Cosmic Cafe: Interview with Production Designer Cynthia Charette about The Mysterious Benedict Society

Speaker 1 00:00:20 Welcome to another episode of the Cosmic Cafe, the podcast for the cosmic circus.com. I'm ala Ruby and I'm so excited to intro this interview we have for you today. We're big fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society at this site, and I recently had the chance to chat with Season Two's production designer, Cynthia Sheret. You're gonna wanna listen if you're a fan of the show, but also if you're someone who's interested in filmmaking and creating worlds for TV in general, because she is a fountain of knowledge and there was so much good stuff. Without further ado, here we go. And enjoy. Speaker 2 00:00:52 I'm so happy to meet you and, you know, thank you so much for being here. I am. I'm excited that we have a chance to talk because love the show and how like visually stunning and evocative it is. So Speaker 3 00:01:03 Cool. Yeah. So you've seen, have you seen season two? Speaker 2 00:01:07 I've seen about, I've seen several episodes of season two. I've seen I think four episodes or three. Oh, good. So good. Good. I'm excited to talk about it. Yeah. Um, so first, you know, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? You know, you've had this awesome career. I know you've done Austin Power Scary movie too. You, um, Jane the Virgin, you know, is there like, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Speaker 3 00:01:31 Uh, yeah. You know, it's funny, I was reflecting on this last night and how I really think my career built to this, this show. It is my, you know, every show seems like a dream, but this one is absolutely my dream. Um, I came from, uh, I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I went to Syracuse University, lived in New York shortly. Uh, my dream. I was in theater design. I wanted to work in theater. So theater is very, you know, you create worlds in a set design. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that was my dream. Uh, and then I soon found out it's really hard to make a living in theater and was able to buy a, a friend of, um, a young director from U S C who I knew. He got his first low budget film. And, and I came to do it. And, um, in Georgia, that was my first break. Speaker 3 00:02:27 Uh, I was a young, young, young and I was maybe 24, 25 years old. And, um, that was the beginning of my career in Phil. From there I moved, um, from Georgia to Los Angeles and started, um, trying to work in the film business. It's kind of hard to get into, but somehow I think God willing and with will and determination, 'cause I was one feisty driven girl <laugh> back in those days, you know, it was, and I was determined to do it. So my career has always been a span of very creative imaginative projects. I do wanna touch on this for a moment 'cause I don't even know if you realize this, but if you were to look at my credits, uh, and this actually helped with me getting the job. 'cause I put together sort of a presentation of my work. You know, in my past I did a show called, you know, small budget independent films. Speaker 3 00:03:31 I started in film, one was called Claude or Trusting Beatrice. And so that created the whole World Trading Mom with Sissy Space Act Oh wow. That no one saw. But I created a whole world just like this, you know, everything in detail. Um, Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer, which I highly recommend as well, <laugh>, that was as magical too. And again, I'm a detailed, detailed person with, you know, not only do you build the set, but it's what the, what I always say to a prop person or a decorator or anything, what they see, you know, the wallet is just as important as the set, the eyeglasses, the tablecloth, the plate that it's put on the way things are, what is every single detail. When you see these, these projects and they look so beautiful. It's not by, at least in our case, with my team, it is not by luck. Speaker 3 00:04:36 We work on it together. And that's what creates the beauty. You must be all in together. And so I can say, that's why I am, so I'm gonna put my camera on for you so you can see my face <laugh>. Then I'm so happy I don't have any makeup on, but to see how the show turned out, because all that like finessing about every little detail and a team working together and costumes and, and you know, props and the transpo, everything. When it turns out that way, it's because there is a guided plan and I feel Yeah. Speaker 2 00:05:16 So I'll absolutely. Speaker 3 00:05:18 Yeah. Speaker 2 00:05:18 And you can tell it's, sorry, <laugh>, Speaker 3 00:05:21 I dunno. And it just makes me so happy because it all works together. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:05:26 I think it's amazing. And you that Yeah, absolutely. You can see how intentional everything is and just, it, like, it elevates the storytelling, you know, you are immersed in this world and I love that. And I, I just love the, the look and feel of the show so much. Um, no, you mentioned Judy Moody, you know, where that's, I I think that was a book series right? To to begin with. Yes. It Speaker 3 00:05:46 Was another book series. Isn't that Yeahinteresting? So that was a book series and that we got so all in too. And just for you personally, I mean, it's on my website. Okay. But I would highly, I'm not trying to push that, but it's just a, I was just reflecting on how so many projects have built up to this. Does that make Speaker 2 00:06:06 Sense? That makes sense, yeah. Now, had you, had you wa or had you read this, um, you know, had you read the Mysterious Benedict Society books before this? Or, you know, how did you kind of come into the world? Speaker 3 00:06:18 I didn't come into the world until my agent called me and I didn't know anything about the project. And, um, somehow I got a meeting and I was so excited. You know, it was through Zoom, but once I, when I watched at, you know, the first at the series, I was like, are you kidding me, <laugh> are you come jumped off the bed? Like, this is my dream. And, um, I was so excited because I also, uh, I'll just say, I was like, oh good, Michael Wiley wasn't available. I'll take the job. So, uh, yeah, it's like what we as designers, but again, either you, you love that. Um, I like the sensitivity of it too. The, that it was a good, has such a good moral compass. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's not, there's so many killing shows and low, I mean, up to a high, you know, this is, I grew up with Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Speaker 2 00:07:18 Yep. Speaker 3 00:07:19 Okay. So that's where I wanna still wanna live. <laugh> Speaker 2 00:07:23 <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:07:23 And every time they do, or, you know, Beetlejuice or Lemon Snickets or any of that kind of stuff, that's where I wanna live. Speaker 2 00:07:33 I, it's right Speaker 3 00:07:34 Here, Speaker 2 00:07:34 <laugh>. And it's so, you know, I, I have a, a young daughter and I think it's so, you know, I like that she can watch it, you know, and that it's this, it's like an adventure story. It's, I love that so much. And it's, it's almost an antidote to so much of the stuff out there. Yeah. Um, can you talk about, you know, so there's like a certain aesthetic for the show, right? You know, it's this very like, very specific colors, like these really cool palettes. Can you talk about that and talk about, um, you know, how, like, how, how you got inspiration for that and you know, what, what your process is for coming up with stuff like that? Speaker 3 00:08:10 Yeah. Um, I really love color and most people in this industry that know me know that I'm like color. It's, it's the gift that I have. It truly is a gift. Um, um, and so we work really Speaker 3 00:08:29 In, in studying. I really studied season one and, but then after that, season two is different mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but we took things of Benedict from number one. I would, I pulled off of, okay, so there was a lot of greens and a lot of, um, sort of ambery, uh, green amber palette. We kept that palette for Benedict. And then on season one there was, for Dr. Curtin, there was a lot of blues. So I wanted to pay, you know, again, you do not disrespect what has been done and created, you carry that message through, uh, because this is the book. This is the world. So it was very, in order to develop those two pallets, it was somewhat easy. But then it's all about, you can say, I'm gonna do green and I'm gonna do blue. But believe me, because I know color in one pallet alone, there's 150 blues. What tone. So if you can look at, if you look at, uh, curtains, uh, office, uh, there are all these beautiful ranges of blues mm-hmm. <affirmative> and how they work together. And then now, and then those palettes within, I work very closely with costume designer. Yeah. We staff and props and before everyone, so that they all know, so that when we're, and I put together real specific color board with the absolute color code on it. Ah, Speaker 2 00:09:56 So they, Speaker 3 00:09:57 And they have that color printout with them. Um, so it's not like, oh, I'm kind of just gonna throw some, oh no, it's very specific. It is, you know, we're using eight C 1 51 and eight C 1 53, and then we're going to here so they can see it. And then they can hold up their prop to it and their wardrobe a lot. And I did a lot of running back and forth. The trailer for costumes was right next to me. And I would run, sometimes I would have to work from them. It was all about like, okay, if she had to get a costume made, she knew the palette. So if she had to get her wardrobe, wardrobe made first, I would run over there with my paint chips, pull them up to her fabric work together so that we knew that it was all working. Same with props. I would run to props and I would actually help pick him many times. 'cause he's, he's, he wasn't, he's fabulous, but not a color person in terms of I can do the code, even the code. And so I would pick the color code for him. He'd send me something, Cynthia, what code? Color code. 'cause it had to be printed. And again, that amount of care and detail, which can be obsessive, but that's why it works Speaker 2 00:11:10 Now. I specific Speaker 3 00:11:11 Care. Speaker 2 00:11:13 Absolutely. And now I think I saw or read rather that the showrunner kind of described season two almost as a road show because there, you know, there are so many different locations compared to, to season one. How was, um, you know, work, I'm working with that in that, um, framework because, you know, it seems like there's a lot of, you could be very creative there, right? With like, I think there was Portugal and, you know, I'm not, I don't wanna spoil too much of it, but, um, yeah, I wanna talk about the shortcut too, because that was amazing. Speaker 3 00:11:40 Oh wow. Okay. Well, it was fun. It was definitely a challenge because imagine going through Europe in Los Angeles, <laugh>, it's always <inaudible>. Um, so we went to far points of Los Angeles. Everywhere was, you know, two miles. I mean, so far away. But a lot, a lot of research. Again, honing in, because with television you have a second to get the location. Mm-hmm. For the, especially for a, for our age or a child to put them in that world. So, uh, Portugal, what are the colors of Portugal? What are the sign? What is, what is iconic without being just a tourist map, what can we say? So we know we are there immediately. And this is again, what I learned. Even doing Austin Powers anything, you, it shows for a second, you're out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then you're in the storyline. So our job is to put you into that world as fast as we can. Speaker 2 00:12:40 Was there anything that, um, you know, that you were really proud of this season that was really, you know, besides everything we've talked about with color and, and all of that, was there something that, you know, you pulled off that you really like, could say that I can't believe I managed to do this. This is amazing. Speaker 3 00:12:56 Oh, wow. Oh, and so there's so many. Um, well, the amount of work and the amount of time was a lot. But I'm very, all the sets, I mean, I really love Dr. Kurt's set a lot. I just think it came off beautifully with the colors. I love the cabin in Benedict's Cabin. I love, I, I think that I am most happy with the juxtapositions of the world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> on the bigger picture and how you can see, as you notice strongly, the Benedict's world against Dr. Curtin's world. Oh yeah. Uh, that is because again, I can hone it down to a detail, but as a production designer, 'cause I'm the bigger picture, uh, that's what makes me happy. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:13:49 Um, and I know we're running close to time. Um, is there anything that you know, you, we haven't talked about that you wanna talk about or anything you wanna share maybe about the, the show and the season? Speaker 3 00:14:01 Um, well, you know, we design, I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the golf cart, there's, uh, the motorcycle, there's so many transportation vehicles. I had to design Speaker 2 00:14:11 The high in cake. The, the pastry, um, truck is, it's really cute. Speaker 3 00:14:16 Yeah. All of that, which I love doing. And believe me, everything that showed up was out of the junkyard Speaker 2 00:14:22 <laugh>. Wow. Speaker 3 00:14:23 And rusted. Did every single one that you saw was like, really? Did you just go through the, I mean, we had to completely rebuild all of, they had not a headlight on 'em, not a bumper, nothing. Wow. So, I mean, that's a little bit, again, think about the sets. You go into a big empty state and there's nothing there. Yeah. And I, my favorite part of the job is when you walk in that day and there's nothing in the stage. And I know that there's gonna be a world standing there in about six, eight weeks now, <laugh>. That makes, I love that. 'cause I call it I dream a genie. Speaker 2 00:15:04 Oh, that's phenomenal. That's great. That's why, you Speaker 3 00:15:06 Know, that I can just imagine. And it all, again, incredible team, I wanna say across the board best, you know, decorating costumes, props, construction, paint, crew. I mean, that's a, I'm so grateful we got to do it in Los Angeles. I had the best, best team transportation, uh, special effects, every visual effects. Look how good they came out. I work a lot with them. Yeah. I would give them, uh, sketches and renderings and then we'd go on. So you'll see in more of the stuff, I'm sorry, we're running outta town, but, uh, where now I actually design the houses or the extensions and then they put it on. So I love that too, because that needs to stay in the production design world. Speaker 2 00:15:55 Oh, amazing. Yeah. Well, you know, I, I wish you have Speaker 3 00:15:59 More time. Speaker 2 00:16:00 I do too. I thank, I thank you for the time and thank you Cameron. And you know, I can't wait to see the rest of the season and thank you. Speaker 3 00:16:07 Thank you, hon. Speaker 2 00:16:08 It was nice meeting you. Bye. Speaker 1 00:16:12 Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast along with all the other news for those who like superheroes, science fiction and fantasy films, TV shows, and other [email protected]. Have a great day.