Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
6 0 P E R S P E C T I V E J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 6 salvaged timber that bore scars from its previous life. Embracing the timber gave me the inside of my tree. Supervising Art Director Tim Blake and Art Director Emily Norris travelled to France where they met with a farmer who was selling oak beams from an old barn. They bought all of it. Twenty tons' worth of salvaged oak beams were divided between our backlot set builds: the Globe and Shakespeare's house, and they became a structural and visual foundation for our film. When I was first approached about Hamnet, I bumped against the Tudor architecture. I wasn't really enamored by it when I designed a film called The King which was partially set in 1400s London. I thought I had done all the exploration of Tudor architecture that I could, but as I started looking at it through the lens of Hamnet, I saw it very differently. With The King, the architecture felt like background texture, an opportunity to counter the grandeur of palaces. With Hamnet, the architecture presented itself like a character. There was a strong contrast between the rambling natural world of the forest—Agnes' domain—and the heavy linear beams that are the signature of Tudor houses. The ceilings are low, the beams bowing under the weight. I started to see the possibility the architecture presented. I wanted to see Will contained by the frames of the heavy house, always held in a doorway or with low beams over his head. He, and his extraordinary imagination, are boxed. Agnes chose to join him in the box and to make a life together. I was intrigued by how the house would change with her presence. It was exciting to revisit a period and to find a new way into it. I have always been afraid of repeating myself creatively. It had never occurred to me that there is actually no chance when you are looking through the lens of the material. Every one of my designs is underpinned by a point of view. I always have something that I want to say through the design. I consider that my primary contribution to A. GLOBE THEATRE ENTRANCE. THE THEATRE WAS AN INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR BUILD AT ELSTREE STUDIOS, OPEN TO THE ELEMENTS LIKE THE GLOBE, IT ONLY FLOODED ONCE! SET PHOTO. B. GLOBE THEATRE STAGE. SET PHOTO. C. GLOBE THEATRE BACKSTAGE. SET PHOTO BY AGATA GRZYBOWSKA. D. GLOBE THEATRE BACKSTAGE. SET PHOTO BY AGATA GRZYBOWSKA. B A D C