Amongst Chopard’s many bedazzling moments this awards season, Jodie Turner-Smith wowed in a jaw-dropping sapphire-and-diamond choker from the jeweler on the BAFTAs and Angela Bassett sparkled in additional than 100 carats-worth of white diamond jewellery on the Golden Globes, whereas Emily Blunt, Sofia Carson and Eva Longoria shimmered in high-wattage Chopard creations on the ninety fifth Academy Awards.
Now — having already starred in Chopard’s Joyful Sport and Joyful Diamonds campaigns since 2021 — Julia Roberts is stepping up as world ambassador for the Swiss jewellery and timepiece model. In her new multiyear function, the Oscar-winning actress will symbolize all girls’s watch, excessive jewellery and luxurious jewellery collections.
Julia Roberts carrying Chopard Haute Joaillerie earrings in a brand new marketing campaign picture shot by Alasdair McLellan.
Alasdair McLellan
“She incorporates all of the collections completely,” inventive director and co-president Caroline Scheufele advised THR over lunch on the Polo Lounge two days earlier than the 2023 Oscars, including that the partnership developed organically. “Julia was very delicate to our initiative with moral gold and the entire journey with sustainability. It’s an ideal match.” In 2018, the family-owned model hit the mark of crafting all watches and jewellery from ethically sourced gold, and this yr will incorporate its proprietary Lucent Steel (which is 70 p.c recycled materials) into all its watches. “That’s one other step ahead in a course of transparency and sustainability,” says Scheufele.
Roberts and Scheufele first linked on the Cannes Movie Pageant in 2016, when the actress donned a press release emerald-and-diamond Chopard necklace with a black Armani robe and no footwear for the Cash Monster premiere. “She mentioned, ‘If I put on this emerald necklace, I don’t want footwear!’ That’s how Julia is, very spontaneous,” remembers Scheufele, who has labored hand in hand with Cannes for greater than 25 years, since redesigning the Palme d’Or trophy — which she describes as initially wanting like a “Plexiglas pyramid” — to be “extra glamorous and extra elegant” in 1998. (The luxurious model can also be a longtime presenting sponsor of the Elton John AIDS Basis Oscar get together.)
Chopard’s newest marketing campaign, shot by Alasdair McLellan, options black-and-white portraits of Roberts with jewellery and watches that pop in colour. An accompanying sequence of 12 video vignettes — filmed by Armageddon Time and Little Odessa director James Grey, a good friend of Roberts’ — embrace cameos by Roberts’ longtime hairstylist Serge Normant, make-up artist Genevieve Herr, trend stylist Elizabeth Stewart and even the actress’ canine Myrtle. The primary video will launch March 20 (which is the UN Worldwide Day of Happiness), with a teaser advert being launched as we speak.
“Julia’s all the time liked jewellery, and we had enjoyable, taking part in with all of the Chopard jewellery, like we do in actual life,” Stewart says of the week-long shoot, which befell in San Francisco. “Each time we work on a carpet look, we get numerous rings and earrings and she or he approaches working with them in that constructive, joyous method. It was per week of artwork imitating life so to talk.”
Provides Scheufele, “[Julia’s] smile is from inside out and this works nicely with our imaginative and prescient for our collections. … The brand new marketing campaign is numerous smiles, as a result of there are sufficient unhappy issues on the planet.”
Over lunch, Scheufele spoke additional with THR about her imaginative and prescient for the way forward for Chopard together with its sustainable initiatives, her earliest reminiscence of being wowed by a gem, and her favourite jewellery second in a movie.
What are another stuff you wish to do on the sustainability entrance?
We’re wanting into the packaging. Do we have to make all these heavy bins? Or can we make a fantastic field from recycled paper? As a result of a lot of the bins, they find yourself within the basket when folks journey. They only throw it away. Or can we give a option to shoppers they will select between this and that. We’re having numerous discussions.
Julia Roberts in Chopard with director James Grey on set. Says Grey in a press release, “I all the time leap at any likelihood I would get to work together with her. We’re buddies, with an actual respect and affection for one another. I all the time contemplate my day made if I’ve made her smile.”
Greg Williams
How did you first embark on the trail of moral sourcing and sustainability at Chopard?
Truly it occurred on the Oscars, when Colin Firth bought the Oscar for The King’s Speech and I met [his then-wife] Livia Firth [the founder of sustainability consultancy Eco-Age] and that’s how the entire moral gold journey began. As a result of she mentioned, ‘Caroline, the place does your gold come from?’ And I mentioned, ‘Truly I don’t know.” So she actually put us on the street. And I didn’t have ask my brother [Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele] whether or not he agreed or not, as a result of he’s very nature minded.
Julia Roberts in Chopard on set taking pictures the home’s new marketing campaign.
Greg Williams
What are a few of the distinctive points of Chopard that make it stand out on the earth of jewellery?
We now have the Crimson Carpet Assortment that we current yearly at Cannes. We now have a really iconic DNA to Chopard which is the Joyful Diamond. No different model has a diamond spinning round, let out to make folks smile. The introduction of titanium into excessive jewellery was a bit daring. There’s not a guidebook that claims that diamonds must be set in platinum or gold. I can set a diamond in metal, which we have been the primary firm to do with the Joyful Sport. And I can set a diamond in titanium.
What’s the upside of setting jewels in titanium?
It’s the burden. I’ve been watching girls taking off earrings in eating places as a result of they’re too heavy. It’s not the diamond; it’s the gold. When you could have large earrings, the burden of the gold pulls down your ears. I mentioned we now have to discover a solution to make lovely large earrings with no weight and that’s titanium.
Julia Roberts on the Ticket to Paradise premiere on Oct. 17, 2022. “Julia wore this surprising pink costume and [Chopard] had these unbelievable pink earrings with this form of bohemian vibe. It was a enjoyable marriage of Julia’s private type, which is usually a little bohemian. It’s one other facet of her that they managed to seize,” says her stylist Elizabeth Stewart.
Tommaso Boddi/Getty
Do you could have a reminiscence of the primary piece of jewellery that meant one thing to you?
There’s many however perhaps it was a tiny little ruby coronary heart that my dad gave me when he got here again from Thailand. I nonetheless have it. It was simply my first gem and I really like rubies. He defined to me the place the rubies come from. It was my first piece of jewellery. This one was particular as a result of it form of opened my eyes to the world of gems.
Some folks have this religion that crystals have totally different sorts of power. Do you sense energies if you work with gems?
After I work with gems, once I choose them for our creations, I generally say, ‘Not this one.’ And I can’t inform you why, however there may be some power happening between the gem and me and never for nothing there are loopy tales about haunted gems the place, when they’re within the possession of a sure particular person, they introduced unhealthy luck. All of it has to do with the universe and the planet and nature. After all, they’ve power.
Along with designing the Palme D’Or and being a companion of the Cannes Movie Pageant, Chopard offers out its Trophée Chopard yearly on the fest to up-and-coming appearing expertise. How did that come about?
Through the years being in Cannes some years, I witnessed how younger actors are struggling. As soon as your title is George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, it’s straightforward. However for the younger expertise, it’s not straightforward. I mentioned, ‘I want to — other than being a companion — I want to convey one thing bodily to the movie pageant. So I proposed to them to make this Chopard Trophée, which is an official prize from the pageant to assist younger expertise. In order that’s how the trophy began.
Do you could have a favourite jewellery second in a movie?
Fairly Girl. When he offers her the necklace.
A model of this story first appeared within the March 16 difficulty of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click here to subscribe.
