spotlight
Tom Ford directing on the set of A Single Man.
it’s narrative drama and it’s something very different for him. It was very clear to CF: When I close my eyes and think of the film, I tend to see Nic Hoult’s face
me that this was not a vanity project. Just his choice of material indicated to me looking back at me. It’s very hard to forget the eyes. I remember doing the film
that this was not just a chance for him to show off his spring collection. Yes, the more than I remember seeing it. I see it looking back at me if you see what I mean.
clothes are beautiful and it’s wonderfully designed but it’s very, very much at the There is something very truthful and “in the moment” about what everybody was
service of the story. doing. The people I was watching. I’d never had such an easy time of it as when I
Rage: What kind of an impact did the clothes make the man, so to speak? was working with Julianne [Moore]. That relationship felt real to me. I wasn’t sure
CF: As far as I was concerned, the way George dresses so fastidiously is a sign of about it on the page but the minute I met her, it was there. It’s exactly the same
his desperation actually. It’s very clear at the beginning of the film that it takes a with Matthew [Goode] and that scene on the sofa. There are moments of familiar-
lot of time to become George. You get the feeling that if he took off his cufflinks, ity. If all of those things are happening…it’s got to be something to do with your
he’d fall apart—that he’s actually getting his body on wrong, that he’s hanging on director. He’s cultivated an atmosphere where he’s not going to fuss around. He’s
by his fingernails. It’s only his exterior world that he has any control over, because going to let people connect with each other, or if there’s nobody else around
inside, it’s all a mess. To me, that was the purpose of the costumes. It wasn’t to have (there wasn’t at times in my case) let your imagination take hold and just go.
a great silhouette because you’re in a Tom Ford film. Rage: Please tell us about how the sexuality was handled in A Single Man?
Rage: Along with the attention to detail in his surroundings… CF: The sexuality is there because part of the love he experiences is sexual.
CF: It was the same to do with that…the house told me about him, the bed- There’s sex running all the way through the movie, which I think is strengthened
room, the way everything was designed. I walk into Charlie’s (Julianne Moore) by the fact we don’t end up seeing anybody humping. It’s great. We don’t need to
house and you understand a lot about her with all that pink, orange and gold. go into the territory of body functions. What’s interesting about sex is its implica-
He didn’t give us a lot of verbal instructions so a lot of the film was things being tions, the barriers that are broken down on the way to it, all these sorts of things
explained to us through the senses. are there in the film. The possibilities of it…the ambiguity, the relationship with
Rage: The simplicity of stillness is also strongly recognized in this film. Numerous times, that Kenny [Nicholas Hoult], how sexual is it? Does Kenny have sexual feelings? The
isn’t utilized in filmmaking. fact that it’s forbidden. The fact that George’s homosexuality in 1962 might add
CF: I love a scene without dialogue. When you first get a script…a blank page to his isolation. His speech on fear to his students is definitely referencing that.
is a blank page, so you’re not sure what that is going to be. But, you know that I don’t think it’s dependent on it. Because the character is not taking this on as
is going to come from the sensibility of your director or whatever he’s going to an “issue,” it’s not his war with his sexuality or the war on prejudice…it’s not the
allow you to do. One of the most depressing things I think that can happen for an salient feature of the film. I think the fact that he is comfortably open about the
actor is when the material is terribly coherent and arrogant and you feel inspired fact that he is gay is definitely significant. Otherwise, why bother to feature it at
by it and you don’t want to go through a series of hugely demonstrative gestures. all? Tom [Ford] said recently that he doesn’t define himself by his sexuality. As I
Particularly when you believe in the power of just thinking things onto the screen. said before, it is about love, it’s about regret, and it’s about losing your love of life.
I love that kind of cinema, where people like [Ingmar] Bergman can spend a very What I like about it is it’s absolutely, unashamedly and unassumingly there. I think
long time on someone’s face. For me, that’s the most interesting thing you can that if more of a feature were made of it, then it would seem as if I was struggling
find in cinema—the human face. There’s a lot of beauty in cinema but the thing with it or had something to prove. This is homosexuality simply as sexuality just
that interests me most is that. Sometimes a director tries to get a certain effect in a like any other sexuality.
shot but Tom just let you do things. The script was clear to me. By the time we were
there and by the time I saw the way he set things up, it was eloquent already. We
were free. Everybody in the film seems to be at the top of his or her game. A Single Man opens nationwide on December 25.
Rage: What is one of your vivid memories of being in this film?
46 RAGE monthly | December 2009
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96