“I like smelling a woman. They smell good. That makes me happy,” explains Scott Eastwood, the new face of Davidoff Cool Water. In the commercial, the Hollywood scion — maybe you’ve heard of his dad, Clint? — leaps off a cliff in jeans and muscles. (Seriously, his abs have abs.) In town on a break from shooting DC Comics’ Suicide Squad, the seemingly shirt-allergic actor talked to the Cut about filming the movie, wet-jean chafing, and why he’s so passionate about protecting fish.
What’s your first scent memory?
Oh, man. Maybe like the cigar on my dad’s breath, or his cigar.
How’s shooting on Suicide Squad going?
I can’t tell you too much, or even the character I play. I’ve been in trouble a couple of times and had to take down so many of my Instagrams. DC and Warner Brothers are like, “Scott, you need to take that down. That’s not a good picture.” And I’m like, “Whoops, I didn’t realize, sorry.”
What’s Jared Leto’s new hair color really like?
I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell. It’s wild.
How did you physically prepare for the role?
It’s important to be dynamic in your workout — so not just going to the gym and doing bicep or chest day. It’s functional training for everyday life, for an active person focusing on muscle confusion and different types of integrated muscular workouts with cardio. But I like to swim, do yoga, jujitsu is great, and switch it up all the time.
Including running in denim?
[Laughs] Sure. Hey, what if I started a new trend? [Chafing] could be a problem. Especially in wet jeans, tight and wet.
What is your diet like?
Clean eating with good steak and veggies. I eat a lot of salmon and broccoli.
And the ultimate cheat meal?
A lot of chips and salsa.
Your new campaign really centers on the idea of “what makes the man.” What makes the modern man for you?
A guy who is not afraid to speak the truth or too sensitive about the crap we hear about in the media. Someone who is not like, “Oh god, I’m so offended!” C’mon, go live your life, go live a private life! I think people are sick of the politically correct bullshit.
Like for me, social media is just fun. All I do on my Instagram is make fun of myself all day. Like today, I just posted one of me taking a selfie of a selfie of myself, and that was funny. “That’s narcissistic, that is amazing.”
What was filming the campaign like?
We were in Hawaii for something like four days. The ocean was a huge part of my life growing up. Cool Water has an amazing partnership with National Geographic, and the Pristine Seas Project is unbelievable. Because of the funding from their partnership, National Geographic has been able to lobby governments in countries like Japan, to prevent overfishing. People want lobster all the time, so they decimate the lobster population. It’s like, no. That’s why there are seasons for these things. It’s easy to forget that what makes our planet unique is that it has oceans. It’s what makes Earth Earth. It’s what makes life.
It is short-sighted to decimate the tuna population just because certain countries want tuna all the time. No, we need to let it recycle. I don’t want to destroy the ocean. I want my kids, my future generation to experience that. I’m going to the Galapagos [with the project] in December. I’m going to get my hands dirty, get in there, get down underwater, take readings. It’s going to be awesome.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
