LOS ANGELES ? In ?A Single Man,? Tom Ford?s audacious jump from designing to filmmaking, he gave Colin Firth his first major acting award: The Best Actor prize in the Venice Film Festival last September.

In case Colin goes on to earn nominations in this awards season?and, so far, that?s very possible?he?ll be grateful to the designer who makes his confident directorial debut in the film based on Christopher Isherwood?s book, ?A Single Man.? One actor, whom Tom refused to name, will regret his decision to opt out of the role that eventually went to Colin, who was the filmmaker?s first choice, anyway.

Make that two actors: In a recent interview, Tom revealed that a well-known actor, cast as Kenny, a pivotal character, didn?t show up on the first day of rehearsals. Tom found a good replacement, Nicholas Hoult, who played the title character in Hugh Grant?s ?About A Boy.? Nicholas is now 19.

Longtime partner

Nicholas plays a student of Colin?s character, George Falconer, a college professor who is mourning the death of his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). There?s also a wonderful turn by Julianne Moore as George?s friend in the story set in LA in 1962.

Those fine performances drawn by the man who designed for the fashion houses of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent prove that his decision to direct is not a folly. The film captures the elegiac mood of the novel by Isherwood, whose relationship for over three decades with portrait artist, Don Bachardy, is chronicled in the documentary, ?Chris & Don: A Love Story.? This was also Tom?s first scriptwriting attempt (he cowrote with David Scearce). The multiawarded designer said he simply bought Final Draft, a screenwriting software, and went about adapting the book about loss and grief to the screen.

Of course, the man who now runs his eponymous fashion company showed up at our interview looking dapper. Colin and Nicholas, whom we also interviewed, similarly looked like the quintessential Tom Ford man?sharply dressed in suits, their shirts accented by cufflinks, which we rarely see these days. Excerpts:

Colin told us that instead of getting this movie offer the usual way?through an agent?you wrote him an eloquent e-mail.

I?m very lucky to have advantages. Even with them, making a film is hard, but I had Colin, who was my first choice for the role. We have the same agent. When I started casting, I immediately called up my agent and asked him about Colin. He said, ?Forget about it, he?s doing this and that.? So, I went on and hired another actor. We were only a few weeks away from starting preproduction, and I was in London at the ?Mamma Mia!? premiere. I was standing there, chatting with Colin. I was just looking him up and down (laughter), kicking myself, and thinking, this is George. I got in the car and slammed the door, and I just couldn?t believe I didn?t have Colin in this movie.

A few weeks later, the actor I was working with dropped out. I immediately called a mutual friend. I said, ?Get me Colin?s e-mail address, please.? I e-mailed Colin. We knew each other only from parties. I FedExed the screenplay to him. He e-mailed me back within 24 hours of receiving the screenplay, saying he?d read it, that he had a couple of questions, but he loved it and was nervous about a couple of things. I jumped on a plane and went to London. He came over for drinks, and we had dinner. We had a handshake deal, and I went back to New Mexico. Three weeks later, we were working together.

And, the same thing happened with the Kenny role, which eventually went to Nicholas Hoult.

A well-known actor had been cast in that part, but he didn?t show up on the first day of rehearsals. I had seen Nicholas? tape and knew he was right for the part. We got on the phone and called him. He jumped on a plane and came over. Then, I hired him. We got him to Canada (where the film was shot), got his working papers, and he was shooting four days later. It was just a lot of lucky things happening.

It?s very easy for a first-time director, even if you?re Tom Ford, to be overwhelmed by a movie set. Were you?

I wasn?t overwhelmed at all. When you?re on a set, if you?re working hard and you?re excited and nothing is too small a detail for you, you give that spirit to everybody. The entire crew was working together round the clock, because they loved the project. Part of your job when you?re leading a team is to inspire them, so that was the way I ran the set.

So as not to give away the essence of a crucial scene, let?s just say that Colin was very effective in that scene with a telephone. Can you talk about directing Colin in that one?

That particular scene, first of all, is all due to Colin. He?s a spectacular actor. The only thing I did was that I never told him when I was going to say, ?Cut.? Just when he thought I was going to say ?Cut,? I kept the camera on him. I just didn?t stop, and he was a little freaked out that I hadn?t. But, he kept giving more, and the entire crew was riveted. When you have a crew who?s just waiting to see what he?s going to do, you can?t say, ?Cut,? so we kept going.

Can you talk more about how you grafted your character and personality into Colin?s character, George?

The book is an internal monologue. I had to create external scenes to communicate to the audience what George is feeling, and to remain true to the intention of the book. The suicide, for example, is one that actually took place in my family. However, it was pulled off very successfully in a sleeping bag, with the gun that was bought that afternoon. He also laid everything out?a Gucci shirt that I had given him, and a pair of cufflinks. He wrote a note, paid all his bills, left the note to his wife, laid out all the keys, zipped himself into the sleeping bag (because he didn?t want to make a mess), then killed himself. I don?t mean to be dramatic, but there are many things like that throughout the film that are in a small way very much part of my life.

When I was writing the screenplay, I was thinking, ?Okay, if I were going to leave the planet tomorrow, what would I miss the most?? While I was doing this, my little fox terrier was curled up in my lap. I thought, ?Oh God, just to hold that little dog and smell her would be one of the things that I would absolutely miss??so, I wrote it into the screenplay. The little girl with blonde hair is my sister. As a young homosexual child growing up in Texas, I was always giving her egg conditioning treatments for her hair (laughter). I was always torturing her. People say, ?Write about what you know.? So, when you start out writing a screenplay for a book that you love, and you have to make changes, I felt I should graft on things that I knew about.

Since this was your first screenplay, how long did it take to write it?

It took me about a year and a half. I bought Final Draft and installed it on my computer. I read different books on screenwriting. One that was particularly helpful was David Mamet?s. I knew where I needed to start and where I needed to end. I had a wonderful screenplay that had been written by an earlier writer, which was very true to the book. So, I put both the book and that screenplay aside, tried to keep the spirit of that, mapped out a plot, and filled in the scenes.

Great friends

In the way that a lot of people come home and read a book in the evening, I would come home and write for two or three hours. I found it one of the most fulfilling things I?ve ever done, because at that moment in time, when you?re writing a scene, it?s perfect, because it?s in your head. There?s nothing going wrong. The first few drafts weren?t very good. It took me a long time to get the screenplay to the place where I felt confident about it. I had great friends read it and say, ?This doesn?t work, that doesn?t work, get rid of that, put that in.? So, it was a learning process. I had never written a screenplay before, but I absolutely loved it!

We?ve seen straight actors take on gay parts, but we have yet to see more openly gay actors take on straight roles.

I don?t think there are that many openly gay actors. There?s still a certain stigma to that. The beauty of this story and of Christopher Isherwood?s work was that he was way ahead of his time. There was usually a gay character, because most of his stories were autobiographical, but it was never the center of the story. He depicts a gay character as human and, for me, that?s what this was. It?s a human story. We could have almost had the same story if George had been married, his wife had died, he couldn?t see his future, and he became so distraught that he decided to end his life. So, for me, it wasn?t so much a statement about homosexuality as it was really a human story.

The character happens to be gay, and we do have a few moments where that really registers, especially because of the period he?s living in?when he?s not invited to the funeral. The moment when that really sinks in is when his best friend, played by Julianne, who?s known him for years, says, ?Don?t you wish you had a real relationship and kids?? Even she doesn?t understand it.

You?re very successful, but can you talk about how difficult it was to get financing for this film?

I had every advantage anyone could have, but it was incredibly difficult?even for me. I did have financing finally in place last year. But, September came and the Lehman Brothers collapsed. We were about to start preproduction. The people who were financing the film said, ?This is too risky. We can?t do this.? I didn?t know what to do. I thought for a moment, ?Okay, this isn?t going to happen.? A lot of people advised me, ?Don?t do this yourself. Don?t pay for it yourself.? But, I loved the project so much, and everything had come together in such a beautiful way. A very good friend of mine said, ?It?s an investment in yourself. Rather than put your money somewhere, put it in the film.? So, I financed it myself. I realized I?m lucky enough to be able to do that, but it was something that I cared about and loved enough. I believed in it.

Have you seen ?Chris and Don?? When did you read the book for the first time?

Of course, I?ve seen ?Chris and Don,? the documentary, and it?s beautiful. I know Don. I read the book for the first time in the early ?80s when I was in my early 20s. I was living in Los Angeles, and the book and the character of George really touched me. His humanity, his pain and his charm. It?s a beautiful book. Right after reading it, I met Christopher Isherwood. I became obsessed with his writing. I read everything he had written.

When I started making the film, I had to really think, ?What am I about? What do I have to say? Why does anyone need to see a film that I make?? I had started on other projects, and two other books that I?d optioned. Nothing was really speaking to me. Driving to my office one day, I realized I was thinking about George. I thought about him periodically for the last 30 years. I picked up the book. Reading it in my mid-40s, the book was an entirely different one. It?s written in the third person. In my 20s, I didn?t understand this. It?s written from the true self or the soul watching the earthbound self go throughout his day with a certain detachment. It?s really about living in the present and understanding that the smaller things in life are really what?s important.

In western culture, we?re always trained and programmed to think that we?re not happy. That we?re going to be happy when we get this or that; we?re going to be happy when we get there, but that?s never going to get us anywhere. Life is what it is, and we need to stop and say, ?Wow, this is amazing!?

E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://
blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.