luxury locations issue 21

FEATURE

THE ‘EMILY IN PARIS’ STAR SPILLS THE BEANS ON THE LUCKY BREAK THAT KICKSTARTED HIS CAREER AND HOW HIS ANCESTRAL HOME BECAME HIS ‘HAPPY PLACE’ IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH LUXURY LOCATIONS’ NADIA DYSON LAVISCOUNT: ‘ANTIGUA GIVES ME PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE’ R oguish good looks and a precocious A planned three-week vacation in February 2020 to Antigua– where his father originates from – morphed into a nine-

creative, content and driven.” He has since purchased property in Antigua and is currently searching for land on which to build what he calls “a forever home”. “It came down to time and where do I want to spend my time. I move around a lot for work but to know I’m coming back here after a long shoot or wherever I might be, it’s a nice feeling,” he says. Lucien was born in Burnley, Lancashire – hence the northern notes in his English accent – to Eugene, a bodybuilder from Antigua, and Sonia, a Brit. His impish grin is momentarily replaced with an earnestness as he recalls how his parents never let him forget his ancestral roots. “My father is from here. He left when he was 13 or 14. But we used to come back here every year; no matter what was going on, my mum and dad made sure we came back to our roots. “And this is it now, this is home. I mean, why would you leave,” he adds, gesturing to the impossibly blue stretch of Caribbean Sea unfurled behind him. Lucien’s Instagram posts of him bare- chested in the aforementioned water, pecs and abs in all their chiselled glory, telling his two million followers that Antigua is his “happy place” is the kind of advertising the

sassiness might have been what got him noticed, but it was an intervention from football legend David Beckham that was the catalyst to Lucien Laviscount’s phenomenal career. Even at 10 “I was full of confidence”, the ‘Emily in Paris’ star grins, recalling how his breakthrough came about as a result of attempting to chat up a store attendant while out shopping one day with his mum. As incredible luck would have it, a woman standing close by was casting for a campaign for British department store Marks & Spencer. The modelling job turned out to be for Beckham’s DB07 line. Lucien was fooling around on set one day when the sporting icon suggested he try his hand at acting. “He got his assistant to get in touch with a small acting school in Manchester who got in touch with my mum, and that was the start of it really,” he says. “Big up David Beckham.” That cocksure chutzpah as a nipper translates – at 30 – into a good natured charm with a touch of swagger. Both are in full force during an exclusive interview with Luxury Locations’ Nadia Dyson on the terrace of a Jolly Harbour property that the star has been renting for the last few months.

month stay when the pandemic struck. Lucien wouldn’t be the first to admit Covid inspired him to rethink priorities. “Covid was a big kick in the backside to really kind of level down on what makes me happy and where I’m at my best,” he says. “Antigua gives me perspective on life and what life really means. We don’t have much time – I feel a lot of people figured that out in Covid. Here is where feel I most Sam and Nadia Dyson met up with Lucien in Jolly Harbour

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