Words: Gentleman's Journal
Whether it’s his performance in Baby Driver or appearing on the Gentleman’s Journal’s first split cover, it is safe to say Ansel Elgort knows how to make a splash.
The cover shoot for the July/August issue of Gentleman’s Journal is nearing its end, and the young Ansel Elgort is just about ready to leave. ‘I know that if I arrive early for things like this then I can get home early,’ Ansel explains earnestly, adding ‘there’s a basketball game on tonight that I have to see, Celtics vs the Wizards, game 7. So thats what Im doing tonight, I’m going to go watch that with my girlfriend.’
What happened next made Ansel miss his game.
The crew have run up two flights of stairs in a frantic rush, clattering along as they carry equipment up a New York fire escape. Although he knows he is behind schedule, Ansel is having the time of his life, leaping from shot to shot looking out over the cityscape.
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Suddenly the mood becomes electric with excitement as Ansel spots an empty rooftop swimming pool, glistening in the light of a New York sunset.
He knows right away that he wants to jump in. It’s almost irresistible. But ‘no’, he says to himself sensibly, ‘I can’t. I’m wearing such fancy clothes.’ He is wearing over £5,000 worth of fine British tailoring including a crushed velvet Dunhill dinner jacket.
But then the young leading man shows remarkable maturity, thinking better of jumping in the pool fully dressed.
And then the goading voice of Gentleman’s Journal’s Art Editor, Joseph Sinclair Parker, wades in, like a devil on his shoulder: ‘I’ll jump in if you do.’
Ansel thinks to himself for a moment before saying: ‘No chance. If anyone goes in, it’s me.’ Which is precisely what happens next.
Standing on the edge of the pool, Ansel takes the plunge. The crew run around looking for towels and a robe but all the while Ansel messes around in the pool, flicking water at the photographer and even doing a couple of lengths.
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By the time he gets back down to the changing room it dawns upon the young actor that he only brought one pair off pants, which are now as wet as the rest of the suit he wore into the swimming pool. Ansel leaves saying warm goodbyes to the Gentleman’s Journal team.
But after he’s gone we find a pair of pants are found resting on the bathroom sink, abandoned by their owner. Surely somewhere there’s a hotel maid with a strange moment for the Gentleman’s Journal’s first ever New York city cover shoot. You’re welcome.
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