Like so many great works of art, the film Hedda, which is based on Henrik Ibsen’s 19th-century play Hedda Gabler, sees a house as a pseudo-main character. Perhaps house isn’t the right word; it’s more of an estate, and it’s one that production designer Cara Brower found about 45 minutes outside of London after scouting over 200 properties. Her criteria, as per director Nia DaCosta’s vision: a grand staircase, a view of a lake, a balcony, and period kitchens and bathrooms.
‘The house that we're in, Flintham, didn't have a period kitchen or a period bathroom,’ Cara tells us. ‘We actually built the period bathroom over top of their modern kitchen. It had the fireplace, so we just clad all the cabinetry that they had with old faux cabinetry and even put down a fake stone floor, made a Victorian range to put it in there, and had special effects rig smoke and stuff coming out of it.’
