VivaLifestyle.co.uk – 24th April, 2015

By Tereza Pevna.

Hollywood actor and now a perfume designer Richard E. Grant unveiled his second perfume Jack Covent Garden, hoping it will achieve the same success as his first fragrance Jack, which was a bestseller. We caught up with Richard at Selfridges, just moments before his meeting with fans and talked about the perfume, his secret to success and why he’s never been to Manchester before…

We’ve heard this is your first time in Manchester. How come?

Because I don’t know anybody here and I’ve never filmed here. I’ve been to Bolton and Bradford and Blackpool, Liverpool and Birmingham. I don’t know why, I’ve just never been in Manchester. The weather is stunning, it looks like South of France and I’ve been told I arrived on a very good day.

So you think you will be returning then?

I will, I will move here!

You’ve just launched your second perfume Jack Covent Garden, what’s the story behind it?

I was working as a waiter when I arrived as an immigrant from Swaziland in 1982, 33 years ago, Covent garden is a centre of theatre district and it was a scene for My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn, it was the food and flower, vegetable market. I read that Niall Quinn was a prostitute, who sold oranges in the theatres and she then became the mistress of Charles II. Before she had two children and she was the first woman to be a legal actor in England. Until then both parts were played by men or boys so I thought she’s struck out for women’s league before we even heard the concept. On the first night in the Opera of the theatre or the theatre or the ballet performers were always given fruit and flowers and actors and singers used ginger to clear their throats, so when I was making a second perfume I thought I wanted to have a history and personal attachment to it as well. So when I was a waiter I learnt Annie Lennox’s ‘Sweet Dreams are made of this’ it was a big hit in 1982, I listened to it on my, it was a walkman those days and that inspired me and I thought the combination of those things the first night in the theatre, Covent garden and history so I thought of orange, ginger and rose as the three key ingredients to start experiment with oils, which I bought in Grass in South of France and added musk and lime, which are the two ingredients, which are in Jack as well, so there was a continuity between them, signature. I wanted it to be unisex and have a kind of wow quality to it, I then worked with Amose in Paris and she added carrot oil, which I thought was a genius idea and that’s how it happened.

What type of person would wear the perfume?

Somebody I will always be indebted to for taking the chance on essentially an amateur perfume. I’ve done it for the love of doing it rather than because I image I will be making millions out of it. The same way I started out as an actor It’s something I felt compelled to do and the fact I make living as an actor is a surprise especially for people who said I would never make it. And same with the perfume, when I launched it at Liberty a year ago, the original one, I was told If you self finance you will never succeed, you will loose all your money, there’s 1100 released every year, so the competition is strong. But I’ve done it and it’s great!

If you could choose a celebrity ambassador for the perfume, who would it be and why?

Annie Lennox, who has became a really good friend, ironically, as I said I listened to her song. She’s been one of my best customers for Jack Perfume and she’s been saying: ‘When can I get my hands on Covent Garden?’

What made you want to do a unisex perfume?

I grew up in the 70’s and everything was unisex in that point and I found it very old fashion idea that something is a masculine perfume or a feminine perfume, because I always mix whatever I had bought before and mix them together.

How’s the perfume different from others, why should people buy it?

Because it is entirely a one man brand and I’m not the front for somebody else I’ve put my money where my nose is, if you like, I’ve not tried to copy something what already exists, my intention was to create visually and iconic looking British brand. Jack is my signature. I know what the ingredients are, where they come from. It’s not animal tested, it’s not filled with synthetics, you pay for what you get. I’ve had many people tell me, that the scent really last’s on their skin, so I stand for what is in there and the quality of perfume.

What is your secret to success?

The majority of people tell you, when you say you want to be an actor that you can’t. So once you accept that people are going to say no as though they have NO invisibly tattooed on their heads and If you are like ‘I’m still gonna try this then in a sense you armour yourself because you expect people to say no,and the nature of being an actor is that you are being rejected for a job far more often than you are accepted for a job and I suppose it really prepared me for going for business because the majority of people say you can’t do this and If you just stubbornly stick doing it because you believe in it that gets you a long way. I never give up like an old donkey unless it’s obvious it’s costing too much money or fails.

Jack Covent Garden is available at Selfridges