The Swan: Inside Reality TV's Most Brutal Makeover Show (with Director Erin Lee Carr)
Back Row with Amy OdellShow Notes
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Referenced in this episode:
Facelift confessions, part 1: https://www.backrow.net/p/facelift-confessions-part-1-the-brutal-realities-of-getting-work-done
Facelift confessions, part 2: https://www.backrow.net/p/facelift-confessions-part-2-expect-an-emotional-toll
In 2004, Fox turned plastic surgery into primetime entertainment. The Swan reality show gave contestants about $200,000 worth of surgery each, put them on crash diets, banned mirrors for three months, and then put them in a beauty pageant. Nine million people watched. Erin Lee Carr, director of 'Mommy Dead and Dearest' and 'Britney vs Spears,' goes back to the women 20 years later in her hit Hulu documentary, The Swan: Behind the Mirror — and tells Amy what the documentary couldn't.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
04:45 Getting the Swans to talk again
10:00 "I almost died for reality television"
19:30 How much choice did they have? "1%"
22:45 Starvation diets and spoonfuls of peanut butter
26:00 The nude photos Dr. Haworth kept
28:50 The $5 million contract
36:50 "Would you do it again?"
40:00 A classic Anna Wintour story
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