‘Queer Eye’ Director Spills the Tea on Season 4’s Most Magical Moments

Queer Eye is magic. I mean, seriously–a reboot that is somehow better than the original? A makeover show that values someone’s insides more than their outsides? A TV experience that’s smart enough for adults but fun enough for kids and cool enough for teens? A binge that makes you forget everything else in the world and just feel good? This is the most magical series on Netflix, and it’s not even in the “Magical Movies & TV” category.

But unlike the sorcery seen in The Magicians, there’s a real method behind this reality show magic. A production team works hard to scout locations and plan life-changing segments, and then it’s up to the wizards of the camera crew to capture every single gasp and “yaaas” without getting in the way. How do they do it? And more importantly, how do they do it without going through boxes of tissues every day?

Hisham Abed knows the ingredients that make this spell work. As the Emmy-nominated director of every episode of Queer Eye Seasons 3 and 4, he was able to capture that makeover magic in a barbecue joint, a summer camp, a farm, and a high school among many other locales. How did the production team pull that off? Abed answers exactly that and more in this in-depth look at how Queer Eye’s magic is made.

Decider: How did you get the gig directing Queer Eye?

Hisham Abed: Well I know Jen Lane, the showrunner. We go way back to the MTV show Laguna Beach: The Real OC. So we’ve always kept in touch and when the first season came up, she asked if I would come and work on it. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, I was not available, but as soon as I was available for Seasons 3 and 4 I jumped on board.

What was it like coming in for Season 3? Was there anything from Seasons 1 and 2 that you wanted to shake up or double down on?

I think the show came in at such a great place. Jen created–and I think all the guys at Scout [Productions] and Netflix did such a great job putting this together. I know it was Jen’s vision to maintain the authenticity and I think she was just a little overwhelmed from directing it herself the first two seasons and showrunning. It’s a lot. So I think she’s glad to have some help and I was more than happy obviously to come on board. So that was one job for me, to relieve her of some of those tasks, and also for me to jump in and connect with the guys. And help put together the camera crew and get to know them, and make sure everybody feels invested in the project and feels connected to it. Everybody there does great work.

Coming from reality shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills, how is Queer Eye different from other shows you’ve done?

I started working as a DP and I worked in indie features a lot, so I always try to bring…well first of all I always try to be authentic to the material. If it’s scripted, there’s a certain aesthetic that can go. It can be sort of hand held. It can be much more staid, whereas something like The Bourne Identity is handheld and cameras are all over the place. There’s a connection between the two in that you can still apply a sort of cinematic aesthetic, and you look for lighting, for great compositions, or better opportunities at the moment. You have to look for them. You have to know what they are and what to do with them.

So that’s something that I’ve tried to do with the camera crews and working on the guys and their very real engagement, their very real moments with our heroes, that we call [the subjects of each episode]. I didn’t want to come up and shake up the look at all. I just wanted to continue and, if possible, always enhance the aesthetics because that will also affect the emotional content of the show.

What level of planning goes into a Queer Eye makeover? Are you involved in the pre-production at all? 

Well the producers certainly start to begin offering the choices where we might be able to shoot. Sometimes they’re very limited, sometimes we have a lot of choices. And so within those spaces, if I can get to them ahead of time, which we usually do, I look for where the cameras might go, if we’re going to enhance any of the lighting or take some away, any of that kind of thing, which we’ll come and do before anybody shows up.

You’re always surprised by stuff. Something might happen on the day, whether it’s Tan walking around a store or Jonathan cutting somebody’s hair, that’s relatively static, but there are moments that you’re always listening for, that you’re always tuned into, and you have to guide the cameras specifically into. Like if there’s a closeup, can you see their eyes well enough? Sometimes those things are very tricky to get. It might seem like it’s a given, but when you have a salon with mirrors on all four walls, you’ve got to make sure the cameras don’t see themselves and they don’t see another camera.

Yeah, Queer Eye is a very mirror-heavy show.

Yes, it is. With Tan and Jonathan, it’s so true.

How often do you have to scramble to get a location last minute, or is everything really planned out?

Normally everything is really planned. There is, I would say, once or twice a season where we have to scramble and something really immediate comes up. And literally, we’ll talk to somebody. He’s in a coffee shop. Can we have a couple of guys come in and have a conversation here? And mostly people would have heard about the show and are amenable to it and are really gracious. Kansas City was a wonderful place for us to shoot. And that sort of thing can be flexible in a town like that. If it was Los Angeles or New York, absolutely, [it would be] way more challenging.

What I like about the shopping segments on the show is that you can tell Tan is taking them to actual stores that are in their city and not high-end boutiques that are out of their price range. But also, those are active stores with employees and customers. This is just something I’ve always wondered: Do those days start early, before the shops open?

In some cases, I think in Kansas City less so, we have to show up before the store opens. Even a larger chain like West Elm–I think we filmed there a couple of times. I’m trying to remember if we had to go there after closing… No, they were pretty amenable to having us there when the store was open.

And that’s something we really hope for because sometimes it’s just a different vibe. If it’s a cafe, for example, or even a store, there’s other life happening and that adds, I think, a little bit to the show. It adds a little bit more to the authenticity. I mean, granted, if we have to be in the store when it’s closed, then…I honestly can’t think of an example of when that happened in Kansas City. We did do a season in Japan and that was one of the things we definitely had to deal with because the culture is very different there.

Oh, yeah, I can’t wait to see those episodes.

Yeah, I know. I’m really excited about them too.

As the director of two seasons all filming in Kansas City, are you working on multiple episodes at once?

Yes and no. Some of the prep work and lead work, like being able to scout locations and stuff, can happen two weeks ahead of time if possible. Sometimes it’s the week of, but at least we have a day or two to prep for it. But usually we’re very busy shooting a single episode per week, and that’s sort of the way that the machine works. But like I said, I will plan ahead of time for how I think something will be shot, what equipment we’ll need, how many crew members, that kind of thing, sometimes a week or two ahead of time.

Queer Eye is known for those big tearjerker moments. What is it like in the moment when you’re actually filming it? Do you find yourself getting choked up? Are there a lot of tears from the crew as these things happen?

Absolutely, all around. It’s inescapable. The interactions that the guys have with the cast are just so genuine and if the hero cries, it’s more likely we are, because the guys rarely cry. Occasionally they do. Jonathan did on the Season 4 opening episode with his high school teacher, Kathi Dooley, and so do we! We will too. I mean, seriously, I sometimes look to the camera operator to see if they’re tearing up because it’s hard to look through the viewfinder and they’ve got to really hold the camera steady. It’s a beautiful thing.

You’re nominated for an Emmy for “Black Girl Magic,” maybe the most touching episode of the series. Could you feel that that was going to be a special one while you were doing it?

I think so. We all felt that the Fab 5, all the guys, had a very immediate connection with [Jess]. And maybe some more than others, but they all really just fell in love with her. And I feel that that made the episode very special.

And speaking of the Kathi Dooley episode, how difficult was it shooting in a high school? I imagine teens might be hard to film around.

They can be. Because this is season…that was season four, most everybody had heard of the show. The whole high school was so excited and it’s kind of a smaller town. So even just a TV show coming was exciting enough as it was, not to mention that it was Jonathan and the whole Queer Eye gang. Everybody was very respectful. Everybody pulled the stops out. We had the marching band out and that was their intro to the whole episode.

The kids just loved it. I mean it was amazing. And the teachers–who wouldn’t want that lounge that Bobby put together for them? It was such a moving story too for Jonathan to come back there and to have the success that he’s had and to be able to thank his teacher for all that she did for him was so emotionally impactful. Honestly, it was so beautiful.

Jonathan also had a big moment when he got to meet Michelle Kwan. What was that day like? I assume that the hero and his daughter did not know Michelle Kwan was coming.

Right. No, not at all. We work very hard to keep anything like that an absolute secret.

Was Jonathan just beside himself?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, if you followed his Instagram posts from that point forward, his days on the ice skating rink multiplied exponentially.

How did you plan that shoot? Did you have to find a camera person that can ice skate?

Fortunately, one of our crew did ice skate and we got him out there. You know, it’s a mix between making sure everybody’s safe, so we can put these sort of cleats kind of things around their shoes and walk on the ice safely. We have our assistant camera people spot them. And I think there was one person who did run around with the camera and follow them. Actually, that was one of our assistant camera people who was a hockey player.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, and so we were lucky to have him. I mean, all the crew, anything they can do, everybody gets so excited, especially something like that.

It’s a real special moment to see an Olympian just skate onto a reality show.

Yeah. I mean, you have to plan all the camera placements and all the people really carefully, so that you see the faces, you get the reactions, and we kind of stay out of the way at the same time. We have to let it happen. That’s a huge thing.

That’s the whole thing as far as directing the show goes too. It’s just staying out of the way of the emotion, but also making sure you’re there to capture it. You’ve got three camera people sometimes in a little room, plus a couple of sound mixers. We might have our associate director, our AD, and we’ve got half a dozen people on our crew at the minimum. And then you’ve got the Fab 5 plus a hero. That’s twelve people sometimes in a little tiny living room. And actually, going back to what you asked about the school, the school was actually really nice to shoot in because it was so big and there was so much room.

A lot of space to run around in.

Yeah.

I have to ask about another major moment in Season 4, when Wesley confronts the guy that shot him and left him paralyzed. Were you nervous while the producers were planning that interaction?

Going back to your question about if places are open or closed, that place was so busy. It was like happy hour or something. It was getting dark, I remember, and we really had to be flies on the wall. It was a very tenuous moment for everybody involved. We kept our cameras at a distance, a lot further than we normally do. And we set up the lights probably hours in advance and sort of let the guys come in, have their seat, and just stay out of the way. You hope your plans work and obviously if they don’t, you respond and react accordingly. But everything we sort of anticipated went as we had hoped and then some.

Was there a backup plan if Wesley wasn’t receptive to that idea or if the other person didn’t want to be involved?

Yeah. That whole scene was sort of on very thin ice the whole day. I would say it almost didn’t happen more than we anticipated it happening. But we were just keeping our fingers crossed and the producers were staying in touch with everybody. Yeah I think we all just held our breath; we really did. We really really did.

It turned out to be another powerful moment in a show that is filmed with so many. And then there’s one of the funniest moments in all of Queer Eye history–when Deanna’s friend validates Antoni’s controversial way of making guacamole.

Yeah, oh my goodness. That’s amazing. Listen everything on the show is genuine and we really can’t plan for some of these things. Like you said, when you get these happy surprises, you really hope that you’re on it. Fortunately, you get these amazing coincidences that you just can’t write into any day. And you’re grateful when it happens.

Before I wrap up, I have to try even though I’m sure you can’t possibly say anything: what is up with the Japan special? We’re dying to know more about it!

I don’t think I can [say anything] just yet, but it’s obviously going to be really special and I don’t think anybody will be disappointed, at least I hope not.

Did you expect that your time with Queer Eye would take you to Japan when you signed up?

Okay, I’ll tell you a funny story. We had heard for some reason that they were popular [in Japan], and so the AD and I–we spend a lot of time together on the set and going to and from any day of work–we started joking, “Oh there’s so many fans in Japan. We should probably do a show there.” After a couple of months of us just joking about it, ITV, the production company, started going, “How did you guys know?” And literally we had just been joking about it. So maybe we just put it out there into the universe and it just sort of began to materialize.

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Queer Eye seasons 3-4 are streaming on Netflix now. Queer Eye: We’re In Japan! is expected to arrive on Netflix later this year.

Stream Queer Eye on Netflix