BeyondBespoke.co – 29th September, 2015

Richard E. Grant is enjoying the sweet smell of success with his award-winning unisex fragrance, JACK. And as he tells The BB Edit, it all started with a childhood dream and a jam jar of water and rose petals…

What inspired you to launch JACK? Have you always wanted to have a perfume of your own?

When I was 12 in 1969, living in Swaziland, Americans had just walked on the moon so all things Yankee were irresistible. I had a huge crush on an American girl and wanted to buy her perfume for her birthday, but it proved beyond my pocket money savings. So I tried to make some by boiling sugar water, rose and gardenia petals in jam jars, burying them in the garden and hoping that by some magical osmosis they would become perfume. Stink bombs were the sad result but the desire to create scent was firmly planted. I’ve been led by my nose all my life and sniff everything in sight, so it was a secret dream that one day I could create something.

We hear the designer Anya Hindmarch encouraged you to pursue your ambition to create a scent. How did you go about turning the dream into a reality?

We were fellow house guests in Mustique and Anya noticed that I compulsively smelled everything and asked “Are you going to do something about this?’ Do you mean psychiatrically?’ I asked. She laughed and said, ‘No, create your own perfume!’ When I told her it had been a lifelong dream, she took out her iPhone and tapped out a list of contacts and said ‘Do it. Passion is everything in business.’

“Anya Hindmarch told me: ‘Do it. Passion is everything in business'”

When I got back to London, I made an appointment with Lynn Harris of Miller Harris who generously gave me great advice, then onto Marigay McKee at Harrods who introduced me to Roja Dove. He has been my mentor and introduced me to Catherine Mitchell at IFF. She asked if it was to be a ‘celebrity scent’ and when I said no, she took me seriously. We went to meet Gina Ritchie and Sarah Coonan at Liberty, which was like Dragon’s Den meets The Apprentice. They agreed to buy it on a year’s exclusivity if it came up to their standard, and now it’s one of their best sellers.

Which ingredients does JACK bring together?

Catherine Mitchell set up a meeting with Paris based ‘Nose’, Alienor Massenet in a restaurant. I took out all my favourite ingredients, including lime, marijuana, mandarin, pepper, nutmeg and clove and she made an initial tester from which we then worked together and refined till arriving at an almost but not quite perfect combination. She added Oud and tobacco absolute for the ‘Vroom’ base notes. At 2 am, I mixed the semi-final favourites together, called her at dawn and declared ‘Eureka’. The combination of citrus top notes alongside the sexy marijuana and pepper notes proved irresistible.

“The moment I sniffed the final formula for JACK, I knew it was my signature in scent”

Your fragrances are unisex – why was it important to create a scent that appeals to both men and women?

Having grown up in the 60s/70s where everything was unisex, it seems Jurassic to still think of scent with that dated divide and it is my determination to continue to produce unisexy scents.

You’ve said that you wanted to create a fragrance that was ‘lickably-more-ish’ and ‘addictive’. Have you achieved that with JACK?

The moment I sniffed the final formula for JACK, I knew that it was my ‘signature in scent’ and had an indefinable quality that is the closest to addiction in that you keep wanting more and when I have smelt it on other people, I’ve had to restrain myself from giving them a good lick!

Your second fragrance, JACK-COVENT GARDEN conjures up the essence of the famous market. How did the idea come about?

I was a waiter in Covent Garden in 1982 when I emigrated from Swaziland to London. It was the epicentre of the theatre world and former site of the fruit and vegetable market, iconically preserved in My Fair Lady. So I wanted to create a fragrance that is a love letter to this historic area. Nell Gwynn, mistress of King Charles II, sold oranges in theatres before becoming the first legal female actor, thanks to the King changing the law in her honour. As opera singers and actors always receive flowers on opening nights and sometimes use ginger to clear their throats, I was inspired to use orange, ginger, and rose as top notes. I went to Grasse and sampled oils and came back with Oris, which is extracted from iris bulbs and very expensive but a great base note. Alienor then added carrot, which was inspired and brought everything together.

You scooped the prize of Winner of the Cosmopolitan Power Perfume Award 2014, and winner of the Fragrance Foundation Award, Best Independent Fragrance 2015. What do these plaudits mean to you and your brand?

To be taken seriously by the perfume industry was genuinely astonishing and their support and awards are absolutely amazing. All this after only a year in business, when 1,100 fragrances are launched every year still feels unreal. Having been advised not to invest my own money, it is truly rewarding to have proved my doubt sayers wrong and produce an award winning and commercially viable brand.

You recently launched a scented Jack candle. Can you describe it and how important is scent in your home?

From the get go, people asked if I was going to make a scented candle, most especially Ed Burstell, chief honcho at Liberty, so I got going almost immediately after the fragrance launch. I’m about to launch the JACK-COVENT GARDEN candle in October. I’ve always used scented candles at home, so to have my own brand is an unexpected bonus of the perfume business, and I now have a JACK Candle in every room of the house.

“To me the Union Jack flag symbolises London’s cosmopolitan variety of people and cultures”

Your brand encapsulates British luxury. What does Britishness mean to you?

Red is my favourite colour and inextricably linked to London – buses, post boxes, curtains of the Covent Garden opera house, telephone boxes, red coat uniforms, brickwork in Chelsea, on and on. Which is why my packaging is this iconic gloss red. For me, the Union Jack flag symbolises the all-inclusive cosmopolitan variety of people and cultures that have made London the unique global city that it is. I wanted a quintessentially British name, and when Dylan Jones at GQ Magazine saw my packaging and the Union Jack bag inside, he suggested I call my brand JACK. So I owe that to him.

Which other British luxury brands do you love?

Anya Hindmarch, Daylesford Organic, Roja Dove, Jigsaw, Jo Malone, Miller Harris, Burberry, Lobbs, Liberty prints.

What are your simple luxuries in life?

Walking along the Thames and across Richmond Park. I try to walk everywhere in London, and never take for granted this magnificent city that’s given me so much.

When will we next see you on the big screen?

I’m in a 10 hour series of Jekyll & Hyde for ITV playing the head of the secret service, which is showing this autumn, and a role in Game of Thrones.

What next for Jack? Products in the pipeline?

JACK-Piccadilly will be launched in 2016. Another unisexy scent combining Bergamot, petrol, patchouli and amber, celebrating the iconic area of London.

Jack is available at jackperfume.co.uk. Jack is proudly made in Britain, and not tested on animals.

TheGuardian.com – 26th September, 2015

By Steve Martin.

Richard E Grant as Withnail in Withnail & I (1987). Photograph: Allstar

After Martin met Grant filming LA Story they began a correspondence that could fill a book. The star of Withnail & I sent faxes full of gossip, hilarious character assassinations, self-loathing and charm.

Between 1995 and 2000, REG (Richard E Grant) and I communicated by fax – yes, fax – after becoming friends when we worked together on the film LA Story. REG’s faxes to me were composed on a typewriter set with wide margins, jammed up with no spaces between sentences and paragraphs – and very selective capitalisation. When viewed from a distance, a single page looked like it had been overtaken by an army of disorderly ants.

I kept these faxes, which grew to a stack more than 2in thick, because they entertained me, and because I thought they were valuable aesthetic chunks from a screeching mind, a stream-of-consciousness faucet spewing sentences – sometimes a mile long – none of it rewritten, and bearing just the right amount of acid and alkaline. Here is his description of the director Stephen Poliakoff, transcribed keystroke for keystroke:

He is a miniature clone of Stanley Kubrick in the looks dept.i.e: no chin,pubic beard scrawling everywhere,fat and sloshy lower lip,huge eyes and poodle curly tousled hair,all of which is untidily held together in a cardigan,collapsed tweed jacket and fucked corduroy pants,above his flat-footed scuffed brogues. A walking unmade bed,who slurps coffee,scratches his arse mid conversation with the conviction of someone expecting a tooth to be coming through down below, dribbles, gurgles and relocates bits of his fast eaten lunch in the lower sections of the beard,is knock-knee’d,a few inches higher than five feet, compulsively says ‘ok,alright then,ok?alright then ok?,ok,alright then,’whilst circling round his own thoughts,all the time twiddling a straw in the left hand,like a miniature helicopter in full flight,and has even called ACTION! before the boom is even dangling or actors fully assembled.YET. He is so passionate about his words,characters , situations,so opinionated about everything, informed and intellectually ferocious,that you CANNOT dislike the little dweezil.

Stephen Poliakoff. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

The downside of rereading all of Richard’s effervescent faxes to me was rediscovering a computer file that contained all of my letters and faxes to him. I was swept up in his style and tried to emulate it, and consequently my letters lay flat and dead on the page. Plus, in one of them, I was reminded of the headline of a bad movie review I’d received. After a critic had sniped at him, I’d sent it to Richard in order to offer some salve: TIRED MARTIN REHASHES HUMORLESS BORE. You might notice, as I did, that every word of that banner, with the exception of my name, is negative. This is how actors cheer each other up: “I got a review worse than yours.”

Richard, I should add, has an ability – which I shall call “charm” – to relax anyone into a state of comfort that might take others three years of regular tea parties and intimate lunches to achieve. Once, after only five minutes of sitting next to a woman at a dinner party, he was asking about the duration and flow of her menstrual cycle. The question seemed reasonable at the time, and no one was bothered or offended. I can assure you this is true because I was there, and the woman was my wife-to-be.

In reading his faxes, most written after his film diaries were published, I notice many well-known names are mentioned, and some of those well-known names aren’t so well known today, yet the observations about them are compelling. I understood that while Richard was writing about individuals, he was also writing about human types, and we no longer needed to know exactly who they were in order to appreciate their foibles (again, keystroke for keystroke):

The penalty for being an aging actress seems especially loaded with cruelties.Currently accruing,with interest,upon the head of [Miss X].Who is now facing a crisis of beauty. For herein has resided the source of all her worldly powers since she stepped onto our screens FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.Now 36, having coasted through twenty lead roles in films of variable quality,more often than not,notable for how many times she slung off her bra,she now faces the terrors of playing THE MUM.Of a spectacularly gorgeous 20 year old.Upon whose poised young head,our director lavishes all his waking attention. To the point where,having rehearsed [her] in the most intimate one-to-one mode this side of actually licking her all over,announces ‘Right,let’s go for a take! At which point she yodels up with her plea, ‘What about me?’.His eyes momentarily flicker recognition that this other person is actually breathing,looks quizzical,decides “No,you are fine’turns on his heels and moseys to the monitor. Not that she has metamorphosed into an old boiler overnight. BUT.Her powerbase,if you can call it that,was her beauty.The reliable eyelid flutter and dulcet tones that commandeered men,rooms,service,cash, contracts, attention,with the ease and relish that a repulsive,height impaired fatfuck gets from breaking wind violently and daring anyone to sneer…Now this may sound glee-filled and ‘serves you right’ coming from me,but,for once,I am filling up somewhere with the faintest trickle of pity.Because,this vulnerability is the human stuff that joins us all.

Richard E Grant, Victoria Tennant, Steve Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker in LA Story (1991). Photograph: Moviestore/Rex

Throughout the pages, with fax headers telling me the exact dates of delivery and typed like Archy of Archy and Mehitabel (the early 20th-century office insect who wrote at night by leaping on to the keys of a typewriter, and therefore couldn’t use the shift key), are moments of career analysis:

…as the flick I was scheduled to shoot in south africa in may has gone kaput,i may well come to l.a. in june to squat on my agent’s hor- rible little head for a couple of weeks to see whether there is any chance of breathing life into the inert corpse of my american career.

… analysis of his profession:

A lawyer in my ski group said, whilst engulfing the chair-lift with her posterior,that ‘acting is not that special.Just a job like anything else’.Yeah,thought I,suppressing a supreme urge to tip her out,sure honey : every time you do something,anyone and everyone is a fucking critical expert,in print and in person. You try maintaining some equilibrium in the face of that scrutiny and sure as hell,you will need another lawyer to maneuver your shattered self-esteem back on course.

… and self-analysis:

…my self-loathing propensity for vitriol is a warped form of ‘intimacy.’ This was a form of intimacy between my father and me. so that my most familiar way into a buddy-buddy situation with another human is to establish a slag-fest collusion……..Nothing thrills me more than to sit down at this enclosed, hidden,secret world of my computer,banging out messages.

Along the way, I was reamused by this observation:

I suspect the number of folk who maintain proper friendships with their ex’s,is on a par with,with….Swiss Sea battles?

And this opener from a fax of August of 1996:

Getty Images – 22nd September, 2015

Photo: Getty Images

By Eamonn M. McCormack.

Richard E. Grant attends as Royal Pharmacist John Bell & Croyden re-opens its Wigmore Street store as London’s finest health, wellbeing and beauty emporium.

National treasure Richard E Grant celebrated the £4 million pound re-launch of Royal Pharmacist to the Queen John Bell & Croyden’s Wigmore Street store.

For over 200 years, John Bell & Croyden has been a beacon of excellence as a pharmacy offering over 12,000 products showcasing Best of British and international brands across health, beauty and wellbeing.

Richard E Grant says, ‘One of my favourite things about London is it’s best kept secrets, and John Bell & Croyden is one of mine. Being part of the relaunch is being part of a moment in time, as the newly designed flagship store brings this landmark British institution to a new generation of shoppers. I would encourage everyone, Londoners and visitors alike to come to the capital and discover John Bell & Croyden at this exciting time’.

Photo: Getty Images

Cormac Tobin, Managing Director, Celesio who own John Bell & Croyden says, ‘Today marks a new era in the history of John Bell & Croyden, and a celebration of a truly British institution as relevant to shoppers today as when doors first opened in 1798. We have sought to preserve the heritage and history of the store, whilst bringing the pharmacy into the 21st century with an enjoyable and relaxing shopping environment’.

DenOfGeek.com – 21st September, 2015

Interview by Rob Leane.

We caught up with Richard E. Grant to chat about The Jungle Book: Mowgli Stories, Doctor Who, and Jekyll & Hyde…

Richard E. Grant is a man that needs no introduction. From Withnail And I to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and even Doctor Who, he’s a part of our cultural heritage in England, and recognisable throughout the world.

His latest project sees him play the role of Kaa the snake in an Audible audio drama production of The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories. The cast also includes Bill Bailey, Celia Imrie and Colin Salmon.

We met Richard E. Grant at Audible’s studios in London to discuss the process, and his remarkable career so far…

There’s not too many actors who can have Psychobitches and then Downton Abbey as consecutive lines on their CV. Or Jekyll & Hyde and then The Jungle Book. How do you go about choosing your projects?

Generally, take the best job that you’ve been offered. And if it’s different to what you’ve been offered before, and if you like the people involved and the writers… it’s a combination of all those things.

Is it important to you to try and choose different projects? Have you actively tried to avoid being typecast?

No, because every actor is typecast. And you have to accept that from the get-go, I think. Um, because there’s so many actors. So they, a casting director, can choose exactly, very specifically, what they want for a part. So, as much as actors like to believe that they’re chameleons and protean of talent, reality doesn’t allow for that.

So what appealed to you about this role, in The Jungle Book?

No make-up, no costume, and coming to a studio for a morning. So, quick in-and-out.

What do you think makes The Jungle Book so timeless? Why do we keep re-adapting it?

Yeah, um… why do you think it is?

I don’t know really, I suppose it’s a classic British story of exploration and the unknown?

That’s my answer!

You’re playing Kaa, the snake. There’s been different versions of this character – a bit of a mentor in the books, quite evil in the animated film. What’s your version like?

Er…. He doesn’t eat Mowgli, so that makes him less of a villain. But he likes to eat troops of monkeys, so… If you like monkeys, you won’t like Kaa.

Do you get to do any serpentine hypnosis?

No, just a lot of ‘s’ sounds.

Kaa is probably most associated with Sterling Holloway’s fabulous hissing voice from the sixties film. Did you rewatch that at all, or look to it for inspiration?

No, but I remember it from when I was ten years old. And then, watched it subsequently when my daughter was growing up. So, I suppose that’s inevitably in the back of your mind.

And, how is your approach different when you take an audio role? How do you get into the mind of a snake from the confines of a recording studio?

It’s like a doing a radio play, and you – I don’t know how to answer that, really. You read the lines, and the character description, and hit all the ‘s’ sounds in every sentence. And hope for the best.

Was the charity angle of this, supporting the real animal kingdom, was that an important part of it for you?

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Oh, apparently some of the sales are going to go to animal charities.

Oh, good! I didn’t know that until then. But yeah, all for that!

How did you get involved with this one? I know Bill Bailey came in quite late in the day, but you’ve been here from the start, is that correct?

I have no idea. I met him this morning, and, um, my agent said ‘do you want to play Kaa in The Jungle Book?’, however long ago it was, and you turn up at the studio and just – bing, bang! – do it.

You obviously know more about this than I do.

What’s the recording process been like? Do you record your lines separately, or do you all record in a studio together?

You do it together, we just did it this morning. Um, with Colin Salmon and Bill Bailey and Lizzie, the actress who’s playing Mowgli when he’s young. And you stand around a microphone and read it, you don’t even have to learn it. You do three or four takes and then you’re done.

Is that a good process for you? If this were an animated film, you’d probably be in a room with a microphone and no one else…

Yeah, yeah it is. Working with other actors is always a bonus.

You’ve said before that your policy is to ‘wrestle as much out of something as possible’, is working in audio quite freeing in that sense? You don’t have to worry about hitting a mark or the lighting being right…

That’s true. It’s very very quick, in and out. And there’s no hanging around. You don’t have to go on location, the hours are very civilised.

As an actor you’ve worked in audio, TV and film – where do you think the best stories are being told at the moment?

Long-form TV. I think Netflix changed that. With House Of Cards you can download the whole thing in one day, that became the TV equivalent of reading something as long as Dickens.

The common denominator is stories, that’s the thing that still grips people, whichever way you put it. If something has a good story, people will watch or read it.

Are you the type to binge-watch something between jobs, then?

Not even between jobs, during jobs! I’m a TV addict.

Is that something you’d be interested to try, then? To step into a Netflix realm, or something similar?

Yeah, I’d love to. If I get offered one, I’ll tell you!

And what can you tell us about your role in the Jekyll & Hyde that’s coming to ITV?

I’m playing the head of the Secret Service. It’s about Jekyll’s grandson, and so it’s set in the 1930s. And so, Charlie Higson has taken licence to include monsters and vampires and all those genre horror elements.

That sounds really cool. And what else is on your slate at the moment?

Unemployed. As from now. I’m going on holiday.

We’re big fans of your books here at Den Of Geek, are you working on any more?

Oh, thank you! Um… no. I’m not.

We do a lot of Doctor Who articles, too, so I’ve got to ask – what was it like stepping into that great pantheon of Who villains?

Um, I loved working with Matt Smith. And Jenna Coleman. And I remember it being very very cold, in Cardiff, in a warehouse. And yeah, it was a Christmas episode. And I get killed off.

Have they told you that you’re definitely killed off? Is there no way back?

Well, I’ve never heard from them again. Long gone!

It’s a brilliant coincidence that Steven Moffat wrote for you as a villain and as the Doctor himself, many moons ago in The Curse Of The Fatal Death comedy skit. Did you two talk about that at all?

I said ‘how do you do?’, and that’s as much as I can remember…

Richard E Grant, thank you very much!

Thank you! Have a good summer, have a good holiday, have a good life.

The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories is available from Audible, here.

18th September 2015

Richard will be discussing his book of film diaries “With Nails”, now re-issued as a Picador Classic, at the Henley Literary Festival which is due to begin later this month. REG was a late inclusion and, as such, does not appear in the official pamphlet. However, he’s booked for the 7.00pm session on Saturday 3rd. REG will be one of 170 talks given during the festival.

The Festival takes place from the 28th September to the 4th October. For more information visit henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk or call 01491 575 948.