#and obviously a lot of time is spent on how kendall being the chosen and the focus of logan at all times made him subject to a particular | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

transmutationisms · 1 year

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given how you have talked about succession and race before, do you have any thoughts on the recent interview by Juliana Canfield in Vulture? The main gist of the Jess scene in the last episode being meant to be funny, according to one of the (white) writers. (Quote: "Three weeks later, a bunch of us went out to dinner and one of the writers, Lucy Prebble, was like, “We’re cutting together episode eight, and the scene is funny.” I was like, “It’s a funny scene?” It had never occurred to me that it was written to be funny. I saw it as deadly serious, existentially chilling, and reminiscent of the 2016 election.")

so, wrt that scene in particular, it's not totally clear to me what prebble thought the joke was, and imo that would make a difference. to me it read as a very dark joke aimed at greg, who's clearly torn between thinking mencken is 'bad' in a very distant way, and wanting to please his boss and do his job. jess's lines i did not think were delivered or played as funny, and the overall effect of the scene, to me, was to shift focus to the people who work for waystar but cannot really be said to make executive calls: assistants, underlings, &c. i read jess as feeling like she's been complicit in what atn was doing this entire time, and trying, too little too late, to stop it. her field of action is obviously very limited because she, like everyone else on the show, is still operating within waystar's orbit, and within capitalism.

more broadly, i think this jess convo is a little bit frustrating in some of the same ways the sophie stuff has been. it's a very last-minute shift for the show, to actually address head-on (sort of) jess and sophie as women of colour and what that means for them as people who are involved with the roys in different capacities. it's hard to do this well this late in the game, and especially in a season where by necessity the siblings' grief is so central. we still haven't spent any time with jess alone, and we've never really gotten into her head---also a problem with sophie. so, just as the sophie scenes work mostly as kendall characterisation, the jess/greg convo does a lot of its work as greg characterisation, and kendall's remarks to jess earlier in the season about atn covering african politics also tell us much more about how kendall sees jess, himself, and racism than they do about jess herself.

none of this is a new problem for succession; it has always been pretty clear that it's about its white characters. so, these last-ditch gestures toward more commentary on race can read as a bit tacky at best. with the election night thing, i don't mind a joke at greg's expense (it's continuous with him trying to claim he has "principles" in s2), but it is true that in that scene the show is using jess and her race (implicitly) to do that. the show's premise has always foreclosed a lot of potentially interesting questions about people like jess and in jess's position: again, disempowered, but also benefitting in some way from the company and from selling reactionary politics. that could make an interesting avenue to explore, but it's simply not one that this show has chosen to go down. again, it's not clear to me from that interview exactly what prebble thought the joke was so i can't really say much more about her specifically, but the scene itself in the show is part of a larger pattern in how the writers handle race (usually weirdly ignore it, sometimes use it to explore their white characters' psyches).

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myloveforhergoeson · 10 months

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His Girl Friday - Scene 1

Scene 1 - Somewhere I Belong

Throughout his entire life, James had spent a lot of time doing his best to live up to the expectations of others, so much so that becoming someone else almost came second nature. From being his mother’s perfect son to the Mountain Aire High hockey team’s perfect right defense, the perfect homecoming king, and the most popular guy in school, he executed his roles flawlessly. So, why, he thought, as he sat inside the entryway of Duluth’s Paramount Theater, why am I so nervous for this pop star audition?

He had already had a hell of a day, being chased by the girl’s field hockey team for turning the sprinklers on during their practice, practically stealing Mrs. Magacowski’s car in order to drive to the audition when Kendall’s mom was too busy, then slipping and falling on the snow outside despite his years of perfecting stability on the ice… Everything that had led up to this moment felt like a bad omen, an omen that knotted his stomach as he wrung his shaking hands together, running through the lyrics of the song he had chosen to audition with again and again.

After bumbling into the theater with minutes to spare before the auditions ended, and legendary producer Gustavo Rocque made his way back to Hollywood, James and his closest friends had managed to secure the last four spots of the day.

He was touched that Kendall, Logan, and Carlos wanted to audition in solidarity but didn’t know how to express this to them. They were always doing things like that for him, running for dance court, auditioning for the school musical, and giving up precious time of their own, all so he wouldn’t feel alone and unsupported in his decisions.

I’m lucky to have them, James reminded himself, and even if they’ve landed supporting roles in musicals before, there’s no way they’re better than me.

Logan, audition number 810, had been the first of the four to go, leaving Carlos, James, and Kendall to their own devices as they waited in the lobby for him to return.

This was when, of all the other teenagers pouting, sobbing, shaking with their heads in their hands as they made their way out into the cold Minnesota night, James noticed one person in the room doing her best to wipe a shit-eating grin right off her face.

Who could look that happy after an audition with Gustavo Rocque?

Knot growing inside his stomach, James immediately sized the girl - beautiful as he thought she was - up as his competition, watching as she took a small lap around the lobby, clutching what looked to be a black, leatherbound notebook to her chest. It seemed as though she were searching for something, but what it may have been was unclear.

That was until she noticed Logan rush quickly back into the room from the auditorium where the auditions were being held and she seemed to lock into him, the same way he would lock onto a hockey puck during a game. Unrelenting gaze, mixed with clear focus and determination… There was no question this mystery girl was on a mission.

James took note of this, still playing his audition song over in his head, as she carefully watched his friend exit the theater, following Logan’s every move as he climbed back into the plastic chair beside Carlos, rocking back and forth as he muttered something almost incomprehensible about the famous producer.

Eagle eyes catching the slightest shift in the girl’s pace from the corner of his vision, James watched as her eyes softened, and then he just as easily glanced away as her gaze slid over each of his friends. Maybe she was studying them, She obviously thinks we’re irresistible, and once she slung one of the straps of her mini backpack off her shoulder and dug around the pouch for a few seconds, she pulled out a small pack of multi-colored tissues.

With a deep breath, the girl seemed to muster up a bit of courage before placing one foot in front of the other, carrying herself with her head held high as she crossed the room - only interrupted by Kelly Wainwright, Gustavo’s talent scout, calling out for number 811: Carlos.

Cutting her clean off, Carlos managed to run into the auditorium with no problem, though it seemed to shake the girl a bit before she continued onward toward Logan.

“Hey, take a couple of tissues. Mr. Rocque is out of control, so try not to take his words to heart.”

Sure, she had been speaking to Logan, but the minute her words reached James’ ears, he found himself wishing she was speaking to him. Clear, confident, commanding.

With a voice like that, no wonder she walked out of there so happy…

She was closer now, so close that the sweet floral smell of her perfume radiated off of her… James said a small prayer that it wasn’t one of his mother’s many, many concoctions.

To his right, Kendall nudged him in the ribs, eyes flickering between himself and the girl, waggling his bushy eyebrows. To his left, Logan seemed just about as caught off guard as James was, immediately stopping his sniffling at the sound of the newcomer’s voice, trying to act as if he hadn’t been crying from the producer’s harsh words at all. Graciously, the boy accepted her offer, smiling a bit as he said, “Thanks, it means a lot…”

There was a brief moment of awkward silence; She looked as if she wanted to say something, but was struggling to find the words.

No way she’s hitting on him… Not when I’m right here…

“I’m Logan Mitchell,” His friend introduced, before turning and gesturing towards the other two sitting beside him, “And these are my friends, James Diamond and Kendall Knight, and the guy inside, probably getting crushed by Gustavo, is Carlos Garcia.”

Introducing them, last names and all, set off the alarm bells in James’ brain, which he did his very best to ignore as he gave the girl a small wave of greeting despite the noticeable tremor racking his body. He would’ve said something, anything, had he not felt a lump collecting in the middle of his throat. The Diamond’s had quite the reputation in the Midwest, and though he would never admit it out loud, James loathed the baggage he carried along through their family name.

To his surprise, she didn’t seem to have any reaction to it - Diamond isn’t that common of a last name… is it? - as she reached out to shake Logan’s hand.

“I was just in before you. I’m Roxanne Somerset.” She plainly stated, as if it were an uninteresting fact, before digging into what she had really wanted to tell them. “And Gustavo is desperate to find someone, so you two do your best okay?”

It took James a second to realize Roxanne was talking directly to himself and Kendall before she continued, “You can’t let him intimidate you. As I walked out of my audition, I heard him telling his assistant that if they don’t bring someone home tonight, they’re fired.”

She can’t be saying that to be nice.

Before he was able to analyze her statement anymore, a reverberated fart noise echoed off the walls of the theater, causing Roxanne to look up and cock her head.

He let his eyes trace the outline of her face as her hair fell to the side.

“Do you go to Mountain Aire?” Logan asked her, cutting the noise off as Carlos came racing back to his seat, giggling loud enough to disrupt the chatter from other auditionees in the lobby. Without skipping a beat, he took the closest open seat, not batting an eyelid toward the girl.

Of course, she doesn’t, we would’ve noticed a girl like that-

“Yeah. Do you four? I just transferred there is semester from Twin Pines.”

James had dated a girl from Twin Pines earlier in the year; She hadn’t been interested in him much beyond the Brooke Diamond Cosmetics company he was the heir to, however, and that was just fine in his book. They had a good two weeks of fooling around before he decided he was bored and broke things off with her a few days later. What was her name? Mitsy?

When he noticed his friend smile at her comment and claim, “I knew I’d seen you somewhere before!” the knot in his stomach grew.

Able to expertly hide this feeling, he cleared his throat before blurting, “New Girl, nice!”, hoping Roxanne wasn’t able to detect the nervous break in his voice.

Why didn’t Logan mention-

“Number 812! 812 please!”

From behind the curtain separating the auditorium from the lobby, Kelly poked her head out, calling the number sticking to James’ lucky white v-neck and black vest.

When James shot his hand out to Kendall’s chest, trying to rip number 813 off his friend’s jacket, his years of quick reflexes were no match for those of the MAHS hockey team captain.

“James… this is your dream, not mine-”

Does he ever cool it with the speeches? So dramatic…

“- go big time.”

Before he knew it, James was spun around and roughly shoved toward the curtain separating the waiting room from the stage. As much as he loved the physical prowess being a hockey player afforded him, he hated that his friends were just as strong as he was, and he dwelled on this until -

“Good luck!”

Roxanne’s words were barely above a whisper as he pushed the black cloth back, but he heard her as if she were the only person standing in the room with him. And for a second, he wished she was. It was far easier to impress strangers than his own friends.

She’d like my piece. He reassured himself, as he walked in front of the Hollywood mega-star and his talent scout, forgetting everything except for the slow, sweet Smokey Robinson tune playing in his head. Time to be the perfect pop star.

In an instant, Kelly had run up to the stage and shoved a piece of paper into James’ hand as Gustavo yelled out, “Sing that! Now!”

From his time in theater, sight-reading a song came as easy as reading a book - plus, it was far less boring. The issue, however, was this was a song he didn’t recognize, one by the title of “From Me to You, With Love.”

What? Lame.

Easily crumpling the sheet up and tossing it over his shoulder, James cleared his throat, tapped the microphone on stage in front of him, and began to sing “Tracks of My Tears.”

#thats all she wrote fic #his girl friday scenes #fresh new tag😩

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blind-rats · 3 years

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For the fans, it’s never about the “happy endings”. People misunderstood that it seems to get a good storyline, either it has to be happy or dark. It’s not that simple. It’s not Happy Ending vs Dark Ending. It’s about good storytelling and characterization.

For years, fans cared more about the characters. When a writer only focused on the plot, and not the character, then they would usually sacrifice the progression, the development, the investment, the connection, and the fans who actually watched the show FOR the characters since the beginning. Good storytelling is when it elevates the character (good or bad) into something layered.

Season 1:

Aaron was arrested for Lilly’s murder was a good thing; something that should be done. The baddie finally was captured, even got hit by a truck.

Logan wanted to jump off the bridge was a cliffhanger; something that would keep the fans tuned in for the next season.

Lianne took the money was IN character; she wasn’t a good mother and Veronica finally admitted that. For a whole season, V thought that by solving Lilly’s murder, her mom would return, but in the end, it didn’t matter. V accepted that. It sucks, but it was progress for Veronica that she finally let her go, although she lost the money. There was balance for these plots and these characters, that is why season 1 was the best.

Season 2:

Keith missed the flight wasn’t about a happy ending -- it was a set up for the next season because he received a mysterious assignment from Kendall. Again, it kept the fans wanting more.

Season 3:

Logan beat up Gory was a set up for the next season. Like I mentioned before, if the show wasn’t canceled, it would give Logan a darker path or a lighter path in his life. It was supposed to make the fans wanting more; what would happen to Logan? What would happen to him and Veronica? There was a lot of speculation at the time, but it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

Keith lost the election, according to RT himself, because he helped Veronica. Which was IN character. He helped Veronica, and it ignited another rivalry between him and Jake Kane again. It was supposed to be another set up for the next season, and it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

The Movie:

There are so many retcons in this movie that fans noticed and many expressed their displeasure because the storytelling of the movie was a bit weak, BUT they are still IN characters. Yes, there are some changes, obviously you can’t have the same characters from a decade ago. Logan was matured, Wallace was matured, Mac was matured, Weevil was matured, even Piz was matured.

Veronica was trying to find herself and decide what kind of person she wanted to be. At the end of the movie, she decided that she wanted to help people. And that is why many fans liked the movie because the character progressed into the next stage. The character didn’t stay stasis.

The movie had so many flaws, especially with cheesy dialogues, unimportant cameos, and frankly not so good plots. But when fans have waited for so long for the conclusion of the series, to have characters finally get their deserved/bittersweet endings, is a good thing.

The Books (The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and Mr. Kiss & Tell):

Maybe because the books were (co)written by Jennifer Graham, a woman, a fan, she knew about the characterization of the characters. Fans immediately noticed the differences between her writing and Rob’s writing; which parts were hers, which parts were RT’s.

Nobody cared nor remember about the professor and the murderer/rapist, but everyone mostly remembered about Haley, Lianne, Aurora, Hunter, Petra, Jade, Norris, Grace, and even The Gutiérrez cousins.

Notice that all of the memorable characters in the books were absent from season 4 because RT didn’t write them in the books and he felt that he didn’t need to explain their absence.

Logan and Weevil had a good relationship, and they both were friendly with each other. That was progress and should be allowed to continue.

Logan and Veronica had stability and a good relationship even when there were some problems. Even when Leo (who was inserted by RT) was there. But it was pretty much good characterization for both of the characters. Something that was missing in season 4.

Season 4:

To those who said that the whole season was great except for the ending, didn’t pay any attention. From the very beginning, fans were being introduced to a lot of new characters that fans didn’t know nor care like it was some sort a new show. They have their own storylines, their own plots, even their own endings. It would be fine if this was a brand new show, but it wasn’t. It was a continuation of the previous installment. The new characters from the books were much more nuanced compare to the new characters in season 4.

The show focused more on the plots instead of the characterizations. They focused more on the special guest stars instead of the regular cast.

The characterization of Veronica was WAY OFF; so different and seems to be regressed to her former self when she was 17 years old. She was rude to everyone including Logan and Wallace. She didn’t know what was going on with Keith. She was nonchalant about filming others having sex. She was using drugs. She was drinking and shooting a gun. She was mocking Wallace and Logan for having stability. She was more interested in having a fling with Leo but she refused to break up with Logan.

Fans would accept Veronica’s regression if there was something happened to her. Why she behave like that? What was the reason? She was having a life she chosen from the movie and the books, and yet she wasn’t happy. Because of what? What kind of trauma that made her regressed? No reason at all? Because normal life is not something that a detective should have? And that’s when the characterization was down the drain. When a character doesn’t have a motivation to do what’s right or what’s wrong, their behavior is considered to be OOC.

Matty, a new character, a white rich sociopath girl, wasn’t Veronica, and yet the fans were expected to treat and view her like she was Veronica.

Marcia, the new chief of police was a wasted character. She wasn’t a foil for Veronica, wasn’t an enemy of anybody, and she spent her time in the precinct only.

The assassins from the Mexican cartel had too many plots and not enough characterization, and frankly, the fans didn’t care about them, especially when the writers sacrificed Wallace and Mac.

The death of Logan wasn’t just the only thing that was considered worse, but the fact that they immediately didn’t see the aftermath. They never showed the emotional impact and didn’t even give the characters and the fans to mourn the character. RT tends to leapfrog a plot, even in iZombie, and put exposition instead.

The death of Logan was wasted, done by the most insignificant villain in the history of the show that didn’t even have a proper characterization and development. But the show promoted him like he was one of the best things ever happened.

Logan’s death wasn’t caused by a heroic moment or something dramatic. It was last minute and immediately swept under the carpet.

Veronica spent her last monologue talking about exposition. it was an ending. It wasn’t something that fans wanted to tune in, unlike the previous seasons, movie, and books.

So the whole notion that every season ended in a dark ending is partly untrue. Plot-wise, it should served their characters. It should elevated them into something better or something darker, but it was interesting nonetheless. Season 4 didn’t have that at all. All the characters were gone, finished. Veronica rode off to the sunset without any kind of satisfying ending, good or bad. Bad, mostly.

This is why Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul and Cobra Kai are praised because of the writings and characterization. We see the progression of the characters of Jimmy to Saul, who is not a good person, but still layered. We see the development of Johnny Lawrence; from a bully to an anti-hero. Or Hawk from a nerd into a bully himself. IT'S THE CHARACTERIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT accompanied by good storytelling. It’s not (just) about happy/sad ending.

It’s also not just about killing off the main character. There’s a reason why fans are still angry with the ending of How I Met Your Mother or LOST. So many people are pissed with the ending of Dexter and Game of Thrones. Don’t forget about The 100, Gilmore Girls, and Arrow. Not because of the dark endings of those shows, or the killing off the main characters. It was because they wasted so many years with the characterization and development just to get subverted endings that the writers seem to pat themselves on the back, ignoring any fans who had been there for the start.

And RT’s betrayal to the fans isn’t just about killing off the main character. It was the way he did it. He was using the fans to revive the show, using the fans’ money to revive it, knowing that he would kill off a popular character, knowing that he would piss loyal fans and the fandom, who had been very supportive with his works and projects, and yet still done it, just because he despised a character he created for so long. Even BBC News knew this trend and called him out. It was the way he exploited the fans that were considered to be a betrayal.

#Veronica Mars #The 100 #Arrow #Rob Thomas #Jason Rothenberg

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inkedangelhaz · 7 years

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Harry Styles Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair interview is only available to read in Italian right now, so I decided to translate it so others (and myself) can read it too! I did change some of the wording to make it more understandable, because Google Translate isn’t always the best, but I didn’t change the meaning of anything that was said. You can read the original (in Italian) here !

Harry Styles: Vanity Fair Interview 2017

Harry Styles has grown, does not drink, and wants to become pescatarian. The only mystery: For whom did he write the songs? “For a woman in particular”, and he hopes she understands the dedication. All clear, Kendall?

The last thing that Harry Styles does before going to sleep every night is send an email with a list of what he needs to do the next day. “Even if it’s boring stuff, like 9 o'clock: coffee. If you don’t have a schedule sometimes you feel lost. I do find it a little hard to laze.” Perhaps it’s one of the side effects of the past six years with one of the most famous boybands of all time, One Direction, where every minute of their lives on tour was planned in detail. The world tours could last almost a year, and did not include only concerts in the stadiums: there was endless promo to be done during the day and recording in their “free time”.

One Direction: This Is Us – the documentary behind the scenes by Super Size Me director, Morgan Spurlock – had shown another member of the band, Zayn Malik, who was ripped mercilessly from his bed in the tour bus after only ten minutes of naptime to record a new song.

Instead it seems that Styles wallows in the discipline. “I adore routine,” he explains. “When you’re small it’s all programmed: waking up at a certain time, breakfast, school. And when it ends it’s hard to figure out what to do with yourself.” Maybe for him it was a way of keeping that part of youth tight. He was 16 years old when he had moved from Cheshire to London as one of many who hoped to succeed with X Factor. In 2010, Simon Cowell had chosen five teenagers who had failed to pass the solo audition to create a super group. Harry was soon to become the sexiest and most famous component of a group that in a short time had turned into the sexiest and most famous boyband in the world. According to the ranking of the richest people in the world this year, Styles has a heritage of 40 million pounds.

Today, at the age of 23, he is trying to become master of his universe. One Direction took an “indefinite break” last year and he spent the following months writing and recording his first solo album, and to play in his first film, Dunkirk, the epic war film of Christopher Nolan that will be released this summer. The album is titled ‘Harry Styles’ and was perhaps the most anticipated solo album since Robbie left Take That. The first single, Sign of the Times, a ballad of five and a half minutes, arrived at the top of the charts in 84 countries on the day of launch. And Harry Styles is number one in the United States, England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Holland and Belgium, and second in Italy. It is the debut album of an English artist who sold more in America since Fimi/Nielsen began recording sales in 1991.

But I really figured out what made this guy when he called me out of nowhere, on a Friday afternoon, to arrange our interview.

“Hi, I’m Harry,” chirping a young voice. “Harry Chi?”, I say, thinking he’s a kid trying to sell me something from a call center. “Harry Styles. Do you have time to have lunch together next week?“ The “personal touch” is the brand of every true global superstar. Bono, Chris Martin and Taylor Swift know well what it means to bypass the bureaucracy of manager and PR to send a personal invitation. It is a gesture that sends many messages, from the most obvious – I am normal and approachable, and obviously I know how to use the phone – to the deepest: I am giving my time. After understanding that my agenda is quite empty, Harry proposes a date and one of his favorite downtown restaurants. Book him.

Three days later, I arrive at the restaurant and find that there are no reservations on behalf of Harry Styles (of course not, which megastar would book in his own name?). There is a table for someone with a similar name, but since I do not know, the waiter is reluctant to sit just me. Five minutes later, “Harry Spring” enters, and not only looks much like Harry Styles, but guarantees it for me. Harry proves adorable. Affectionate hugs and handshakes, thank you and please after every word. We sit down and after a second he stands up to help the waiter to bring water bottles.

He wears jeans, brown ankle boots, and a Hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned enough to take a look at his well-groomed chest and the endless tattoos he has on his breast and left arm. A pair of sunglasses on top of his head keeps his hair back. He has a crucifix on his neck and big silver rings on his fingers. Yes, he’s just beautiful: boyish face, expressive, gentle attitude, impeccable manners. But, without absolutely wanting to affect his reputation as a heartthrob, I am not sure that the desire to take him home is a wish. Rather, I wish he was my son. He has two phones: one is for private use (with the newborn goddaughter on the screensaver), the other is pink and he uses it to let me listen to his new album, which still had not come out when I met him. Although he is only 23 years old, he is already godfather of three children. Almost all his best friends, he explains, are older than him. “When I moved to London, I wanted to learn from people who could give me good advice.” At first his friendship with Radio 1 DJ, Nick Grimshaw, had unleashed gossip, although Styles denied being bisexual. Today, however, the assumptions about his private life revolve mainly around famous women.

He orders a Chicken Paillard and contemplates aloud the idea of becoming Pescatarian. “I did it for two weeks, as an experiment, but I think at some point I’ll try for more time.” Because? He thinks maybe “some discipline does well”. He is never critical of life with One Direction. “It is very difficult to complain, it was an incredible thing.” While he and the other members of the band are “on hiatus”, Malik is the only one who has officially left the group. Since then he has released to the press comments denigrating the band’s music and has also recorded a piece with Taylor Swift, the former girlfriend of Styles, for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades of Gray. Have you seen him lately? Silence. “Mmm, not much.” Have the reports cooled down? “No, I’m OK. I think we are happy for each other, the fact that we are doing things that we like and we get it.”

The smile emerges again as soon as I ask about others of the band. “We all work a lot, but we go out together.” When did you last talk to Simon Cowell? “Oh, recently.” He called after hearing the anticipated Sign of the Times. “He said he loved it and he was proud of me.” He stops. “Not that the last calls were not pleasant, but this time they did not have that nuance of, ‘this is the boss calling’, and it was beautiful.” He can’t wait to make me feel the album, but first I ask him why he wanted to try to work solo. “Sometimes you write songs where you want to tell the whole story,” he says. “In short, if you write a very personal song, it is difficult to give it in the hands of a band.”

What stories did he want to tell? He makes a grimace. He spent the last seven years revealing as little as possible of himself. The press interviews with One Direction rarely lasted more than ten minutes, with other members of the band behind which to hide. The current level of personal analysis is a novelty for him. “I really wanted it to be sincere, without changing words. Recording this album gave me one of the most beautiful times of my life. But when it came out I felt vulnerable, and that had never happened.”

Let’s go to the album: blatantly inspired by the rock years ’ 60-70, psychedelic, glam and alternative country, it is light years away from the dance pieces and acute voices of One Direction. He wrote it and recorded it last summer in two months, in Jamaica. Styles says he was inspired by the singer and songwriter of the 1970s, Harry Nilsson, and the bands he listened to when he was small: his father adored Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, while his mother liked to hear Norah Jones and Shania Twain. Of course, they were not so fashionable influences, but maybe the point is just that. Despite the huge commercial success of One Direction, I honestly struggle to hum their songs, they do not remain in my head. Styles has replaced the ephemeral light pop with something more lasting, and it works. The lyrics are saturated with sex, nostalgia and broken hearts, a rare glimpse of his personal life. The last song is titled From the Dining Table and begins with: “Woke up alone in this hotel room, played with myself, where were you? Fell back to sleep, I got drunk by noon, I’ve never felt less cool.” You play with yourself? “I play with my thoughts!”, he immediately corrects.

In April he gave an interview to the magazine Rolling Stone in which he claimed that a woman in particular had a key role in the album. “Sometimes you just want to make a nod to someone, sometimes a real bow, and hope she understands it’s for her.“ The commentary was seen as evidence that the album was about Kendall Jenner, the model, television reality star, and Kim Kardashian’s half-sister with which Styles had been in a turbulent relationship with for two years. Are you interested in clarifying things? Obviously not. "It doesn’t seem to me that the record is a romantic tribute to a person. It’s more about me than anyone else. I think it’s all too easy to say, oh look, it’s about this person, that’s the most interesting thing. I never felt the need to talk about things like that.” And who can blame him? His sentimental life has always been in the spotlight. In 2012, he and Taylor Swift had been on the front page of the tabloids when they had been caught on their second date walking around Central Park. They had left a short time later, but the interest in their relationship had reignited when it was known that Swift had written at least two songs for him in her next album (Out of the Woods and Style).

Does always being in the spotlight make the natural development of relationships more difficult? “Relationships are difficult anyway. You don’t always understand just how a relationship goes, it’s not like you can say: in a week I will know. You are often told what it is before you really understand it. However, all that stuff happened when I was even younger, and you’re very confused when you’ve only had a few relationships.” Did you have to give up that sphere of private life or manage to have a little more confidentiality? “Not lately, because I made the album and a lot of things… I don’t know. No, I feel like I’ve worked a lot with the band. Too many things happened.” How many times has he been in love? “I don’t know. I don’t know how you could tell, so it’s hard to answer, right?” "One realizes, when it happens”, I fight. "Well, so they say.” He makes an embarrassed giggle and then takes the pink phone. “Um, you want to hear another song?”

He’s always been a seducer. His elder sister, Gemma (writes about technology and trends of the Millennium), recently wrote an article for the journal Another Man in which she remembered a family vacation in Cyprus. Harry was seven years old. “He was sitting on a bench near the pool, with people who were triple his age. When we returned to the airport, there was a crowd of girls of all ages who came to greet him.”

He and Gemma grew up in Cheshire. Their father was a financial advisor, now working in insurance. Styles was seven years old when his parents divorced. He is grateful that his parents have maintained a friendly relationship, even after his mother has remarried. "I’m lucky I didn’t have to take sides when they separated. I have always felt loved and encouraged by both.” He calls his mother most days. “A lot of friends say to me, ‘Your mom is really great.’ She never made me feel obliged to prove what I’m worth. Many grow up without ever showing what they feel, instead at our house there has always been much love.”

At the age of 14 he had started working in the local bakery, and he got up at 5 every Saturday. He had always thought of becoming a physiotherapist, but then “we did a workshop at school, to talk about what we wanted to do, and someone told me that there were no job opportunities in that field, so I had to choose something else. I was hurt.” Shortly thereafter he formed a group with some school mates, White Eskimo, and participated in a local band contest. “I was nervous before I got on stage, but that feeling of having all eyes on you doing something you like was exciting.”

Now we are waiting for hectic times, with a world tour of three months, alone, starting in September. The Dunkirk film will be released on August 31st. He hasn’t seen it yet, so he doesn’t know what weight he will play as an English soldier. Rumor has it that he also impersonates Mick Jagger in a biopic, but he denies it, although the look he chose for his solo album resembles the elaborate, androgynous, 70s look of Jagger. Despite having 30 million followers on Twitter and 20 million on Instagram, he is oddly cautious about social media. “Once I heard someone say: If Twitter was a party where you know that 30 percent of people are great, but you also know that the rest will hate you, you are just not going to go,” he explains.

I must admit that he is much more serious and sensitive than what I thought by watching him in the videos of the One Direction era. After three hours in his company, I can’t find any defect, he doesn’t even drink. “In the last two years of touring I discovered that I liked to go run in the morning. When I work I don’t like to drink. I do it when I go out with friends, but then maybe I don’t touch even a drop for more than a month.”

It’s time to say goodbye. I ask him what he wrote in the email that he sent last night, what he must remember to do. "I have to go and cut my hair.” Just a good guy.

(cover from Vanity Fair No. 24. Text by Kristi Murison. Translation of Gioia Guerzoni)

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