Austin Butler sits down to talk timeless clothes, hot summer nights and Yves Saint Laurent

Orange trees, of all things, is what I find myself talking to Austin Butler about on a Thursday afternoon in June.

You see, YSL has us on the phone to discuss the latest fragrance in its MYSLF line: MYSLF Le Parfum (‘Le’ being the point of differentiation from the original parfum, as well as the tweaked scent, of course; the Dune actor has been the face of the line since its 2023 genesis). One of the key notes is orange blossom. It’s an aroma that transports the 32-year-old back to his childhood.

“I was raised in Orange County,” he says in his signature drawl. “We had this one orange tree in my backyard, so the smell of the orange blossoms – of going outside in the summer and picking oranges off the tree with my mother then going inside and making orange juice – it really reminds me of my childhood.”

To the delight of the luxury maison – or more specifically, the beauty team who are eavesdropping on the call – their ambassador has done his homework. “Marrakech is one of the things the perfumers were inspired by,” he informs me. “There are all these orange trees around Yves Saint Laurent’s home.” He’s yet to visit the Moroccan residence – today, a major tourist attraction – but says it’s somewhere he’s long wanted to tour.

Especially since he learnt “more about Yves Saint Laurent, the man – what a rebel he was, and his philosophies on style, the world, and life”.

He’s speaking to me from New York City where the weather is aptly tropical. “It’s warm here right now. I love the nights, the summer nights in New York where you can go out in a T-shirt and it’s muggy and warm, and you can be out at two in the morning and it’s still warm. I love that experience.”

And he shot the new campaign in the ever-zesty Mexico City with French film director Julia Ducournau and Belgian cinematographer Benoit Debie. “That was my first time there and it was spectacular.”

But what he’s most eager to mention is that he was just recently in London, the city that I’m calling from.

He was in town for The Bikeriders premiere (and its attendant media obligations), a movie he leads alongside Scouse actor Jodie Comer. “She’s such a supreme talent,” he remarks tenderly of his co-star. “I felt so grateful to get to do that with her.”

If you missed the gasoline-fuelled period on the big screen, I’d recommend giving it a go once it parks up on Apple TV+. Based on American photographer Danny Lyon’s book of the same name, the film follows the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club during the late sixties and the early seventies, zeroing in on Benny (Butler) and his sweetheart, Kathy (Comer).

“You’ll want so many prints,” suggests Butler, after I mention that I’m eager to pick up a copy of its source material. “I looked at it and I just wanted them all blown up on my wall.”

Beyond flicking through the book, the actor, as you might expect, “watched a lot of films” to get into gear. “Like The Wild One and Easy Rider. And, a great one if you haven’t seen it: The Loveless, which is Willem Dafoe, and he looks so damn cool on a motorcycle. Kathryn Bigelow directed it. It’s awesome.”

He tells me he immerses himself in movies of the relevant genre before embracing any new role. “I just love the experience of watching movies. You get little inspirations, and things that spark your imagination in some way, from any film that you watch.”

Post-filming, Butler’s finds that he regularly takes sartorial cues from the people he portrays – Benny being no exception. In fact, he reveals that he resonates with the biker’s style more than any other character he’s taken on. “It’s those basics that are timeless: a great-fitting pair of Levi’s, a white T-shirt, and a great pair of boots. It’s the timeless cuts; the pieces you can just keep forever.”

And although he admits that his grooming routine is less considered than his wardrobe – “I kind of throw some water on my face [. . .] then leave the house” (this, despite being raised by a hygienist mother who “taught and valued cleanliness,”) – he assures me that cologne is an essential part of his diurnal existence.

It has been for about two decades now. Ever since he met Fabio Lanzoni on the set of Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, it transpires. “I have this memory – I was probably 12. I was an extra on a TV show – I may’ve been 11, man – and [Fabio, a guest star on the show] was wearing this cologne,” he says as if he’s still very much in awe of the Italian-American actor. “I said, ‘What are you wearing?!’ It was this rich, warm, peppery, woody fragrance, and so I ended up getting that.”

MYSLF Le Parfum is all of these things too.

It’s also fresh and floral thanks to the orange blossom – the unofficial aroma of the lawns of the world’s somebodies, it seems.

This story originally appeared on Esquire UK

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