- HBO's "
Big Little Lies " follows five women and their families through a network of lies and murder and Monterey, California. - The show's set designer, Amy Wells, recently spoke to Business Insider about what went into constructing the look and feel of the characters' homes.
- While the show is set in northern California, two of the homes used as sets were actually located in Los Angeles.
Amy Wells is the twice-Emmy-nominated set director behind "Mad Men," the fan favorite AMC show that ran for seven seasons. She was also the creative genius tasked with creating a very different but equally beloved world: that of HBO's "Big Little Lies," which follows five women and their families through a network of lies, drama, and murder in Monterey, California.
"I was so completely spoiled," Wells recently told Business Insider of her experience on-set. "It was a once-in-a-career experience, working with two different directors I loved passionately." Season one was helmed by French filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, while British Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold oversaw season two.
More than a year after season two aired, she still wants to step back into the lives of Celeste Wright, Madeline Martha Mackenzie, and co.
The investment made in Big Little Lies sets was permanent
"All our crew talk about is, 'Let's just go back to the Blissful Drip,'" Wells says of the location introduced in season two. This, of course, is the café on Monterey's Lovers Point where the women gather to talk in privacy and away from prying neighbors (and Meryl Streep's Mary Louise Wright).
It was, Wells said, an expensive set, with bentwood furniture made from tree switches that were molded into chairs. Wells and her crew paid so much attention to detail for this location, in fact, that it could function as a coffee shop when the cameras stopped rolling — and so, rather than tearing it down, the production gifted it, in its entirety, to the town.
Local authorities hope to reassemble the Blissful Drip for operation soon. Wells hopes the operators will provide rugs when it reopens – the biggest unexpected challenge of filming there, Wells said, was the notorious Monterey fog, which left Nicole Kidman and her costars struggling to hide their shivers on screen.
No one embodies nouveau riche better than Renata
Though Wells says the key to the vibe of the show was its NoCal location, two of the three lushest homes used in the filming process were actually located in and around Los Angeles. Nicole Kidman's Celeste, with her ranch-style home perched on the edge of the cliff in Monterey proper, was the exception.
"Andrea [Arnold] would say 'Omigod that's a whale' and we'd crowd round the window to watch — that's how amazing the location was. But the family who owned it had staged it for a rental, and it looked very… " Wells trailed off discreetly, before adding, "This extraordinary house was lacking any character — it needed a big infusion of layering, love and all that."
Hunting down the ideal home for Laura Dern's socially and professionally ambitious Renata was a challenge, and it proved just as tough once the showrunners had settled on the final choice, a modernist mansion in Malibu. For one thing, it's not the first time this particular house has made a high-profile television appearance — look closer and you'll see it's the same nouveau riche McMansion where tech billionaire Nolan Ross helped the plotting (and plot) move forward in ABC's "Revenge."
"We had to work really hard to make it look different, and look special — it was hard because there's almost no wall space, too," Wells said. As part of the plot for season two, it was redecorated, which also allowed her to infuse fresh energy to the space. Wells channeled her inner Kelly Wearstler, the LA-based interior designer and TV staple known for her Old Hollywood-like glamour.
"[Kelly is] very brave – I appreciate that about her – but sometimes she's a little garish and theatrical. That's who Renata would have hired," Wells said.
Wells even selected the books on the shelves – though she deliberately left one out
The house selected for Reese Witherspoon's tense perfectionist, Madeline, was also in LA. Making this four-bedroom bungalow look like it was in Monterey was the toughest assignment for Wells, and so she toggled back to a mood board she had created for each character at the outset.
"She's so prissy, she's the kind of girl who would collect blue and white dishware – so that's what she got. She doesn't want anything too out of the box," Wells explained.
To help add warmth to the set, Wells painstakingly filled the home's shelves with dishes and books. Did she include a copy of "Big Little Lies" as a meta-nod to the audience? "Oh no, never. I would have been worried that the minute the viewer saw that, it would take them right out of the story."