The Talks
Fiona Crombie: “Every choice has meaning”
Ms. Crombie, as a film production designer, is it hard for you to say goodbye to the sets you’ve created at the end of a project?
I remember very distinctly walking out of my office at Shepperton Studios and seeing one of my sets for Cruella getting crushed into a skip, and I thought, “Oh, that’s a bit much!” (Laughs) But at the same time we do just kind of continue on because we have to. A lot of the times, I never see the sets come down anyway, because I’ve moved on to a different part of the film, so it's very much a sort of a normal part of the process that you say goodbye. The nice thing is that they're on film, and they live on in that way.
You mentioned moving on quite quickly… Does that mean most of your work is complete before the rest of the cast and crew come in to work on a film?
That’s right, yes. I mean, I do try and come in to visit and start my day with the shoot crew, with the art director, but you’re right that sometimes people don't even know who built what because they have to step away and move on to the next set. We're sort of a funny department in that we have so much run up, we do so much pre-production, and then we leave it and it’s almost like you're handing over the keys. It’s part of our process. We're always 20 steps ahead of the crew, otherwise the whole thing falls apart.
“The first song that I wrote was the way of discovering if I could write a song. And after that one I knew that I understood the form. Everything after that became more personal.”
“Making a movie comes with a great deal of joy, an incredible amount of hard work and equal amounts of stress, pressure, fun, and anxiety. But ultimately it’s extremely rewarding! I have the best job in the world.”
“I live from my heart. I am not a cerebral person. I will never be. I am 55 years old. I will continue doing things the way I have done them my whole life.”
“I’m using my skills to create architecture that serves humanity. I’m talking about creating space for you so that you can feel comfortable, space that supports your work and activity.”
“I consider myself a storyteller. I feel that is what good directors do, they are really just following criteria: is this a good story? Is this the story I want to tell? All we’re trying to do is the hard task of making interesting, thought-provoking films.”
“I am very grateful for the films I’ve made. I’ve been able to make movies for $1 million and I’ve been able to make movies for $195 million. I can do what I want in different sizes for different reasons. I have been able to do 10 more movies than I thought I would ever make!”
“Every time you hear a piece of music that you’ve written, you remember the joy of it. Even if you don’t remember exactly what the writing process was like, there’s a moment where you hear it and your heart is full. It’s a similar emotion like when you are in love with someone, you feel that internal joy.”
“I have a responsibility that lasts a lifetime with my children. They know that I love my work, and they know how I go about it. And I hope that they find work that they love, because nothing can compare to watching your child succeed.”
“I discovered early on that I’m the kind of person that experiments and makes mistakes but then it’s all worth it because once in a blue moon it hits home.”
“We’re going after it. We’re going after what we believe and what we deserve and we’re not taking the back seat anymore. I see an improvement in the way that we as women are standing together and paving the way for the next generations. It’s time for that.”
“To fight this game alone is actually every day a struggle. Sometimes you are not in the best shape. The biggest thing is that you must find in it a personal happiness.”
“My goal when I’m in front of an audience is to perform the piece and fill it with meaning. On stage, I concentrate on rationality and empathy, since the singer must feel a certain amount of emotion, but not too much.”
“Most people make art and movies as a job and if a lot of people go to see it they make money and that is their sign of success. I am not making judgment here, but their goal is strictly business-oriented. I don't do this as a business.”
“From the beginning, I wanted to protect the clothes themselves from fashion, and at the same time protect the woman’s body. I wanted people to keep on wearing my clothes for at least 10 years or more.”
“Art is about finding creativity in the normal gutter next to you. To see the potential in something where there is no potential in terms of how society sees it is often where art or creativity is a great tool. It’s about making the impossible possible.”
“I’m surviving. I do everything I can to speak out and make sure that I keep my humanity.”
“I think the mark of a great song, photo or a painting is something you can remember. It’s kind of that simple. If you work at it, there will be times when the intangible becomes tangible and for a moment… You are a wizard.”
“I try to look at things more from the perspective that everything is happening for us, not to us. And so whatever challenges that were occurring at the time, perhaps they were happening just so this moment could happen.”
“I take everything as seriously as the next thing. I don't differentiate or have a level of commitment based on the kind of project that it is. I believe that there's an equal measure in one role versus another role.”
“I hope the scale of my works is way bigger than what you see. I hope they live in you.”
“It was eye opening and an education really, a masterclass working with Martin Scorsese on Killers of the Flower Moon. That talent! Of course, you are in the presence of a master, working with him.”- “When I was younger I used to have more anxiousness to obtain things. But there are moments in which you obtain those things and then you relax.”
“If I should be fortunate enough to make another film, it would be exactly what I have settled upon as what is right for me. I feel that these days, I understand a little more what the cinema is.”
“There’s only one of you in the world. No one else is like you and that's a superpower.”
“I do not consider architecture as art, nor do I consider architects to be artists. However, I do have a strong desire to improve the purity of my expression and put a strong message into my architecture so that I can call it art!”
“I thought for a long time as the business grew, “Is this something I want to do for the rest of my life?” And I knew it was not. When I left Calvin Klein, I had done almost everything I wanted to do in terms of creation of products. And re-doing was less fun.”
“I think we've all lived through the pandemic and it has awakened in all of us a concept of time, and how fleeting our time is and can be... I want to apply my energy doing good and creating and hopefully not squandering that. That's what I live for.”
“I can’t make people happy if I’m not happy myself. That applies to anyone who tries to achieve something in their life: if you’re not happy, you can’t transfer any happiness”
“Once I commit to an idea, then I just move forward with it, no matter what. And that's always how I've operated when it comes to my art. I'm kind of tenacious in that way, even if it takes a lifetime, eventually I will make that thing.”
“The entire aim of my work is to elevate the human spirit.”
“I’m doing something that I love, and I consider that to be success. But if you think it’s gonna come fast or easy, then you probably are in for some rough times. You need to always be ready to throw things out and do it over again, and know that you love the process enough to be doing it repeatedly. Always be in love with the process and in love with your talent. And know that you’re going to keep doing it because it’s what you love doing.”- “I think all the roles of my career have presented me with opportunities for my own personal growth. Roles that really push you out of your comfort zone, it really helps you to grow, and it then brings you greater capacity for love within yourself and love for others.”
“The game of basketball means everything. This is love. Definitely love. I had to practice and I had to make sacrifices, but basketball has given me so much.”
“I think it’s really important to not be afraid of failure and to push yourself to try things and jump in the cold water.”
“As a director, what I hope is to create situations where the actors will be able to be alive like real people even in the context of something that is quite manufactured.”
“Filmmaking is never anything less than a beautiful gift. I've been doing this forever, and as hard as it may be, it's never let me down. I have such a will to make these movies!”
“Happiness for me is just being; just being at any given moment. If you are searching for happiness, you are not happy. It’s the pot at the end of the rainbow.”
“You better make every moment count. Live your life now; start in the morning. You mustn’t sit around waiting to die.”
“When you are in a very, very tough moment of a day and have a lot of frustration because nothing is happening right—but you don’t give up—and suddenly that happens! That’s almost a transcendental thing.”
“I am not that interested at the moment to work for the sake of others, I’m not interested in doing commissions. I'm way more interested in creating art for art's sake and in order to do that I have to believe in myself.”
Lachlan Bailey: “Just focus on that moment”
Mr. Bailey, it’s pretty rare for you to give interviews — I only managed to find a couple online. As a photographer, are you simply the type of person who prefers to be behind the camera?
I think so, yeah. I've never felt that comfortable in front of the camera, even though I'm expecting a lot from other people when they're in front of my lens. I've always shied away from it, to be honest, it just doesn’t come naturally to me. But recently, I'm changing my point of view. And I think at the end of day, talking about the work or talking about myself as a person and as an artist, it’s all part of the practice. So I've changed my direction, you know, this year I did a talk at the Sydney Opera House and I have a new book coming out for Louis Vuitton that involved photographing strangers… So it’s all been a great challenge for me. It’s refreshing.
You mentioned that it doesn’t come naturally to you, but being a photographer also means taking charge on set, no? There’s not really time to be shy or soft spoken. Has that part of your job been challenging too?
Actually, no! It's funny… When you're photographing someone, or when you're on a set, it's a little bit like a performance. I have a very different personality on set, on a job, than I do outside of that. I definitely feel like it's a performance sometimes because I'm really not someone that wants to be around a hundred people every day, but on set, it’s the job. I do have to build myself up for it, and at the end of these shoots, I really am exhausted, mentally. You have to balance all these roles as a photographer: if there's a client involved, you're talking to them a certain way, then you have models and you work with them a certain way, you have assistants so you have to be a boss. You have to be a technician, you have to have knowledge on all these different facets, you’ve got to be a fashion expert, you’ve got to know about hair and makeup, and then you also have to be an entertainer and a charming person. It’s a lot! So often when I come back from weeks of heavy shooting, I just retreat and spend time with my family.
Kate Hawley: “It’s the push and pull”
Sandra Barclay: “Light is essential to life”
Jessie Ware: “I trust myself more”
Harvey Fierstein: “We all grow from one another”
Claudio Miranda: “Make it as real as possible”
Tony Cragg: “Where do you want to go with it?”
Gary Card: “I’m doing it on my own terms”
Russell Tovey: “This is for everyone”
