The fab five was even more fabulous this year, thanks to Jeremiah Brent.
Following Bobby Berk’s departure from Netflix’s Queer Eye revival, Brent was admittedly nervous about joining the series, telling THR, “This show is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“Queer Eye’s real,” he says, comparing the show to other reality series he’s worked on, like Nate & Jeremiah by Design and Say I Do. “You really experience people, their vulnerability and availability. You watch them walk into this next iteration of themselves — it’s one of the most insane things I’ve ever been a part of.”
Brent was first asked to do the show 10 years ago but passed because he and his husband, fellow interior designer and reality TV regular Nate Berkus, had just welcomed their first child. Of joining the show in its ninth season, he says, “I don’t think anything could really prepare me for Queer Eye because it’s such a unique experience, but certain things definitely strengthened my ability to handle stressful situations and renovation and timelines.”
As the Fab Five’s new design expert, Brent didn’t feel pressure to step into Berk’s, nor OG Queer Eye persona Thom Filicia’s, shoes.
“I think, if anything, I felt a responsibility to my castmates,” he says of Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness and Tan France. “They have been on the forefront of some of the most important social issues for the last seven years, and they have worked tirelessly to create something really special.”
For Brent, Queer Eye was less about design and more about learning what his clients love. “For me, ultimate luxury has nothing to do with how much something costs, but how personal you can make it,” he explains. “Home is a really powerful reflection of where we’re at in our lives. It can hold us in a moment or keep us stuck. For me, this process is about zeroing in and understanding how people want to live.”
Brent went through a personal metamorphosis of his own. “The experience unlocked parts of me that were super dormant, to be honest,” he says. “I reclaimed parts of myself that I had put away. … [Queer Eye] tethered me back to what matters about design.”
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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