pattinson: Well, it’s leather. But it’s also a combination – because you’re sealed in a leather mask, but you’re also extremely anxious all the time. And leather is porous, so it really takes on an emotional scent. When I did the audition for Batman I had to try on all the different cowls [from actors who’d played the role]. Even from 20 years ago, they all still had the scent of each individual actor. It’s kind of strange.
Who smelt the best?
Robert Pattinson: I think probably Clooney smelt the best.
Of course he did. What you described sounds like the smell of fear. It sounds horrible.
Robert Pattinson: Yeah. [Laughs] The smell of fear has the strongest emotional resonance!
What about Thomas Howard, the 19th Century lighthouse keeper, in The Lighthouse?
Robert Pattinson: I mean, that’s another reason why I can turn of my scent! That movie was so awful smelling that it [the smells] really broke through. There were so many scenes [that smelt appalling]. Because we had to get the seagulls to circle the set all the time. So, there was buckets of rotting fish everywhere, all over the entire set. Just so there’d be hundreds of seagulls. And that is quite a wake-up call. It’s like “G’ah! Oh, now I am at work”. I have a lot of respect for fisherman [after that].
Connie Nikas, the small-time crook in Good Time?
Robert Pattinson: [immediately] Oh, that’s some weird mix of blood and a vape.
Will Batman smell differently in The Batman: Part II?
Robert Pattinson: I hope so!
Can you give us a word to describe it at this point?
Robert Pattinson: I haven’t seen anything yet, so I have no idea. But I think maybe… a little more iris?
A few fragrance commercials become as famous as the product they’re selling. What’s the key to that?
Robert Pattinson: I don’t think you can predict anything. Even if you’re having a good time on the set… I’ve done plenty [of commercials] when you can have the best time, and you think it’s going to translate into something wonderful, and it just doesn’t. It doesn’t even look like you were having a good time. It’s a very strange alchemy. I remember the first [Dior Homme fragrance] ad we did with [director] Romain Gavras. We did the whole thing to an A$AP Rocky song – at the time A$AP Rocky wasn’t massive. We did this entire ad with this song playing constantly in the background. The attitude we were embodying was more like hip hop. And then they changed it Led Zeppelin [“Whole Lotta Love”] at the end. And it feels so natural now with that Led Zeppelin song, even though it gives it an entirely different vibe. So, you just never know. You’re just shooting in the dark and hoping …
Just like the movie industry, Robert.
Robert Pattinson: Trying to predict what a market is going to be like years in the future… it’s almost ridiculous. It’s difficult to even know if you will still like what you’re making two years in the future, let alone anyone else.
How can we learn to appreciate scent better?
Robert Pattinson: Do some research with Frances. Watch some interviews!
