\u201cWuthering Heights\u201d production designer Suzie Davies was excited to get a call from Emerald Fennell, since she\u2019d worked on period dramas from this era before \u2014 not to mention on Fennell\u2019s lavish \u201cSaltburn.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it\u2019d be fun,\u201d Davies says. But Fennell had a different vision for adapting the Emily Bronte classic. Not only did she want the world built on sound stages, this was a story told through the lens how Fennell\u2019s experienced the story as a 14-year-old. \u201cThat opened the treasure trove for me, and we could go in all different directions,\u201d Davies says.<\/p>\n
From building Wuthering Heights to Thrushcross Grange, and even a doll\u2019s house, Davies was in heaven.<\/p>\n
Popular on Variety<\/p>\n
Here she breaks down the film\u2019s key sets and why surfaces needed to be moist, reflective and sweaty.<\/p>\n
Wuthering Heights<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaap Buitendijk<\/p>\n
Wuthering Heights, which is in Yorkshire, needed a stable, an upstairs and a kitchen. Even though Davies built it on a soundstage, nature still needed to be ever-present.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we have a courtyard of rock around the house,\u201d Davies explains. In addition, the arch leading to the house was inspired by Gothic architecture.<\/p>\n
Davies raised the set by two feet so she could build a drainage system. \u201cWe wanted practical effects. So there are rain rigs punched through the ceiling and there\u2019s a tank underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n
She kept the colors of the Wuthering Heights interiors muted and almost bruise-like.<\/p>\n
The idea of Wuthering Heights was for it to feel bruised and heavy with a brutalist vibe.<\/p>\n
During her research, Davies found the Trefor granite quarry in Northern Wales, which was abandoned and near a \u201cbig brutal structure on top of a hill.\u201d Davies says, \u201cIt\u2019s got nothing to do with Yorkshire, but it has the essence that Emerald wanted. Once we found that, then we started sort of layering on elements of the Yorkshire vernacular, of those big tiles.\u201d The tiles were wet and shiny. She goes on to say, \u201cThere are a lots of modern materials used in traditional ways, and traditional materials used in unconventional ways. Everything\u2019s flipped on its side, just to make the audience feel more uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thrushcross Grange<\/p>\n
This was the Linton family\u2019s estate, and excessive in every way. It also presents itself as this grand luxurious place, but metaphorically is a prison for Cathy.<\/p>\n
The Skin Room<\/p>\n
Jaap Buitendijk<\/p>\n
When Cathy is introduced to her bedroom, it\u2019s boasted that the walls are like her skin.<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s an uncomfortable moment for the character.<\/p>\n
Davies had swatches and fabrics around her desk. She happened to have a piece of latex. \u201cI think we used it on \u2018Saltburn,’\u201d she recalls. It was skin-toned and Davies felt there was something there.<\/p>\n
Once she knew she was onto something, Davies asked Robbie to \u201csend high res images of her arms and veins. We printed it. We\u2019ve slightly accentuated her veins.\u201d Davies adds, \u201cWe had a go at doing her belly button as well above the fireplace, but that looked a little bit too weird, believe it or not.\u201d The images of her skin were then printed onto the fabric that\u2019s used for the padded wall panels of the bedroom.<\/p>\n
Davies adds that at the end, as there\u2019s an overhead shot of Cathy on the bed as she is dying, her veins are prominent. \u201cWe printed her veins and everything into the carpet as well, just for that top shot, which is even more weird and uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hands<\/p>\n
Jaap Buitendijk<\/p>\n
Take a careful look at \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d and hands are everywhere, whether it\u2019s shots of the actors, or as part of the decor. \u201cThere\u2019s something really sexy about what they\u2019re up to and what\u2019s going on,\u201d Davies says.<\/p>\n
For the hands above the fireplace, Davies says she took casts of the art department\u2019s hands to make the ceiling roses in the fireplace and in the panels of the library. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the shadow puppets that play another subconscious little story going along in on the top of the library. So they\u2019re sort of placed everywhere in the hope that they\u2019re little subconscious things. Some people will see them. Others won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dollhouse<\/p>\n
Jaap Buitendijk<\/p>\n
The dollhouse was created by the Mattes and Miniatures crew. They built a 1\/12th scale version of the Grange. Davies had the model built first, before building and designing the lifesize Thrushcross Grange, flipping her typical design process.<\/p>\n
Fennell also had the idea that she wanted the Grange to reflect how Edgar liked collecting things.<\/p>\n
In designing the Grange, Davies had a rule that everything needed to be ordered and symmetrical. \u201cThe windows are far too big. The doorways are far too big. The ceilings are really high. The ceilings are polished plaster. The floors are polished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies went to town on the garden. \u201cWe had real trees and real flowers,\u201d so it smelled like a real garden.<\/p>\n
Sweat<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaap Buitendijk<\/p>\n
If the film looks moist and the surfaces looks reflective, that\u2019s exactly the look Fennell and Davies were going for. \u201cWe always wet down those city streets on night shoots to make them look lovely, and we just wanted everything possible to look like it\u2019s sweating.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d Davies and her team rigged water to drip down the rock face and into the house.<\/p>\n
At Thrushcross Grange, Davies says, \u201cThe skin starts to sweat when she gets ill in the dining room.\u201d She adds, \u201cThe baubles are contemporary, plastic spheres that we stuck on the wall in a Regency pattern, but they look like they\u2019re dribbling and falling down the paneling and onto the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
WIne Bottle Tower<\/p>\n
As Cathy\u2019s father Mr. Earnshaw continues to drink himself to death, Wuthering Heights starts to show cracks. Two wine towers feature in the kitchen to reflect Earnshaw\u2019s state of mind.<\/p>\n
Davies says, \u201cEmerald said, \u2018I want a mound of bottles to show, obviously, that Earnshaw is this wreck and ruin, and is drinking himself to death.’\u201d With that directive, Davies built a tower of wine bottles that were five feet high. \u201cShe said, \u2018No, ten feet high. I just want to see a wave of bottles.’\u201d Davies and her team built in in a way that cinematographer Linus Sandgren could light through it. \u201cThe power of that scene when Martin Clunes is on the floor with those two massive green piles of mountains of booze \u2013 Everything with Emerald is \u2018keep going and maximalist.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d production designer Suzie Davies was excited to get a call from Emerald Fennell, since she\u2019d worked on period<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}