In Season 2 of the offbeat crime drama “Rizzoli & Isles,” viewers finally get to spend some time with forensic pathologist Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) at home. That’s partially thanks to the divorce of Angela Rizzoli (Lorraine Bracco), the brash momma of her unlikely best friend, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon), who has moved into the guest room.
Alexander, Bracco and “Rizzoli & Isles” production designer Bruce Miller invited us over to Maura’s place on the first day of the Television Critics Association press tour for a look at the character’s gorgeous Boston pad.
On going home with Maura this season:
“It’s become a little like ‘Cheers’ over here because there are [so many] Rizzoli dinners at Maura’s place,” Alexander says. “We have a lot of family get-togethers here. It’s a great space.”
On the décor:
“It’s all very skeletal,” Miller says of the furniture and artwork in both Maura’s home and office. “The images I thought were really interesting were fluids, and the shells are the beauty part of dead things. The decorator stood here one day and he said, ‘Gee, I created all these skeletal things; she deals with skeletons and she brings the same thing to her house, but the beauty part.”
“The most amazing picture is the picture of the five women doing the autopsy [in Maura’s office] from about 1895,” says Alexander. “I feel like in this space and also in Maura’s office, the beautiful thing that they did was add a tremendous amount of humor to it as well. It’s eclectic, it has a personality, and it feels like these things were found along the way.”
On putting her fingerprint on Maura’s home and office:
“It was really just about style,” says Alexander. “I said to [series creator Janet Tamaro], I thought Maura was Provence meets Bali. I thought this was someone who was well-traveled, who has a quirky and eclectic eye and who has picked things up along her journeys. And Bruce, our production designer, he sort of did that. He put that together; these are all new sets this year.”
On Angela moving into Maura’s space:
“I live with Maura because she just happens to have a guest room and I’m getting a divorce,” Bracco deadpans. “So it was a very nice offer.”
