Jared Leto on His Racy New Gucci Campaign, BFF-Dom With Alessandro Michele, and That Animal Sweater

Has there ever been a story of bromance so Technicolor as the one between Jared Leto and Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele? Since December 2015, when it was announced Leto had been chosen as the face of the new Gucci Guilty fragrance campaign, the pair’s friendship has blossomed like a floral neck bow. First, they attended the Oscars together—Michele was the novice, Leto the old hand, showing him the ropes and introducing him to everyone from Oprah to BB8. “People would lose their minds,” Leto recounts of A-listers greeting the man completely upending the industry that dresses them. The pair met up beforehand at Leto’s house and partied afterward until 5 a.m. Hangouts in New York followed, including at the Met Gala, where Leto wore a white Gucci suit and rocked a cane. Then Leto sat front row at the Gucci Spring 2017 men’s show, an event followed by days of Snapchat adventures with Michele in Italy (a highlight: Leto in tapestry-print Gucci trousers, speaking in Italian to a turtle). All of which seemed to culminate in his August Suicide Squad promo tour, where he hit late-night shows and red carpets in Gucci loafers, animal sweaters, and long jackets rendered in the same primary colors we’ve previously seen light up his hair.

“What Alessandro is doing is the most exciting thing I can think of in fashion right now,” says Leto. It is March—long before Leto will meet any Italian turtles—and we are sitting in a leafy atrium in the Hollywood Hills. The actor is wearing Gucci’s snake jacquard wool sweater with jeans and checkerboard Vans. He’s clean-shaven and his hair just grazes his ears—a few inches shy of Jordan Catalano iconography. It’s a toned-down Leto, who in recent years has sported a long, ombré mane, a pink Mohawk, bleached eyebrows, and electric-green hair. “The funny thing is that I get the most comments when I look like what people would describe as ‘normal,’” he says, employing air quotes. “They’re like, ‘Woah! So normal!’ But I don’t put that much thought into my appearance, to tell you the truth. It’s usually the result of a film or a rash decision, like—I shave my head.”

To the contrary, the choice of Leto to star in the first Michele-directed Gucci fragrance campaign is the epitome of deliberate.  Previous campaigns personified the musky lavender, orange blossom, and patchouli-laced scent with Evan Rachel Wood and Chris Evans oozing sex (often literally lying on top of each other). In Michele’s 30-second short, Leto, who is the face for both the men’s and women’s fragrance, roams Venice with two sylphlike lovers (models Julia Hafstrom and Vera Van Erp), in scenes that seem rendered in a romantically rose-colored Gucci patina. Like their Guilty predecessors, the images are also imbued with a sexual pulse, but it’s one that’s far less binary—the clothing the three models wear is interchangeable and their affections for one another fluid. “We went for a week in December before the holidays,” Leto recalls. “It was kind of quiet and very cold, and we were hunkered down in this villa. The city kind of transports you to another time. It seems untouched.”

Considering Michele’s decision to combine Gucci’s men’s and women’s collections into one runway show starting with Fall 2017, the Guilty world he has created using Leto seems a logical progression for what the brand articulates about beauty: that it is shifting, without gender, and underpinned by sensuality pulled from unexpected places. Leto, who won an Oscar for playing a female character and notes that he has worn lipstick for his past two film roles, is a good match. “I’m really proud to be part of a step in a new direction and happy they thought of me as someone who was unconventional enough to represent new choices for them,” he says. Told that the fragrance has been described as a scent for people who embrace “celebrative anarchy,” Leto smiles.  “I’m not exactly an anarchist. There are some things that I do like that have a sense of law and order: I like that people can walk down the street and feel safe; I like stop signs and libraries and schools. But I think, creatively, I would aspire to be those things. To take chances, break rules. And it’s flattering to be part of a campaign that’s charging it in a different direction. Alessandro’s an incredible artist, so to be a part of this adventure with him is really great.” Those enjoying the adventures as they unfold on Snapchat agree.

 

 

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