When LOEWE asked Greta Lee to appear in a campaign for its fragrance collection, the actor immediately thought of two iconic movie moments: Derek Zoolander’s "Blue Steel" face and Bill Murray’s whiskey ad from Lost in Translation. Modeling seemed totally foreign to Lee, who had never fronted a fashion or beauty campaign before. Still, she was up for the challenge: Lee, who compares her scent memories to the rings of a tree, has always considered fragrance an integral part of her life (in fact, her relationship with perfume dates all the way back to her eighth grade dance).
Ahead, Lee — whose role in Celine Song’s Past Lives has become one of the year’s most talked-about performances — chats with Highsnobiety about her life in scent, gardening during the pandemic, and the internet’s reaction to her red carpet outfits.
Highsnobiety: This is your first fragrance campaign — have you always been into perfume?
Greta Lee: Totally. I really love unisex scent. I remember saving my money to buy CK One. Preparing for roles too… [fragrance] is something that I think about in terms of working.
HS: Do you use perfume to get into character when acting?
GL: Sometimes — and it doesn't have to be this conventional idea of fragrance. What kind of soap do they use, what kinds of environments would they be around to evoke their personality? Acting is hard, so you have to grab onto anything and everything.
HS: One thing I love about fragrance is that it can instantly recall a person or a time from your past. Do you have any early scent memories that stand out to you?
GL: Perfume and scent has carried me through my eighth grade dance to the first time I attended the primetime Emmys to my wedding. All of this, I remember with fragrance — like rings of a tree, marking what point I was at in my life.
This is why I am so genuinely grateful for LOEWE Botanical Rainbow [the brand’s new fragrance campaign and collection], because it's a much more visceral way to think about fragrance. There's a lot of layering that's possible that I really appreciate about these fragrances. The deep, authentic connection they have to the natural world was something that I was already drawn to — I'm a full blown Tomato candle lady, and the first time I encountered that fragrance from them, I was like, “What is this? I can't get this out of my consciousness!” So by the time they asked me to do this campaign, it was such an easy and natural progression of how I was already feeling about their scents.
HS: What are your favorites from LOEWE’s fragrance collection?
GL: I really do love the new Aire Anthesis. There's something very human, very biological to their smells that's sometimes hard to explain. I just learned that “anthesis” is a Latin word for “the moment” — like a flower bursting into bloom. That's such an active idea. Aire Anthesis reminds me a lot of the kinds of unisex perfumes that I was saving my allowance to buy as a teenage girl.
I really did geek out in terms of what was behind [Aire Anthesis]. It has pear and peony and rhubarb, which is grounded in what they're calling their new LOEWE accord. It's made from a Spanish flower called rock rose — it’s a local wildflower, which I love because I'm also a crazy farm lady out here in LA rewilding.
HS: So you’re a nature girl — tell us more about that.
GL: I was not always a nature girl, I have to be very clear. I was a New York City pavement person for multiple decades. But like a lot of people, the pandemic totally thrust me into a different way at looking at my daily habits. I had a pandemic garden in Brooklyn — that's how it all started. I was doing the TikTok videos of scallions, discarded lettuce heads. Since we moved out west, [gardening] has become a huge part of my life: refamiliarizing myself with plants, the flora and fauna of Southern California.
HS: Would you say you’re more of a signature scent person, or do you have a collection of perfume?
GL: I have a collection of scents, so the fact that [LOEWE] put out a whole range of fragrance is enormously useful to me. I'm more of a toolbox of fragrance type of a person as opposed to buying the same bottle over and over again.
HS: Before shooting the Botanical Rainbow campaign you were already a fan of the scents — you mentioned Tomato specifically — but how did you first meet Jonathan Anderson and get acquainted with LOEWE?
GL: This was an indelible moment. It was the Berlin Film Festival where I first met the brand and I got to wear it in support of Past Lives. I wore this two-piece knit with an incredible structural element to it — the top had wiring in it that gave it shape. I remember feeling like, “Oh my gosh, this is my answer to red carpet dressing.” That had always been a question to me: If I ever had the opportunity to participate in carpet in earnest, how would I make that my own? It's so important to feel like it's an extension of your actual self. I love playing dress-up, but also I have to do it in a way that serves who I am on a regular day.
Shortly after that, I met Jonathan for the first time. And he's incredible. He is so easy, relaxed, warm, kind. He loves Schitt’s Creek. He's not a reclusive artist in his cave. He's actively participating in the world.
HS: Twitter is a huge fan of your LOEWE outfits.
GL: I’m not on Twitter. I am so glad I'm not. But that makes me so genuinely happy.
HS: It’s interesting you say that the way you dress is an extension of yourself, because fragrance can function in the same way.
GL: I really think [fragrance] is just as important as the clothing that you wear. It’s your business card. When you enter a space, it’s part of how you present yourself and how you are existing within the world and living with your body. At this time in my life, I’m trying to embrace being present and holding yourself accountable — what it is to be in your own skin and in full appreciation of your bodily self. Fragrance is a celebration of that.
