Ellen Brill is the Set Decorator for FX’s popular "Nip/Tuck". The racy series, now wrapping its fifth season, chronicles the countless dissatisfaction of two ethically challenged Miami plastic surgeons, their family members and their patients with razor-sharp cynicism and a lot of skin.
Ryan Murphy - © David Gabber / Photorazzi
Season five of nip/tuck stars six series regulars: Dylan Walsh, Julian McMahon, Joely Richardson, John Hensley, Roma Maffia and Kelly Carlson.
Dylan Walsh
The season will feature many guest stars including Oliver Platt, Lauren Hutton, Bradley Cooper, Paula Marshall, Portia de Rossi, Jennifer Coolidge, Craig Bierko, Daphne Zuniga, Tia Carrere and John Schneider. Rosie O'Donnell will also guest star, reprising her season four role as lottery winner "Dawn Budge."
Ryan Murphy worked hard over the span of the series with his art department to create a different world, a reductive, stylized version of the reality.
Much of the look that contributes to the show’s success is the result of the work of Ellen Brill and her team.
A member of the Set Decorators Society of America (SDSA) and a member of IATSE local 44, Brill was nominated for an Emmy for her work on “24” in 2002, for Arrested Development in 2004, and for “Nip/Tuck” in 2006.
Her job on Nip/Tuck is highly collaborative, and she especially values the assistance she gets from forensic prop houses that specialize in specific medical equipment she needs to dress the show.
Monsters: The majority of people reading this article on your work are not crew. Can you explain the art department hierarchy and the difference between your work as a set decorator versus a set designer for people who might not know?
EB: “Yes, I would love to, because there’s always a problem with that. The hierarchy is as follows. First there is a production designer, who is really kind of the architect of the set. The set decorator is considered like the interior designer of the set. We deal with all the furnishings, and then there’s also a set designer and the set designer is the drafts person. The production designer feeds information of what the set needs to be, what the requirements are, and works along with the set designer to draw up the set. And then as the set decorator, I’m given the blueprints and plans and then I flesh out the interior or exterior in that manner.
Ellen elaborated: “I collaborate with the product designer and then there’s also an art director, who is a person that implements a lot of the construction, that’s the liaison to the construction department. So it’s production designer, art director and set decorator and then the set designer, who is the drafts person.
A great set will make you want to watch it, even if the writing isn’t so good, which I’ve seen and I’ve watched some shows just — but then again, I love to look at other people’s work. And if the sets look great, but I don’t really love the show, I sometimes will watch it anyway, mostly with the sound off.
Monsters: Your show is unique in that Ryan Murphy, who is the show runner, is very hands on in your department. Can you talk about that?
EB: “Yes, he has an amazing eye in terms of not only set decoration, but costumes and music and editing. He really is kind of an overall visionary. So a lot of times, the concept will come from him and then the production designer and I will meet with him and discuss kind of what his feelings are and how he comes to the point where he comes to. And a lot of times, because he is the creator of the characters, he has an innate sense of what it should be.
For example, when I first started the show, I got a huge dialogue about how the sets really needed to be cold and simple and empty, because he didn’t want to give much away about the characters, and that there was a soulless quality in a way. So the interiors have typically not been very warm and fuzzy for the main characters on the show."
Ellen talked about the difficult task of getting a set “just right.”
EB: “I think Entourage was very challenging, in that the creators of the show wanted it to feel so natural, that it was sort of an anti-style at the time. I think it has transformed over the past few seasons to have more of a look. But at the time, they were very intimidated by too much design. So they kind of wanted this strange, no look, which is one of the hardest things to do, because everybody comes from a different place in what they think an interior is.
Ellen discussed her different approach for each show.
EB: “I think you really have to approach each show in a different way, because the characters are so different and the executives are very different, so everybody has a different take. For example, this show, our executive producer, Ryan, has very expensive taste and he knows the difference. So if I’ll show him five different sofas, invariably he’ll pick the most expensive one. He goes, “Oh, that’s the one that I like,” just because he has incredible taste. So I’ve learned to spend a lot of money on the show.
Ellen mentioned a television series she wished she could have worked on.
EB: “I was very envious of Six Feet Under. I just think that show is an amazing, amazing, show. The writing it great and I like the characters, so I was envious. I think Rusty Lipscomb is an amazing decorator. As a matter of fact, I’m researching today mortuary information, because I have to do a mortician’s chambers. So I’ve been looking through some of her past work. It’s very interesting when you have to delve into the worlds you’ve never done before.
Ellen talked about the location shift to Los Angeles, and what went down.
“Nothing survived, nothing. Everything was completely torn down and we’re actually on our tenth episode of the new season, or of the fifth season now. And we’ve been working on these new sets and they’re interesting, they’re very different, way larger.
I might say there’s still a fish tank, but other than that, there’s not a lot that’s the same. As far as some of my favorite set dressing, you know pieces of furniture that are iconic, that I love, I’ve renovated them a little bit here and there, reupholstered or re-lacquered the legs or something like that. But for the most part, it’s pretty much a new look.
Ellen elaborated on the differences between the east and west coast locales for the show.
EB: “You know it’s interesting. It just has a little bit of a different feel. but for the most part, in terms of the sets, they don’t feel particularly Los Angeles. There’s an element of the sophistication of some of the places in LA, but I think that’s somewhat universal. I’ve been seeing, if you look magazines and great interiors in New York and Chicago and Miami, I think it’s still a look of minimalism and modernism.
But I’m not sure that you could say for the interiors, that it’s LA. But the exteriors, the locations are definitely LA. Like Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Pink’s Hot Dogs and a couple of those kinds of places that the guys have gone to really look like LA."
Ellen explained the differences between set decoration and interior design.
EB: “Yes. And it’s interesting that you bring that up, because I have just started — my degree is in interior design, but I haven’t really been doing much personal interior design. But at the current time, I do have a few clients. I find it very challenging, because there’s something about picking something for someone that they’re going to really live with for years. You want to make sure that it really functions in their life.
I think in the set sometimes, it can be — you know that they can work around it. If the table is a little high or table is a little low on a set, we have our ways to raise the chair or lower the table. And a lot of times that happens for the camera, depending on what the camera needs to see. But the reality of what you really need to know, to have it functional for a real person is that I find it very challenging, and intimidating. I think in a way, the set decoration seems a little easier.”
Ellen discussed her favorite new "Nip/Tuck" set.
EB: “The entry to the knee surgery center is quite spectacular, which you will see in the first episode of the season. I think it’s kind of jaw dropping, quite honestly, so I’m excited for everyone to see that on film. We got to screen it a few weeks ago, and I got chills. It was really exciting.
I enjoy a lot of the sets that I do. I did the pilot for 24 and because the script was so excellent and the concept was so great, it was a great experience. So there have been a few of them.
April (Monsters) and Ellen Brill
Monsters: The last time we spoke was 2004, and a lot has changed. Your budgets have grown dramatically. I wanted to talk about how much you had to work with then versus now and how much fun that is.
EB: “The new sets since we moved from Miami from Los Angeles are probably four times as big. The new surgery center has 16 foot high ceilings and the volume of the space is way larger, so right away the budget increases. But also, I think just as my eye was beginning to develop working on this show with Ryan and the look of the show, because it’s so minimal or started out so minimal, a lot of that had to do with the type of budget we had, too. So we had to find kind of perfect pieces that looked good with a lot of space around them.
Now since the spaces are so much larger, we’ve had to even do a lot of custom work, a lot of having furniture made, very big, tall consoles and sofas that would look like little postage stamps if they weren’t the right scale for the scope and size of the spaces. So there’s that element, as well as things — because of Web sites like firstdibs.com, which has now made everyone aware of what is collectible and what going prices are for what you’re looking for, prices have escalated. And so there’s a lot of money being spent on collectible pieces and part of the look of our show is to have these iconic collectible pieces.
Julian McMahon
So sometimes you get lucky to find a few in a prop house. But usually there’s a lot of investigating on those kinds of Web sites and going to the vintage collectible stores here in town. So my budgets have really, really been getting up there now.”
Monsters: My follow-up is what’s the most amount of money you’ve spent on one particular item for the set of the show?
EB: “Let’s see, the most expensive one item, boy, that’s a good question. Well, let’s see, actually the light fixture that hung over Christian’s dining room table might have been $6,000 and it was kind of just a ‘70’s vintage piece. That was kind of expensive.
There have been a number of them that are right around $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 for an item, so, yes, we’re really kind of getting up there.
Monsters: Wow, do retailers weep with joy when you walk in their stores?
EB: “They welcome us with open arms. No, in fact, we went to the modernism show at the beginning of this season and everybody was very happy to see us, because that was right when we were getting the permanent sets geared up and we were dropping a lot of dough around town. It was fun.
Ellen talked about the sets that she coveted.
EB: “That’s interesting. I would say that Eva’s apartment, when I did Eva’s apartment, that set just resonated for me. I just loved it. As a matter of fact, there was a sideboard in her dining room that I just had to have. So I negotiated with the producers to let me buy it. Because when her character left, I knew the sideboard wouldn’t come back.
It’s sort of this version of eclectic Hollywood regency with a little bit of ‘50’s and ‘40’s. It just kind of has a very LA feel to it and the colors were kind of a little bit all over the place, which I liked. It just had a nice vibe and I loved that it was that kind of furniture in a modern space. It was a lot of windows, and I like a lot of light. My house has a lot of light, so I would say that even though she was a pretty dark character, I liked her set a lot."
FX "Nip/Tuck is back October 30, Tuesday nights at 10 Pm ET/PT
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