Jeremiah Brent Reminded ‘Queer Eye’ Cast of ‘What They Do’

If you haven’t watched season nine of Queer Eye yet, go do it now. Last year the cast was mired in controversy—grooming expert Jonathan Van Ness was accused of creating a toxic work environment, and interiors expert Bobby Berk left the show under a cloud of alleged drama with the rest of the cast. Even before these stories, though, the show was losing its sparkle. It felt clinical and predictable at best and, at its worst, shallow and forced, like the Fab Five didn’t care as much as they used to.

Enter Jeremiah Brent, a sculpture of a Greek God come to life with the hair of a boy-band popstar and the sweet disposition of a cherished teddy bear. Brent was actually the first name on the list when producers were casting the Fab Five before season one, but he and his equally handsome husband, interior designer Nate Berkus, had just had their daughter, Poppy.

“She was a year old. There was no way that I was leaving, even though I really wanted to do it,” Brent recently told Curbed. “I respect the show tremendously; it’s this Trojan horse. It’s all fabulous and silly, but the truth is, it’s about connection and reframing the perspective and the lens through which you’re looking at people’s lives and their stories. So I was super sad to say no to it, but it was the right decision.”

Then, by the time Berk left, he’d “become really good friends with Tan France and Antoni,” and so the producers reached out to him again. Some might have been intimidated by joining such a well-established cast and maybe even anxious about how they’d make their mark amongst such strong personalities. Not Brent.

“The cast had been through a lot,” he said. “They were thrown into controversies this last year that they really didn’t deserve to be thrown into … I wanted to be a soft place for them to land. I really wanted them to feel the support, because I don’t need to be number one. I don’t care. And I also wanted to remind them what they do. I must’ve said it 300 times while we were shooting—‘Do you see this? Does this ever get old to you?’ This isn’t fake TV. You really change people’s lives. You can’t fake that.”

That’s exactly what the Fab Five needed. It sounds trite, but the simplest, purest version of this show is about human connection and making people feel seen and heard. A makeover and some new furniture are great, but it’s hollow if it isn’t for and about the person receiving it. That willingness to connect and craft an experience for the client is what sets Brent apart from most interior designers on television.

“I think with decorating on television, it’s very prescriptive. It’s been a decade of how you can create something to flip it and sell it, and you just move on. It’s very transactional. And a lot of decorators have one style that they do really beautifully. For me, with the show in particular, in this show, I wanted to make sure that every episode felt incredibly different because every individual is different. And I really wanted it to feel like this kaleidoscope of different design styles, because I’m not designing for you. I’m not designing for me. I’m designing for each person.”

You’d think such a statement would be the obvious goal of interior designers, but even people like Berk, whom I like, can’t seem to see past their own taste sometimes.

“It’s an unpopular thing to be a decorator saying that design only goes so far, but it’s true. Beautiful stuff is one thing; it’s very American to make something because you want it to be beautiful. I’m interested in something being beautiful because it’s yours,” he emphasized.

In a mountain of interior design and home makeover shows, Jeremiah Brent stands out for his personal, empathic approach.