{"id":1186142,"date":"2026-01-15T18:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1186142"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:53:52","slug":"hedda-production-designer-set-decorator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/hedda-production-designer-set-decorator\/","title":{"rendered":"Production Designer Cara Brower and Set Decorator Stella Fox on Bringing Hedda Into the Modern World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo understand Hedda, I went down these rabbit holes and learned all about these socialites, these European socialites and American socialites at the time,\u201d says production designer Cara Brown, who collaborates on her third project in a row with director Nia DaCosta on Hedda<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs soon as I started to learn about people like Oonagh Guinness and how she lived, and Gloria Vanderbilt and Lee Radziwill\u2026 they were bucking the tradition of their aristocratic upbringing, which would have been, you know, heirlooms and antiques. No, they didn’t want any of that. They wanted to be part of the modern world. They wanted to hang out with artists. They wanted to be bohemian and they expressed that, I feel like, in their personal surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hedda,<\/em> an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, <\/em>stars Tessa Thompson in the title role, with Nina Hoss, Imogen Poots<\/a>, Tom Bateman, and Nicholas Pinnock in supporting roles. The film is all set in one location, Hedda\u2019s majestic estate. Its look and feel are essential to reinforcing Hedda as a boundary pusher, and creating the transportive quality of the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe achieved that through just the layering that we did. We had this Italianate house that was built and cobbled together. They kept building it and building it, building it over decades, adding and adding so you have this house from the 1800s and then we put modern art in it, and then we brought in a lot of art deco silhouettes to furnishings, because that still feels so contemporary,\u201d says Brown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hedda
Tessa Thompson in <\/em>Hedda. Prime Video.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause of all the layers that we have, it kind of makes it feel timeless. A lot of people have come up to me and said they wanted to know what country the house was in\u2026 and then they want to know what year it was set in. We wanted it to kind of feel timeless and transcend any specific year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Liberties With Hedda<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DaCosta took some liberties<\/a> from the play, by moving the time period from the late 19th century and gender switching the role of Eilert in the play to Eileen in the film. Those liberties were important considerations for Brown and set decorator Stella Fox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think for me, choosing the furniture and the pieces had more to do with the shapes and the proportions of the pieces. The shapes of the deco pieces and the shapes of \u201950s pieces kind of mirror that very elegant, very shapely, just very sexy pieces of furniture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And I think that when we were looking in auction houses we imported a lot of furniture from all over Europe antiques markets. It was more about just finding the perfect shape. But it just didn’t matter to me and to Cara, whether it was, you know, \u201920s, \u201930s, \u201940s, \u201950s, even \u201960s. Like, there were some mid-century pieces that obviously would have been created after them. But it really, it didn’t matter, because they had that freedom of slight wildness, I think, to them,\u201d says Fox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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