Modern Clean Lines Foil 'Nip/Tuck' Secrets   

'Nip/Tuck's' minimalist decor gives minimal clues to characters' personalities and their secrets

By Diane P. Burley   04 November 2005

Barcelona benches and table provide a
posh waiting area for clients of Drs. McNamara & Troy.

 Actor Dylan Walsh is staged between two Arne Jacobsen "egg chairs."
Photo by Robert Zuckerman.

The evidence was overwhelming. His DNA at the grisly murder scene, a vial of the drug that paralyzes victims found among his socks. It was only because there was another attack while he was in prison that Dr. Christian Troy was now free. Alone in his office suite to reflect on his life and near-death experiences, Christian strolled past the Barcelona chairs that adorn his lobby, continued through the break room where a white Eero Saarinen tulip table and chairs glisten, and stopped to sit behind his glass desk, facing a trio of Arne Jacobsen egg chairs in his office. To the patient waiting for him there he calmly asked his daily question, "What is it that you don't like about yourself?"


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The beige McNamara home was as colorless as their marriage.
The characters of the popular FX series "Nip/Tuck" live to achieve model perfection: chiseled features and figures, stylish spouses or significant others, and, uber-chic furnishings. Against this backdrop of composed yet constrained perfection, the blemishes of human weakness - secrecy, lies and betrayal - are framed. This is the setting creator Ryan Murphy had in mind when he asked set decorator and interior designer Ellen Brill to create environments that are subdued but highly iconic. "I try not to overpower the script," explains Brill. "The goal of the set is to enhance what the actors are doing."

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Christian Troy's high contrast modern.
Furnishings, artwork and the "stuff" we collect, encourage viewers to form impressions (correct or otherwise) about who we are and what we value. They provide insights to character that viewers might glean by paying attention to "Nip/Tuck's" set design -- if there were "stuff" to be seen. As the secrets the characters harbor are crucial to the plotline, Murphy doesn't want them "outted" prematurely by clues in the background. That's why on "Nip/Tuck", you will see minimal artwork on walls, and few knick-knacks save for a wedding picture. The restrictions left designer Brill with a challenge: How to fill the negative space that is the hallmark of modern design? "We don't," she says. "You see a lot of emptiness - and really that is okay, since these people have so much emptiness in their lives."

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Ava's Hollywood regency abode.
Still, long expanses of nothingness would be just as telling as shelves of tchotchkes, so Brill makes liberal use of sconces - to both fill space and create ghostly light sculptures. The attention to detail mis-en-scene was apparent in the season opener, when in a dream sequence a family sat by a gravesite in Phillipe Starck's Louis Ghost Chairs, creating a levitating, if not existential effect. When only perfect will do, Brill and Set Designer Glenn Rivers were forced to design and build the new spa bar. Plywood panels covered with leather form the base for the lacquered top. "It turned out stunning," says Brill.

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Conference table is actually three Jean Prouve tables with a green lacquer top.
Make no mistake, despite the austerity, there are glimpses of personality within the decor. The flamboyant character Christian Troy's bedroom features a white platform bed complete with glass headboard that serves as a voyeuristic venue to the bathroom's shower. The newly separated Julia has a tone-on-tone beige motif in her apartment, mirroring her tentative nature. Is it mere coincidence that as this drab chrysalis sets herself free from her marriage that she embraces vibrant colors and lush textures in her new spa? Not so surprisingly, it is Ava, the trans-gendered life coach, who has a daring Hollywood-glam modern look in her home.

The reductive environment has had an interesting effect on Brill and some of her colleagues. "Our photography director disliked modern when we started the show. But now, after working in it everyday, he wants to re-do his entire house. I find working on this set has made me thoughtful of my own decor. I saw a candle on a table at home, and thought, I don't need this."

Brill finds that decorating a set is very different from decorating for individuals. "With a client, there is a stress in knowing they will want to live with something for a long time, so there is a tendency to play it a little safe," she says reflectively. "Actors don't provide that same constraint, so I can just throw caution to the wind." Then again, she muses, "Maybe after doing this job I would do things differently with clients. Maybe I would just say go for it."
Cisco Brother chairs pair with bar with leather-covered panels and lacquered top Re-built vintage chairs shine under Austrian crystal chandelier Floor-to-ceiling drapes divide room, provide backdrop for actors Joely Richardson & Jessalyn Gilsig. Photo by Prashant Gupta