Former “Star Wars” star Adam Driver just took on his most interesting role yet.
That role, of course, is of a man who gets turned into a centaur. The minute-long ad shows Driver running along a beach beside a horse. The two-run straight into the ocean and start swimming along. Driver eventually grabs onto the horse’s mane and emerges from the water as a centaur.
Although it might seem like a strange ad to advertise the Burberry Hero fragrance, the commercial was an instant hit with fans.
“We didn’t ask for this but dear god did we need it,” one fan wrote. “Thank you Burberry. We are forever in your debt.”
“Part of Adam’s Marine training was to attempt to outrun a horse,” another fan joked, referring to Driver’s service in the United States Marine Corps.
Fans can’t enough of the ad, and Driver finally sat down to reveal what it was like filming the iconic commercial.
Adam Driver Gets Up Close And Personal… With Horses
In a recent interview, Driver sat down with Vogue to talk about what it was like preparing for the shoot.
Believe it or not, the horse trainer on the shoot of the Burberry ad was actually the same horse trainer that Driver worked with when he filmed 2018’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.”
Driver revealed that “I’d done some things before with horses, and I’ve ridden, off and on, when I was a kid.”
He added that although he had previously had “a couple of scares on a horse,” he had never experienced anything quite like this.
He described how he was “wading in a body of water and having them charge at you and trying to get out of their way and grab their mane and ride them onto the shore.”
He added that “there were lots of horses because they can only run them so much. It’s like one horse and five of its clones. And they all have different personalities and temperaments, so that was just a thrill. One horse is more drunk than the other, and you have to adapt.”
What Training Did Driver Undergo For The Shoot?
Does Burberry Hero smell like you to you?
“I don’t know. Yeah, I guess? [Laughs] That’s what I want everyone to come away with: When they spray it, it’s a piece of myself that they’re putting on their skin, & I’m just hanging on them all day long as they pet their horses”😂 https://t.co/GGzFosb8JC pic.twitter.com/oSFrMkXbGO— Adam Driver Central (@adamdrivercentl) November 24, 2021
Driver admitted that he didn’t treat the commercial any differently from a film role, explaining that he “underestimated how physical it would be.”
He continued, “Our first shot is a guy on an ATV and a camera, matching his pace to a horse’s pace to my pace, and we’re doing it in 30 minutes because we’re chasing the light. Every shot was ambitious and really exhausting but, hopefully, worth it.”
He didn’t dive into any details behind his training regimen because he believes “actors talking about training – I think – is one of the most boring things in the world.”
However, he did respond to a question asking if he kept up the exercise routine he followed while he was studying at Juilliard, which consisted of running five miles and completing one-hundred push-ups a day.
“Oh, f— no,” the 38-year-old actor responded. “I don’t do that anymore because my body won’t allow it. My fitness is mostly based on the job. I just had to do something where I had to gain weight, so my work kind of dictates it. But I try to stay in shape. I kind of need it. For me, it’s…not therapy, necessarily, but I kind of need to move and exercise for sanity. I try to do something as much as possible.”
It didn’t seem like Driver had to gain much weight for his role taking on Maurizio Gucci in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” which debuted in theaters on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.
