The Telegraph – 15th July, 2014

Richard E Grant, actor turned entrepreneur, talks trademark battles, marijuana high notes, being a ‘deluded amateur’ perfumier, and why he would never create a celebrity fragrance

Richard E Grant’s Jack perfume, which contain marijuana tones, was labelled ‘pot perfume’ by the media, in reference to Grant’s depiction of drug taker Withnail in Bruce Robinson’s 1987 film Withnail and I Photo: ALAMY

By Rebecca Burn-Callander

Richard E Grant made headlines in April when he launched a signature scent featuring ‘marijuana tones’. Now, three months later, the actor turned entrepreneur talks exclusively to the Telegraph about trademark battles, his plans to extend the range, and the business of taking on the American perfume giants with independent fragrance start-up, Jack.

Launching the venture has been a labour of love for the 57-year-old actor. “It has been all consuming getting it to market,” he says, speaking from Tel Aviv, where he is currently shooting a new Universal series called The Dig, created by Homeland writer Gideon Raff. “It’s taken up every hour in between the acting jobs I’ve had.”

Grant decided to create a fragrance in January 2012 after handbag entrepreneur Anya Hindmarch found him sniffing gardenias while holidaying in the Caribbean. “She asked whether I intended, ‘Seeing someone about this?’” he says. Hindmarch, who has become Grant’s mentor, meant that he should see someone who could help him create a perfume – not “a shrink”, he clarifies.

Grant decided to create a unisex fragrance, “having grown up in the late Sixties and Seventies when everything was unisex driven,” he explains. Sales have been divided equally between men and women, he adds.

Grant signed a year-long exclusivity agreement with high end retailer Liberty and launched the fragrance there in April this year. “It’s been the second-best seller since it launched,” he claims.

Jack is the result of six months of furious testing. “My eureka moment happened in the middle of the night,” says Grant. “I combined two ‘almost-but-not-quite-favourite’ testers into one vial.”

At dawn, he called professional “nose” Alienor Massenet, who has created fragrances for model Heidi Klum as well as brands including Chloe and Lancôme. “I asked her to combine and balance them into the scent I had so long dreamed of creating,” he says.

Many olfactory experts helped to devise the final fragrance, including perfumer Roja Dove, whom Grant describes as a “benevolent Svengali”, and Catherine Mitchell at International Flavors & Fragrances. However, Grant maintains that being a “deluded amateur” turned out to be an advantage. “I’m not professionally trained,” he says. “I’m unaware of what you can and can’t combine, which means I am literally led by my nose.”

His nose led him, controversially, to include marijuana tones in the fragrance. “I have always loved the earthy peppery notes of marijuana,” says Grant, who is consummate teetotal. “I never thought anything further of it but it invariably got called ‘pot’ perfume linked to my role in Withnail & I.”

Grant decided to embrace the media fixation on the unusual “high notes” in his scent, and even posted a reference to Withnail & I on the Jack website, calling his company backgrounder, “Diary of a perfumed ponce”, a nod to the slur levelled at co-star Paul McGann – “I” in the film.

His celebrity status has been helpful for creating a buzz about Jack, Grant admits, but he was never tempted to launch his fragrance under his own name. “I would have been politely dismissed in nanoseconds,” he says. “They [celebrity fragrances] have a limited shelf life. They are not taken seriously as they are mostly created as a marketing ploy to which the celebrity attaches their name.”

The only concession Grant makes to his celebrity status is one line in the small print on Jack’s packaging, which reads: “This is my signature in scent – Richard E Grant.”

“I’m sure it helps,” he says. “But when it comes to parting with money, customers have to believe that the product was worthwhile.”

Going it alone as a fledgling perfumier posed many challenges for Grant. He found writing a business plan and producing forecasts challenging. Describing himself as “a boy who failed every maths exam at school”, he says, “I still can’t do the simplest multiplication. I have to rely on grown up bean counters to do the maths for me.”

Using Jack as a brand name was also tricky. It is a patriotic reference to the Union Jack and each bottle of perfume is sleeved in a UK flag draw string bag. However, the name was hotly contested.

“Securing the trademark name of Jack proved the most stressful,” he recalls. “On the day my patent was due to be given, I received an aggressive letter from the lawyers representing one of the biggest American companies out there, threatening to sue me.

“They claimed Jack was too like one of their perfume brand names,” he continues. “I took advice from three different legal eagles who encouraged me to stand firm and go to court.”

After several “sleepless nights”, the US multinational withdrew its claim the day before the court hearing. “I was responsible for the legal costs incurred, but it meant I could use the name,” he says.

The global perfume market is extremely competitive, with 1,200 new fragrances launched each year. “I feel like David fighting the corporate Goliaths with their multimillion pound advertising budgets,” says Grant. “I would like to get broader distribution in the UK next year but am realistic about the level of competition.”

However, the company is already turning a profit and Grant is now planning to extend the range, launching a further perfume under the Jack brand in spring 2015, and making a Jack scented candle in time for Christmas.

Grant has bankrolled the whole venture since inception. “I set aside a set amount of money to invest in my company, accepting that I might lose all of it and have a garage full of unsold stock,” he says. This meant that he had to be frugal in the early days, and refused to produce free samples. “I was amazed that people bought it blind,” he admits. The success of his maiden effort has already caught the attention of buyers across the pond. “I am currently in negotiations with an American distributor,” he says, adding that he has just finished filming Downton Abbey for the forthcoming series. The British show has proved a huge hit in the US and could create a Jack sales surge.

Jack was “a real gamble,” he says. “As the TS Elliot poem aptly muses, ‘Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act falls the shadow.’ It’s one thing to dream of doing something and quite another to turn that into a saleable reality.

“I blithely surged ahead in the hope that I might get lucky,” he continues. “The thrill of finally receiving the first signed, sealed and delivered bottle was concrete proof that a lifelong dream has tangibly come true.”