TV Ate My Wardrobe

The next few years are going to be big for Adam Driver including more Girls, Star Wars sequels and a Martin Scorsese movie. Scoring the cover of GQ’s September issue is the natural progression, though I am pleasantly surprised it has happened so soon (I’m sure Details and Entertainment Weekly will happen in the not too distant future) and it’s a pretty relaxed looking shot. The all Burberry London ensemble (Henley and vest) kind of looks like one of Adam’s stage costumes during the last season of Girls and the third undone button is like the Henley version of the deep deep V, but acceptable hotness.

No Star Wars secrets are spilled, nor does he reveal anything about season 4 of Girls (which at the time of the interview he was still shooting). Finding out more about who Adam Driver is and how he came to become an actor is a subject that isn’t off limits and while he doesn’t want to talk about his family he does discuss his time as a marine, why he left and getting into Juilliard after one early rejection.

You might not think there would be a point of convergence between his first and second career, but Driver has found a way to unite the two by founding Arts in the Armed Forces; using performing arts to engage with those in the military as well as to entertain. Driver explains his desire to bring this kind of performance (rather than say cheerleaders) to those in service saying “When I think of my military experience, I don’t think of the drills and discipline and pain. I think of these, like, really intimate, human moments of people wanting to go AWOL because they missed their wives, or someone’s dead and they can’t deal with it. And that’s what I wanted to show.”

Driver seems uncomfortable with the success he has experienced so far “It’s very nice. But in a way, I don’t feel like I’ve really put in my dues. Like it doesn’t feel earned.” There’s still a personal conflict at play, however he has proven himself to be a very talented and charming performer and there’s just something about him. Considering how I felt about Adam at the start of Girls (so many hate tweets) and how this had dramatically changed by episode 6; this has as much to do with his portrayal as it does with the writing. Even in Inside Llewyn Davis and his limited screen time he shines.

The editorial focuses on clothes with looser proportions – I know the 90s are having a renaissance, but let’s not get to that level of baggy again – and you can see the full collection of photos here. The first time he graced the pages of GQ  for a fashion shoot it involved a lot of sportswear (the 70s feel of this one including short shots is fantastic) and while there’s a lot more practical clothes for fall, it’s not self-serious either. Plus stripes and standing on the tips of his toes!

This outfit – all by Ralph Lauren, except the boots by Red Wing Heritage – is an ideal look and doesn’t slip into the baggy territory I fear.

For more from this fascinating interview (there really does seem to be something different about Driver to the usual actor profiles in these magazines) head here.

Tags: Adam Driver, Girls, GQ, Star Wars