You might recognize Douglas Booth as the pouty-lipped model standing next to Emma Watson in Burberry ads, but there’s more to him that—like, the fact that he isn’t actually a model. (Still pouty though.) British audiences already know him from a slew of films and mini-series, playing intimidatingly recognizable characters for even the most veteran actors, like Boy George in Worried About the Boy and Pip in Great Expectations. Now, Booth is preparing for a stateside invasion by playing yet another iconic lead in the ultimate you-should-take-your-girlfriend-to-see-this movie: Romeo and Juliet. GQ rang up Booth at home in London to talk about taking on the Shakespearean role.
GQ: Did you read Romeo and Juliet in high school?
Douglas Booth: Yes, but it wasn’t until I re-approached it for this film that I actually fell in love with it. When you’re forced to watch something in school, you never really enjoy it, you sort of rebel against it in a certain way. Actually coming to this just in my own time, it was actually so easy to fall in love with. You just realize how incredible this writing is and what a beautiful story it is.
GQ: Was it intimidating to play such an iconic character like Romeo?
Douglas Booth: Yeah, I mean, of course. It’s really intimidating but it’s also exciting and it’s an honor. I tried to forget about playing "Romeo" in Romeo and Juliet and just think about him as a normal guy, as a normal character, and just try and approach him the same I would every other character.
GQ: It must’ve felt similar to when you first took on playing Boy George.
Douglas Booth: Yeah, exactly—I don’t make it easy for myself. I mean, Boy George, he was really the pinnacle of that challenge because I had to transform myself physically. That was not only playing somebody that everyone already knows, but also that everyone knows exactly what he looks like and how he acted. Lots of his life is documented. That was an extra challenge.
GQ: Were the costumes as intricate and complicated this time around?
Douglas Booth: Yeah, a lot of work went into them. We had Milena Canonero, who’s a three-time Academy Award winning costume designer, she oversaw the whole look of the piece and Carlo Poggioli, her sort of protégé, designed the actual costumes and it was, yeah, a huge amount of work. I swear, I split my pants a million times down the crotch when I was fencing. The poor costume girls had to spend many an hour, fixing up my crotch.
GQ: Did you identify with the character at all?
Douglas Booth: Yeah, I feel, like, I’m sort of very spontaneous. I mean, whether or not I would take my life within the space of however many days of falling in love, I’m not really sure. But yeah, I think whichever character you’re playing, you have to sort of go within yourself and find places to draw on.
GQ: Like what?
Douglas Booth: It’s the impulsiveness; it’s that sort of youthful energy. Being blinded by young love. I remember the feeling, when I was younger and I first fell in love—you don’t see the world the same way that other people see it. You don’t see the same boundaries.
GQ: What else are you working on?
Douglas Booth: At the end of last year, I finished Darren Aronofsky’s next film, Noah. It was an amazing job; it’s going to be an epic and Darren is such a talented filmmaker. I just finished Jupiter Ascending—the Wachowskis, they’re directing it. This is their return to sort of more Matrix-y fare, a cross between Star Wars and The Matrix.
GQ: You’re jumping from period pieces to a biblical epic to a sci-fi-y action flick. Is there a type of role that you like best?
Douglas Booth: I just want to work on a variety of different projects and a variety of different characters that I can’t pinpoint if there’s like an ideal thing for me right now because it depends. You read it and then you suddenly know, like this is really what I want to do right now. I just want to be challenged, I want to keep challenging myself and I’d love to have another challenge as big as playing Boy George—whether or not it’s changing yourself physically like that or just pushing yourself to a certain extreme. I get bored quite easily so I like to keep my mind entertained by challenging myself.