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Jamie Dornan is in the bath. That’s the simplest way to describe the new Loewe Perfumes campaign, which finds the Irish heartthrob lounging in the tub, dark hair wet and eyes smouldering. Shot by David Sims—“he’s a bit of a genius”—in Le Corbusier’s Modernist masterpiece Villa Savoye, the campaign was a return to modelling for Dornan, who admits he’s “probably slightly less insecure now than when [he] was 20 doing that stuff. I feel really comfortable with the Loewe team—the fact that Jonathan [Anderson] is from the same part of the world as me puts me at ease,” he adds. “I feel like people are really talking about Loewe at the moment, so I feel very privileged that I can play a small part in that.”
He’s obviously got his tub pose nailed, but is he a bath or a shower person IRL? Speaking from a (bright red) hotel room in Belgium, where he is currently filming The Undertow, Dornan explains he’s actually just moved rooms because the one he was originally given didn’t have a bath. He also quite likes an “opera bath.”
“A very dear friend of mine was once round at our house for dinner, and when he went home, he said he was going to have an ‘opera bath’ and asked if I’d ever had one,” he laughs, adding that his answer was a baffled “no.” “It’s quite self-explanatory, but you make the bath quite bubbly—I’m a lavender fan—and bring speakers in and listen to opera. Maybe bring in a little bottle of red wine and a bowl of M&Ms too. I’ve done it a few times. It’s indulgent and ridiculous, but it’s the sort of thing I do if I’m away filming, so my kids can’t come in and disturb me.” Obviously, he notes, it’s “more convenient” to have a shower.
The Loewe campaign film, which also stars actor Sophie Wilde, is a tribute to the natural world, incorporating a topless gardener, and Dornan is similarly enthusiastic about being outside. “I’m obsessed with golf. I was in Donegal, one of the most beautiful places in the north west of Ireland, at the weekend playing,” he says. (For those interested, his handicap is nine.) “There’s not many sports where you get to walk around in beautiful landscapes for four hours with your friends, and I feel really spoiled by the island that I’m from as you’re surrounded by beauty. I’ve been pining to be in Ireland because I’ve been on this job for over six months, so while I’m not Bear Grylls, I do enjoy being outside.”
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I’m catching him a week before he wraps filming for The Undertow, and Dornan says he is probably the most exhausted he’s ever been. Still, he’s relished the “massive” challenge of playing identical twins who have been estranged for 17 years. “It’s been a really interesting project and a totally different filming experience than I’ve had before,” he says. “You’re trying to embody these two people, pad each one out, and make them stand alone, physically and in the way they move, interact and speak.”
The actor’s favorite Loewe scent seems like an appropriate note to end on. “Loewe like to recommend a bit of mix and match, which I was a bit fearful of, but when I went for some dinner with friends the other night, I did a spritz of Earth and then mixed it with Escencia and they actually worked really well together,” he says. “They’re all really beautiful.”
