Series creator never loses sight of the details
LOS ANGELES — Production designer Jack Mossa has his own version of a nightmare.
It recurs every time the boss, Ryan Murphy, arrives to inspect his work on “American Horror Story: Cult.”
The latest installment in the anthology series, premiering Tuesday, takes place largely in a couple’s carnivorefriendly restaurant and the upscale home where their young son’s comic books, featuring vicious clowns, might be coming to life.
Will Murphy warm to the copper-accented stove in the kitchen? Savor the slabs of meat hanging in the cooler? Throw cold water on the antique bathtub?
“When Ryan walks on the set, I’m prepared for two things,” Mossa said. “One, a deep sigh of relief and everyone’s patting me on the back, except Ryan. And two, me packing up my office and going home.”
Murphy might be heralded of late for reviving the careers of Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and other aging actresses, but the stars wouldn’t shine without his detailed attention to the settings — whether that be Joan Crawford’s tufted, plastic-covered furniture in “Feud: Bette and Joan” or the walkway leading to the Brentwood, California, mansion in “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
For “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” — set to premiere early next year — Murphy insisted that his research team chase down some trivial factoids: the backpack and shoelaces favored by killer Andrew Cunanan, for example, and the ashtray where Versace stashed his keys.
“Detail is everything,” said producer Alexis Martin Woodall, who has worked with Murphy for a decade. “If you have to stop in the midst of a great moment because you’re looking at the artifice, then we’re not doing our job.”
With at least three series in production at any one time, Murphy doesn’t have time to personally sweat over every prop and color scheme. He’ll meet with department heads months before the cameras roll, offer general notes and then have his team report back a few weeks. Even after the sets are up, Murphy must give the go-ahead.
Mossa once had to pull a driftwood sculpture in the “Cult” living room because Murphy didn’t think it fit.
“He makes decisions very quickly, which I find great,” said set designer Judy Becker, who is overseeing the look of “Versace” and whose work on “Feud” is up for an Emmy. “I don’t take things personally. If he doesn’t like something, I’ll say, ‘Fine,’ and find something else.”
Being detail-oriented doesn’t always mean historically accurate. Becker and Murphy took liberties, for example, in reproducing Versace’s Milan workplace.
“He and (his sister) Donatella worked in a bare white space. We felt we had to improve upon reality to make it interesting to a TV audience,” said Becker, showing off the Italybased set, which is so swank that it could double as a nightclub. Such a philosophy might not win Murphy accolades from historians, but it has helped him draw viewers.
In addition to “Cult” and “Versace,” he is developing miniseries about Hurricane Katrina and Princess Diana’s divorce.