JOSH O'CONNOR WAS driving his yellow camper van through the Italian countryside, finally heading home. The British actor had been living in the van for three months while filming La Chimera, a period drama about grave robbers, in the hills of Bolsena. In the two hectic years since he had left London, O'Connor had won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Prince Charles in The Crown, and shot two films, bouncing between the US, Italy, the US, and Italy again. He had been playing other people for so long that he felt exhausted, the kind of tired where it is as though you are already asleep, and drifting on is somehow a less daunting prospect than trying to slow down.
The route was an 1,100-mile drive, curling northwest across the Alps and up through Europe to England. On the way, O'Connor received a text from his parents: "Make sure you top up on fuel before you get to northern France." Weird, he thought, but this was typical of his folks, fellow #vanlife enthusiasts, who are always giving him this kind of highly specific yet context-free advice. "Like, what does that even mean?" he says now. "So, I just ignored it."
Which is why, cruising down a French highway with his fuel gauge low, O'Connor wasn't worried when he spotted a commotion at an unusually crowded gas station. "There was a queue coming out of it," he says. "And I thought, Those idiots, what's so special about that one?"
He drove on to the next station, which was empty. There, a quick Google informed him there was a shortage of fuel in the region due to strike action, leaving many stations without gas. (The subtext being: Always listen to your parents.) At this point, O'Connor did what any homesick, exhausted person would: He floored it, carefully ignoring the fuel-warning light now blazing like a naked flame in the corner of his eye.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de GQ US.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de GQ US.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
MEET THE WILDEST CHARCTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.
MARNI'S FRANCESCO RISSO WILL NEVER GROWUP
The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laserlike focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.
DARK KINGDOM
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-best friends and Nine Inch Nails bandmates-found unlikely creative fulfillment (and a couple of Oscars) by reassessing what they had to offer as musicians. Now they're thinking even bigger, and imagining an artistic empire of their own making.
INSIDE BANNY MCBRIDE'S LOWCOUNTRY COMEDY COMMUNE
After taking big screens and HBO by storm with his macho-lampooning humor, comedy hero Danny McBride uprooted his life in Hollywood to build his dream production studio in Charleston, South Carolina-away from the stifling industry, and alongside his closest friends and collaborators. That's where he's been unlocking a blistering new creative gear-and plotting his best work yet.
QUEEN of the YOUTH
Hunter Schafer has built a career by saying yes: to activism, to modeling, and then to acting, where Euphoria made her a star. Now, with a budding movie career and big plans in just about every field you can imagine, the Gen Z icon is figuring out exactly what sort of creative life she'd like to lead.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS CHANGING LANES
The seven-time F1 champ says he still has a world title in him-maybe this year, his final one at Mercedes; maybe next year when he joins Ferrari, a shocking move he tells us he manifested. But it's his passionate work outside of racing-in fashion, in film, in music-that's setting him up to keep making moves after the checkered flag drops on his racing career.
The New Gold Standard in Tasteful Watches
Piaget's Polo 79 once again marks the end of the steel sports watch's reign-and the start of something much more fun.
Captain Mbappé
We met him as a teenage prodigy. Now, with his PSG teammates Messi and Neymar gone, and a new job as French national team captain, Kylian Mbappé is reckoning with the responsibilities and privileges that come with being the man.
The full Ricky
Twenty-five years after becoming one of the most staggeringly famous men on the planet, a wiser, more assured Ricky Martin is taking another run at being a star. While also being himself, this time.
