Rich Murray on Designing Ben Glenroy’s Apartment in ‘Only Murders in the Building’

While at the Only Murders in the Building: Backstage at the Goosebury Experience in New York, I had the opportunity to speak with Rich Murray, who is the show’s set decorator for seasons one, two, and three.

Season three finds Charles, Oliver & Mabel (played by Steve Martin, Martin Short & Selena Gomez) investigating a murder behind the scenes of a Broadway show. Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) is a Hollywood action star whose Broadway debut is cut short by his untimely death. Aided by co-star Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), our trio embarks on their toughest case yet, all while director Oliver desperately attempts to put his show back together. Curtains up!

“For season three, we had the amazing, fun, joyous opportunity of designing a set for Ben Glenroy, a sort of a major actor talent, who is a little self-centered. Script-wise, what we were given was the directive of his apartment is a Planet Hollywood to himself,” Murray explained. “They scripted that he got the Amy Schumer penthouse, which was Sting’s penthouse in season one and so, we have the opportunity to really make this apartment over. Although, we know exactly the bones of the apartment are all there. The walls are there, the windows don’t move, so we have to come up with a way to make CoBro’s apartment CoBro.”

He was kind enough to share how Paul Rudd’s life influenced every detail of his character’s apartment, the actor’s reaction to seeing it all, the set nods to Meryl Streep’s career, and more.

Watch my interview here: