Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/859699
Right: Sebastian "Bash" Howard (Chris Lowell) is a millionaire playboy whose adolescent obsession with wrestling leads him to fund GLOW and puts him into frequent conflict with Sam. Inset: At Bash's Malibu mansion, a period- correct robot greets and follows guests, speaks two languages and dispenses an array of party drugs. Below: The mansion also features Atari game consoles, Judy Chicago paintings and a faux Roy Lichtenstein. Bottom: Black-and- white portraits licensed from 1980s celebrity portrait photographer Greg Gorman are prominent in Bash's living room. would train in every day. Since there were going to be countless colorful eighties costumes on this set, I chose a neutral palette so costume designer Beth Morgan could parse all the characters without fear of clashing backgrounds. The gym's overall aesthetic was somewhat macho to help illustrate the struggles of the female characters in a very male-oriented world. Working with Art Director Harry Otto, Set Designer Cate Bangs and construction coordinator Steve Broussard, I designed the gym to include sturdy rollaway wooden bleachers, various vintage workout areas, a raised office with a deck and window views of the ring, a large bathroom with locker room and tiled showers, and a paneled hallway with a built-in trophy case. A portion of the practical location's exterior was designed with a hinged wall which tied into the soundstage's loading door so that characters could enter and exit in real sunlight. I worked closely with set decorator Ryan Watson and Graphic Designer Vanessa Riegel on the functionality and history of the gym, and with cinematographer Christian Sprenger's team on dozens of period lighting fixtures that could function both aesthetically and practically. As the actresses trained on another nearby stage, and the set walls and windows started going up, lead scenic painter Eric Reinhardt added a mural with the set's chosen title: Chavo's Boxing Gym, named after show trainer Chavo Guerrero. Guerrero, who was responsible for turning thirteen of the fourteen actresses into wrestlers in a matter of weeks, is a wrestler himself from a legendary industry family, one of whom actually trained the ladies of the original 1980s GLOW wrestling circuit. The next big construction was the Dusty Spur, a rundown motel that the fourteen characters begrudgingly move into as a sort of low-rent Olympic village so they're always ready on