If there’s one rule for life I have it’s this: when a Tom Ford interview drops, stop whatever you’re doing and read it. The man is just endlessly fascinating/interesting and refreshingly honest and endearingly witty and is usually good for at least one truly memorable quote per interview. (In the notes app on my phone I have a bullet-pointed list of my favorite quotes and general life advice from the iconic fashion designer.) That said, he hasn’t given an interview in a hot minute, so when GQ dropped one today featuring Ford chatting with the magazine’s editorial director, Will Welch, I literally stopped everything I was doing to read it.
While Welch’s interview with Ford contains lots of compelling stuff (seriously, go read it), one thing in particular stuck out to me and brought me great joy due to the fact that Ford’s first film, A Single Man, is one of my favorite films ever (I also enjoyed his other film, Nocturnal Animals, very much): following the sale of his company to Estée Lauder for $2.8 billion, Ford says he’s completely done with fashion — “I had said everything I could say with fashion,” Ford told Welch. “It’s important to know when to get off the stage.” — and is devoting the remainder of his working life to making films.
I loved making the two films that I made. That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’m 62. Hopefully, I’ll remain somewhat together until 82. So I wanna spend the next 20 years of my life making films. And the clock is ticking. And so it was time to say goodbye to fashion. Fashion is a younger man’s game. It is the world of people from 30 to maybe 50. I’m 62. I’m living in your world. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have something to contribute. I do think certain professions get better as they get older. I think writers sometimes have a perspective that comes with age. Architects, for some reason, really get good the older they become. Designers rarely change the world of fashion at 62. I did it at 35, maybe until 45. Then I shifted into the moment when you become a household name and you make a lot of money.
Later in the interview, Ford dropped something I’d not heard before (nor could I find written about anywhere else via Google search): one of the films he plans to make is an adaptation of an Anne Rice novel.
Let’s talk about directing movies. As someone who’s used to the pace of fashion and publishing, Hollywood seems scary slow.
As a director, it takes three years to make a movie. I have maybe time for five more movies in my life. So they have to be meaningful.So you’re working on a few different projects, at various stages of development?
One is an original. An extremely personal thing.A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016) were both adaptations. This is completely from scratch?
Completely from scratch. Then another is a book from Anne Rice. We started the process in 2004, while she was alive, obviously.And what is your writing process?
It’s absolutely expository. I start every morning at nine o’clock. I sit down and I work from nine until one. Even if I don’t think I have anything to say, I type. The beauty really for me of filmmaking is the writing. Because when you’re writing it, it’s perfect. Nobody fucks up. The clothes are perfect. Everyone’s saying it exactly the way you want. It’s absolutely clear. The hard part for me is shooting—because this didn’t work, that didn’t work. You’ve got to keep moving. You’ve got a schedule.
Again, as someone who’s of the opinion that A Single Man is one of the most beautiful films ever made, this all excites me greatly. And it should excite all Anne Rice fans, I would think.
Also, if you have not already, do yourself a favor and read the essay Ford wrote about House of Gucci when it came out. It’s a great assessment of one of the best bad/good movies of the decade.
