Oscar winner Steve McQueen shoots 'dirty weekend' in London for new Burberry campaign

The 12 Years A Slave director spent three days filming in the capital for the fragrance campaign
Robert Dex @RobDexES4 April 2016

Oscar winner Steve McQueen has returned to his hometown for a short film about a pair of lovers on a “dirty weekend” in London.

The 12 Years A Slave director spent three days filming in the capital for a major advertising campaign for Burberry’s new fragrance.

The film, which features rising stars Amber Anderson and Josh Whitehouse, was shot at several locations in the capital.

McQueen asked them to improvise and create a passionate dynamic without dialogue.

He said: “I wanted to do a film about a dirty weekend - when one could take oneself out of the everyday and just be together with someone. To me, the story was about two people who have just met but who are deeply in love.

Steve McQueen's Burberry fragrance campaign

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“This is the highest point of their love, or their passion. And I loved the idea that things happen - you know that time in life when you’re with someone and all you can think about is them? And all they think about is you?

“You walk past a bookshop, “Oh, I know she would love that.” Or, she walks past a clothing store, “Oh, I know he would love that.” So you’re both intertwined with each other. That’s what I wanted to portray.”

Some of the film was shot at the Hotel Café Royal. McQueen, who now lives in Amsterdam, said: ”It was just an amazing location because the view is quite unique. Incredibly, no one has ever shot there before. The view from the suite is classic London, overlooking the corner of Trafalgar Square - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a London like that. So we just took advantage of that: the best London ever.”

By crossing over into commercials McQueen, 46, is following in the footsteps of other Hollywood heavyweights including Baz Luhrmann, who cast Nicole Kidman in a Chanel No 5 film 10 years ago.

Since then Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey have all appeared in fragrance adverts. Anderson, who has starred in film The Riot Club, said: “For the Mr Burberry film there was a script, but there wasn’t any dialogue. For us as actors there was an outline - Steve knew what he wanted the shots to be, but in terms of the interaction between the two of us, a lot was left to interpretation.

“We had three days to film it, so there was a lot of space to play around. It was about a feeling - Steve wanted it to feel like a relationship where you’re just drunk on each other and even just being in the same room together is intoxicating. He wanted it to feel like a love thing and very intimate, so that made it more interesting than an average fragrance campaign.”

She said McQueen challenged her to be more than a sidekick to Whitehouse, adding: “He wanted my character to be equally as powerful and in control - for us both to be leading the narrative, for the film to convey the feeling of them being equal. I really like that Steve made a point of saying that to me specifically.”

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