Simon Baker thinks it's fine for men "to be interested in how [they] look".

 

The actor is the face of Givenchy's new men’s fragrance, Gentlemen Only, which launches in the US next month.

 

Simon says the scent is meant for the modern day gentleman, a charming, polished and humorous individual who isn’t afraid to care about his appearance.

 

"We’ve gone through a period of time where we have broken down the notion that it is effeminate for a man to worry about how he looks, and I’m kind of glad about that,” Simon explained to WWD. "It’s funny, I don’t like the expression metrosexual. It was a way of putting a label on the idea that it is OK to be interested in how you look and present yourself without necessarily being gay. It felt like an excuse to me. I don’t care if you are gay or straight, it doesn’t matter. You are still a man.”

 

The star of hugely successful TV series The Mentalist is known for dressing in well-made suits and maintaining a dapper appearance. He is regarded as one of Hollywood's nice-guys, which pleases him.

 

"I aspire to be a gentleman. I don’t necessarily consider myself the ideal gentleman,” Simon modestly continued. "It’s really about an awareness of yourself and yourself amongst the presence of others, how you behave, the use of manners and respect and restraint and dignity. I’m theorising and it gets a bit heavy when I talk about that stuff, but it is really just taking the time to be considerate of other people.”

 

The television advertising campaign starring Simon will air globally starting this month in countries that include Italy, France, Argentina and Mexico.

 

The print adverts will follow later and will appear in issues of Details, GQ, InStyle, Playboy, Us Weekly and Cosmopolitan.

 

Excerpt from similar article:

 

The TV ads stick to the umbrella theme, but they weren’t originally going to do so. Baker recounted that the ads were supposed to be about a card game between a woman and a man. "He’s got the cards to beat her, and he folds anyway, which I always thought was not really gentlemanly, but it is a little bit like being a sucker,” he said.

 

Baker preferred the umbrella scenario, even though he had to change into about four different suits through the course of the shoot because they kept getting wet. "How do you in 30 seconds or cut down to 15 seconds or in a still sum up something that illustrates gentlemanly behavior in a quick way, whether it is opening a door for someone or letting someone get into the car first?” he asked. "An umbrella was a very easy way to do that.”
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