Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1507937
5 8 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 There was a famous set decorator who upon receipt of the script would sit down by his fireplace in his favorite armchair with a steaming hot cup of tea, drop a tab of acid…and read. After that, all was decided about the sets and he proceeded on. When I had my first interview to step into the Production Designer role on Mrs. Davis, I thought about this man quite a lot. My first read of the script left me looking skyward, squinting...wondering what the heck I had just read and how was I to put it into a visual reality. I took the meeting. It was with Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory) and Owen Harris (Black Mirror) after all, I would have been silly not to. As I grinned through the screen on the interview Zoom looking out toward a creative writing, producing and directing team that I put myself under the category of fandom before, I wondered how I could step into the job three weeks out from the start of principal photography to be a part of a hire shift that was happening on the show. I knew I had a behemoth workload to take on, but the material was so rich, I just couldn't look away from it or say no. Where was I to start and who would I bring on with me? I didn't need the tab of acid—this show WAS the acid and an adventure into worlds I had never seen before with people who had courage and dared to make it happen—I wanted to be a part of it. I felt very lucky for the opportunity. Mrs. Davis was high-octane material—the work that designers dream of doing. It steps into medieval fortresses of the Knights of the Templar, fantastical surreal A M a d c a p B a t t l e w i t h A I M R S . D AV I S B Y E M M A FA I R L E Y, P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A. FALAFEL RESTAURANT. ILLUSTRATION BY JERROD MCILVAIN. A