Professor Becky Smith Enjoys Directing 'Queer Eye'

Directing episodes of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” may seem like a difficult job, but for UCLA professor Becky Smith, it came naturally.

“Just coincidentally, I’ve directed a lot of the recent gay programming,” said Smith, who chairs the UCLA School of Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media’s undergraduate film program and also teaches graduate courses in film production.

After making documentaries for Disney and the History Channel, Smith directed episodes of “Gay Weddings” and served as lead director on “Boy Meets Boy,” a gay reality dating show. Both shows aired on Bravo, so she was a natural choice to also direct episodes of the network’s “Queer Eye.”

“I feel we’re philanthropists,” Smith said. “We get to pick people and make their lives better.”

Those people aren’t only the straight men made over on the show. The School of Theater, Film and Television relies heavily on employing professors who are also professionals in what they teach.

While Smith may be taking time off from teaching to direct, she says she will be able to apply her experiences to the classroom once she returns.

“I came out of a very traditional documentary background,” she said. “A lot of my work is about developing relationships with the people you’re filming.”

Smith’s attitude has gotten her a sentimental reputation among the cast and crew of the show.

“I’m the romance director,” Smith said. “My philosophy is that there’s got to be some sort of love interest, even if it’s the (straight man’s) mother.”

On “Queer Eye,” directors do much of the research on the series’ featured straight men and help decide what aspects of their lives should be highlighted on the show. They also act as a sort of coach for the straight men, helping them through the intensive four-day filming process.

“The hardest thing is that you want (the straight men) to experience it in the moment, unaware of the show,” Smith said. “They think they know what they’re getting into, but they don’t.”

Smith attributes much of that surprise to the talents of the “Fab 5,” the group of five gay men who perform the makeovers each week. According to Smith, they’re a big part of the reason why the show’s so successful.

“(‘Queer Eye’ takes) this format that you’re seeing ad nauseum on TV, but the thing I love is that it’s very subversive,” she said. “It’s very much these men just being their funny and witty selves.”

In contributing to the popularity of “Queer Eye,” the wide appeal of the “Fab 5” has helped to keep Smith a prominent filmmaker in the world of gay reality programming.

It’s a genre that, while young, Smith thinks will continue to grow.

“So much in this country is really about the final bottom line, and one of the great things about ‘Queer Eye’ is that it crosses so many demographic lines,” she said. “Maybe it could have been successful a while ago, but obviously the time is now.”

The first episode Smith directed for the second season of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” will air on Bravo on Nov. 25.

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