Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/834282
decor (ironically, Joan actually lived in the Imperial House, a white-brick building on East 69th Street that I had used as the exterior for Amy Adams' character's set in American Hustle). Ryan asked that it still look glamorous, but also like a sad, aging grandmother lived there, which was achieved through design details like the exposed and tiny galley kitchen and the minuscule dressing area. I had a completely different approach to Bette's interior design and decor, because it was really the whole of her decor that summed up a lot about Bette, which was: "I'm from New England, I'm a serious person. I come from this traditional Yankee background, and that's how I'm going to decorate my house, even if it's in Beverly Hills or Malibu." The things that spoke the most to me were the big brick fireplace with the copper pots, which was in one of her main houses, and the braided rugs, and the tiny patterns on all of the furniture. I would never have imagined a movie star having these furnishings in her home if I hadn't seen the photos of them. With Bette, I think it's not any one particular detail; it's kind of the whole big picture of how she lived. For the Golden Globes ® scenes, the challenge was, "Where can we shoot this, that's not the Beverly Hilton?" (which is no longer period correct), but conjures that up and looks properly period. The Globes scenes ended up in the Hollywood Palladium, which remains for the most part intact from that era. The fun part for me at these ceremonies is reproducing the stage sets. At the Golden Globes, there's a big cardboard cutout of the trophy onstage, and all the flags of the journalists' home countries are represented. Even though the Globes and the Oscars ® were huge entertainment industry events, they were one-night events made with cheap materials. That's how the shows were done and that's how they were redone on this series. As a designer, one of my biggest challenges on most projects is making something fake—whether it's a stage set or a dressed location—look real and genuine to the audience. This time it was the opposite situation. I was re-creating scenes which looked fake in the research. To know that I'm going to design sets which look fake on purpose was something fun that I don't usually get to do. The 1963 Oscars were at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and I had shot there earlier in the year on another project, so I knew the location well. When I started planning it in more detail, it was really one of my favorite sets to do. There were so many elements to it, and re-creating the red carpet and the giant Oscar statue that was outside the real place where it happened was fantastic. HALL TREE RUG CABINET T. L L L. 7' SOFA 7' SOFA T. T. T. CONSOLE TABLE HIFI CABINET L. BAR CART TV L L L. L. FOYER LIVING ROOM FRONT ENTRANCE UP 09/13/16 15 INT. BETTE'S HOUSE RELEASED 10/6/16 VERSION 1.1 A. CONTESTABILE STAGE 10 SCALE: 1/4" = 1'-0" 1st FLOOR Left, top to bottom: The dining room in Bette Davis' rented Los Angeles home, a constructed set on Stage 10 at Fox Studios. The plan for Ms. Davis' first floor, including the living room and foyer. A white model of the set by Mr. Contestabile. A photograph of the interior of Bette Davis' living room under construction.