I think young British guys dress really well these days," says Douglas Booth, who as GQ's Most Stylish Man is, de facto, the best dressed of the lot. "There are loads of places for people to look for great influences, it's not too difficult." And the 22-year-old actor's personal style mantra would be never to overcomplicate things: "I always have my staples; blackjeans, boots and a T-shirt. And a leather jacket in the winter. You don't need to take a longtime to get ready."
Or at least, you don't need to take a longtime to get ready if you're Douglas Booth. And here, we might as well reach for that Zoolander quote - this is because Booth is "really, really good-looking". Which also gives him the perfect aesthetic for his latest role, as the well-bred, over-privileged and seductive Harry Williers in The Riot Club. Adapted from the hit play Posh by Laura Wade, the film focuses on an elite Society of Oxford University students. Does Booth see it as a comment on the Camerons, Osbornes and Johnsons of the world? "You can't ignore comparisons to the Bullingdon Club; it's a fictional version and heavily influenced," he says. "But there's no 'This is Boris Johnson; this is David Cameron'. I didn't go out to make a political film, but it might be one by resonance."
Booth will also be in "epic space opera" Jupiter Ascending in February next year. Co-starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum, it marks the first original sci-fi creation from the Wachowskis since* The Matrix*. Were they really the crazy auteurs of film-buff dreams? "Yeah, they are," says Booth. "They're fascinating. You can ask them about a prop and they'll give you a 30-minute explanation about how it sits in the world they created."
Next, he says, he'll be transforming himself for a role in an indie film he can't discuss. Even further, he says, than for his breakthrough role as Boy George in the BBC drama Worried About The Boy.
"There's a lot of people I admire - not that I'm comparing myself to them - like Leonardo Dicaprio, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp who, when they were my age, there was this focus on their looks," he says. "Then they just forgot that. You work your way out of it."
