Tom Ford talks 'A Single Man' + HUGE PICS from filming!
AMY VERNER
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Saturday, Sep. 19, 2009 03:07AM EDT
On Monday night, or more accurately Tuesday morning, Tom Ford did not go to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Not because he was partying - although he had just hosted what may have been the most tasteful gathering to take place during the Toronto International Film Festival.
No, he stayed up so late because his agents were deep into negotiations with distributors for his film, A Single Man, a thoughtful and sophistical story about love and loss.
By midday Tuesday, there was a deal, and not just any deal. The Weinstein Company had agreed to buy U.S. and German rights for $1-million (U.S.), making it the first seven-figure deal at the 2009 festival.
Minutes after a press release went out on the wires, Ford appeared in particularly good spirits while maintaining the same aura of soigné cool that has come to define him as one of the most influential fashion designers today.
"It is a big day and I'm a professional, so I'm going through it a little bit on autopilot. The meaningful part will happen when I get onto the plane and go [cue expletive, and cue it again]," Ford says, his face breaking into an uncharacteristically big smile. (He is most often photographed looking serious and sexy, or as some would have it, seriously sexy.)
That his first foray into film has the support of Harvey Weinstein carries particular significance, he added. "It's so funny how things come full circle, because I've known Harvey a long time," he says, explaining that they first met at a film party in London 15 years ago. "The thing that impressed me most ... was his love of film and his passion."
As two leaders in their respective fields, they continued to touch base off and on for years, but according to Ford, "it was always the wrong thing for me or the wrong thing for him."
Part of the problem, explains Ford, was that as soon as he opened up a production company in Los Angeles, called Fade to Black, people started sending him scripts that they thought would resonate with the man known for his seductive approach to style. "Of course, they were all remakes of 9½ Weeks - all about sex and glamour - but that's not what I wanted to do," he says from the light-filled back room of a luxury-hotel restaurant. "I have that side of my life. Fashion for me is a commercial endeavour; it's an artistic endeavour but it's a commercial endeavour. It's not a pure expression.
"So I spent a lot of time thinking. I know what I am as a fashion designer; I know what I have to say. Why does anyone need to see a Tom Ford movie? What do I have to say that hasn't been said or that could be said in a different way? And that was very important to me, to find a film that was very personal and that had a strong message."
The message can be credited to the late Anglo-American novelist Christopher Isherwood, who wrote A Single Man in 1964. But Ford used the work as a launch pad for creating something that was also deeply personal.
"I have always been an intuitive person. And I was driving to my office one day and it was really like, bam! I realized I was thinking about George. I had always been thinking about the character and figured I'd pick the book up again," he says, referring to protagonist George Falconer, a British academic living in Los Angeles whose partner has been killed in a car crash.
"It was a completely different book, reading it in my mid-40s and going through a bit of a mid-life crisis myself and having the good fortune of having everything material one can have in life but yet, that wasn't enough and that wasn't satisfying. The book is really an inner monologue but written from the perspective of the true self about the false self going through life."
Although George (played with impeccable poise by Colin Firth) is gay, Ford points out that the film's relationship could have just as easily have transpired between a man and woman.
"I don't even think of it as gay; that's my life," he says. "It's a human story."
Adapted for the screen by Ford and David Scearce, the film also stars Julianne Moore as Falconer's gal pal Charley, Matthew Goode (from Match Point) as the deceased lover, and Nicholas Hoult as a student who recognizes George's pain.
Among those sharing producer credit is Chris Weitz (About a Boy), whom Ford calls an old friend. "He's someone who I respect a lot. Having never produced a movie, I felt I needed producers who had experience, and Chris was wonderful."
The film, which was shot in and around Los Angeles last fall, had financing until the Lehman Brothers collapse, Ford says. But he was unwilling to let the financial meltdown destroy his plans. "I thought, you know what, everything has come together, this movie has to happen right now, so I financed it myself."
Although he would not reveal the budget, he says this week's deal has put A Single Man in the black. "I've made back my money, so I'm really happy."
Could the man who admits to closely identifying with George's cynicism be embracing his inner optimist? Stranger things have happened.
"Every day I'm aware of the day," says Ford. "And every day I try to freeze-frame things, because I'm aware that we really don't have that many days."
ENOUGH WITH ALL THOSE WORDS LETS LOOK AT SOME PICS OF THESE HOT ASS MOFOS
Why hello there~
I wish a tiny Matthew Goode lived on my shoulder and dispensed advice to me.
photos l words l trailer
EDIT: IMAGE BEFORE THE CUT NOW OCD/LAYOUT FRIENDLY. YOURE WELCOME.
HAVE A GOODE SATURDAY! ♥ ♥ ♥