It’s late in Paris when I speak to Jacob Bixenman. He’s in the city with Miley Cyrus, his close collaborator and friend, as the two continue to promote Something Beautiful, the film Bixenman codirected for the pop star. But he also has his own things to do and places to be during the men’s shows. Just the night before, he’d taken in Saint Laurent.
“I wore some seasonally inappropriate leather pants,” he tells me with a laugh, alluding to the heat wave in Europe.
It’s all in a day’s work for the Orange County native, who started as a model before moving into photography and creative direction. Along the way, a friend introduced him to Cyrus, and the two immediately hit it off. “It’s less about what we know and more about what we feel,” Cyrus tells Vogue of their relationship. (Bixenman now serves as her go-to creative director.) Case in point: the propulsively cool, defiantly sexy video for “Flowers,” directed by Bixenman, that helped to make Cyrus’s 2023 album, Endless Summer Vacation, one of the biggest releases of the year.
“While he’s incredibly knowledgeable and thorough, he’s not driven by external validation,” Cyrus adds. “That’s always resonated with me. Meaning comes first—and in that, we find authentic beauty.”
Cyrus and Bixenman only upped the ante with Something Beautiful. The overarching dream for her ninth studio album was to build something on an epic scale, and the result was not only a string of earwormy tracks with big hooks, like lead single “End of the World,” but also a full-fledged companion film, directed by Cyrus and Bixenman alongside Brendan Walter, that premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. (The film is due to stream on Hulu on July 16.)
With influences ranging from Old Hollywood to Pink Floyd, the project is proof positive of the duo’s creative alchemy. “Working and collaborating with Jacob is such a special experience because everything he creates comes from the inside out,” Cyrus says. “He leads with his heart.”
Here, Bixenman talks to Vogue about learning on the job, nailing a feeling, and what’s next.
Vogue: You’ve carved out a unique career that involves this mix of modeling and creative direction, photography and video directing. Was that always the intention?
Jacob Bixenman: I don’t think I’ve ever tried to carve out a specific thing, but I’ve been offered such cool opportunities. I didn’t have any experience prior to what I’m working on now. My intention was just to keep saying yes to things.
From your perch, what does being a creative director entail?
It’s finding how to articulate the purpose of something. I’ll understand what Miley wants for certain projects and will consider the best team members. Who’s a cool photographer I’m liking? You oversee that and make sure whatever you’re doing fits the little tapestry that’s being woven.
How did you and Miley initially connect?
I actually wanted to work with Miley badly before I had any reason to believe that I could or would. Then a mutual friend, who’s another artist with whom she collaborated, said, “You guys would have a good time together.” He suggested that she and I meet about the first thing we ever shot together, which was a promo for a live album, and we had so much fun.
Being creative with someone can be as intimate as going on a date. Would you say you spoke the same language?
Whatever she does, she does it so fully and wholeheartedly. If she agrees to do something, she’s gonna arrive to it. So I was surprised, when I shot with her for the first time, at just how intuitive she was. She’s very easy to fall in love with, especially when working with her. For that first experience, I was really nervous, but from the moment we began, I was just like, I’m here for a reason. And we were getting along, asking questions and trying to learn how to communicate. It’s a collaboration, but ultimately it’s her world. When someone trusts you or invites you to create something for them, it’s a super-vulnerable and intimate thing. So when you have that connection and a shorthand or language, it’s easy.
When you embark on an undertaking like Something Beautiful, is it overwhelming, with all of its many elements?
I fucking love it. Every opportunity I get to make something, in general, I love, especially with Miley, because she’s someone with whom I have a really positive and creative relationship. Nothing excites me more than gathering ideas, understanding the sentiment and tone of something, and thinking of who would be amazing for it. I also consider what the color, smell, feel, and taste would be. The workload itself can be overwhelming, especially when directing; there’s so much post- and preproduction and things where I’ve had to rely on people I trust and ask many questions over and over. I still ask questions every day about how to be better at this job and understand it more fully. But when we started Something Beautiful, I don’t think that there was a specific day one. It was never an assignment.
Where did the idea for the companion film come from?
Before it was a film, we knew we wanted to do something substantial. She wanted to create an album that made her proud and share something rich and fully sensory. Obviously, as with most pop artists, her image is so important to the storytelling, and we both enjoy creating visuals around it. The initial seed was to create something that felt expansive. That took many different shapes and turns and had very different contours [during] the process of her writing the album. But she set out on this mission to create something that defied the way we consume things. All the songs on the album are around five or six minutes long, and then we set out to create a big, ambitious video series. Along the way, we were always sharing references and things to get excited about.
How would you share them? On a mood board?
We’re always sharing stuff. She’s so astute with references and images of things that she likes. She’s super detail oriented. She’ll see a picture and be like, “I like the way that the hair moves, this piece of hair,” and that’ll inspire a whole thing. Tiny details like that. She’s very considered. She can really understand and be moved by the essence of something.
In the video for “Easy Lover” that you codirected with Brendan Walter, for example, Miley’s seen on a platform with a big red circle behind her. What was the inspiration behind those visuals?
We knew for that pop performance, which you don’t really see her do very often, we wanted to have this sinister element, so there’s the red lighting and tiered stage. We wanted it to feel like something was under the surface. And we had such cool people involved in this project, like Panos Cosmatos, who directed [the 2018 horror film] Mandy.
It seemed very ’50s Old Hollywood, like Busby Berkeley.
Even when she was walking through the Paramount lot, we wanted that to feel like this big, classic-Hollywood thing. Being there informed a lot of our decision-making. It’s always a collaborative tapestry of a million different things. Coming back to your earlier question, the creative direction is all those ingredients stewing together.
How has being in Miley’s world influenced your own career and how you approach things?
I’ve learned so much from watching how she carries herself and handles her business. She’s such a wonderful, fun, and exciting person, but she’s also an astute businessperson who asks for what she needs and doesn’t compromise on those things.
It seems like she and the creative team at large have a handcrafted way of creating and you took your time with this.
It took forever. In most things it’s all about simplicity and clarity. Finding your way to distill something and make it clear is a huge task. We look at and hear so many things. If something isn’t urgent and clear, it’s difficult [to break through].
So the secret is knowing exactly what you want?
Actually that’s one thing I’ve learned working with her and furthering my own career. It’s not true that all you need as a director is to know what you want, but you can at least be a very effective director knowing that. From the first thing we shot, and with “Flowers” as well, I at least knew what I wanted something to feel like. Back then, I spoke in more emotional terms. I’d say, “I want this to feel this way—how can we get that?” Now that I have more technical knowledge of how to capture something, I can speak more directly. But yes, clarity and knowing what you want is everything.
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Your first proper music video together was the Grammy-winning “Flowers,” which turned into a worldwide juggernaut, with over one billion views on YouTube. How did you wrap your mind around that moment?
It was unbelievable. When she won the Grammy, I felt so much joy for her and pride. It was so crazy, especially as our first thing together. It was fulfilling, of course, but also made me feel confident in myself, because it was all a new experience.
Do you think you’ll continue to move in the same spaces in the future?
I love taking things as they come. I love modeling, and I’ve had such a good experience, and I’ve been lucky to do it for this long. I hope to continue having the opportunity to find new ways to express myself.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.