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Pharrell’s Productivity Secrets

Pharrell Williams is on a Gravity high. “Whew! Whew!” he says. “Listen to me, it is crazy.” The 40-year-old musician, producer, and mini mogul is seated on a rolling chair in the tranquil recording studio at the top of Miami’s Setai Hotel; he’s small and delicate, like an Egyptian cat, with ropes of delicate gold necklaces and bracelets encircling his neck and wrists. The windows behind him look out on the Atlantic Ocean, and, sitting with his back to the brilliant sun, his silhouette flickers as if a mirage. Naturally, Williams has a home theater, but he couldn’t wait and saw Gravity soon after it opened, in 3-D. “I was so happy with the pixÂelation,” he says. We talk about the scene where George Clooney drifts off into space. “I woulda ruined that moment,” he says, picturing himself in Clooney’s place. “I woulda cried like a baby.” I wonder if the idea of a black void, of being completely alone, scares him. “I don’t fear any-thing; I know what to avoid.” Williams laughs. “I like looking at space, but I don’t need to go there myself.”