A good night out, according to Alisha Boe, starts with a long dinner. The Norwegian-Somali actor is best known for her roles in 13 Reasons Why and The Buccaneers, and is also the newest global ambassador for YSL Beauty. “[It] usually involves seafood. Oysters, gildas, little small plates,” she tells COLD. “From there, another cosy bar, perhaps some dancing, and a karaoke room to finish.”
The way we engage with nightlife is undeniably changing. Amid a cost of living crisis that has left Brits grappling with financial uncertainty, consumers are cutting back on nights out. The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) recently found that Britons increasingly have a preference for going out earlier, giving rise to what has been dubbed the “early-night economy,” with bars generating much of their income between 5pm and 7pm. Yet, nightlife is far from dead. According to the London Nightlife Taskforce Report , nightlife venues contribute £21 billion to London’s economy each year. Perhaps the question isn’t whether nightlife is dying, but how it has changed.
Community has become an important part of the conversation. Despite its buzzword status (the word “community” gets thrown around a lot in the creative industries), it’s true that the way people choose to spend their evenings is evolving, with a growing appetite for more relaxed, community-driven gatherings. From supper clubs and listening bars to dinners with friends, going out no longer necessarily means staying up until the early hours. Having grown up in LA and spent considerable time in London, Boe herself has a few observations about the differences between the two cities. “LA knows how to make a night feel spontaneous; London knows how to make a night feel like it might go on forever,” she says. “Both get it wrong when they try too hard to be cool. The best nights happen when nobody’s checking what time it is – or who’s watching.” It’s a conversation that has found its way into the beauty industry, too, with YSL Beauty’s latest Black Opium campaign taking inspiration from a post-pandemic generation increasingly interested in human connection.
Born in Oslo before moving to Los Angeles at age seven, Boe grew up between cultures. “Immigrating to the United States at a young age has most definitely shaped who I am today. I have so many different cultural influences that I feel so privileged to have experienced,” she says. “It gives me a unique perspective that I carry with me in my work and personal life.”
She first found international recognition at just 19 playing Jessica Davis in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why (based on the Jay Asher novel of the same name). For those who weren’t avid teenage fans circa 2017, the show revolves around the aftermath of a suicide in an American high school. The show tackles heavy themes of sexual assault and racism, no easy feat for a young actor, yet Boe approached them with tact. More recently, she’s been playing Conchita in Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers, a period drama following a group of young American women navigating the rather unforgiving expectations of 1870s British high society. After three seasons, Boe has come to understand that her character’s apparent daringness isn’t quite what it seems. “At first, it’s easy to see Conchita as the fun, fearless one. But she’s not carefree because nothing can hurt her; she’s brave because she knows exactly what’s at stake,” she explains. “She’s learned how to move through a world with rules she never agreed to, without letting those rules make her smaller.”
Freedom and individuality have long been part of YSL’s identity, and Boe’s latest role takes her from the screen into the world of beauty as the face of Black Opium’s Pink Glaze campaign. The newest interpretation of the fragrance, which first launched in 2014, introduces strawberry to its familiar combination of coffee/jasmine/vanilla notes. It’s sweet, but with a little bit of a kick. “Strawberry takes me back to that bright, sweet world of childhood – but this one has a little bite. Then the coffee cuts through: Darker, warmer, more grown-up. Together, they remind me of getting ready to go out: Something sweet to start, then that last coffee before the night begins.” The accompanying campaign video, directed by C Prinz, plays with the idea of nostalgia, taking us into a pink-tinted-Miami-Vice adjacent world of vintage cars and diners, soundtracked by none other than Britney Spears. “I was so excited to join the YSL Beauty family, and being the face of Black Opium felt like such an organic partnership as I have been a fan of the scent for a while,” Boe says.
The campaign also focuses on the people who make a night out memorable. Rather than presenting the party as a solitary pursuit, it places friendship and shared experiences centre stage. Female friendship, particularly, has played a defining role in Boe’s life.. “I’m so grateful for my female friendships. They are my chosen family and we’ve learned so much from each other,” she says. “I can’t boil down the most special thing a friend has done for me, but I would say the years we’ve spent together and how much we’ve grown together is such an immense privilege. I am so lucky to have them.”
While the ways we meet and spend time together are changing, so, too, are the ways we maintain our relationships. Much of what was once private now plays out through our phones; things like location sharing have become more ordinary features of digital life, with many of us sharing our locations with friends and family without giving it a second thought. These technologies have made staying connected easier than ever, but they’ve also raised questions about where care ends and control begins.
YSL Beauty is examining this distinction through Abuse Is Not Love, its global initiative launched in 2020 to help prevent and fight intimate partner violence. As the brand’s newest global ambassador, Boe is also lending her voice to the initiative, helping raise awareness of an issue that now extends into our digital lives.
Its latest research, authored by psychologist Dr. Nina Jane Patel, focuses on technology-facilitated domestic abuse and the difficulty many young people face in recognising controlling behaviour within their own relationships. “Technology isn’t the root cause. The behaviour is,” Patel tells COLD. “What’s changed is that control now looks like the ordinary features on our phones.” According to Patel, the normalisation of digital monitoring begins long before many young people even enter their first romantic relationships. Instead, it often starts from the moment parents begin to track their children’s locations in the name of safety, or when friends start to share their whereabouts as a matter of convenience. When a partner, then, requests similar access, it can feel entirely familiar. “There is no clear moment where a line is crossed,” she explains.
So how can we tell the difference? According to Patel, it comes down to whether a behaviour is freely chosen and, importantly, the outcome when you say no. Sharing locations, for instance, isn’t a warning sign in itself, but if mere refusal of doing so leads to accusations or demands for proof of where you’ve been, there’s a clear issue. “Care trusts you. Control needs constant evidence. If you find yourself proving where you are, who you’re with or why you didn’t reply quickly enough, that isn’t closeness. A surveilled relationship is not a safe relationship.”
Away from her work with YSL Beauty, there’s still plenty Boe wants to explore. With a third season of The Buccaneers underway, she’s excitedly looking out towards an uncertain future. “I feel like I haven’t scratched the surface yet,” she says. “I’m striving for longevity in this industry and am so excited for what the future will hold for me. I want to do anything and everything that scares me and inspires me.”
