 |
 |
HBO: What compelled you to make this movie?
Kate Davis: Well, this is a subject that is near and dear to
my heart, even though it seems like it's been
all over the television for years. We were lucky
to work with HBO in a way which could allow
us to bring the subject, hopefully, to a higher
level and look at the culture in general
through the three portraits of people who have
been severely scarred by their surgeries.
So although the film is very personal and
shocking and dramatic, it's also intermixed
with segments from television and media and
the pressures on all of us to look perfect in
this day and age.
David Heilbroner: The project actually originated at HBO. Sheila
Nevins who runs the documentary department
called us up and wanted us to do a film on
botched plastic surgery. I was initially
hesitant because I thought the subject had
been covered pretty thoroughly. I didn't know
what we'd bring to it, and I was afraid that it
would become a film that was really just a
horror show. And as visceral and ratings-grabbing as that might be, it wasn't what gets
me up in the morning to make a film.
As much as the subject of plastic surgery has
been out there in all these TV shows, it's
almost uniformly portrayed in a very positive
light. Only in the last year or so do you see
the darker side of it coming out. And as we got
into it, we realized there's almost a conspiracy
of silence on the downside.
Doctors settle lawsuits, which then stay off
the books. You really can't find out if your
doctor has been sued or not. There's no
national center collecting data on botched
surgery. So as we looked at it, we realized
there's really a story here that needs to be
told. And that was really exciting. So we got a
chance to do something that's both viscerally
engaging, but also something that breaks a
little bit of journalistic ground.
HBO: Elaborate a bit more on what you were saying
in terms of the discoveries that you made
when you first got into the subject.
David Heilbroner: The discoveries are really almost as shocking
as the injuries. We found out, for example,
that anyone with a medical degree can go
around and call themselves a plastic surgeon.
You can graduate from medical school and the
very next day put out a shingle that says I do
facelifts. What amazed me is it's like hiring a
plumber to design your dream house, except
that your dream house happens to be your
body or your face.
Kate Davis: And if you look up a doctor on the web, they
may have lists of great accomplishments and
awards and so forth. But it doesn't mean that
they necessary have done entirely great work.
And another thing that we discovered is
despite one's research about the doctor they
may go get a facelift from, the public really
doesn't know the number of lawsuits that may
have been leveled against any one doctor
because when things are settled out of court,
they're no longer a matter of public record.
David Heilbroner: Not only do you not know whether your
doctor's been sued, you can't find out. There
is no national clearinghouse that publicly
makes available who has been sued. And so
long as you don't lose in a court of law-which
obviously doctors are more than happy
settling out of court-the public has no right
to know if you've been sued and settled your
case. So you can have a doctor who's been
sued a hundred times, and he'll say to you,
there are no judgements against me. And you
look it up, and by George, he has no
judgements against him or her.
Kate Davis: And because this business has skyrocketed in
the last five or ten years even, there's a large
incentive for a podiatrist to switch
professions, perhaps, and start to do eye
tucks or tummy tucks or facelifts. It's a cash
business. It's quick money, which further
supports why more and more doctors who
may not have proper training might very well
end up in the businesses.
Another thing which we really try to bring out
in the film is that many of these cosmetic
surgeries involve all the surgical complexities
of any kind of major surgery. You go under,
for example. People die all the time going
under. That's a major risk. They don't tend
to emphasize this in their advertising. During
the making of this film, we found dozens of
cases. One of the challenges was finding
people who really would go public and come
out, because so many felt horrible about their
situation and wanted to protect various
doctors from then countersuing them, and so
forth.
HBO: How did you find the subjects in the film? And
how did you gain their trust?
Kate Davis: Well, in a sense, I think that what made this
film work emotionally for all of us is that we
were in a sense part of the same team. We all
had a similar message to put forth. The three
surgery victims in the film all have been
through hell. This film gave them an
opportunity to wake people up and say, watch
out. All three of our character's lives were
turned upside down, psychologically and
physically, in ways that most of us can't
imagine.
David Heilbroner: I think one of the hallmarks of HBO's docs is
that you really feel like you're in the middle of
live action, observing it before you. And so it
took a really long time to find people who were
having present tense problems. One takes
place in Massachusetts, and one is in
California, and one is in Florida. It was really
a challenge to find the right people who could
make the film come alive, and we are forever
grateful that they agreed to do it.
Kate Davis: I think the reason the three people we worked
with trusted us is that they really have been
through something very traumatic which they
feel the media in general completely twists.
And that the public is manipulated not to
understand. And so they are chomping at the
bit to have a chance to kind of correct people's
general perception of what's really going on in
the cosmetic surgery world. So they were
right on board with us from the beginning.
David Heilbroner: An interesting phenomenon is in all the
magazines that you think would have covered
this subject -- the health magazines, the
glamour magazines, beauty magazines geared
to the very segment of the population that's
most likely to have these operations -- you
never see an article about this. And the
reason is because the people who buy ad
space are plastic surgeons and the magazines
don't want to alienate their ad base. HBO's
very courageous in that way because they
don't have an ad base dependant upon this
segment of the business community; they're
free to make these kinds of statements. But it
is not easy for many people to come out.
Kate Davis: And imagine you're flicking your television,
and you see shows which show these people
kind of go in and come out seemingly half an
hour later with new faces, and stomachs, and
butts, and imagine you're sitting in a
wheelchair going no, no, no, that's not how it
happens, and no doctor will call you back to
correct what they may have done.
HBO: When did we become such a vain society?
Kate Davis: I'm hoping this film will at least prompt people
to think of larger questions regarding the
vanity in our culture, and how have we gotten
here, where somehow it's okay, in fact, it's
considered normal to throw tens of thousands
of dollars at getting your face a little bit more
this or that, which can apply to anybody if
they have perhaps no other way to spend their
money. I think it's a reflection of a kind of
lack of something deeper to think about,
because it's not like it's going to solve people's
problems. I think it's perceived that way.
If you're going to have somebody carve up
your face, you must believe that you're
unhappy and somehow all this pain and
money is going to help you be happier with
yourself. But obviously, you continue to age,
and the surgery may not be quite to your
liking. There're many reasons, the main one
being that problems usually are a little more
deep and psychological and the surface fixes
aren't going to really hold over time.
David Heilbroner: I think we live in a very decadent society.
We're wealthy. We have an obsession with
perfection. People are buying incredible
luxury items at a pace that's never been seen
before. And it's, I think, the product of a
society that has too much disposable income.
So why not pay a doctor to tweak your face?
What interests me about it is that people
think it's going to make them happy, and one
of the things I think we learn in the film is it
doesn't necessarily solve your problems. If
you're obsessed with the way your nose looks
before you go into surgery, you're still going to
be staring at your nose after surgery. That's
probably not going to change. I mean, the
reality is there is no such thing as perfection,
and human beauty is as much about the
flaws and how they work together as an
aesthetic whole than it is about some abstract
notion of perfection that you can attain on the
surgical table. I don't think that's a realistic
thing.
But the fashion industry is only too happy to
be complicit with the medical community to
tell you that it's a good and wonderful thing,
that the surgery's easy, and you too can have
it for a bargain rate. There's a lot of
salesmanship out there. One of my favorite
lines in the film is from a lawyer who does a
lot of these cases and he says, the prevailing
wisdom is, "would you like fries with that
liposuction?" "You know, we'll give you a
happy meal, which is like the tummy tuck and
the liposuction and the breast augmentation,
and we'll give you a cut rate if you do it
today." No kidding. This really goes on, all
over the place. It's appalling.
HBO: How can a profession with so much potential
for fatal problems, as we learn in the movie,
go completely unregulated?
David Heilbroner: I think the medical community is not unlike
the legal community, a self-policing
profession. You don't have health inspectors
walking into hospitals on a regular basis.
There are certain requirements for what
procedures you can and cannot perform in
your office, but apart from that you're really
on your own out there. And you're supposed
to do a good job, and if you don't you're
supposed to be sued by your disgruntled
patient and that will take care of it. It's clearly
not working out all that well.
Kate Davis:Something that I think is very counterintuitive
in this plastic surgery realm is that doctors
can come from other areas of medicine and be
carving up your face, or they can start to open
a practice that involves anesthesia and
intensive surgery in a private office downstairs
from their house with nobody looking over
them.
So you don't want to believe it when you're
going after a procedure that you think will
make you happier and more beautiful. One
filters the truth. But beyond that, it's really
hard to get this stuff out there. It's really
something people don't know, and that's why
this film has been exciting to make.
HBO: What do you hope audiences watching this
will take away from it?
Kate Davis: Well, I hope audiences are led gently to think
about why we're in this crazy world where
people are rushing to change their bodies so
readily. And maybe it will help people accept
themselves, a little bit. I mean, I do think this
whole subject comes down to self-esteem,
aside from us having maybe too much money,
as a society. I guess I would like people to just
start to question. Also question what they see
on mainstream TV in terms of the surgeries
out there. That maybe they're not as quick
and easy as they look.
David Heilbroner: And hopefully it will be a bit of an antidote to
this onslaught message coming at you, telling
you that you're not perfect, that you can and
maybe even should be more beautiful, more
perfect. Maybe this is a film that people will
feel is a welcome relief from that barrage.
|
|
|
|
|
