In the mid-1990s, Ethan Tobman left Montreal to study cinema in New York. Today, he lives in Los Angeles, multiplies the first-rate projects and collaborates with the star of the hour: Taylor Swift.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
This fall, the 43-year-old production designer signs the artistic direction of the last two music videos for the American, Anti-hero and Bejeweled, which have accumulated millions of views on YouTube. It also appears in the credits ofAll Too Wellthis 10-minute musical short film that the singer-songwriter directed herself, and which should collect a Grammy nomination on Tuesday.
La relation professionnelle entre Ethan Tobman et Taylor Swift a débuté en 2019 avec The Man, une chanson tirée de l’album Lover qu’elle souhaitait mettre en images. L’extrait a récolté beaucoup de succès, et l’année suivante, la chanteuse a retenu ses services pour Cardigan, une pièce du disque Folklore.
Concocté en pleine pandémie, le vidéoclip a confirmé leur chimie.
[Taylor Swift] inspires me every time we work together. She’s an incredible leader. She has extraordinary ideas, but she remains open to suggestions.
Ethan Tobman
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SEARCHLIGHT
Ethan Tobman on the set of the film The Menu
Ethan Tobman weighs his every word. Probably because of confidentiality agreements, he avoids making too specific comments about the artist whose projects are often ambitious and always top secret.
However, he gives himself the right to say that he likes their collaborations because Taylor Swift wants to “create universes”.
It’s one of the reasons his music resonates with so many people. She’s an amazing storyteller.
Ethan Tobman on Taylor Swift
He continues: “Every time I read his song lyrics, I feel like I’m transported into a movie, into a novel. They are all very emotionally charged. And his clips must convey this emotional charge. »
From Madonna to Beyoncé
Ethan Tobman grew up in Montreal, where his parents still live. He was only 17 when he left the Quebec metropolis to study at New York University with the goal of becoming a director. The first years were not easy, he says. After presenting a short film at the Cannes Film Festival, his future looked bright, but when the industry collapsed following the attacks of September 11, 2001, he was forced to work as a waiter to pay his rent.
Determined to break into the Hollywood market despite a return to square one, Tobman put his drawing talents to work for renowned photographers, such as Mario Testino and Steven Klein, as production designer. His experience then propelled him into the world of music videos (Give Me All Your Luvin’ of Madonna, Training by Beyoncé, No Tears Left to Cry of Ariana Grande), commercials, TV series (Mosquito Coast, Pam & Tommy) and, finally, feature films.
Tobman also supervised the design of the sets of Room (2015), this Oscar-nominated drama that portrays a mother held captive in a bedroom with her son. “When I was younger, I tried to build my reputation by thinking only in terms of the set. I read rotten scripts, but because the action was set in space, in 1940 or in any original environment, I was in for it. And all the projects I was involved in either flopped or went unnoticed.
“My career started to take off when I changed my way of thinking,” he continues. Today, I choose stories that move me. Because my work is emotional architecture: I create spaces that must represent the character’s quest. When a character is detached from the world around him, I have to create an environment detached from the spectator, so that we feel what he feels. »
Well-stocked menu
This fall, Ethan Tobman also appears in the credits of the feature film The Menu (in French, The menu) as a production designer. Directed by Mark Mylod (Succession), this horror-comedy, which will be released on November 18, tells the story of lovers (Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult) who visit a desert island to eat at one of the most famous restaurants in the world. world, without knowing that its leader (Ralph Fiennes) has a surprise in store for them… “It’s a super interesting film. Every time you think you’re about to turn right, it turns left. »
The Menu was filmed last year in Savannah, Georgia, and received rave reviews from critics at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Ethan Tobman speaks of a “dream experience”. “The screenplay is divided into five acts, like a five-course meal. I found it brilliant. Because basically, going to a restaurant is like going to the cinema. It lasts two or three hours, it takes you somewhere else, it awakens your senses, and when it’s over, you just want to go back there. »
Ethan Tobman is currently working on Madame Weba blockbuster from Sony studios expected in 2024. It is a superheroine film derived from Spiderman starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney. “I still feel like I’m pretending I know what I’m doing!” I always have the impression that someone is going to come and say to me: “I think you were wrong. You have nothing to do here!” »