Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård on Saunas, Fragrance, and "Making Out All Over the Place"
Johnson also shares the smell of her next role.
Dakota Johnson isn't a fan of sweet things, I quickly learn as she shudders from the first sip of her iced matcha. Sugar central, she calls it. "Does anybody else want it?" she offers, turning to a cross-legged Alexander Skarsgård clad in bright green shorts and Valentino loafers. "It matches your outfit in a nice way." He gives it a taste, pauses, then: "Can I have it?" No such aversion for Skarsgård, it seems.
"I have a very sensitive olfactory situation going on," Johnson continues. "I'm drawn to warm, woody, floral things." Skarsgård, on the other hand, "loves the scent of burning flesh and mold," she adds (to which he nods, deadpan). He also treats relaxation like an extreme sport, sharing that he "keeps building saunas" at his cabin in the Stockholm archipelago. "I have 94 saunas on my little island," the Swedish actor tells me. "It's a good way to have a project that you're passionate about but still getting a break from our industry." It's a stark contrast to Johnson, who, despite famously sleeping 10 to 14 hours a night, has trouble taking a breather. "Even when I'm not working, I'm always working. I can't even enjoy watching a movie without my brain going bananas," she says. "I'm constantly trying to understand how things were made. I'm always deeply curious and inspired. I want to take a fucking break, and I can't give myself a break, and I'm going to have a mental breakdown."
But you know what they say: Opposites attract.
I'm meeting the two actors on a sweltering 102-degree day in L.A. to celebrate the launch (or relaunch, if you remember the original 1991 icon) of Valentino's Vendetta fragrance duo and equally sizzling campaign film. In it, Johnson and Skarsgård portray fiery lovers with "unstoppable passion," who veer between tender touches, piercing glares, and scorching embraces—you know, that couple who loves to fight and make up. "We were making out all over the place," Skarsgård recounts. "It was a bit challenging to keep a straight face."
The scents themselves similarly reflect that tension: While Vendetta Donna (a floral, woody gourmand) is juicy and bright thanks to tuberose and red orange nectar, Vendetta Uomo leans on warmth and spice with cinnamon liquor, ginger, and patchouli essence. Rest assured Donna doesn't read too sweet despite falling under the gourmand category; take it from Johnson, who, as discussed, has a strong distaste for syrupy confections. "I really love this perfume," she tells me earnestly, uncapping the bottle to take a close whiff of the women's scent. Both blends are also bold in their own right—far from delicate, these are fragrances to wear when you want to turn heads—yet they somehow work beautifully in tandem, whether you layer them on your own ("I like to get it in my hair," Johnson says of her application techniques) or unwittingly transfer it to the collar of a lover.
Given that scent has intimate ties to memory and emotion (devotion, anger, joy, all of the above), I can't help but ask the actors if they ever use fragrance to prep for their various roles. Not exactly, Johnson responds. Though she does keep oils and candles in her trailer for a cozy vibe. But when I ask what Lowen Ashleigh from Verity—the psychological thriller based on Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel hitting theaters this October—would smell like, she shoots me a conspiratorial smile that makes me confident she's pondered it before. "Oh, cigarettes," she says. "Alcohol. Remorse. And vanilla." Not exactly the Vendetta blueprint, but Hoover fans could argue that Lowen's passion is, for all intents and purposes, unstoppable. (I'm unable to ask Skarsgård the same question about Wicker, which premieres that same month, but I would imagine the basket turned lover would have a rather literal dry, earthy aroma. Perhaps mingled with sweat.)
"I actually had the old Valentino Vendetta back in the '90s, which was more leathery. Lots of memories connected to that one," Skarsgård adds. "This just came out, so we're about to create some memories, right?" Indeed, the pair is already reminiscing about the countryside-set campaign (from Johnson: "The swarms of mosquitoes, remember that?"), which, by the way, marks the first time they've ever officially worked together. "Now we only work together," Johnson jokes. Contradictions and all.
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