Armani beauty’s new interview series brings artist Devon Rodriguez together with Jonathan Bailey, J Balvin, Carlos Sainz and Simon Squibb to explore determination, individuality and the lives behind the public image.
I went down a rabbit hole on Devon Rodriguez’s Instagram recently, watching him draw strangers on the New York subway. I arrived for the artistry and stayed for the reactions: that fleeting disbelief as someone recognises themselves on the page, followed by a smile that changes their whole face. In a city where millions of people pass one another without a second glance, Rodriguez makes the simple act of paying attention feel extraordinary.
We never really know what someone is carrying with them when they step into a train carriage. A portrait cannot resolve the worries waiting at the other end of their journey, but there is something quietly powerful about being singled out with kindness. Watching his videos, I found myself thinking that the drawing is only part of the gift. The other part is the feeling that, for a few minutes, someone has seen you as worthy of their time, care and attention.
That generosity of spirit runs through The Power of WILL, Armani beauty’s new video interview series, hosted by Rodriguez. The artist and digital storyteller has amassed more than nine million followers, with a career that has taken him from sketching subway passengers to portraying some of the world’s most recognisable faces, including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Florence Pugh and Keke Palmer.
Here, he brings that same curiosity to four ambassadors for Giorgio Armani’s new I WILL fragrance: actor Jonathan Bailey, musician J Balvin, Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz and entrepreneur Simon Squibb. Each portrait opens a conversation about the experiences, uncertainties and moments of conviction that have shaped the person sitting before him.
Beyond the Portrait
There is an intimacy to being drawn. An artist studies the details most people glance past: the expression around the eyes, the way a mouth settles, the small asymmetries that make a face unmistakably its own. Rodriguez’s work invites a similar attentiveness from the viewer. We find ourselves looking for more.
In The Power of WILL, the conversations extend that attention beyond appearance. Achievement provides the introduction, but the more revealing material lies in what comes before it: the fear, preparation, experimentation and persistence that a polished public image can conceal.
Bailey’s reflections on masculinity offer one of the series’ most thoughtful perspectives. He considers what it means to him and the different expressions of it he recognises in others, allowing room for beauty, openness and individuality. His observations suggest that becoming yourself requires the freedom to question the expectations placed upon you.
He is equally candid about the uncertainty behind his work. Audiences see the finished performance, distilled into a scene that appears assured and effortless. The actor remembers everything that happened before the camera captured it.
“[People] don’t see the mistakes. They don’t see the real failures,” he says. “When you’re on set filming a scene that might be 25 seconds in the finished film and you’re rehearsing, people obviously don’t see the fear necessarily.”
It is a revealing admission because success can make someone’s confidence seem inevitable. Bailey gives us a glimpse of the work while it is still unresolved, when instinct, doubt and rehearsal occupy the same space.
For Sainz, the conversation brings the physical demands of Formula 1 into focus. From outside the cockpit, it is easy to concentrate on the car’s extraordinary engineering and overlook the conditioning required of the person controlling it. The strength of a driver’s neck and core is part of the preparation that makes performance possible.
His perspective gives determination a tangible form. It lives in training, repetition and the patient building of strength long before the lights go out on race day. What looks instinctive at speed rests on sustained work.
J Balvin approaches individuality through creativity. His reflections on making music return to being yourself, embracing experimentation and remembering to enjoy the process. There is value in that last point. Conversations about ambition can become so consumed by discipline and sacrifice that they leave little space for the pleasure that made someone begin.
His contribution makes room for play: the freedom to follow an idea because it excites you, and to create something that feels personal before considering how it will be received.
Across these conversations, determination takes on several forms. There is the courage to acknowledge fear, the discipline to prepare the body and the confidence to trust a creative instinct. Each offers a fuller picture of a familiar face.
A More Personal Kind of Ambition
By placing these stories at the centre of its fragrance campaign, Armani beauty explores the relationship between ambition and identity. What drives someone forward? Which expectations do they accept, and which do they learn to leave behind? How do they hold on to themselves as their lives become increasingly public?
Rodriguez is a compelling host for those questions because his work has always depended on curiosity about other people. The appeal of his subway portraits lies as much in the exchange as in the finished drawing: a moment of surprise, a conversation, an expression softening as someone takes in what he has made.
With famous subjects, that attention offers a different kind of discovery. We may recognise their faces immediately, yet know very little about the doubts, choices and private effort behind the image. His interviews encourage us to stay long enough to hear something more.
The series will conclude on 25 October with Rodriguez turning the lens on himself, reflecting on his journey from drawing strangers on the subway to becoming a globally recognised artist and digital storyteller. It is a fitting final subject for a project concerned with what it takes to become the person the world sees.
What stayed with me after watching those subway videos was the moment each person looked up from the portrait. The likeness was impressive, but their response was what made me watch the next one. The Power of WILL carries that fascination into its conversations: the pleasure of discovering something human in a face we thought we already knew.
The Power of WILL is available to watch now on Armani beauty’s YouTube channel.
