Richard E Grant has been surreptitiously sniffing the table at the cafe where we’ve met for our chat. “Anybody who knows me well has known me sniffing and touching everything in sight,” says the youthful-looking actor best known for the 1987 film Withnail and I .
Now, after a lifetime obsession with smell, he has put his sensitive nose to professional use to create a unisex perfume, Jack, a spicy, exotic mix of oud, cloves and nutmeg with top notes of mandarin, lime and, surprisingly, marijuana. It’s an unusual sideline for an actor, especially one as busy as Richard, 56, who is filming the next series of Downton Abbey . It’s also a precarious launch into a market bursting with celebrity-endorsed scents. “It’s a gamble,” he agrees.
Born in Swaziland,…
