Adam Driver in the Burberry Hero campaign
Courtesy of Burberry / Mario Sorrenti
Is he a man? Is he a centaur? Is he a horse? The internet may never agree, but they will agree on this: Everyone was obsessed with Adam Driver’s video campaign for Burberry Hero. People couldn’t get enough of him running into the crashing waves—but Driver is clear that it was a lot harder than it looks. As the face of the new Burberry Hero—a woody fresh scent that blends a trio of cedarwood with bergamot and a base of black pepper juniper, dreamed up by perfumer Aurélien Guichard—Driver tells us all about the challenges of running with the horses, as well as the unexpected scent he wishes Burberry would make.
What was filming the campaign was like?
It was very challenging, but in a great way. The images that they sent me were really ambitious. I feel like everybody underestimated how physical it was going to be because you're racing all the things that you’re racing and shooting something, but mostly time. They had these images of a man's body that mirrored a horse, which I thought was beautiful on paper, and (laughs) maybe a fucking bad idea to try to emulate because horses are horses—they’re really powerful. But if we could do it, and train for the months leading up to it, then it could be actually really beautiful and hopefully seamless. All the images that they thought of a horse and what they were trying to emulate were graceful, but fast, strong and flexible, and kind of dangerous. It all seemed really exciting and ambitious. It was two days of trying to match an ATV’s pace with a camera crew with a horse with me running. We only have 45 minutes to get it, swimming in the ocean. Horses can only do so many laps, so you have like five horses that all have different personalities and relationships to swimming and some are more willing than others. You're doing it with scuba divers who are battling technology and communicating with you—I was not wearing a headset—and all of those things made it really challenging.
Burberry Hero
Courtesy of Burberry
It sounds like it, but you pulled it off. Let's talk about the fragrance. What does it evoke for you and what do you like about it?
Well, I like its subtlety. Actually, when we were making it we didn't have it yet because they were still developing it and I've only gotten it recently. It is a happy accident that things actually have aligned—I know I’m the face of this and it's a lot easier to talk about it when you actually like it. The themes that we talked about at the beginning were completely dismissed when we were making it because it's not really something that you can embody. The images kind of do the work for you of it feeling transformative or strong but also subtle, all these things that seemed to be at odds with each other. I think they did an amazing job putting it in a scent.
How do you feel it embodies the Burberry man?
I don’t know. I feel like that’s a personal thing. I would just keep going back to things that are strong but subtle. I know those are the key words that they want to come across but I do feel that best articulates what it is, but it’s not specific to any kind of one person. It's similar to making a film: people are looking at it through their lens so it's hard for me to say what it embodies. I can say that it embodies what I feel about Burberry, which is I've always known them from their clothes and wearing them. They fit me, first off, which was always a minor miracle. They're made with quality and attention to detail.
When do you like to wear fragrance?
It kind of ebbs and flows at different times in my life.
Can you recall your earliest scent memory?
Burnt wood on the beach was an early memory of mine. Every Friday my family, when we lived in San Diego—I lived in San Diego ‘til I was seven—we would go to the beach and have a big bonfire. Friends would come in and out and my parents’ friends, and my friends, my 5-, 6-, 7-year-old version of friends, which is basically playing around each other. I remember they took me to the circus one time as a treat, as like a break from going to the beach. And I remember being pissed about it. (Laughs) I would have rather gone to the beach. It’s actually ironic in how this was made, as I was talking to the Burberry team about what they were going for, with Riccardo Tisci. They took two years to develop it and actually burnt cedar was a huge inspiration for this. Specifically, [the perfumer] had this tree that was struck by lightning and was a big memory of his and that made its way in and so it was purely a happy accident that those images were actually ones that I have a relationship with.
That's very full circle. What are your favorite smells?
They’re mostly centered around food. I tried to pitch turkey as a possible scent that people would all relate to. But thankfully no one went with that. Maybe I really should pitch the turkey Burberry version of the cologne—that's my personal ambition.
If you think emulating a horse was hard just trying running around trying to be a turkey.
(Laughs) Right. That would be challenging.