Hitchcockian by Design: Production Designer Amy Williams on Building Anne Hathaway’s Luxe Labyrinth in “Verity”
Production designer Amy Williams drew on multiple muses as she built the textured, tantalizing world that envelops audiences in Verity.
Inspired by the work of iconic filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma, director Michael Showalter‘s box-office-topping seductive psychological thriller is adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling titular novel. It tells the story of a renowned author, Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), who is incapacitated in an accident shortly after losing one of her children. With fans hungry for Verity’s next book, her publisher and her husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), enlist a struggling scribe, Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), to ghostwrite it. Holed up on the remote Crawford estate, Lowen finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with Jeremy and comes across what appears to be Verity’s confession. What is real, what isn’t, and who can she trust?
Verity reunites Williams with both Showalter and Anne Hathaway, the latter of whom she worked with on WeCrashed and Showalter’s The Idea of You. As she tells The Credits, the trio’s shorthand and shared experience, coupled with her go-to team of creatives and dream locations, made Verity a thrilling collaboration.
What were the first conversations you had with Michael about Verity?
We worked together twice before this; one time was also with Anne Hathaway, who I had worked with on two other projects, so there was a shorthand there. Verity came up very quickly, and I wasn’t sure I could do it, but Michael’s assistant, who I’m familiar with, sent me a photo of the house they were thinking of using. As soon as I saw it, I was like, “I don’t care what’s happening. If I get to design interiors for this house, I’m clearing the schedule.” The house drove the design. It’s owned by a wealthy man who uses it as his Tai Chi studio, so it’s completely empty. Michael always said Colleen Hoover’s book is the North Star, but there’s really no description of the house in there, so we were nervous to present it to her, but she was on board instantly. The home was designed by Jens Quistgaard, who created all of these mid-century Danish-modern homeware items, so he wasn’t known for his architecture, but it’s brilliant. It’s haunting, monastic, peaceful, and dangerous, so it has it all. We filmed in the kitchen and the living room, but we had to build bookshelves because it’s an author’s home in the movie. We brought in all the dressing, built some bookshelves, and built the rest on stages in Queens.
A lot of production designers like to use local craftspeople, and New York has a rich pool of talent. Did you tap into that?
We were in Westchester, but it’s supposed to be in Vermont, and I had the most incredible scenic team. They carved so many rocks for me. One design element I wanted was for nature to infiltrate the home, with the house built around it and among it. It has always been a fantasy for me to build one of those homes you see in Colorado, built on a cliff, so we took it full tilt and carved a bathroom out of rock. One day my charge scenic artist, Michael Garzero, came in with mica dust, blew it around, and put it into the rocks. There was so much enthusiasm and attention to detail. I also had some very talented set designers who didn’t have an easy job with all these angles, triangles, and levels. I didn’t make it easy on them, but they were game. It’s much easier to build a box, but this project and these actors were way too special to give them something simple.
Did your team scout locally for authentic items to fill the space?
Set decorator Kendall Anderson and I have worked together for over 15 years. She’s my go-to because her taste is impeccable. She loves to hunt for things. I created a giant Pinterest board; she dug into it and found many of the items on Chairish, 1stDibs, or from local antique dealers. We wanted to stay true to the architecture, so we found a lot of small items designed by Quistgaard and used symbolism through shape. For example, we always associated the letter V in triangles with Verity, but with Lowen, you get circular objects and shapes, and a little bit more softness. Sometimes they’re opposed, but sometimes they’re beautifully united. We decided not to use paintings or drawings on the home’s walls. We wanted everything to have texture and dimension, so we found a lot of brutalist pieces. Quistgaard designed the home with beautiful copper panels that we were able to reproduce on stage for the space where Verity convalesces, so we did a lot of metals, sculpture, and plant life. Books were a major design element. Every book you see on the shelf is something Verity or Jeremy would be attracted to. It’s fun to watch the actors mill around the set, touch things, and connect with the objects.
Do you have a Rolodex of people you like to bring in?
I mentioned Kendall, who is one of my rocks. Verity was my first time working with my art director, Joe Fernandez, but he’s also on a current project with me. I have an art background, so I like to use local artists whenever I can and not have manufactured art on every wall. It’s important that it feels like the character and their world, so we brought in a lot of local artists in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan to help with the sculptures and some of the artwork.
How much does Anne’s casting influence what you put in the space around her?
It’s not only her casting; she is the most prepared actor and knows so much about her character in deep, dark, beautiful ways. We have a text thread, and I will share floral arrangements and things with her. She’ll come into the office and hold up fabric samples and wall colors against her skin. She knows what colors and lighting work for her. On a movie we did called The Idea of You, I wasn’t allowed to make any dark ceilings because it didn’t work. We first worked together on WeCrashed, and I was so surprised by how much thought she puts into it. Designing a film with her, when she’s also a producer, is a fully immersive experience.
Michael and I discussed Jagged Edge‘s influence on Verity. He also mentioned Hitchcock and De Palma’s films. How did you reference those?
With Hitchcock, we had references in the contrast and extremes of light and shadow. In the apartment where you first see Jeremy and Verity living, the wallpaper is the same as in De Palma’s Dressed to Kill. The bathroom was very similar too. I love an homage, I love an Easter egg, and I love satisfying cinephiles if they can find those pieces.
What was the process for recreating the home on the soundstages in Queens?
The home is called Beckoning Path, and during prep, my art director, scenic team, and I constantly went back and forth between Queens and Westchester. We wanted to match things like the zebrawood on the floor and the stones that were outside. We wanted to make sure the fireplaces were the same scale so that when scenes take place in our built sets, everything would feel like it wasn’t built. It should be seamless. When you turn a corner and we have a scene in the real house, it needs to feel the same but be like a labyrinth. Michael wanted long corridors, but they didn’t exist in the house. The bedrooms were very simple and very small, and we couldn’t film in them, so we had to go big and wild on the stages.
There’s a big drive to support filmmaking, but the spotlight often doesn’t shine on below-the-line artisans. How are things?
I’m quite lucky in that I’m based in New York. We have the tax incentive, and it has been very busy. In the last decade, I’ve traveled to almost every continent and worked in so many incredible places, but part of the driver is cheaper labor or materials. Budgets are getting tighter, and the time to make these things is getting much shorter. For a sensitive artisan who wants to explore the narrative from every angle, a tight time limit is the worst. There’s a fear AI will take over, but I’m hopeful I’ll be the one who gets to give the prompts if it happens. It’s amazing to see theaters filling up, and that’s always our goal. Having a project in theaters, with people watching and connecting with it, means there’s some optimism. People need stories that scare and inspire them, so I’m hopeful for the human side of it.
Verity is in theaters now.
Featured image: Anne Hathaway in the “Verity” poster. Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios.
