“Where do I fit in?
That’s something
I think about as an
actor from a minority
communit y”
him to realize that she wants to be much more than his
manager. One night, riding home, Jack crashes his bike
and hits his head. At the very same moment, in a burst
of Boylean magical realism, the world has a collective
brain freeze, erasing all traces of the Fab Four. Except,
that is, for Jack, who appears to be the last person left on
Earth who remembers the Beatles. “Something magical
happens,” says Patel, who is funny
and dry in person, “and Jack’s got a
kind of alternate superpower.” A love
story with an action-adventure energy,
Yesterday asks: Is Jack preserving some
of the catchiest songs ever written by
becoming their mouthpiece? Or is he a
genius-stealer, riding to world fame on
someone else’s coattails?
When he was growing up, Patel’s own
exposure to the Beatles was limited. His mom was born
in Zambia, his dad in Kenya, and both came to England
via India. He’s a child of the post-colonial diaspora. “My
mom’s favorite song ever is ‘Imagine’ because it came
out around when she arrived in England,” Patel recalls.
His musical intelligence was a little more extensive than
his mother’s. He had a guitar that he could sort of play.
“Vaguely,” he notes. “But I got the part, and within two
days I was in a room learning the songs.”
It’s not giving too much away to say that the failed
singer turned megastar (mentored in the film by Ed
Sheeran, playing himself) has to figure out how
to balance fame with the demands of friends and
family—a challenge that rings true to the young actor.
“Where do I fit in?” he asks. “That’s something I
think about as an actor, especially as an actor from
a minority community.” This fall,
he is set to star in The Aeronauts, a
nineteenth-century hot-air-balloon
caper with Eddie Redmayne and
Felicity Jones (loosely based on real
events), and he just finished filming
The Luminaries, a BBC series set
during New Zealand’s 1860s gold rush.
He’s also writing and is, in fact, already
a published author, having contributed
an essay on race and television and the “generic
representation of a South Asian family” to a 2016
collection titled The Good Immigrant. Being a part of
that book, he says, “felt like the beginning of a change
of a national narrative.” Helping people remember
revolutionary moments in the past, emphasizing
common histories—these are the roles he’s looking for.
“It’s about letting people know the history we haven’t
been taught,” he says.—robert sullivan
Oil Change
Ask Sam Cheow why
he thinks essential oils
are on everyone’s lips (OK, pulse
points) these days, and he’ll tell you it
has to do with two trends colliding: the
desire to foster well-being from the
inside out—facial calisthenics! Raw
diets!—and a burgeoning curiosity
about how nontraditional notions, and
unconventional products, may help you
sleep better, or cheer you up, or calm
you down. “It is about self-care, self-
love, self-respect, and self-worth,” says
Cheow, the former L’Oréal exec behind
Necessary Luxury, a seasonal collection
of purposeful, limited-edition oil blends
and so-called Mindset Mists. It’s just
one of the aromatherapy lines wafting
their way into the mainstream.
If you need proof that these demi- or
fully bespoke blends have reached a
new level of respectability, you have only
to visit two five-star hotel spas in New
York. At the Four Seasons downtown,
British-based aromatherapist and
skin-care guru Alexandra Soveral’s
expertise is on tap at an à la carte bar
where you can attempt to remedy a
variety of ills. Uptown, the Peninsula
HEADY SPACE
SMELL GOOD, FEEL BETTER.
AROMATHERAPY AIMS TO DELIVER
MIND-BODY BENEFITS. PHOTOGRAPHED
BY DUANE MICHALS, VOGUE, 1979.
BEAUTY has just introduced Subtle Energies’ line
of therapeutic oil blends and massage
protocols to the U.S. Founded over two
decades ago in Australia, the brand abides
by Ayurvedic principles—how the healing
benefits of certain herbal extracts (for
example, frankincense for clarity) allegedly
help nurture the mind-body connection.
And on those rainy days at home when it
seems your aura—if you are convinced you
have one!—is out of whack, your limbic
system doesn’t feel limber, and your energy
centers are off-center, the cofounders of
Campo say their “intoxicating blends laced
with knockout healing powers” can help
you increase your focus and relax.
How, exactly, can a mere aroma do
that? “The olfactory senses connect very
early in brain wiring to emotional centers,
so the distance from when a scent hits
the nose to when it hits an emotion is very
short,” explains Leslie B. Vosshall, Ph.D., a
molecular neurobiologist at the Rockefeller
University; when those connections
happen, they’re undeniable. “It can really
change your perception,” Cheow says. And
who doesn’t want to open those doors
of perception and slip through, now and
again?—LYNN YAEGER
JUNE 2019 VOGUE.COM
VLIFE
48
HEAD SPACE,
1979. CIBACHROM
E PHOTOGRAPH. ©
DUANE M
ICHALS.
COURTESY OF DC M
OORE GALLERY, NEW
YORK.
