The Swan Plastic Surgeon Says Documentary ‘Mischaracterized’ Him

The Swan was a reality series that ran for two seasons beginning in 2004. It followed a group of women, called “ugly ducklings”, as they went through multiple plastic surgeries, fitness and diet routines, and makeovers to become beautiful swans who would compete against each other in a beauty pageant. It was a dark time (the early 2000s), and twenty years later, we got a documentary about what it was really like behind the scenes of a show that sounds like a Mr. Beast video.

Some of the crew still see the show as something to be proud of, even if the contestants were traumatized by it. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Randal Haworth was one of the surgeons in the original series and returned for the new Hulu documentary, The Swan: Behind the Mirror. He said he took pride in his work then and now, but developed more empathy after filming the show. “I see it differently now because I’ve become more empathetic because I have a dog. I know it sounds crazy,” he said rewatching a consultation on the show. “I’ve never had animals when I was younger, and that was the only good thing that came out of my second marriage. I’ve always had that in me, and they’ve taught me a lot about humans.” Dr. Haworth received backlash from viewers for comments like these and for participating in a nude photoshoot with the season two contestants without their knowledge or the show’s production.

At the time of filming, the women were brought to the garage at Dr. Haworth’s office to take after photos of their transformations, but they were never informed that the photos would be taken naked. “We were totally nude,” Kari Bravata, one of the contestants who did the show with her sister, said in the doc. “So many lights on you and feeling the heat of the lights and just feeling like any dignity that I did have, totally gone.” No one was comfortable with getting nude photos of them taken, and she said it was an “if you don’t do this, you go home” scenario. The other women also felt pressured into taking the photos, even though they weren’t comfortable. Bravata says none of the cameras or the crew for the photoshoot were from the show. 

In the doc, Dr. Haworth said he got permission from the show’s creator Nely Galán, not the women, to take photos for a “coffee table book that never saw the light of day” featuring his work as a surgeon. “I still have those pictures,” he said. “It was an art project.” Over the weekend, he told People he didn’t understand the women’s confusion, explaining that if they took before pictures, he would take after pictures. He still has the photos, as they are part of their medical file. Many of the women interviewed still feel uneasy about the experience.

As for how he’s portrayed, he took accountability for what he said, just not for how it was edited together. “When I speak in analogies, and this is what I’ve learned from this documentary, unfortunately, is that I may be quoted accurately, but you can still mischaracterize what I said in the context of things,” he explained. “[Production was] asking me about my role in The Swan and about the creative direction. I said, ‘I have nothing to do with that. I was hired as a plastic surgeon to produce beautiful results, safe results, in the same way that a plumber would be hired to work on a house, even though that plumber has no say in the design or the facade of the house.’”