FROM DARKNESS TO WHITE
ALEX PETTYFER IS GETTING USED TO BEING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA. ON THE BRINK OF SUPERSTARDOM, FASHION’S NEWEST BAD BOY SHOWS THAT KEEPING IT LIGHT IS HOW TO STAY SANE WHEN EVERY LENS IN HOLLYWOOD IS POINTED AT YOU
Photography Mario Testino Styling Elliott Smedley Text Derek Blasberg
Suit Salvatore Ferragamo Scarf Charvet Watch Cartier
Alex Pettyfer is still posing in front of Mario Testino’s camera at a studio on the outskirts of Paris when his publicist pulls me outside for a quick chat. She wants to know if I have read Pettyfer’s Wikipedia page, which I have not, but of course I tell her that I have. It’s all wrong, she tells me, and I shouldn’t even bother. So, as soon as she walks away, I pull it up on my Blackberry.
What I find there turns out to be inaccurate but harmless: Pettyfer was not approached by Ralph Lauren at a toy store when he was a little boy and made into a baby supermodel; while he did appear in two Burberry campaigns, he was never a model aspirant; and—my personal favorite, because it’s so ridiculously random— his family is not best friends with Channing Tatum’s. Beyond the Wikipedia entries, however, I see that in the weeks leading up to our photo shoot quite a few less-than-flattering posts about Pettyfer have shown up on the gossip blogs. That’s why, when our shoot wraps and we grab a couple of cheeseburgers at a hotel near the Place Vendôme, the first thing we talk about is his online reputation.
“I think my Wikipedia is full of bullshit because I actually don’t have anything cool or interesting to be said about me,” the 21-year-old Pettyfer explains. I ask if he wants to add the word “yet” to the end of that statement, but he declines. “I’ve heard I’m called a bad boy, or difficult—maybe that’s because I don’t take any bullshit.”
Here’s the thing about Alex Pettyfer: apart from some films he made before he was old enough to drive, and unlike other child actors, there isn’t a preexisting narrative on the future Hollywood heartthrob. Today, Pettyfer finds himself a relative unknown on the brink of stardom, a blank canvas on which anyone can project a scandalous backstory.
A magazine or a Web site can say whatever it likes about Pettyfer right now, because there isn’t an online search to say otherwise. He’s amused by the gossip machines that fuel L.A. (a city he has a few strong opinions about, but we’ll get to that later), particularly since he lives soberly and sedately in Tinseltown, where TV stars on drug and prostitute benders only get more famous with every arrest. For the record, he tells me, “I don’t go out, I don’t drink, and I don’t do drugs.” I think he’s being honest: here in Paris, when I drag Pettyfer from Katy Perry’s backstage dressing room to the vodka- and champagne-soaked VIP section of Louis Vuitton’s Fall show, he politely declines to imbibe any spirits. He’s a bad boy with good manners, a rare species in the film industry.
Let’s go back to the beginning: Alexander Richard Pettyfer, the son of an actor father and an interior decorator mother, was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, a quaint town in the English countryside. (Apart from Pettyfer, the other big name to come out of Stevenage is that of Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton.) When he was 11, he moved to a place called Isher, and then a few years later, the family relocated to Windsor, where the Pettyfers still reside.
When he was 13 years old, Pettyfer’s school took a field trip to the I-TV television studios in London, where they happened to be holding auditions for Tom Brown’s School Days, a made-for-TV movie starring Stephen Frye. The casting director spotted Pettyfer, asked if he’d audition, and eventually gave him the title role. In the wake of that film, Pettyfer found himself moving to L.A., getting an American agent, and spending five months securing the lead role in the film Alex Rider: Storm Rider, released by Weinstein Productions in 2006.
After that film, Pettyfer admits, he became a little disillusioned with the acting game. “I don’t think it was for me at that age,” he explains. “I felt like the industry was just a factory. You hear a lot of people say they want to make art in this industry, but so few people actually fucking do it. I was disillusioned by [Hollywood] at the time, but now I’ve come to accept that’s just the way things are: it’s called show business, not show art.”
On his break from acting, he took a few lengthy sojourns through Europe, and to help finance them, booked two modeling gigs with Burberry. In 2009, he returned to L.A., quickly landed the title role of Kyle in Beastly, the remake of the fairy tale classic “Beauty and the Beast.” Next up was the lead role as a superpowered alien in I Am Number Four, opposite Glee actress (and then-girlfriend) Dianna Agron. How does he explain pocketing two leads in feature films so quickly? “I’m a very lucky boy to be at the right place at the right timel,” he says, his handsome, chiseled face opening into a smile.
An alien with a heart of gold and a good-natured beast who finds love—easy fare for a handsome up-and-comer. But Pettyfer wanted to try something different for his next role, so in this fall’s Now—a drama based on a future world in which humans stop aging at 25, then use time as a currency to extend their lives—he plays a villain. “This bad guy is an insane nutcase, but so intriguing and charismatic. A crazy motherfucker who can literally turn on someone on a dime. He doesn’t give a fuck, and he has all these twitches.” It’s rougher stuff than Disney redux, and there’s even a rape scene with Justin Timberlake.
Pettyfer based the madness of his character on Charles Manson, but made him clean-cut. “I like classically twisted, so he’s in a Tom Ford suit, his hair is slicked back, and he’s supremely intelligent.” He already had some requisite bad-guy tattoos: among them a cross on his chest, a black ring on his finger, Arabic writing on his arm, the phrase “What Goes Around Comes Around” on his shoulder, and, as you can partly see in these pictures, the phrase “Thank you” on his lower abdomen—“In case I forget to say it,” he winks, by way of explanation.
Pettyfer is happy his career is taking off, but on the downside, he says, living in Los Angeles sucks: “I’m going to slag off L.A. so badly, and you’re going to write every word, and it’s going to be so fucking funny.” Well, he’s right about that!
“L.A. is growing on me a little bit, but it’s still a shit-hole. I think it’s this insidious pool where nearly everyone lives in fear.” Is there any saving grace to living in Southern California? “Geographically it’s fantastic: in a half hour, you can be on the beach in one direction, go snowboarding in another, or go out into the desert. But socially it’s disgusting. I wish they’d just run all the cunts out.” He doesn’t even like those A-list red-carpet events. “I really don’t give a shit about any of that. I wish I had some interesting stories [about living in L.A.], but to be honest I mostly just do my work and then go home.”
Newfound fame isn’t Pettyfer’s favorite thing. He grimaces with disgust when he recalls being chased into an In-N-Out Burger by paparazzi. He says he now prefers to stay at home with his two dogs, a pit bull and a French bulldog. But he does have an exit strategy: “Being an actor in L.A. is like being in prison: you go, you serve your time, you try to replicate Johnny Depp’s career—and then you move to Paris.”
Hair Marc Lopez (ArtList New York)
Grooming Cedric Jolivet ( B-Agency)
Photo assistants Michelle Lu, Benjamin Tietge,
Christian Hogstedt, Ivan Shaw
Stylist assistant Chris Brown
Production Gawain Rainey
Catering La petite table
Location Studios Daylight, Paris
Retouching R&D
TAGS: Alex Pettyfer
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From Matt, April 28th, 2011, 10:47 am
Intriguing interview Derek. I actually find his honesty a welcome break from most other actors who sound like they read from a script.
However, his tattoo translates as ‘Alex’ in Japanese Katakana which you can easily work out by looking at the picture attached to this article and a simple google search. He was just messing with you, hence the wink.
Also, his movie was called ‘Alex Rider: Stormbreaker not Storm Rider.
From Alex Pettyfer Web » Alex Pettyfer: From Darkness to White, April 28th, 2011, 12:15 pm
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From a lady fan, April 28th, 2011, 3:08 pm
THIS is the article everyone is freaking out about? What I want to know is who did Alex piss off at E!, USweekly and people magazine because they all seem to have it out for him. Would be curious to hear any other impressions or thoughts Derek has on his subject.
From Amanda, April 28th, 2011, 3:24 pm
When does this issue come out?
//A proud fan of Alex
From thomasd5, April 28th, 2011, 4:51 pm
Thank you for this interesting interview, since most of the articles about Alex Pettyfer are totally wrong and made up rumors.
Actually I found the same little errors Matt already mentioned (Tattoo and Stormbreaker).
There are a few other little things I’d like to mention is that “moving to LA” does not mean relocating but traveling, since in 2004 he was attending Shiplake College as far as I remember.
And the name of his family is not Pettyfer but Ireland, since his parents divorced not too long after his birth and his mother remarried to Michael Ireland giving him a stepfather and a stepbrother.
But I think you made one of the best (and a very detailed article) about Alex Pettyfer I’ve ever read !
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From kATE, April 28th, 2011, 7:17 pm
Really good article by Mr.Blasberg (as usual). The photos are absolutely stunning aswell!
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From Jared, April 29th, 2011, 4:47 pm
I guess he could have that ‘bad boy wanna be’ attitude when he has a succesful movie at the box office but right now, no one really knows him from adam, his talent is average and his looks are a dime a dozen in show biz.
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From Dorothy, May 7th, 2011, 4:26 pm
love this article! it just tells the truth on how he sees it,and hes right about it. love the honesty P.
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From Mason, July 30th, 2011, 11:51 am
When you read the quotes separately they sound a lot worse. You managed to make him sound like he was honest- instead of being disgusted (like I was when I first read the quotes) I do find his attitude a bit refreshing. Although his tattoo isn’t Thank You, it’s his name in Japanese.
All in all, a very well done interview.
From Wilder, August 15th, 2011, 10:21 pm
I thought the feature on Alex Pettyfer was awesome! He is gorgeous, talented, and so honest in his answers and opinions about Hollywood, fame, and acting. Love the pics! Happy he is single. Arrogance is expressively sexy. Move over Leonardo DiCaprio, there is a new, young, hottie in town!
From R, August 23rd, 2011, 2:52 pm
Folks, you have to understand that ENews et al SUCK the balls of Hollyweird and would KILL to be a star, so of course they shit on any actor who says it as it is, instead of being a delirious puppet with low self esteem like other Hollywood stars.
Go Alex!
From C, August 26th, 2011, 8:43 am
He seems smart, funny and honest
From Lucy, September 30th, 2011, 3:51 pm
At least alex pettyfer knows reality in terms of the whole hollywood thing its business you do acting for business not for art he says it the way it is and l.a how many actors have fucked up think about it .
From vman’s hot flashes: alex pettyfer + mister softee = summer 2011 « tennis served fresh, February 16th, 2012, 5:14 pm
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