Jonathan Bailey was spotted heading into Venice's airport on Sunday afternoon, September 6, wrapping up a festival run that had nothing to do with a film premiere and everything to do with a bottle of cologne.

The 38-year-old, best known for Wicked and Bridgerton, was in town as the face of Armani's "I Will," the house's first men's fragrance in over 20 years. That's not a small deal for Giorgio Armani, and it wasn't a quiet trip for Bailey either. He walked the opening ceremony red carpet in Giorgio Armani and turned up at two separate Armani Beauty parties across his stay, according to Just Jared.

So, no film in competition. No jury seat. Just a very deliberate, very branded lap around one of the biggest weeks on the festival calendar, which is increasingly how a lot of Venice traffic works now, actors moving through the Lido on fragrance and fashion contracts rather than festival credentials.

Bailey seems fine with that. He told Esquire he feels "entirely privileged" to be tied to Armani, calling it a chance to help hand over what he described as Mr. Armani's "parting gift to us all", the idea of "sophisticated masculinity that's about confidence, curiosity, virility, sensuality."

The backstory he gave is stranger than the usual campaign origin tale. Bailey says the call came while he was cycling around Paris researching a role in Sunday in the Park with George, on his way to see the Grande Jatte, the actual park Georges Seurat painted and the basis for that musical. He'd just been thinking about the pull of image and scent and story when his phone rang with the Armani offer. "It felt very full circle," he told Esquire, "even though it's the most ridiculous thing that you could ever imagine."

One detail that's easy to miss in the fragrance talk: Bailey has since dropped out of Sunday in the Park with George altogether, the very project that indirectly led him to Armani. No reason given, at least not in what's public so far.

Outside the brand work, Bailey's Venice week folded into a busier stretch of appearances. He'd recently been at a Bridgerton co-star's wedding, keeping his circle of that show close even as his career pushes further into film and, evidently, perfume counters.

What happens next for Bailey professionally isn't tied to Venice at all. There's no word yet on what replaces Sunday in the Park with George on his slate, or whether the Armani partnership extends beyond this launch window. For now, he's off the Lido and headed wherever the next fitting is.