Jamie Dornan is taking a bath. That’s the easiest way to describe the new ad for LOEWE perfume, which shows the Irish heartthrob lying in a bathtub, his dark hair wet and his eyes ablaze. The ad campaign, shot by David Sims at Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier’s modernist masterpiece, is a chance for Dornan to return to modelling, admitting he’s “probably a little bit younger now than he was when I was insecure [about modelling] and I feel comfortable coming from the same place in the world,” he added. “I think people are really talking about LOEWE right now, so I feel very lucky that I can play a small part in that.”
Apparently he has identified his bathtub sitter, but is he a person who takes a bath or a shower in real life? Dornan, who is currently filming The Undertow in a (bright red) hotel room in Belgium, revealed that he actually changed rooms just because the room he was given didn’t have a shower. He also loved Bath Opera.
“One time a very close friend of mine came over to our house for dinner and when he got home he said he was going to take an ‘opera bath’ and asked me if I’d ever done that before,” he said with a laugh. “It’s self-explanatory, but you can fill the bath with foam — I’m a fan of lavender — and bring in speakers to listen to the opera, and maybe even have a little bottle of red wine and a bowl of chocolate chips. I’ve done that a couple of times, it’s reckless and ridiculous, but that’s what I do when I’m out filming so my kids don’t come in and bother me.”
Loewe’s campaign, starring actress Sophie Wilde, is a tribute to the natural world, including a topless gardener, and Dornan’s passion for the outdoors. “I’m obsessed with golf. I go down to Donegal to play at the weekends, it’s one of the most beautiful places in the northwest of Ireland,” he said. (His handicap is nine, for those interested.) “There are very few sports where you can go out for four hours with friends in beautiful scenery, and the island I’m from really appeals to me. Being spoiled for choice, as you’d expect, is a great way to go to Ireland. Since I’ve been on this job for over six months, I’ve been wanting to go to Ireland, so even though I’m not Bear Grylls, I still love being there.”
I was meeting him a week before Undertow wrapped, and Dornan said he was probably the most tired he’d ever been. Still, he enjoyed the “huge” challenge of playing identical twins separated by 17 years. “It was a really fun project and a completely different shooting experience than anything I’ve ever done before,” he said. “And speak differently. Try to look different.”
It seemed only fitting to end it with the actor’s favorite Loewe fragrance. “Loewe likes to suggest a little mixing and matching, which I’m a little bit intimidated by, but the other night when I went out to dinner with friends, I put a little bit of Earth and mixed it with Essentia and they worked really, really well together,” he said. “They’re all really beautiful.”
