The actor talks about her new starring role as the face of Loewe’s uplifting Aire Anthesis fragrance – the latest release in its Botanical Rainbow range
In A24’s acclaimed new love story Past Lives, Greta Lee plays Nora – a happily married New Yorker in her thirties who unexpectedly reconnects with her childhood sweetheart. The man in question, Hae-Sung (played by Teo Yoo), was someone she grew up with in South Korea, though their romance has been repeatedly thwarted: they become separated by continents, entangled with other people, let down by poor timing. The film has been praised for its portrayal of romantic longing – namely how mundane it can be – and how our expectations in relationships shift as we age. “It’s about how love actually feels in our everyday lives,” director and writer Celine Song told AnOther, when interviewed about the film earlier this month.
It’s also a breakout role for Lee, despite her quiet success acting in TV shows like The Morning Show and Russian Doll. Past Lives is the actor’s first leading role in a major film, and her restrained, career-defining performance is already landing her Oscar buzz. She has also, this week, been named as the face of Loewe’s uplifting new Aire Anthesis fragrance – starring in an emotive campaign shot by Tyler Mitchell, alongside actors Úrsula Corberó and Stéphane Bak.
Aire Anthesis is the latest release in Loewe’s Botanical Rainbow collection, a unisex range of sensuous, grounding scents that explore our symbiotic connection with the natural world. To celebrate its launch, we had a brief chat with Lee about beauty rituals, the regenerative power of nature, and her role in the “deeply relatable” Past Lives.
Dominique Sisley: Why did you want to work with Loewe? What do you love about the brand, what do you think it’s doing differently?
Greta Lee: Loewe inspires me. The way Jonathan Anderson’s brain works … He’s inventing, not just for the sake of new, new, new. It comes from a real place of passion and curiosity. I really admire the brand’s singular approach to fashion that is at once evocative, technically savvy, visceral, sincere and humorous. Also, they’re just stunningly beautiful clothes.
DS: Can you tell us a little about the campaign – what was it like to shoot? How collaborative was the process?
GL: The campaign was shot by the great Tyler Mitchell, a long-time collaborator with the brand. This was my first fragrance shoot, so I was sort of bracing for it to be a cross between Zoolander and Bill Murray’s Suntory Time commercial from Lost in Translation. Thankfully, it was nothing like that. [Laughs]. Tyler has the most serenely confident energy. I’m not sure how he does it, but he monumentalises your natural essence. I love his photographs so much. All I had to do was to be willing to be photographed.
DS: What do you love about the Aire Anthesis scent?
GL: It’s incredibly fresh and uplifting, with notes of lily of the valley. But it also has this unexpected note of amber. I learned that it’s because Aire Anthesis is the first fragrance in the rainbow botanical line to feature the new ‘Loewe accord’ – a signature ambery scent based on rockrose, a wildflower native to Spain with notes of pear, peony, sandalwood and rhubarb. It’s such a unique combination.
DS: Nature is obviously a big part of the campaign, and of the Loewe Botanical Rainbow collection more generally. How important is nature to you?
GL: I live on a property that used to be a goat ranch. We’ve replaced the goats with chickens, orchards, test plots, and various native plants. Nature is my regenerative escape, absolutely.
DS: Do you have any favourite natural places in the world you love to visit, or would love to return to?
GL: Last spring I went on an overnight camping trip with my eldest son to Anza Borrego Desert State Park in California. We were lucky enough to hike through a ‘super bloom’ of wildflowers: sand verbena, primrose, poppy, rock daisy, desert lily … I’ve now exposed myself to be a full-blown dork for flowers. But it was magical, and a place I revisit in my daydreams.
“This was my first fragrance shoot, so I was sort of bracing for it to be a cross between Zoolander and Bill Murray’s Suntory Time commercial from Lost in Translation. Thankfully, it was nothing like that” – Greta Lee
DS: Past Lives has been so successful, so many people are really moved by it – why do you think that it resonates so much with audiences?
GL: It’s the kind of movie that made me want to become an actor. I think there’s a deep relatability that Celine [Song] has tapped into so well. No matter who you are or where you are in the world, you can relate to the themes in the movie. Love, connection, loss, the chances we miss. It’s a love story, but also so much more. And it’s hopeful. Who doesn’t crave something like that right now?
DS: What did you like about the script when you first read it?
GL: It leapt off the page and destroyed me. Celine’s words and the characters she draws immediately grabbed me, and the story is one I felt I could instantly relate to on a bone-deep level. My experience –every immigrant’s experience, and to a degree, the experience of anyone who has had to move their life – is one of endings and beginnings, of threads that fray and ones that pick up anew. Celine articulated that experience so beautifully, with such a lived-in and compassionate expression. I still get chills thinking about it.
DS: And finally, what about your beauty routine – how has yours evolved over the years?
GL: I use less stuff now, [and] I try to drink water every day.
DS: What beauty advice would you give your younger self?
GL: ‘Enjoy it while it lasts?’ I’m kidding. But also sort of not.
