Plastic Man

If you've been wondering what Julian McMahon's been doing since leaving Charmed, wonder no longer: he's playing ethics-free plastic surgeon Christian Troy in the new smash hit drama Nip/Tuck

Sky's newest drama Nip/Tuck has the lot. Not one but two very sexy physicians, Julian McMahon as Christian Troy and Dylan Walsh as Sean McNamara. A woman addicted to having various parts of her anatomy "improved" to keep the love and lust of her life (Joley Richardson as Julia McNamara). A child of dubious parenthood (Matt McNamara, played by John Hensley), a cartload of baddies and numerous sad cases hell-bent on having various parts of their anatomies battered, bent and stuffed into shape. To cap it off, this all takes place on Florida's sunshine coast. Whoopee! Think Dallas, Dynasty, Miami Vice, General Hospital, and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil all rolled into a perfect package, and Nip/Tuck shapes up quite nicely. A true cult in the making.
In pursuit of getting to the bottom of things, I set off to examine one of the aforementioned delectable doctors, Julian McMahon. Ten times more gorgeous in real life than he is on screen -- and that's pretty spectacular -- it's easy to see why woman would throw themselves at his feet. Or, indeed, at any other part of his body. McMahon insists that for him, "a woman's personality and intelligence is more important, and her laughter draws my attention."
"That's all very well," I thought, giggling at his every response, but I couldn't help but think that if I'd been slimmer, fitter, botoxed and liposuctioned he might have fancied me. As it was, I had to settle for listening to his soft Australian drawl explain all about his role in Nip/Tuck. "I play a plastic surgeon who lives and practises in Miami, which is where the show is based," he begins. "Christian starts off as very much the smoothie with the fast car and lifestyle. He's a very money-orientated guy, a philosophy that gets him into a spot of bother with the wrong types, if you know what I mean. He's into whatever is the finest that money can buy and he's not averse to sampling the wilder things in life, including all those beautiful women."
Oh, that must be a terribly hard role to sink your teeth into. We sympathize. "Well, it does have a bit of a downside," sighs McMahon. "See, Christian starts off as the smooth talking, walking, driving, flash bastard and ends up a pathetic mess of botox shot and blood and tears." Well, there goes our belief that if we were better looking we'd be better paid, better liked, and happier, although McMahon suggests that everyone has the right to do whatever they want to feel good about themselves.
McMahon's character also has to do a fair amount of realistic-looking surgery, and the actor admits to feeling rather squeamish about the whole thing. Describing a scene that should be watched through the fingertips by those who faint at the sight of blood, he grins, "I had to simulate a butt implant, which was really weird because I wasn't prepared for how good the prosthetics were going to be. The special effects guys had included everything: skin, flesh, blood, tendon, bone, etc., so it was very like the real thing. When I made the first incision all this blood came pouring out." Eww!
Nip/Tuck's doctors go on to perform all manner of operations, from nose jobs to boob jobs, each procedure painstakingly researched and reproduced on screen. "It wouldn't be so bad," shrugs McMahon, "but Christian isn't exactly the best surgeon in the world so his partner Sean spends a lot of time trying to fix what Christian's botched. Sometimes it's not pretty." It might be as well to leave the chip butties with ketchup in the kitchen while this show is on.
Talking of kitchens brings us round to what Mr. M prefers to do when he's not slicing and dicing his patients. "I love to cook. I especially love to cook alongside my three-year-old daughter. She's a dab hand in the kitchen. Being Australian, I'm pretty good at the old barbie, too." McMahon also enjoys a spot of curry. "I spent some time in Glasgow with the cast of Home and Away a few years back. We were doing a musical version of the show and every night when the curtain came down, we'd always find a curry house open. I had some of the best curries in the world up there."
Thankfully there's no word on a musical version of Nip/Tuck in the offing, but we bet they would give the cast of Sweeney Todd a run for their money....

-- Thomasina Gibson