American actress and comedian Chloe Fineman has loved interior design since she was a child. It started when her family hired an interior decorator (Steven Shubel) to bring French flair—including gold leaf accents and black-and-white pillows—to their California home.
“I spent a lot of time with him as a child,” Fineman says. “And my parents would always have us go antiquing. It’s just a love of beauty, really.”
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When Fineman sat down to talk with Jeremiah Brent, host of the Ideas of Order podcast, to discuss the pursuit of creativity and the meaning of home as an actor, several themes emerged: staying true to your roots (for Fineman, that means embracing her soulful Bay Area self), bicoastal living leading to dual identities (New York City vs. California), and designing your home to feel as special as a film set. The conversation is part of the latest episode of Ideas of Order, a California Closets podcast hosted on the SURROUND Podcast Network.
Image courtesy of SURROUND Podcast Network
Film and design are deeply intertwined for Fineman. Born into a family of painters, her creativity was always encouraged—whether she was playing flower fairies in the rose garden, spending summers at art camp, or scarf-dancing. Fineman even jokingly compares her family to the family in Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums (2001), with their unbridled creativity. At home, her family’s French-inspired home often felt to Fineman like a movie set.
“One of the many joys of movies and TV is that feeling of wanting to live in those spaces,” she says. “The first time my boyfriend came to my [apartment], I was living in Silver Lake, and he was like, ‘This looks like an HBO set of a girl comedy.’”
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But design is also rooted in place. The Saturday Night Live actor’s design sensibilities fluctuate between New York City and California, and the versions of herself tied to each place.
New York City is magnetic and bold. Fineman tells Brent: “We had Colman Domingo host [SNL] this year, and he said my favorite thing I’ve ever heard, which is, ‘Living in New York is living on a dare,’ where it’s like, ‘I dare you to have rats. I dare you to wait in line for 45 minutes.’ You really have to love it [to live here], and I just loved New York immediately.”
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On the other hand, California is slow-moving and serene. Fineman is a California girl at heart. So for now, her design sense remains bicoastal. “When fanciful and laid-back come together, it’s very chic,” she notes.
Listen to Chloe Fineman and Jeremiah Brent’s full conversation—including a discussion of their shared love of set design, such as the iconic Victorian house featured in Practical Magic (1998) and Fineman’s comedic craft and creative process.
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Ideas of Order, the California Closets podcast, is produced by Rob Schulte at SANDOW DESIGN GROUP and is part of the SURROUND Podcast Network.
Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com.
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