Emma Corrin for Miu Miu Miutine17 Images
Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet is a Miutine girl. According to Emma Corrin, at least. “I feel like people think I’m just saying that but I think she is actually. She’s independent and irreverent,” they tell me, curled up on the sofa in a cosy library that’s not too far from one that Elizabeth and Mr Darcy might sit and read in. “Growing up reading about her, she was such a character who was so ahead of her time, who would march to the beat of her own drum and wasn’t prepared to settle for anyone else’s definition of the world or the way things should be. I think that’s very aligned with the scent and everything that Miu Miu wants to capture with it.”
If there’s anyone who could give the definitive say on whether Lizzy is or is not a Miutine girl, it’s Corrin (Jane Austen is a close second only because she might not have as strong a grasp on the style codes of Miu Miu as the actor). Having recently begun filming a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in which they star as the heroine, Corrin has also just been announced as the face of Miu Miu Beauty’s return, fronting the campaign for Miutine Eau de Parfum.
The new fragrance, which plays on the French word for rebellion (mutine), was created by master perfumer Dominique Ropion and brought to life by filmmaker Hailey Benton Gates in the campaign. Fresh and sensual at the same time, the subversive gourmand scent has notes of wild strawberry (specifically the Mara des Bois variety, which can be harvested only once a year), brown sugar, patchouli, jasmine and bourbon vanilla, which Corrin describes as beautiful and rich. For them, it evokes that magical time between spring and summer, “when you walk outside and the air is really thick. There’s all the different pollen in the air and it feels really heavy, and you’re really aware of all the smells. It’s a bit like that.”
Dazed caught up with Corrin on an unseasonably warm day in May to find out more about the fragrance, filming Pride and Prejudice, and why they find it easy to slip in and out of character.
Your relationship with Miu Miu has spanned years – you’ve done campaigns and runways. Why do you think you’re so creatively aligned with the brand?
Emma Corrin: I think they’re real advocates of authenticity and individuality, which are both really important to me. I love that it’s sort of Mrs Prada’s passion project, like something that really represents a part of her soul. And I think you really feel that.
It’s really cool to have a luxury brand of this level infused with that authenticity and it’s quite rare. I think they’re really fun. They don’t take themselves too seriously, and I am a big fan of that. I’ve worked with them for a long time, and they all feel like family. So this was a nice next step.
Was a fragrance campaign something that you’d been wanting to do?
Emma Corrin: In a very vague, sort of dreamworld kind of way, but I hadn’t really thought about it seriously. I had a lot of fun shooting the campaign. It’s very different from doing fashion stuff, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I worked with this incredible director called Haley Benton Gates, who’s so cool and very much of the Miu Miu spirit. She’s a real creative and a real rule breaker of form and expectation. She’s really funny and has incredible comic timing. I don’t think people have really seen a fragrance campaign like it.
Is it funny?
Emma Corrin: It’s funny. It has a real sense of humour.
The fragrance is described as ‘joyful and spontaneous’. Do you think of yourself as a spontaneous person?
Emma Corrin: I think I’m very spontaneous, probably too much, and I think I’m quite intuitive and quite impulsive, which I think is also very much the spirit of Miutine – sort of make their own rules kind of people, resisting definition. Which is nice.
Is that something that’s important to you, too? To always keep pushing yourself?
Emma Corrin: Yeah. And I think Miu Miu does that with fashion really well. It’s set so many of the trends of the last few years, and I’m so proud to be part of a brand that does that and defies expectation in quite an amazing way.
Is it something you look for in the roles that you take on?
Emma Corrin: Yeah, definitely. I think for me, in a role, it’s just curiosity about a person or a part or a way of life.
If Elizabeth Bennet comes into your path, you’re crazy to say no – Emma Corrin
What scents have the strongest memories for you?
Emma Corrin: I think people. You know, the scents your friends wear, and then you walk past someone in a train station who smells like it and you really think that person’s there. And then also outside smells. I grew up being outdoors a lot, so that will always be one. You know when you walk out of the house really early in the morning and it’s kind of dewy, that smell will always be really nostalgic.
Has fragrance played a big part in your life?
Emma Corrin: I think so. I think I’m a very scent-forward, scent-oriented person. It’s always been very connected to memory for me. And I really like fragrance. Growing up, I was very much, ‘I need to find a scent that’s gonna be my scent’, and now I have quite a few, and I quite enjoy that as well.
When you’re acting, you’re such a shape shifter. How do you use beauty, like hair and make-up, but also fragrance, to put yourself in those characters?
Emma Corrin: So many people have asked me about whether I choose fragrances for roles, which I feel like I really should do now, because I think it’s quite an interesting thing to do. I guess it’s quite a nice project to do if you’re preparing for something, but I’ve never done that before. In terms of beauty, hair and make-up, it’s always obviously up to those individual departments on a project. But skincare is the one thing that you can maintain control over. So that’s nice.
Austin Butler has a woman in London called Ozzy, and he gets a fragrance specially made for each of his roles. He tells her about the role and the character, and she brings all these different scents.
Emma Corrin: That doesn’t surprise me. I think a lot of people do that. I think Josh [O’Connor] did something like that, or Josh used to scrapbook, and I feel like he used to do something with scent. I think quite a lot of people do that.
How do you get out of the mindset of the character when you finish shooting?
Emma Corrin: Honestly, I find it quite easy to get in and out. I think just going home and that change of context. When you’re on a job, you’re so tired by the end of the day that it’s quite easy to be like ‘I’m gonna leave that behind now’.
Does putting on your personal fragrance help with that?
Emma Corrin: Yeah, that definitely helps. Also your personal clothes and doing your personal routine, not doing something in hair and make-up, and being in your own space and with your own time.
You were recently cast as Elizabeth Bennett. Congratulations! Was it a character that you had wanted to play or had admired growing up?
Emma Corrin: Not specifically. I’ve always admired the character, and she’s always been a part of my life. I’d read that book as a kid, and the series and the films. I love the Joe Wright one so much, everything about it: the music, the mood is so good and incredible. But I feel like if Elizabeth Bennet comes into your path, you’re crazy to say no.
Are you already thinking about your spin on the character? Is it too soon?
Emma Corrin: I’ve started, but I don’t want to go into it thinking, what’s my spin on it? I think Dolly’s scripts are incredible, and actually kind of do that for you a bit, the way she’s written the characters and brought it into this time, as well as really rooting it firmly into its period. She’s done such an amazing job that I think I’m just gonna sort of roll into it.
What are you currently obsessed with?
Emma Corrin: Great question. I’m reading a book called Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter. That I’m loving. And this weather I’m obsessed with.
