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Struggling Entertainment Workers Are Fleeing Hollywood — but Some Employers Balk at Showbiz Backgrounds
“Beth Kushnick, a renowned set decorator with credits on The Good Wife and Fringe, has long worked part-time gigs in addition to her production work; she’s currently doing interior design for private clients, staging apartments and working on an upcoming event for a commercial business in the absence of industry jobs. But at one point recently, she says, “I was up for a very big job out east, and they were afraid that I was going to get a movie.”
Beth Kushnick Story + Rain Interview Feature
"When I’m designing someone’s home, I don’t want them to put all of their things away and live an austere life. I want them to have all of their things, but within reason."
Hollywood Strikes Force Decorators and Prop Artists to Adapt
“Beth Kushnick is a Hollywood set decorator at the height of her powers; she has spent 39 years directing teams as big as 25 to plump cushions on The Good Wife or darken the satanic corridors of Insidious: The Red Door. But last week, she had just one assistant and a more banal challenge: staging a condo in Dumbo.
When her friend from theater school, the broker Charlie Homet, reached out with a gig, she happened to be free.
‘Kushnick didn’t do beige. At the Dumbo condo, she painted an entryway Aegean teal — covering even the ceiling to achieve a distinctive ‘jewel-box’ quality. She thought of visitors as moviegoers who might gab after the credits: ‘You want the viewer to have something to say.”
“When you’re staging something, you have to do it quickly and efficiently, and when it works, it works really fast. The two businesses, set decorating and home staging, are aligned in that way.”
“Wrapped in the instantly identifiable color palette, Adam Reamer‘s lush production design, and Beth Kushnick‘s set decoration all add components of depth that match the conviction of the character building in the script”
“Although the look of the set is high end, it's extremely accessible. I have never been involved in a show with so much fan interest in the set decoration—it has become another character on the show.”
“When you’re doing a really successful period piece, you have to have a breadth and depth of items that speak to all the different characters in all their different periods.”
“Take a risk! Paint that entry wall dark, wallpaper the back of an open bookshelf, or rearrange your precious possessions in places you wouldn't normally put them.”
“In our first season of The Good Wife the set decoration for Alicia's apartment took into account that her economic status had changed when her husband was no longer the State's Attorney. Based on that her character's world was downsized but she still had a comfortable degree of wealth. Her apartment was created as if she had hired a decorator to give her and her two teenagers a relaxed haven. I used lush fabrics, silk lamp shades, beautiful linens, and an eclectic mix of styles to represent Alicia's home life. ”
“We're magicians. But we're very practical. We’re driven in an organized way.”
“We’re trying to infuse how real people live, and viewers find that very aspirational.”
“The Good Wife Collection was very successful, and I knew that designing custom pieces for the Good Fight with MG + BW again was the perfect fit. I’m thrilled that our collaboration continues as we once again bring fans the only home décor line in TV history.”
“The more you allow yourself to really live in the space, the more these things come up and you can answer your own questions.”
“Everything just started to click visually for me and when the show aired I was inundated. Then the network came to me and said that we’re getting so much fan response.
“I became a fan of the Good Wife mainly because of its set decoration. What did strike me was how much each character’s depth was enhanced through the décor they were depicted in. I enjoyed every episode I managed to see”
— @rosalbaloduca on Instagram
