BEING SAM ASGHARI

ETTING FOOT on Sam Asghari’s Los Angeles photo shoot one overcast day in July is like stepping into an episode of Entourage presented by Men’s Health. We’re squatting in a 1930s-era Hollywood Hills mansion borrowed from a designer friend of Asghari’s manager, Brandon Cohen, a one-man operation who also represents Salt-N-Pepa and Naughty by Nature and has been with Asghari since 2017. While our proprietors chitchat with us about local pastimes like botched plastic surgery and edibles, the KN95-masked crew is setting up a shot by an infinity pool overlooking Universal Studios.

Asghari does his initial round of handshakes, then quietly hangs back until he’s called on to pop his shirt off and glide into position, standing, literally, on top of the world. His friend/ groomer/de facto stylist Maxi (one name) stands at a distance and eggs him on – “Flex those abs until you shit yourself!” – but doesn’t make a dent in Asghari’s Blue Steel. It’s a scrappy, tight-knit group dedicated to a dreamer who’s found himself at the centre of a media storm he could easily whip up even more with one PR stunt, if only he were interested in that kind of fame.

For those who haven’t been following the #FreeBritney saga of late, let’s recap: Asghari, a 27-year-old Iranian American personal trainer turned actor, first met Britney Spears on the set of a music-video shoot in 2016. Whereas most new love interests might face a firing squad of gal pals over dinner or have to run the gauntlet of an overbearing parent or two,