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Even though the new YSL Beauty ambassador’s face is plastered all over Europe.
Austin Butler is a good student. The public knows this—how he spent nearly three years nailing every aspect of Elvis Presley, and ultimately earned a Best Actor nomination for his role in Baz Luhrmann’s biographical drama. It’s no surprise, then, that the actor has thrown himself just as thoroughly into his latest gig as the face of YSL Beauty’s fragrance MYSLF.

Ask Butler about the notes in the new scent and he can rattle them off, and connect them to a memory he has of his mother. He can recall with confidence the first fragrance ad for the brand, a 1971 campaign featuring a naked Yves Saint Laurent. He ponders the answers to questions that he’s been asked a dozen times thoughtfully, like it’s the very first time he’s hearing them. If you have only 12 minutes with him for an interview, like I had, he will give you every single one of those minutes, with fully present, sustained, almost vibrational eye contact. In the imaginary category of Best Actor in Beauty, he deserves a nod, if not a win.

I talked to Butler in Paris, where YSL Beauty was celebrating him and the launch of its New Voices collective, which includes fellow actors like Finn Wolfhard and Hunter Doohan. Below, he discusses his favorite smells, the beauty he’s discovered through film, and whether he feels like he’s gone method in his new role as YSL ambassador.

What was your first scent memory?
My first scent memory, and the one I’ve talked about a lot, is the memory of picking oranges with my mom in our backyard. We had an orange tree. It was the smell of the orange and peeling it, [along] with the orange blossoms [Editor’s note: which is also a note in MYSLF]. It was very vivid. I was probably 5 years old. We’d make orange juice and that sort of thing. Sadly, I don’t have an orange tree anymore. But one day—that’s my dream.

Do you remember when you saw a movie for the first time and thought, “That’s beautiful”?
Before I was an actor, the first film I remember watching that wasn’t a cartoon was The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I was a child, probably 5 or 6. I remember sitting with my dad and watching that film. It sparked a lot in me, in terms of what was possible. I probably wasn’t thinking about [beauty in a direct way], but it was seeing cinema like that.

Growing up, my dad always had Turner Classic Movies on. We would watch at least a movie a day. My dad is a huge movie buff. We watched Sunset Boulevard. He had me watch Citizen Kane when I was 8. I’ve seen so many films now, and they were so impactful. When Elvis premiered in Cannes, he got to be there. He had never been outside of the country. Seeing him on the red carpet with his tuxedo was really magical. I don’t think he’s ever been [to Paris]. I’ll have to bring him here sometime.

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