Production designer Jason Baldwin Stewart met his share of aesthetic and logistical challenges in his collaboration with Sam Levinson on HBO’s “Euphoria,” but when he reunited with Levinson as a visual consultant for “The Idol,” he was faced with a whole new set of problems to solve. Working in conjunction with production designer Charlie Campbell, who began the series before Stewart came on board, Stewart found himself working largely with preexisting locations — including the home of series co-creator and star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, which served as pop star Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) estate on the show.
With the full season over, Stewart spoke to IndieWire in detail about the creative choices that went into creating the world of “The Idol,” an opulent milieu that Levinson, Campbell, Stewart, and their collaborators had to make look luxurious within considerable financial limitations after the decision was made to reshoot the show from scratch.
“My specific approach was different from the start on this project, in that I was really just consulting and offering creative thoughts but not pressing any decisions or a style direction. When I first jumped in, Abel’s house was already locked as Jocelyn’s house and that was going to be our primary location. Our directive was to lean into the home’s finishes as they were. We were not going to repaint or wallpaper any of the space to remain as low impact as possible. The style aim was to add some pops of color and a bit of edge and fashion and minimize some of the masculinity in the house decor, but we did not wish or need to overwork the aesthetic within the house because the overall bones and scale of the house and furnishings worked with the story as is.
“Jocelyn is a star, and although we meet her when she’s creatively lost and in the midst of a chaotic reset, her home had to have grandeur to reflect her stature as a recently successful pop princess and reinforce Jocelyn as the central driving force. In general terms, the shots within the home itself had to be visually striking and a secondary character of sorts to engage us visually for multiple episodes since most of the reshoot was going to be set within the house.”
“The Idol”Courtesy of Eddy Chen / HBO
“We discussed that it would be more interesting to not shift the home to an overtly girly and pop decor; we reasoned this home was not designed or decorated by Jocelyn, but rather by her mother who had purchased it at the height of Jocelyn’s fame and new tour deal. They had begun to have it professionally interior designed as her mother fell ill and then passed.
“There was an intentional choice to not place photos or objects from Jocelyn’s youth or of her mother prominently around the house. Instead, we chose subtler references and layering choices throughout, such as placing some framed gold records leaning against the wall on the floor of the living room as if they were taken off the wall or never hung. It keeps us visually more guarded and a little off-kilter to where Jocelyn is in her life and what her true feelings are toward her career and mother.
“The overall decor is not all that personal. She has some stylized design elements and interesting artwork, but it’s shifty from one area of the house to another, much like her character. Some areas are more intimate and slightly messy or more dressed in small detail, such as her bedroom suite and the recording studio or the orange room, while other spaces are sparse and architectural and feel a bit colder or more calculated, and I think it all furthers a sense of uncertainty and more of a Jekyll and Hyde undertone to her character.
“Abel had just acquired the home during the show’s initial prep that prior year, and it was such a fortunate opportunity and an amazing gesture by Abel for him to open up his residence to production as he did for the reshoot.
“One of the hardest factors in a show with this theme is to create a believable ‘star’-caliber home. Normally on a series like this, we would shoot our exteriors and maybe an entry or few critical interiors somewhere similar and limit our number of days, and then build out the majority of interior spaces on stage as needed per the script. An added bonus was that within his home, there are several rooms that really differ from the finishes in the rest of the house, and we were able to use that to our advantage to credibly cheat several other scenes, including Chaim’s home office and Finkelstein’s home office and foot massage. I even created the green room for Jocelyn’s concert finale in his garage!
“The Idol”
“The upstairs primary bedroom suite is featured throughout the series and did require a few adjustments. We built out Jocelyn’s vanity within a mirrored alcove, adding painted wainscot panels to the lower surround and rental furnishings. The vanity area led into a large walk-in closet that was of course empty and we had to appropriately dress it out, which quickly becomes incredibly expensive and was a real budget challenge. Aralda Vintage, who also worked with us previously on ‘Euphoria’ Season 2 to create Maddie’s babysitting home closet, provided several racks of designer clothing we were able to feature as Chloe explores Jocelyn’s closet. Our set dec team was able to supplement with additional filler clothing from Western Costumes and several other local rental shops.”
“I was able to cheat Chaim’s office set within a beautifully wood-paneled room that is immediately off the entry and orange room foyer and looked out toward the front driveway. We constructed two backing walls that were placed outside the room to mask a large, mirrored piece that Tedros stood in front of when he first arrives as well as the underside of the grand spiral staircase featured throughout the series. Outside the office windows, we masked the driveway with runs of hedges and added varied drapery and sheers to play the room darkened or during daylight. We used a number of personal photos that Hank Azaria provided us as dressing and we crafted some plaques and awards for Chaim’s character using his mother’s family name at his offering, which was a fun detail to layer in.”
“We also created a concert green room set within [the] garage. We briefly showed the actual garage in the finale as Tedros is escorted out of the house into a waiting car with Chaim, and I wanted to avoid repeating ourselves for his initial walk-in for that pre-concert scene. I was able to create another entry point for the scene from the driveway and then texturally mimic much of the aesthetic from the actual green room at SoFi that Abel used during his concerts. We added a bold blue carpet to base the space and stainless corner guards to each of the raw concrete columns and a series of dark curtains as divider walls to allow for 360-degree filming. I arranged the main space into a T with a short tunnel of Hollywood vanities for Jocelyn to walk out through and appear almost angelic as Tedros sees her again.
“It ended up being a great set. The hardest challenge was that it was also our staging room for craft services and our camera and grip teams, so we had to get everyone out a few days before and race to put the carpeting in and then cover it back up to protect it for a few final shoot days and then get everybody back out and dress it out the day before. And then keep all the crew from sitting and eating and spilling or messing it up until we were able to shoot it — art department stress!”
With the full season over, Stewart spoke to IndieWire in detail about the creative choices that went into creating the world of “The Idol,” an opulent milieu that Levinson, Campbell, Stewart, and their collaborators had to make look luxurious within considerable financial limitations after the decision was made to reshoot the show from scratch.
On finding an overall approach.
“My specific approach was different from the start on this project, in that I was really just consulting and offering creative thoughts but not pressing any decisions or a style direction. When I first jumped in, Abel’s house was already locked as Jocelyn’s house and that was going to be our primary location. Our directive was to lean into the home’s finishes as they were. We were not going to repaint or wallpaper any of the space to remain as low impact as possible. The style aim was to add some pops of color and a bit of edge and fashion and minimize some of the masculinity in the house decor, but we did not wish or need to overwork the aesthetic within the house because the overall bones and scale of the house and furnishings worked with the story as is.
“Jocelyn is a star, and although we meet her when she’s creatively lost and in the midst of a chaotic reset, her home had to have grandeur to reflect her stature as a recently successful pop princess and reinforce Jocelyn as the central driving force. In general terms, the shots within the home itself had to be visually striking and a secondary character of sorts to engage us visually for multiple episodes since most of the reshoot was going to be set within the house.”
“The Idol”Courtesy of Eddy Chen / HBO
On Jocelyn’s decor.
“We discussed that it would be more interesting to not shift the home to an overtly girly and pop decor; we reasoned this home was not designed or decorated by Jocelyn, but rather by her mother who had purchased it at the height of Jocelyn’s fame and new tour deal. They had begun to have it professionally interior designed as her mother fell ill and then passed.
“There was an intentional choice to not place photos or objects from Jocelyn’s youth or of her mother prominently around the house. Instead, we chose subtler references and layering choices throughout, such as placing some framed gold records leaning against the wall on the floor of the living room as if they were taken off the wall or never hung. It keeps us visually more guarded and a little off-kilter to where Jocelyn is in her life and what her true feelings are toward her career and mother.
“The overall decor is not all that personal. She has some stylized design elements and interesting artwork, but it’s shifty from one area of the house to another, much like her character. Some areas are more intimate and slightly messy or more dressed in small detail, such as her bedroom suite and the recording studio or the orange room, while other spaces are sparse and architectural and feel a bit colder or more calculated, and I think it all furthers a sense of uncertainty and more of a Jekyll and Hyde undertone to her character.
On the aesthetic (and financial) benefits of shooting in The Weeknd’s house.
“Abel had just acquired the home during the show’s initial prep that prior year, and it was such a fortunate opportunity and an amazing gesture by Abel for him to open up his residence to production as he did for the reshoot.
“One of the hardest factors in a show with this theme is to create a believable ‘star’-caliber home. Normally on a series like this, we would shoot our exteriors and maybe an entry or few critical interiors somewhere similar and limit our number of days, and then build out the majority of interior spaces on stage as needed per the script. An added bonus was that within his home, there are several rooms that really differ from the finishes in the rest of the house, and we were able to use that to our advantage to credibly cheat several other scenes, including Chaim’s home office and Finkelstein’s home office and foot massage. I even created the green room for Jocelyn’s concert finale in his garage!
“The Idol”
On creating a pop star’s closet.
“The upstairs primary bedroom suite is featured throughout the series and did require a few adjustments. We built out Jocelyn’s vanity within a mirrored alcove, adding painted wainscot panels to the lower surround and rental furnishings. The vanity area led into a large walk-in closet that was of course empty and we had to appropriately dress it out, which quickly becomes incredibly expensive and was a real budget challenge. Aralda Vintage, who also worked with us previously on ‘Euphoria’ Season 2 to create Maddie’s babysitting home closet, provided several racks of designer clothing we were able to feature as Chloe explores Jocelyn’s closet. Our set dec team was able to supplement with additional filler clothing from Western Costumes and several other local rental shops.”
On creating Chaim’s office.
“I was able to cheat Chaim’s office set within a beautifully wood-paneled room that is immediately off the entry and orange room foyer and looked out toward the front driveway. We constructed two backing walls that were placed outside the room to mask a large, mirrored piece that Tedros stood in front of when he first arrives as well as the underside of the grand spiral staircase featured throughout the series. Outside the office windows, we masked the driveway with runs of hedges and added varied drapery and sheers to play the room darkened or during daylight. We used a number of personal photos that Hank Azaria provided us as dressing and we crafted some plaques and awards for Chaim’s character using his mother’s family name at his offering, which was a fun detail to layer in.”
On creating a green room in a garage.
“We also created a concert green room set within [the] garage. We briefly showed the actual garage in the finale as Tedros is escorted out of the house into a waiting car with Chaim, and I wanted to avoid repeating ourselves for his initial walk-in for that pre-concert scene. I was able to create another entry point for the scene from the driveway and then texturally mimic much of the aesthetic from the actual green room at SoFi that Abel used during his concerts. We added a bold blue carpet to base the space and stainless corner guards to each of the raw concrete columns and a series of dark curtains as divider walls to allow for 360-degree filming. I arranged the main space into a T with a short tunnel of Hollywood vanities for Jocelyn to walk out through and appear almost angelic as Tedros sees her again.
“It ended up being a great set. The hardest challenge was that it was also our staging room for craft services and our camera and grip teams, so we had to get everyone out a few days before and race to put the carpeting in and then cover it back up to protect it for a few final shoot days and then get everybody back out and dress it out the day before. And then keep all the crew from sitting and eating and spilling or messing it up until we were able to shoot it — art department stress!”