LOS ANGELES — In "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy clicks her heels together three times and tells herself, "There's no place like home."
And in many movies (including "The Wizard of Oz"), homes are the places that define characters best. A house is a tangible, intimate way of showing who somebody is, what's important to them.
Before Dorothy ever leaves Kansas for her color-coated musical fantasy land, we know she's a good person by looking at the traditional, modest farmhouse she shares with Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and Toto, too.
And that's often the case. Good characters live in warm, cozy environments while cold or evil ones live in sleek, modern spaces.
The recent romantic comedy "The Holiday" is a prime example. The premise: Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap homes over the holidays to get away from their man troubles. Diaz, a high-powered movie ad exec who's incapable of crying, lives in a cool, Spanish revival mansion in Los Angeles with every technological convenience at her fingertips; Winslet, a wedding columnist who breaks down in sobs early and often, goes home each night to a charming, snow-covered cottage in a small town outside London.
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Stephenson pointed to "Shopgirl" (2005) as another example of this contrast: "Claire Danes lives in a cute apartment, kind of cozy and warm, because they want you to like her, whereas Steve Martin's character lives in a super-modern home and she likes him because he's wealthy and not necessarily because he's a nice person."
Myriad movies depict bad guys (or at least deeply flawed people in need of redemption) in minimalist houses.
Think about "Sleeping with the Enemy" (1991): The control-freak villain leaves his spacious oceanfront home to track down Julia Roberts' character and try to kill her.
Topher Grace's hyper-motivated, newly divorced character in "In Good Company" (2004) lives in a clean, open space (and buys himself a flashy Porsche when he gets promoted) but he's drawn to the comfort of Dennis Quaid's family-friendly suburban home.
As an image consultant in "Disney's The Kid" (2000), Bruce Willis dwells in a cavernous contemporary house that's cold and empty until a precocious version of himself as a child arrives to warm it up.
And in "Sweet November" (2001), we immediately know Keanu Reeves' ad exec is selfish and shallow because he lives in a hip, modern San Francisco loft with lots of stainless steel appliances and television sets.
"The Glass House" (2001) takes a page from the same architectural magazine. Before we hear a single sinister note of music or see a single sideways glance, it's obvious that Stellan Skarsgard and Diane Lane are up to no good because they share a glass-and-steel Malibu monstrosity with stunning ocean views.
Charles Foster Kane couldn't possibly live anywhere but the sprawling Xanadu, while the hobbits of "The Lord of the Rings" movies tuck quite nicely into their subterranean nooks.
You used to be able to tell whether characters were good or bad by their clothing, said Linda O'Keeffe, director of design and architecture for Metropolitan Home magazine — but where someone chooses to live provides an even more accurate glimpse.
"You can really see the nitty-gritty details of a person" in a house's interior, she said.
Accurately or not, O'Keeffe said, minimalism to the general public "is still a strong indicator of someone's personality. Someone who literally doesn't have much furnishing around them tends to be somewhat cerebral, almost Zenlike. But movies portray that in a different way: There's a hardness, there's a slightly sinister aspect... . There's a transient element, as well — they're not really to be trusted."
Characters whose homes are covered in chintz, however, "You think, 'This person is surrounded by way too much stuff.' It's a very short glimpse but it does translate into someone you can deal with much more easily than someone who's surrounded by nothing."
Finding the pieces to create such environments is easy in Hollywood, said Stephenson, whose credits include the TV series "That '70s Show" and "3rd Rock From the Sun."
"It's really character-driven for me. I try and talk to the writer or director or producer or whoever is giving me notes that can give me as much information as possible about the character they've created," Stephenson said.
"L.A. is filled with prop houses that exclusively rent to the television and film industry," she added. "I can go in and rent an Eames chair or a big, fluffy, shabby-chic sofa."
The detail that goes into creating a character's world extends to what hangs on the walls. Stephenson and her father, Emmy-winning art director Edward Stephenson ("Soap," "Sanford and Son"), co-own Hollywood Studio Gallery, which rents out artwork and wall decor for movies and TV.
"In 'Shopgirl,' he lives a very emotionally cut-off life so he'd probably have a stark piece of art, probably abstract," she said. "If we're talking about Kate Winslet in 'The Holiday,' it could be an antique, vintage oil painting or a framed needlepoint."
In reality, stars like Brad Pitt often seek out the quiet and calm of a minimalist home, O'Keeffe said: "Despite what people say about him and his affinity for Frank Gehry and all the rest of it — 'he's just an actor, he's not an architect' — he's got really extremely good taste."
She also pointed to Rob Lowe, whom she was surprised to see living in an English country cottage, considering his sometimes racy off-screen image.
"It was chintz," O'Keeffe said. "And you think, 'What is this all about? Whose fantasy is this?'"
