Ansel Elgort Thinks the Classics Need a Remix

“Right now I’m sort of in Egypt,” Ansel Elgort says absentmindedly. He's not talking about that Egypt, though; he’s just wandering around Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art when he calls GQ, which would explain the meditative mood he seems to be in this September afternoon. We’ve connected to talk about his newest fragrance release with Ralph Lauren, Polo Red Remix—a play on his DJ moniker, Ansolo, which he’s semi-recently finessed into a more traditional music side hustle under his birth name. Polo Red Remix isn’t a new scent, per se, but rather a rethinking of Polo Red, spun up from last year’s Polo Red Rush, which Elgort promoted as his first project as the brand’s ambassador.

Maybe it’s the philosophical tone he’s using, or just my own propensity for extending metaphors far beyond their means, but something in the way he’s talking about Remix feels pertinent to his acting career: a string of characters already written into novels or older movies and delivered to the screen several years later with little embellishments here and there—remixed, if you will. It began, of course, with The Fault in Our Stars' Gus, the charmingly cynical love interest John Green's protagonist meets in a cancer support group, who Elgort played back in 2014 with a dose of charisma hefty enough to rocket him to teen-idol status. Then came his role as Caleb Prior in Divergent, another movie built on the teenaged cult following of its origin novel. And the long-awaited adaptation of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, hitting theaters tomorrow, is no exception, nor is the West Side Story remake Elgort’s been filming for the past few months—although both are updates, given they’re aimed at slightly more mature audiences than your typical John Green novel. So, really, can you blame me for seeing a DJ-slash-adaptation-expert and finding some common thread?

It’s worth noting that Elgort disagrees entirely with this notion—but he has a few thoughts of his own on what it means to inhabit an adapted character. So, while he roamed around the Met, he held forth on some pretty heady ideas, covering everything from his favorite parts of the museum, to the varying ways he uses source material, to what makes characters feel human.

GQ: Can you tell me a bit about your history with Ralph Lauren?

Ansel Elgort: Well, I’ve been working with them for a few years now, which has been quite the honor. It’s an iconic brand and it means a lot that they would ask me to represent them, and then it means even more when they said they wanted to collaborate on something together. I was working with them on the Polo Red fragrance, and we wanted to keep this version pretty classic and true to what the original scent is. We didn’t want to make it too different—just a slight spin.

How does the idea of remixing play into a brand so closely associated with classics and tradition?

Polo has always been a little younger and not totally always classics, so it’s sort of expected that it would be going towards a more youthful energy. Though I do love a good classic suit from Ralph Lauren, we can’t just stick with the classics all the time.

Does inhabiting a character from a book, as you do in The Goldfinch, ever feel in some ways like a remix to you?

Not really. I do my best to become a character when I’m acting, and with The Goldfinch it’s great, because I have a whole book to pull from. But there is an aspect of making it a new thing with the movie itself, and that comes from the director [John Crowley] not wanting us to be obsessed with following the book exactly, but doing things that work for the movie on its own.

What drew you to the movie’s script initially?

It was people saying, “This is something you’re gonna want, it’s a great character, it’s a great story.” And then I read the screenplay, which was great on its own—adapting a book like that is very difficult. After I got the role and read the book, I realized what a special story this was, and what an honor it was to be part of it.

Did you feel connected to Theo’s story in any way, having grown up in a very artistic world in New York?

Well, there’s obviously aspects of growing up on the Upper West Side, so I have a lot in common with him in that way. I’m actually in the Met right now—I’m sort of in Egypt. I’ve spent a lot of time here throughout my life, having parents who love art. I used to be obsessed with the armor room. I know it’s not the most artistic thing, but I loved it. I wanted to, like, live in medieval towns as a kid.

But there was also a lot of imagination that had to be used [to play Theo]—which is what we do.

How do you bridge those gaps between yourself and a character?

It’s just imagination. You don’t think about it, you just become somebody else or something else. We had pretty specific scenes and moments from the book and the movie that shape who I become, just as in real life. Sometimes you have to imagine that stuff and come up with it yourself when you have a character, but in this case, it was just there.

Is that the same process you’d use to get into character for other projects?

Not necessarily—in West Side Story, for example, we had to work on the whole storyline prior to the movie existing at all.

Are you using the original 1957 West Side Story script as a guide in the same way you used The Goldfinch, or paying less attention to that reference point?

We didn’t pay any attention to the original musical or movie, and actually, I haven’t watched it since before I was involved in this. But the Robbins estate is involved, and there are some aspects of the original choreography that are still intact.

Is this your first time doing choreography in a movie?

We had choreography on Baby Driver, but this has been more challenging, in the best way. It’s not as subtle—it’s full-out. But I fought for this role tooth and nail.

It’s funny, now that I think about it, even your earlier roles in young adult-oriented movies had pretty tragic storylines. Do you think you’re particularly drawn to roles that have a darkness to them?

Maybe everyone is. That’s why the good characters are the ones who have tragedy. They’ve got a lot of good and bad in them. They have flaws, they’re well-rounded, real people. I guess I’m drawn to that.

Do you seek out ways to find lightness in characters like that in order to balance them out?

I think human beings do that. We all need to find relief, and we wear a lot of masks. In the moments where we’re acting for other people, we may falsely find lightness in things. Or for a moment we really do find a connection with somebody and feeling okay about something. Of course, the work is really hard when you have to be in difficult situations all the time. But it’s rewarding when it’s difficult.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Originally Appeared on GQ