Despite being a man who cannot see sexuality, and directing a non-gay gay film, A Single Man‘s Tom Ford was sure asked a lot of homosexual questions at the movie’s junket. Like whether he agrees with Rupert Everett’s argument that gay actors should stay in the closet if they have any hope of making it.
“I would like to think it’s not true,” says Ford, “but it probably is, don’t you?”
Yes! We do! And we’re growing increasingly flummoxed by Ford’s insistence that he lives and operates in a world where sexuality doesn’t exist, because of his “NY-LA-LON” jet-setting lifestyle. This is not something to celebrate. If Ford wants to be a groundbreaking director who makes films and not movies, he will make the effort to engross himself in the lives of everyday people. Including everyday gays, if he’s going to make a movie about them.
In interview after interview, Ford laments how he just can’t see why the gay factor is such a big deal. These are not the words of an enlightened fellow; they are the words of an ignorant one.
(Video via Boy Culture)
Cam
I’ll say it again, this is a guy that set out to create a colgne, that according to him would have the “Sexy Smell of a man’s crotch”. He can pretend that sexuality doesn’t exist in his world, but my guess is that a straight male designer isn’t going to go on and on about how sexy a man’s crotch smells. This guy now has a hollywood publicist who is sitting there whispering in his ear that if his movie is seen as “Too Gay” it will fail and he will never get to make another one, he is buying into it. Typical coward. It’s really easy to be out when you are a fasion designer in NY Tom, but the rest of us get to deal with being out in the real world. Time to man up and stop trying to stuff yourself back in the closet.
GeoffM
Yes.
Joseph
He sounds like an truly arrogant man who needs to a good dose of reality.
Joseph
He sounds like an truly arrogant man who needs a good dose of reality!
Mo
Queerty, you are becoming a bitter old queen (BOQ). How gay does something have to be? This may be this man’s life, not yours? With your gay barometer, what is the measurement of a good gay. Do we have to wake, breath and live gay every moment? I’ve seen the film and it is gay, it’s very gay. I understand what Ford is saying and probably the part you don’t like is that one day, gay blogs will not be needed.
RomanHans
Mr. Ford was quoted as saying that, describing himself, being gay wouldn’t make his top ten list.
Me, I’m thinking that’s bullshit. I’m thinking “Gay” should be probably be somewhere up there above “Finger-snapping champion, 1997” and “Fiestaware collector.”
Then toss in the poster for a GAY MOVIE showing a man with a woman, and you’ve got yet another gay Uncle Tom trying not to scare the horses.
Rudy
Other than seeming ill-informed on the subject of Rupert Everett (which is nothing to hold against anyone) there was nothing anti-gay or remotely even closeted about this interview. This is another Queerty-imagined tempest-in-a-teapot.
Ford isn’t even butch enough for a cameo on “Modern Family.”
Cam
No. 5 · Mo said…
Queerty, you are becoming a bitter old queen (BOQ). How gay does something have to be? This may be this man’s life, not yours? With your gay barometer, what is the measurement of a good gay. Do we have to wake, breath and live gay every moment? I’ve seen the film and it is gay, it’s very gay. I understand what Ford is saying and probably the part you don’t like is that one day, gay blogs will not be needed.
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This isn’t about whether or not something is “gay Enough” this is about yet another famous out person trying to do the closet tap dance as soon as they shoot for something a little more widely known. Tom Ford was all about sex, sexuality etc… then suddenlly he makes a hollywood movie and runs screaming from the word gay. This has happened before. Cheyanne Jackson was a very well known out of the closet broadway performer. He snagged a part in the movie about the Plane that crashed in PA on 911 and during the interview said “If my wife or girlfriend” etc… he later said that his publicist was homophobic and he had since fired her and he is now very out. But that is why Queerty is bitching at Tom Ford, it’s the same old shit.
Alexandre
NY-LA-LON….I can’t say if those cities are as liberated as he say, but I can say certainly that Paris is not. Homophobia is rampant here
Matthew Rettenmund
Thank you for the link. I have to say I can see how this comes off as out of touch, and that is what I would call it—he is not in touch with (nor does he seem especially interested in) the struggles of gay people who are not lucky or successful enough to live in a world where gay means next to nothing. But on the plus side, I think his heart is in the right place—he’s not an enemy—and I have to say his film is brilliant and pulls no punches of any kind, even if the marketing is sort of closeted.
Michelle
I appreciate that he doesn’t feel it is one of his defining qualities. So what?
Cam
No. 11 · Michelle said…
I appreciate that he doesn’t feel it is one of his defining qualities. So what?
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Fine Michelle, then the next time you are asked to describe your defining characteristics I’ll expect you to leave out “Female”
Tommy
I love Tom. I see things the same way he does. He is open about being a gay man, but his whole life is not his sexuality. He is an individual.
Yes, his movie is about a gay man. But it is not about being gay in a political way where he is hitting people over the head with some kind of message.
It’s a universal story of love and loss that anyone who has lost someone they loved, gay, bisexual or straight can relate to.
I say good for him for not feeling he has to conform to what “the professional homosexuals” want him to be.
I hate that to be politically correct and pro-gay you have to give up your individuality and uniqueness.
Cam
No. 13 · Tommy said…
I hate that to be politically correct and pro-gay you have to give up your individuality and uniqueness.
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He isn’t being unique, his story is a really really old and boring one. Gay Gay Gay until he goes to hollywood, then it’s back into the shadows as much as you can. It’s advertising a gay movie with promos that only show a hetro couple. Don’t try to give us that crap about “Professional Homosexuals” wanting something. When straight starts stop getting asked about their wives, girlfriends, husbands etc… THEN I’ll say that his attitude is valid.
Blind Apologists Unite
Oh, come on! I’m the first one to tell a bunch of oversensitive fags to get the fuck over themselves, but sometimes you have to call something what it is. This is an egregious example of someone on the cusp of success (in Ford’s case, as something other than fashion designer) and having to tip-toe back into the closet, keeping things very nonthreatening for white bread America so they’ll buy tickets. The poster only further supports the assumption. They’re marketing this film to the masses, so if it seems too “gay”, it becomes niche and simply won’t sell. It’s about numbers, folks. He (and the production company/studio) are trying to make a profit on this film by banking on names. They don’t want that sticky “gay” part to be too obvious until folks have bought their tickets already, thinking they’re about to see a love story involving Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.
Rodrigo, UY
I was going to add a few cents but Cam’s points in response to the disagreeing comments are pretty clear and explain themselves well, don’t you think?
Marc H.
Being in the big business means compromising. Everybody knows that. Much like as if you were in a Southern rather religious State in America, you wouldn’t wear a T-shirt that says: “I’m an atheist” without risking to get negative reactions that you knew would emerge from it in the first place. It’s the same if you’re in a homophobic country and avoid showing signs of affections publicly (to a person of the same sex) where you risk being put in jail or stoned to death if they found out you’re messing around with a person that has the same kind of genitals that you have ;-).
And that’s what Hollywood is a quasi-religion that has not much room for gender issues or same-sex-relationships of any kind cause they think the majority of the market demands it. Just because you’re shouting aloud proudly that you’re a lesbian or gay, doesn’t mean that people are gonna like you more, actually you risk a lot because you can’t take it back. And Mr. Ford is privileged, yes. But he does not have to justify himself for that and become a self-loathing, but famous person for constantly denoting and talking about his sexual preference.
So people, please stop thinking in black or white patterns and be proud that he dared to make a movie in the first place that made it to the Oscars and thus gained a lot of publicity for all of us.
Well as Colin Firth put it, in the end it comes down to intimacy, trust and love is all. Passion and sex is replacable. United Colors of Queerdom means also acceptance and tolerance we claim for ourselves all the time, so we should grant it to others as well. Don’t forget about that!
Marc H. from NOT-so-liberal-as-it-seems Zurich