Tom Ford: From High Fashion To Film In 'Single Man'

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Tom Ford: From High Fashion To Film In 'Single Man'

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli of tvworthwatching.com, sitting
in for Terry Gross.

"A Single Man," the first feature film, directed and co-written by
fashion designed Tom Ford, came out this week on DVD. On today's FRESH
AIR, we'll listen back to Terry's interview with Tom Ford and, a little
later, with the movie's star, Colin Firth.

"A Single Man" is based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. The
movie made Time magazine's list of the year's 10 best films, and
Entertainment Weekly's film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that Ford
proves a born filmmaker with a rapturous eye.

Ford is the former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent,
where he was known for his glamorous collections and also for his
provocative ad campaigns. "A Single Man," is set in L.A. in 1962 and
stars Colin Firth as George, a college professor in his 50s whose
younger, longtime partners has just been killed in a car crash. George
is so heartbroken, he's buying bullets for his gun and preparing to kill
himself. But as he does so, he continues to teach and to confide in his
old friend, played by Julianne Moore.

In this scene, from the beginning of "A Single Man," George is getting
out of bed, dressing and preparing for the day. This is what he's
thinking.

(Soundbite of movie "A Single Man")

Mr. COLIN FIRTH (Actor): (As George) Waking up begins with saying um and
now.

Unidentified Woman #1 (Actor): (As character) Jennifer, I am not going
to tell you again...

Mr. FIRTH: (As George) For the past eight months, waking up has actually
hurt.

(Soundbite of music)

Mr. FIRTH: (As George) Cold realization that I'm still here slowly sets
in. I was never terribly fond of waking up. I was never one to jump out
of bed and greet the day with a smile like Jim was. I used to want to
punch him sometimes in the morning, he was so happy.

I always used to tell him that only fools would greet the day with a
smile, that only fools could possibly escape the simple truth that now
isn't simply now. It's a cold reminder, one day later than yesterday,
one year later than last year and that sooner or later, it will come.

He used to laugh at me and then give me a kiss on the cheek. It takes
time in the morning for me to become George, time to adjust to what is
expected of George and how he is to behave. By the time I've dressed and
put the final air of polish on the now slightly stiff but quite perfect
George, I know, fully, what part I'm supposed to play.

TERRY GROSS, host:

That's Colin Firth in the opening of "A Single Man." Tom Ford, welcome
to FRESH AIR. Congratulations on the film.

Mr. TOM FORD (Director, "A Single Man"): Thank you.

GROSS: I think one of the things that will surprise people seeing this
opening scene is that we would likely think of you, since fashion is the
world that you're from, as waking up in the morning and thinking oh boy,
what fabulous clothes will I wear today?

Mr. FORD: Mmm, not at all.

GROSS: ...what fun I will have presenting myself to the outer world, as
opposed to the effort and pain that this character is feeling in putting
himself together to be in the world and present himself to the world.

Mr. FORD: I think a lot of us do that. I think that our public face is
often armor. And this character is held together. His inner world and
his outer world are directly related. He's suffering inside. So what's
going on inside this man is very, very different than what's going on on
the outside.

And he feels that if he can just stay in control of everything on the
outside and construct a certain armor that is his public persona that he
will be safe inside and he'll be able to hold himself together.

And that comes literally from the book, where Christopher Isherwood
talks about the fact that if someone called him early in the morning,
they wouldn't know that it was, you know, that it was George. They
wouldn't recognize his voice, that it took him a while to prepare to
become the George that was expected of him.

And so I interpreted it slightly differently in the film, but very much,
I believe, follows the story in the book.

GROSS: In your movie, "A Single Man," George, the main character, is
bereft after his longtime companion dies. And at the beginning of the
movie, we get the point that he's thinking of ending his life. He has a
gun.

Mr. FORD: Yes.

GROSS: And he's thinking of suicide. And there's a scene where he takes
his gun, he goes to his bed, fluffs a couple of pillows behind him, puts
the gun in his mouth, realizes the pillows aren't arranged quite right,
they're not quite comfortable, and he turns around, repositions them,
still not quite right, puts the gun in his mouth again, not quite right.
And we realize...

Mr. FORD: Well, the real intention of that is, you know, he doesn't want
to make a mess.

GROSS: Well, I think he's also, you know, he wants to get comfortable.
He wants to be in the right position, and finally, I think he's not
quite ready to do the act. But I'd like you to talk about that scene and
what it meant to you and how you shot it.

Mr. FORD: Sure. Well, first of all, the idea of suicide is something
that I invented because it's not part of the book. You know, the book is
a beautiful, beautiful interior monologue, and there really is no plot
to speak of in the book.

It ambles along, and our interest is held because George's thoughts are
so interesting. His insight holds us and his humor, an often dark humor.
And when I set out to make this into a film, you know, when you decide
you want to make a film, you start listening to everything that anyone
has to say about filmmaking and reading everything, and there's a maxim
about film being a visual medium, and so you need to make, in a sense, a
silent movie and layer on dialogue.

So I had to create scenes that - well, I had to create a plot, and I
felt that what better way to show the meaning of life and to show
someone trying to move forward and live in the present than to think
that this is your last day on the planet.

So George decides to kill himself. He decides that he does not want to
live any longer. And because of this, of course, he starts to see the
world in a very, very different way, and the beauty of the world starts
to pull on him.

But the particular scene that you're talking about, George's character -
this is somebody who is hyper-organized and, as I was saying, his inner
world is directly related to his outer world, and he likes control.

So this is someone who is not going to leave the world until everything
is taken care of, you know, his suit is laid out that he wants to be
buried in, his bills are paid, everything's organized. And he also is
thinking about where am I going to kill myself, how am I going to do it?

I love my housekeeper. I don't want to make a mess. Should I do this on
the bed? No, it's going to get -the sheets are going to get all covered
in blood. The wall's going to be covered in blood. Maybe I should try it
in the shower. So I go to the shower. No, that's not going to work
because after I shoot myself, I'm going to fall, there's going to be
blood all over everything.

So, you know, I'll get out - and I don't know how much we want to give
away, but he starts rehearsing and practicing, trying to figure out the
most practical way to kill himself.

It's meant that he is not going to kill - I mean, and you know, maybe it
didn't translate in the film, but he's just simply practicing at that
point because he's really planning on going to dinner with his best
friend after he's practiced and figured out what he's going to do later
on in the evening, really in a sense to say goodbye to her.

GROSS: Let's talk about the look that you wanted for your film. It's set
in 1962. Talk about how you wanted to dress Colin Firth's character and
Julianne Moore's.

Mr. FORD: Well, I wanted to dress Colin Firth's character in a way that
would be appropriate to who he was as a personality. So I thought, okay,
this is a guy who is not dependent on his salary as a teacher. This is a
guy who comes from a fairly wealthy background.

In England, he went to, you know, private schools - or public schools
they're called in England - and he's teaching at a public college
because he feels this is the right thing to do.

So this guy probably has his clothes made, you know, when he's home in
London, and he probably gets them from Saville Row, from the same tailor
that his father went to. He is a professor, so what's he wearing? He's
going to be wearing brown tweed. He's not going to be wearing gray. He's
not going to be wearing, you know, navy blue wool serge. He's a
professor.

So I also tried to calculate when would he have had these suits made?
You know, the English are quite - even still to this day - I think
thrifty with their clothing, at least the old-school English. And so I
thought okay, when did he have this suit made?

I calculated he probably had it made, maybe, let's say, 1957, blah,
blah, blah. In fact, I ever sewed a label inside Colin's suit, as one
would get at a Saville Row tailor with his name and the date that the
suit was made.

And so I really gave a lot of thought to who this guy is. This is a guy
who, as I said, really holds himself together by his outer appearance.
It holds - inside he's this deeply romantic, and at this particular
moment, you know, terribly, terribly sorrowful, man, but on the surface,
you wouldn't know that.

Julianne Moore's character is a woman who has lived her life as a
beautiful woman in our culture. And you know, we objectify women, and of
course I, as a fashion designer, could - you could say that I've been a
part of that, but our entire culture treats beautiful women a certain
way.

A beautiful woman in our culture, and I would like to say, you know,
this was different in 1962, but it still exists today - I know a lot of
these women - treats different in a different way, meaning that if
you're a beautiful woman, you're incredibly powerful within our culture.

The world operates differently for you. Then, at a moment in time, and
it has nothing to do with you, it's like the carpet is just ripped out
from under you, and the way that you've operated in the world no longer
works. So Julianne's character is struggling.

GROSS: Because you're older.

Mr. FORD: Well, yes, and it's terrible. And you know, a woman who has
lived her life that way can often find herself in a moment where she
cannot see her future. Now, she will have a future, but she's got to
alter the way she moves through the world.

So Julianne's character is at that moment in time, and she's still
clinging to what she knows, to what's gotten her to where she is. She's
thinking if she has the most beautiful house and the latest car and the
most perfect eye makeup, and she's up on top of everything, and she's
playing Serge Gainsbourg way before anyone else is because she spends
the summers in the south of France and so she's listening to this music,
she's brought it back.

Her clothes, for example her dress, and we're in 1962, is really more
1963 or four. It's very graphic. It's really pop art before pop art or
when pop art was just starting to happen.

And I rationalized this by thinking, all right, she lives in Los
Angeles. Who is she going to know in L.A. at that period of time? Rudi
Gernreich was living in Los Angeles, and he was about to explode on the
scene with these very graphic clothes. And I thought okay, maybe she's
his muse, or maybe she's spending a lot of time with him, and she's
ahead of the curve.

But everything in her house, everything about her, is in support of her
character. It is a layer of veneer, but it is something that's there to
support her character. When we see her making up her face, we see her
unmade eye on one side of the screen - she's looking in a magnifying
mirror, and we have a shot looking at that - and then we see, you know,
a fully drawn eye on the other side. And it's her art, and it's her
artifice, and it's who she really is on one side, and it's the face she
puts on to the outer world on the other side of our screen.

And that's the same with George. They're both putting on layers,
veneers, armor to get through their day, as I think many of us do.

BIANCULLI: Tom Ford, speaking to Terry Gross last December. More after a
break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's 2009 interview with fashion
designer and now movie writer-director Tom Ford. His first film, "A
Single Man," has just been released on DVD. Previously, Ford was
creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent and now has his own
Tom Ford fashion label.

GROSS: How did you realize you were interested in fashion, in working in
the fashion world?

Mr. FORD: Well, I think it took me a while to feel comfortable admitting
to myself that I cared about fashion. You know, I think as a...

GROSS: Why - why was it hard?

Mr. FORD: Well, as a tiny kid, when I look back at pictures of myself, I
was so into fashion. I mean, I can remember being seven or eight years
old and looking at a brand new pair of shoes that I had just - my mother
just brought for me, they were on my feet. And I can actually remember
thinking that the toe shape was off by just a little...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FORD: ...kind of like a millimeter in today's - you know, now that I
think in millimeters, at the time, whatever. It's just off a little bit
and it really disturbed me. So - and I have nieces and nephews who are,
some not at all into fashion and some, they just come out and my niece's
first word was shoe. And, you know, so I think you're born this way.

You're either born in a very visual way and that's what's important to
you or if you're born, if you're a musician, an aural way and that's
what's important to you. Or - you know, so I think a lot of this has to
do it with our personalities. And I fought it for a while maybe, or
maybe I didn't fight it, maybe I just wasn't thinking about it.

I studied architecture at Parson's, and I finally realized that while I
loved architecture, and it was very useful to me as a tool to learn how
to think, that it was little too serious for me at that moment in time
and that fashion - I was better suited for fashion.

I also liked the speed of fashion. You know, fashion and film-making, to
me, were two very, very different things in terms of satisfying a
certain kind of creative need. And I hope to be able to make films and
produce fashion for the rest of my life.

But they're very, very different. Fashion is very quick. It's very
disposable. It's immediately - it tells you exactly where we are in our
culture, especially women's fashion.

If we're having a glitzy over-the-top moment, fashion is very glitzy and
over-the-top, you know, over-the-top. If we're having a moment where
things are, you know, we're in a recession, fashion becomes quiet.

So, in terms of popular culture, fashion and especially women's fashion
is incredibly interesting, aside from satisfying just a particular need
to create and arrange things in a way that one sees as beautiful.

And so, in a certain way, it's fulfilling. In another way, it's very
fleeting because it doesn't last very long. You know, a beautiful moment
in fashion goes away very quickly.

GROSS: Of all the things that you've designed, do you have any favorites
that you really hope will endure because you think they were wonderful?

Mr. FORD: I do. I have to say, I think my last few collections for Gucci
and for Yves Saint Laurent in 2003-2004, in terms of complexity and
construction, were some of the most interesting things I ever designed
because I had learned at that point how to make more complex clothes,
both cerebrally as well as technically.

And I had worked with a great atelier in Italy for Gucci and in Paris
for Saint Laurent. So, I had learned a lot. However, the collections
that I feel influenced popular culture the most were early on, in 1995,
1996.

And I think that those were the collections that I'll be remembered for
because at that particular moment in time, fashion was in one place. It
was very subdued, very sedated, and in a sense, I brought back
sensuality and sexuality to clothes. And the things I did at that time
were simpler in construction but maybe more powerful in content.

GROSS: Just describe some of the clothes in that collection.

Mr. FORD: Oh, the first collection I did that really, you know, brought
me a lot of attention and brought Gucci a lot of attention and a lot of
business were hiphuggers in velvet, satin shirts, simple coats, but what
was new about them at that time was that they were very, very sensual.

They were very colorful, as well. There was an enormous amount of color.
And they were a throwback to a period in the 1970s when fashion was more
touchable. Today, you know, fashion is not - our beauty standard today
is harder. It's beautiful but it's off-putting. It's like, don't touch
me, I'm hard.

It's so interesting how female form, less male form, mirrors where we
are culturally, aesthetically, as well as - for example, right now
everything is pumped up.

Cars look like someone took an air pump and pumped them up. They look
engorged. Lips pumped up, breasts pumped up, everything is pumped up.
And it's also kind of off-putting.

It's sexual but in such a hard way that it's, for me, not sexual at all,
whereas the 1970s, breasts were smaller. People were not wearing bras.
Farrah Fawcett's sexuality and sensuality was a very touchable
sexuality. She was kissable. She was friendly.

And that was what I brought back in the '90s with some of my early
collections for Gucci that we hadn't seen in a while. And I think that
right now we're in a very hard moment and off-putting. I mean, look at
shoes today, women's shoes. They couldn't possibly get any higher and
meaner and sharper. But then again, you go and watch most films today,
they're violent, and we're living in a world that is, at the moment,
quite hard.

GROSS: I love when you say breasts were smaller in the '70s. I mean...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FORD: They were.

GROSS: But...

Mr. FORD: I don't understand all these breasts right now, and they don't
look like breasts. They look like someone's taken a grapefruit half and
inserted it under your skin. I mean it's - it doesn't even bear any
resemblance to what a natural breast looks like. But we're starting to
think that this is what women should like.

And young girls are looking at these breasts and thinking, oh, I need to
go have my breasts done because they've lost touch with what a real
breast actually looks like. I find it fascinating. I find it disturbing.
I mean, you could consider it more fascinating because we're becoming
post-human.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FORD: We are actually - we are. We are actually starting to
manipulate our bodies, because we can, into a shape. We are becoming our
own art. But what happens for me is that it desexualizes everything. You
know, you start to look more and more polished, more and more lacquered
and you look like a beautiful car. Does anyone want to sleep with you?
Does anyone want to touch you? Does anyone want to kiss you? Maybe not
because you're too scary.

But you're beautiful, you're glossy, you're shiny, but you're not human.
Very interesting. And I say that in a very detached way, I'm not making
a judgment about it. I'm just saying it's fascinating culturally.

GROSS: Just one more thing, I wonder what you'd say to people, men and
women, but I think particularly women, who shop in, you know, in just
regular stores, you know, and buy stuff off the rack and find like
nothing fits, nothing is flattering, nothing is made for their body,
that things are made for these perfect sizes that they're not.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: And because sometimes like you shop for clothes and you just have
to grit your teeth because there's nothing for you.

Mr. FORD: Well, and this may sound very spoiled, but I think that
something that people in general forget to do - and it's true, not
everyone has the financial means to do this - whatever clothes you buy
if you really want them to fit well, you need to have them altered or
tailored.

And whether you're doing that yourself, whether you're taking it to your
drycleaner that has a tailor, you need to alter and tailor everything,
whether it's expensive, whether it's, you know, whether it's
inexpensive. If you want it to really fit your body, even the best
clothes have to be tailored.

GROSS: I think that's good advice.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FORD: It's true.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FORD: You know, you watch television and you see these actors and
they've got a t-shirt on and, wow, it's like, that looks amazing. Well,
it's been tailored. You know, somebody took it in a little bit here,
pulled it in over the arms so that their biceps showed. It's a t-shirt
but, you know, get a sewing machine and run a few simple stitches, even
I can alter my own t-shirt, not that I do, but I could.

GROSS: Well, Tom Ford, I want to thank you so much for talking with us.

Mr. FORD: Thank you.

BIANCULLI: Tom Ford, speaking to Terry Gross last December. His first
feature film, "A Single Man," starring Colin Firth, has just been
released on DVD. We'll hear from Colin Firth in the second half of the
show. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.
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Colin Firth: A Leading Man In 'A Single Man'

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross. Tom Ford's
feature film debut "A Single Man," came out this week on DVD. We've
already heard from Ford himself. Now, let's listen back to Terry's 2009
interview with the star of the film Colin Firth.

Firth is best known for his roles in the films "Bridget Jones's Diary,"
"Love Actually," and "Mama Mia!," and for his role as Mr. Darcy in the
British TV adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice."

For his starring role in "A Single Man," Colin Firth received an Oscar
nomination. Our film critic David Edelstein called Firth's work in "A
Single Man" the performance of the year.

"A Single Man" is adapted from a novel by Christopher Isherwood, best
known for writing "The Berlin Story," the basis for the musical and film
"Cabaret." The movie, directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, is set in
1962. Firth plays George, a gay middle aged British man who teaches
college in California. His long-time partner has been killed in a car
crash.

In this flashback from early in the film, George gets the bad news. He's
alone at home. His partner is away visiting family. The phone rings.

(Soundbite of phone ringing)

(Soundbite of movie, "A Single Man")

Mr. COLIN FIRTH (Actor): (as George Falconer) Finally. You know, it's
been raining here all day and I've been trapped in this house waiting
for you to call.

Mr. JON HAMM (Actor): (as Hank Ackerley) I'm sorry. I must have the
wrong number. I'm calling for a Mr. George Falconer.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) I'm sorry, I was expecting someone else.
Yes, sir, you have indeed called the correct number. How may I help?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) This is Harold Ackerley. I'm Jim's cousin.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Oh, of course, yes. Good evening, Mr.
Ackerley.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) I'm afraid I'm calling with some bad news.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Oh?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) There has been a car accident.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) An accident?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) There's been a lot of snow here lately, and
the roads have been icy. On his way into town, Jim lost control of his
car. It was instantaneous, apparently.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Oh.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) It happened late yesterday, but his parents
didn't want to call you.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) I see.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) In fact, they don't know that I'm calling
you now, but I felt that you should know.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Thank you.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) I know this must be quite a shock. It was
for all of us.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Yes, indeed. Will there be a service?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) The day after tomorrow.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Well, I suppose I should get off the
phone and book a plane flight.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) The service is just for family.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) For family, of course. Well, thank you
for calling. Oh, Mr. Ackerley?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) Yes?

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) May I ask what happened to the dogs?

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) Dogs? There was a dog with him, but he
died. Was there another one?

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Yes, there was a small female.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) I don't know. I'm sorry. I haven't heard
anyone mention another dog.

Mr. FIRTH: (as George Falconer) Well, thank you for calling, Mr.
Ackerley.

Mr. HAMM: (as Hank Ackerley) Goodbye, Mr. Falconer.

(Soundbite of dial tone)

GROSS: That's my guest, Colin Firth, in a scene from "A Single Man." And
Mr. Ackerley, the person on the telephone, was played by Jon Hamm. So
you might have recognized his voice.

Colin Firth, welcome to FRESH AIR. Let me just describe for our
listeners who have not seen the movie what's going on during that phone
call and after the phone call in terms of how you are reacting.

You're in shock, and you're in grief, and it's starting to register on
your face. As you get the news, you're breathing deeper. You slightly
grimace, your facial muscles tighten, your eyes start to tear, but
you're still holding in your emotion.

And you're alone in your home. You could let loose without anybody
seeing. You could really erupt. You don't. Everything is still pretty
held in. Can you talk a little bit about how you decided to play that
scene?

Mr. FIRTH: I don't think it really came from a decision. I think it was
something that seemed natural because of the way it was written, because
of the speed with which I felt such news would be processed.

You know, there's nothing in the script that says George, you know,
breaks down. What I read was what you heard, which was oh, Mr. Ackerley,
there was another dog in the car. I suppose I should book myself a
ticket, and will there be a service.

He's operating as a man still socialized, still observing the rules of
courtesy and protocol. Now to me, looking back on it, I think there's
something rather heartbreaking about that because I think he's hanging
on to the world as it was a few seconds ago, when everything was okay,
when that's how you behaved, and that's how you talked.

Everything's actually falling apart completely inside. But I think if he
gives in to hysterical misery, then it'll become real. And he's not
ready for that. So I didn't really see it as containment. I saw it as
just not having got there yet.

And something comes to mind here. To me, it echoes some of the
observations that Joan Didion wrote about in "The Year of Magical
Thinking." You know, her husband dies. She records the time of his
death. She identifies his body at the hospital. She signs a form, and
she's ready to acknowledge the fact that she knows that he's dead. She
knows full well that he's gone, but she's not ready to have it announced
in the newspaper the next day because then somehow, if everybody knows
about it, it concretizes it in a way that she's not ready for.

So I think that something as monumental as the death of somebody very
close and very loved isn't something that you react to in a way that's
quick or simple.

GROSS: So much of your acting in "A Single Man" is about your face. I
mean, you have dialogue in it, but there's a lot of silence in the film.
There's times when people are talking to you, and we're watching you
react.

So it's about your face and mostly about your eyes. And your eyes are so
interesting in this movie because they're so penetrating. Your eyes look
like they can see through other people, but at the same time, you have
this kind of shield on your own face so that people can't see through
you.

Mr. FIRTH: Well, I think that a lot of what the film deals with is the
body armor that George puts on. I'm sure Tom talked about this. This was
something that I think was very much in our minds when we made the film.

He has to get through a particular day, and he has to put something in
place which is a both a protective mask. In other words, it's something
that prevents the rest of the world from seeing how broken he is and how
chaotic his true world is, and at the same time, this has to act as a
protection against the world trying to come in on him from the outside
world, penetrating his very, very vulnerable sensibility.

And I think this is where he gets his need to dress perfectly from. This
is why he needs to make sure his shoes are shined and that his cufflinks
and his tie pin are in place and all of these.

I think these are very much acts of desperation. These are things that
his life depends on on this day. And I think if the eyes are doing
anything, it's because it's his day of seeing through that mask.

Tom was there to photograph what I was doing. So it gave me a great deal
of freedom, gave me a lot of freedom to be silent. As you heard in our
phone call, I wouldn't have thought that scene would work on the radio,
but it was interesting to listen to how heavy those silences hang.

And I think Tom has great faith in stillness and in what the human face
can do without a lot of histrionics and without being very, very
demonstrative. And for someone whose approach to acting is not that
demonstrative, this is a great gift. I felt he played to my strengths.

GROSS: I just want to get back to the phone call for a second that we
open with.

Mr. FIRTH: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: So the actor who is on the phone with you in a scene that we just
heard is Jon Hamm, who plays the leading role in the AMC series "Mad
Men," and he has such a distinctive voice. I kind of recognized it
immediately.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: I think he wasn't quite as famous when he made that scene as he
is now. Did you know who he was, or was he just like a voice on the
telephone, or did you just meet him? Was he in another room on the set,
or was he, like, someplace altogether, and you were never you never met?

I never met him. I didn't speak to Jon. I spoke to Chris Weitz, who is
one of our producers who was in the next room on the other end of a
phone line. So Jon came in to do that voice later.

GROSS: You mean, you weren't you didn't even shoot the scene with him,
with that voice?

Mr. FIRTH: No. No.

GROSS: Wow.

Mr. FIRTH: So that was done on different occasions. So you have him to
credit for that, really, because he was, you know, he sounded very much
as if he was there.

GROSS: Was Chris Weitz the director good enough to give you what you
needed in that scene? It's such an emotional scene for you. You'd think
you'd want, like, the real thing and not a stand-in.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FIRTH: You know, Chris was pretty good.

GROSS: Yeah?

Mr. FIRTH: Yes, it wasn't entirely different from what you hear. You
know, we were both haunted by the moment. So I think Chris was very
sensitive, which is what he had to be.

But there are a lot of things that didn't help. I mean, that was the day
just before I shot that scene, the soundman took his headphones off and
played John McCain's concession speech to the room because that was the
day that we were shooting that. And now, you know, I don't know what
your politics are, but hearing John McCain conceding defeat was not
conducive to tragedy in that moment for me.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: So you were elated, and then you had to be, you know, get the
tragic news and respond to that.

Mr. FIRTH: Exactly. Exactly. I mean, if we think ourselves back to that
moment, it was quite, quite extraordinary. And it was it felt very
special to be in America when that moment happened.

BIANCULLI: Colin Firth speaking to Terry Gross earlier this year.

More after a break.

This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's 2010 interview with actor Colin
Firth, star of the movie "A Single Man," which came out this week on
DVD.

GROSS: In "A Single Man" you play a gay man, a man who seems to be
comfortable being gay, but he knows he can't be out to a lot of people -
for instance, where he teaches. But there are scenes in which we're
seeing other men through the eyes of your character, George, and he's
focusing on some of these men in a very erotic way. And so I'm wondering
if in playing the role - since you're not gay, but you were playing a
gay man - if you had to start looking at men in a different way and
seeing them through the eyes of George.

Mr. FIRTH: Interesting question. I don't know. I think that, you know, I
don't find it to be something that's so very distant. I, you know, I
think you can be very comfortable in your sexuality and find people of
both sexes attractive and appealing. So I don't think, you know, in the
scene where I'm having to look at the tennis players - and I wasn't
looking at tennis players, really. I was looking at some electricians,
probably.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: Yeah. This is the scene where everything seems to - someone's
talking to you about the threat of nuclear war or something, and you're
gazing at these two men playing tennis, and you're gazing at them with
some amount of awe and longing because they're so beautiful as they
play.

Mr. FIRTH: That's right.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FIRTH: Well, that wasn't what I was looking at on the day. And I can
tell you, I did not find the electricians attractive at all.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FIRTH: I actually think - now its coming back to me. I think Tom had
a couple of the guys playing tennis players sort of stand in, you know,
in tennis. You know, they were there to shoot their scene, so he thought
we might as well have them standing there for an eye line. But I
remember thinking: Now, is this helping? I'm looking at guys.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FIRTH: I'm looking at guys, and the electricians didn't work. And
I'm not sure the guy in the tennis gear works, anyway. Now I'm beginning
to get confused. So I don't know. It's an interesting question to ask
about acting, generally. I mean, if you're playing someone that is
obsessed with collecting stamps or is power-crazed or, I don't know, is
determined to, you know, climb Mount Everest, I don't have to have those
particular passions in me in order to be able to play that part. I have
to find passion from somewhere, and somehow I have to make that
translate as that passion.

So I think it, you know, whatever you're doing, it's never going to be
entirely you, and the character's preoccupations and, you know,
orientations are never going to have to be exactly what yours are.

GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Colin Firth, who's now
starring in the film "A Single Man." Now, you grew up in a bunch of
places: Nigeria, the United States, several places in England. You were
India for a while, too?

Mr. FIRTH: I didn't go to India.

GROSS: You didn't go to India. But your parents grew up in India.

Mr. FIRTH: My parents were born and raised in India. I still haven't
been, which is increasingly peculiar - if you know my family - because I
really am the only member of the family that hasn't been. I'm nearly 50,
and I still own that trip.

GROSS: And it was the fact that I think that your grandparents were
missionaries that...

Mr. FIRTH: Yes.

GROSS: ...led to your parents living in India, and then Nigeria?

Mr. FIRTH: That's correct. My paternal grandfather started as a
missionary. He joined the British Missionary Society because he heard
that they were building schools and hospitals in India. He was not
evangelical. He didn't go around converting people. In fact, he was very
proud of the fact that he never converted a single person.

His wife was also an ordained minister. He then took the decision to
train as a doctor and came to the United States and took his family to a
medical school in Iowa for eight years and then returned to India as a
doctor specializing in osteopathy and would go off for six months around
into the mountains and cure as many people as he could.

GROSS: And what about your parents?

Mr. FIRTH: My parents grew up there. My mother, I think, didn't come to
England at all until she was about 16. Because of what her father was
doing, she spent eight years of school in the United States in Iowa in a
place called Ankeny. And they - my parents knew each other since they
were very small, you know, because they grew up together in South India.
My father became a history lecturer, and my mother has taught and
lectured in all sorts of things, comparative religion and the study of
other faiths. She's a person who I think has a great belief in a
contemplative lifestyle. She practices meditation. She, I think, is a
real searcher.

GROSS: Did you practice meditation?

Mr. FIRTH: No. Not seriously. I've just sort of tried to learn to be
quiet a little bit. I actually went to a monastery - this was a Buddhist
monastery - to learn something about meditation, and I have never
practiced it with any great discipline. But I did find it to be, even it
its probably shallowest and least-disciplined form, I did find it to be
somewhat helpful, because however fortunate my lifestyle is, it's not
always the most restful.

GROSS: What made you go in the first place to the Buddhist monastery?
What did you want?

Mr. FIRTH: Restfulness. I suppose it was this sense that I've always
been very attracted to the randomness and the unpredictability of my
profession. I enjoy not knowing what's next. I enjoy the passionate
commitment to something which is going to be gone soon. It's a strange
creative promiscuity, if you like, where I'll move on to the next thing
and commit myself with equal, you know, emersion and delight in
something as if the one before just never existed. And I think that it's
very exciting, but it can create a kind of upheaval, because there's no
continuity. And however thrilled I am by what I'm doing and however
stimulated I am by it, I think it's - it can be quite difficult to get
back to a sort of a core.

One of the things you're doing is taking on different people's lives.
You're changing character. You're changing personalities. You're, you
know, you're not - I find it's not always easy to shake them off. And
before you've shaking one off, you're taking another one on. And I think
just for an actor, just to get back to a sense of who you are without
all of that I think can be quite a challenge.

GROSS: I hate to end here, but we're out of time. Thank you so much.

Mr. FIRTH: Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

BIANCULLI: Colin Firth, speaking to Terry Gross earlier this year. His
movie, "A Single Man," co-starring Julianne Moore, came out on DVD this
week.

Coming up, film critic David Edelstein reviews the new movie co-starring
Julianne Moore, "The Kids Are All Right."

This is FRESH AIR.

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Cholodenko's 'Kids' Flick: More Than Just All Right

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple raising a family
in the new movie "The Kids Are All Right." Their every day life are
interrupted by the appearance of their children's sperm donor.

Film critic David Edelstein has this review.

DAVID EDELSTEIN: In 1967, in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," white
Katherine Ross brought black fiance Sidney Poitier to visit parents
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn; and though the film was a creaky
sitcom, it captured something of mainstream culture's imminent upheaval.
Now comes Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right," another situation
comedy - a stupendous one - that shakes up our way of looking at the
family.

The parents are a same-sex couple, Nic and Jules - they're women - and
the guess-who who comes to dinner is their anonymous sperm donor,
located by their two teenage children, Joni and Laser. Each mother
carried a child, so they both received his contribution, but neither
expected him to be an influence on her kids.

Annette Bening's Nic is a doctor and more the authority figure, and
Bening wears a short, fluffy haircut; lowers her voice, purging its
tinkle; and presents to her kids a mask of stability, of someone who
values structure above all. Nic doesn't articulate her political agenda,
but it's implicit: that two moms can create a home that's every bit as
traditional as one with a mother and father. She is admirable but also a
bit of a pill - and Bening has a genius for illuminating the gap between
the facade and the person underneath, desperately trying to hold the
mask in place. Like the best comic protagonists, Nic takes herself too
seriously - which guarantees her orderly universe will become
untethered.

Enter Mark Ruffalo as Paul, the freewheeling hetero-bachelor
restaurateur. Over the meal, Nic wears a frozen smile but questions him
with visible distaste. But there are frequent cuts to the fascinated
kids, Mia Wasikowska's studious Joni and Josh Hutcherson's Laser - who's
struggling in school, doing drugs and unable to conform to Nic's view of
him. Although he doesn’t speak here, he's especially taken by his bio-
dad's view of higher education

(Soundbite of movie, "The Kids Are All Right")

Ms. ANNETTE BENING (Actor): (as Nic) So Paul, did you always know
that...

Mr. MARK RUFFALO (Actor): (as Paul) Oh yes.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) ...that you wanted to be in the food services
industry?

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) I always liked food.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) Oh yeah. No, I was asking because I remember when I
was reading your file back when we were looking for, you know, a
sperm...

Unidentified Actor: Can I have (unintelligible)?

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) Sure. Anyway, you said that you were studying
international relations.

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) Oh. Yeah. Wow. That was in - that was a long time
ago. Um. Yeah. I was considering it but then I dropped out of school.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) Ooh.

Ms. MIA WASIKOWSKA (Actor): (as Joni) You dropped out of college?

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) Yeah, it just wasn't my dream.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) No, huh? Why's that?

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) No. It just seemed like massive waste of money
after a while. You know, I was just sitting on my ass listening to
people spout ideas I could just as easily have learned in a book.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) Oh. Okay.

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) I'm not saying that I, you know, I think that
higher learning uniformly blows.

Ms. BENING: (as Nic) Oh.

Mr. RUFFALO: (as Paul) You know, I think college is great for some
people. Joni, I’m sure I think you're going to love it. But just I'm a
doer. That's how I learn. That's just me. I'm just weird that way I
guess.

EDELSTEIN: Director Lisa Cholodenko is best known for the amusing-
though-finally-tragic lesbian love story, "High Art," but for "The Kids
Are All Right" she collaborated with a more a commercial screenwriter,
Stuart Blumberg. They contrive a flirtation between Paul and Jules,
played by Julianne Moore, whose lyric ditheriness carries echoes of
Diane Keaton. But as a duettist, Moore is in a class of her own. She
takes on the rhythms of her co-stars - suggesting how marriage to the
strong-willed Nic has kept Jules soft and suggestible.

It's easy to see why Paul charms her, since Ruffalo has a magnetic
flakiness, and when Paul tries to reach out to his newfound family, he's
touchingly awkward. The kid actors are more than all right. The watchful
Wasikowska shows the wheels turning in Joni's head, trying to re-
assemble the puzzle pieces of her life; and Hutcherson lets you glimpse
the person fighting to emerge from under layers of defenses

Cholodenko has a female partner and a child, and in a political climate
hostile to gay families it must be hard for her even to suggest that two
moms might not be enough. But she's a true dramatist. She tests what is
presumably her own design for living; she bombards it with every
satirical weapon in her arsenal. Then she picks up the pieces and
rebuilds.

But Cholodenko also wants you to see that despite the gaps in the
pioneer family life of Nic and Jules, Joni and Laser have enough of a
foundation, enough love, to grope their way to all-rightness. The self-
satire of "The Kids Are All Right" is so rich, so hilarious, so healthy
you wonder how anyone could find a reason to vote against it.

BIANCULLI: David Edelstein is film critic for New York magazine.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: For Terry Gross, I'm David Bianculli.
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