In Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Teddy (Jesse Plemons) enlists his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to help him kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a CEO Teddy believes to be an alien. Ready for whatever trickery she has prepared, Teddy remains resolute opposite an opponent who is equally determined not to be broken.
Awards Buzz spoke with production designer James Price about being part of this ambitious project, especially the challenge of the house and basement build:
“No one’s going to let us build a basement, because it’s insane, right? The basement lends itself, most of the movie is in the basement, to be a traditional stage-built set. That’s what I pitched, but the upstairs would be all fully composite in the real place. So we started looking for places, and we were scouting, and Yorgos turned to me and said, why don’t we build a basement with the rest of the house? And I looked at him and said, because I don’t think anyone would let us. And he’s like, oh, come on, think of the benefit for the film. And I’m like, yeah, I agree, we’ll look into it. So, I was like, man, we could be on solid bedrock there. We dug some pilot holes. It was lucky that it was on chalk, because that’s very easy to dig, and it also drains really easy. So we dug a great big hole, put seven shipping containers in there, cut them all up and welded them back together, put some sump pumps in in case it rained and it got flooded, and then we put a steel frame on and built the house around like you would a real house. We built a real house with working electrics, running water, and then, because of all the crew and the equipment, we built sheds, outhouses that we housed, there was one for electrical, one for costume and makeup. They were able to be there but not be in view. Everyone had their place to hide so you can create this piece of theater.”
Watch the video above to hear about other noteworthy parts of the process and what it was like for Price to work with Lanthimos again following his Oscar win for Poor Things.
Bugonia is currently available on VOD.
