The perfectionistic, neurotic Jeff Lewis that Bravo viewers
first met during the boom times of house flipping is ready to remake the home
makeover show. And he's not leaving anything out just for the sake of a "Disney
ending."
In Lewis's new show, Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis, he and his indefatigable and entertaining
assistant, Jenni Pulos, move into clients' homes for a weeklong remodel that is
intense on many levels. First of all, Lewis isn't lowering his standards for
any time crunch.
Stress is evident on the show. Lewis says his producer quit
after one episode ended in a couple breaking up. During another episode, Lewis forces himself to complete the
remodel because, "I did not care for this woman at all." The first installment debuts tonight at
9 p.m. as Lewis helps Felice and Michael put romance back in their
bedroom. Yes, he outright asks them when they last had sex.
Lewis isn't one to mince words. And in an interview with The
Advocate, he talks about the ups and downs
of his new show, the state of his relationship, and why foster-adoption might
not work for him.
The Advocate:
I just watched the show last night; I love it. I've never seen a design show
like it, and I'm gay so I watch a lot of them. There are a lot of rough edges
on display. I wonder if you think this is the more realistic version than the
cheery remodeling shows we see so often?
Jeff Lewis: It is. It is definitely more realistic.
You know, [Bravo President] Andy Cohen and I have been talking for years about doing a second
show. I was pitched several shows and none of them I really took to. But I
think the reason I liked this one is because it is kind of a reality hybrid. We
are committed to whatever happens, happens. We embrace the result.
I am very familiar with how these makeover shows work. There
is a lot of prep involved. People have floor plans, and they may go out
shopping, and in some cases they may purchase everything and put it in storage.
In our case, we have no prep. The day that I walked in, which was Monday
morning, I hadn't seen the house before -- which created an even higher level of
stress for me because not only did I need to formulate a game plan within 24
hours, I had to shop locally and find things that were in stock. I didn't have
time to buy things on the Internet. Actually, I feel like it strengthened my
skill as a designer because I was forced to kind of make good on what I had.
Wow, no prep? Is that going to be the way it is all the
time?
Yeah. Even if I wanted to do any sort of prep, we shoot Flipping
Out well into the first week of August. And
I'm assuming that if this show does well and it does get picked up, we would
immediately jump into Interior Therapy. I think you have to stick to the formula that works and no prep time
has worked for this show.
Another thing is we were not committed to a Hollywood
ending. Even if it wasn't a happy ending, we just embraced it. There was one --
there is one particular show --where it isn't a happy ending. The couple decided
to break up. And I'm most proud of that episode because I got into a
knock-down, drag-out fight with a producer who wanted to change the ending, who
wanted to put the happy, Disney ending on it. And I said absolutely not. This
is not what I signed up for. She ended up quitting by the way.
The producer?
Yup, and we got a new producer. Because we were just not seeing eye to eye.
Well I'm glad it's more realistic because it feels more
like how my remodeling goes.
Yeah, warts and all, right?
Exactly.
These makeover shows, it really creates these false
expectations because people expect remodeling to be so easy when you watch so
many of these HGTV shows and some of these other remodeling shows. And it's not
easy, especially when you are working with clients. What I like too is it sheds
some light on what I go through working with clients. And it's not easy.
Sometimes you reach people and sometimes you don't.
So do you ever watch some of these remodeling shows and
at the end, at the big reveal, you go, Really? That's the best you could do? Because I saw you be very particular about
getting the tile just right. You weren't skimping on anything.
I've heard some really crazy rumors, that in some of these
remodeling shows nothing ever works, that they never hooked up the electrical,
never hooked up the plumbing. That certainly wasn't the case because we left on
Friday and I am never going to see these people again. So I wanted to make sure
that everything was working. Granted, there was always: this hinge is too
loose. There are always a couple little tweaks in the end that we had to send
someone back to fix. But generally everything worked. I wouldn't do a reveal
until everything worked.
Well, and you had a very picky couple to deal with in the
first episode.
I mean, yes!
You somehow managed to pick the couple that was least
able to deal with stress. They were very sensitive. If the slightest mishap
happened, I worried they would break down immediately.
I think so. But you know there were a lot of families like
that who couldn't really handle the stress and the noise and the mess and all
the people in their house. It was kind of a recurring theme, actually. What I
noticed too, another recurring theme, was people having a lot of trouble letting
go of their things. A lot of trouble.
Now Felice and Michael they already had a pretty clean and organized
environment. That wasn't their issue. Their issue was they didn't have a proper
master suite where they could have a closed door, lock the door, and have some
time alone. And that's what I felt they needed. I thought they were excellent
parents. They devoted so much time and energy to their kids. They could use a
little couples' time, one on one.
Had you ever done a big remodeling-show "reveal"
before? I don't recall that being part of your thing.
No, because in Flipping Out it is true documentary. So when we stop shooting, we're done. It's
unfortunate because you never get to see what I finished, my finished product,
because we don't manipulate it. So if I happen to finish my project while it's
filming then you'll see the before-and-after. But if not, then you don't get to
see it. That's another thing I love about this show is you really can see what
I really can do with regard to furniture and accessorizing.
I have to imagine it would freak you out, though, to have
to do a surprise version of a room? Because usually the clients are so
involved.
I took definite direction from the clients. To be able to
furniture shop with them every week, I had a general idea of what they liked
and what their taste level was. So I did a pretty good job of listening and
nailing what they would have picked out on their own.
The hardest part for me was living with the family because I
am a very clean, organized person. I'm used to a certain regiment. It kind of
threw me off.
Are you going to be living with them every time? That, I've never seen before.
I move in with them. I don't always stay the whole time
because you'll see as the episodes go on that the houses are sometimes much
smaller. And if it's a two-bedroom, one-bath house and I am sleeping in the
guest room, and I decide to do the master suite, they have to move into the
guest room, and then I have to go on. I definitely stay the first and second
night. Some of them, I stay longer. As the season goes on, you'll see. We end
up moving in with a hoarder. And this one woman had a rat problem.
Maybe you can bring Zoila in to do some cleaning while
you are staying over.
Well I don't know if Zoila could have eradicated the rats.
And that's the one thing. There were rat feces on my linens. And that freaked
me out so much. I could hear them running in the walls, so there was no way I
was going to stay there. I did leave. The cameras leave around 10 or 11, and I
would go home every night. There was another client who really made me angry,
and I went home one night with kind of planning on not coming back. Then I had
a change of heart and came back the next day and finished the project even
though I did not care for this woman at all. And I'll tell you why.
We had spent the first day kind of cleaning everything out.
She had agreed to give a lot of things to charity. And then what she did is,
behind my back, she called the charity and asked for half her furniture back -- because
she wanted to sell it. So I was really
angry, I was really humiliated to have a charity I work with on a regular
basis, the American Cancer Society, for her to then ask for the furniture back,
I thought was just --. And remember, this woman is getting a $50,000 to $60,000
remodel for free, and you can't give away a thousand dollars worth of
furniture? I was, I was --
Furious?
Beyond pissed.
Well I was glad to see that Zoila does actually come back
on this show. Is she going to be around on other episodes?
She is around some of the episodes more than the others. If
the house is really filthy, she needs to spend more time, obviously. [Michael and Felice's] house was immaculate. So it wasn't a lot of work for her to do.
But there are some homes that these people are downright pigs. Some of them,
there's a lot of cleaning to do, and while we're there we clean out their
refrigerators. Sometimes I am sitting around waiting for construction, so I
find ways to be productive, so we tackle other things -- maybe even other rooms.
You know if I decided that I'm going to do the living room and the dining room,
I might decide to organize the bedroom while I'm waiting for construction to
happen.
Will we see other people coming back? Will we see Gage
around? Last time we checked in you guys were still together. It was going
well.
Gage and I are going strong. He's not involved in this
particular show. Someone has to run the business and take care of the house.
But it's been about three and a half years, almost three and half years. It's
going really well. I have no complaints. I feel like we are so happy that I now
get worried that -- this is my crazy mind -- I am now worried that something is
going to happen to him. Do you know what I'm saying?
Once I got over the whole neurosis of, Oh my God, is this
going to work, is this going to work, is this going to work? then now that it's so strong, the relationship is
doing so well, it's healthy, now I worry that he's going to get killed in a car
crash. It's like one neurosis after the other.
Are you calling and checking in every five minutes?
We text throughout the day when I'm out of town. Maybe I'll
call him later.
So are you still thinking about adopting? That was a big
thing you were talking about in the past.
We are. We already looked into the foster-adopt program.
That may or may not be for me. It is a very difficult process. I didn't want
to, but we might have to look into more of a private adoption situation.
Because with the fost-adopt, I worry about taking on a child for six months, 12
months, two years and then out of nowhere a grandmother or a birth parent can show up and
reunify with a child. I don't know if I can handle that emotionally.
Yeah, you really have to look inside yourself to figure
out if you can do that for the kids. My partner and I are looking at doing the
same thing. We had to have that conversation: do you think you could handle it
if a kid was taken away? Because chances are they will be.
I know. And I don't know if I can handle that. It takes a
really strong person. I understand that if you can give this child a loving and
supportive environment for two years, OK. But, God, how do you do that? How do
you give the child back, especially in a situation where you know that you are
the better guardian? It's just not right.
I have said to them, you know, OK, well let's just find a
kind of low-risk situation where Mom is in jail and Dad is missing. And they
said, oh, yeah, but Grandma can show up at any moment and take the child. Or
Aunt Suzie. That's terrifying.
So on a totally different subject. One thing was missing
from the show. There was no drinking. And I don't know how that's possible?
Will there be drinking?
You know it's funny. There was drinking with Michael and Felice,
it was just later when the cameras left. By the way, I love that Felice when
the kids go to bed. You know, she was uptight and a little controlling and a
little icy. But when the kids go to bed and we open a bottle of wine, she is
awesome. I really liked her. Oh yeah, there is a lot of drinking.
I have to thank you for your martini recipe. We now drink
only your martini recipe. But it seems you've moved on. No more martinis?
No I still drink martinis. Do you do blue cheese olive
spears?
I do, yes.
And do you hand-stuff the olives?
No.
Because you don't want to buy the ones that are already
stuffed, because they don't taste the same.
Really? I don't know if I can do all that.
No it's really easy. You just buy blue cheese and then you
just take the pimento out and you, I just take my hand and put it in. It's
amazing. It's like fresh blue cheese olives. That's what you need to do.
OK I'll try it. I promise. One thing I hope does return
to the show is Jeni's alter ego: Deb. Is Deb still on staff?
You know, I don't know. I don't think that Deb... Deb does not
star in Interior Therapy. But she will
be back in Flipping Out, Season Six.
Oh boy, I can't wait!
Yeah we couldn't make a deal with her for Interior
Therapy.
I'm sure --
She's got a really, really tough agent.
If you don't know her, meet Deb...
