When you first hear the word “Saltburn” nowadays, chances are you’re probably going to be thinking of the grand hallways and artwork that surrounds everywhere in Emerald Fennell’s sophomore feature film. Set in 2006 and 2007, Saltburn epitomizes the world of British excess and aristocracy, while also showing a youthful story about lust, desire and love that plays out like a wicked fairy tale that Shakespeare would have loved. Throughout filming Saltburn, the crew lived and decorated a 14th century estate to fit the tackiness and glamour of the noughties. Staff writer Leia Mendoza sat down with Saltburn’s production designer, Suzie Davies to talk about party sequences, disco balls, and messy boy bedrooms for Oscars Central.

Leia Mendoza: Hi Suzie! It’s so nice to meet you. I’m so excited to be able to sit with you and talk about Saltburn. I especially loved the production design. I’m actually taking a production design class next semester, so immediately after watching, I wrote down so many questions. I obviously want to talk about Saltburn itself as an estate, but one of my favorite things about the estate is that it feels as if we’re entering a “boys club” and you can tell that the house has been lived through generations. It feels very modern and lived in and feels very youthful. I really loved how messy the rooms were for the boys, like Farleigh and Felix. 
Suzie Davies: I so love that you spotted that! That’s great! We went to town with that. 

Leia Mendoza: Yeah! Even though they kind of treat Saltburn in the same way that they treat Oxford, so when you first read the script, what were some of the minor details that you knew had to be in each of the bedrooms for characters like Felix, Oliver and Farleigh? 
Suzie Davies: It’s exactly that. We wanted to make that their environments feel properly lived in. Sometimes in big old country mansions that you see on films or TV, you sort of don’t believe people really live in them. You go in and you don’t want to touch anything or sit anywhere, and we wanted the audience to go into these places and feel like they wanted to go here and see characters lounging about on sofas and in bohemian dressing. Because we had such history in those properties, Saltburn as a house, we wanted to suggest that the Catton family had lived there for four thousand years. It has art all the way throughout the centuries and has different architecture where different family members have added bits after to the property. We had Medievan, Georgian, Victorian, and then we’ve come to Elspeth and her reign. She’s been influenced by interior designers and by color and it was fun then to put that layer of contemporary modernism that slightly has an element of strong color and all of those aspects which tells our story. It gave me an opportunity to bring color into it. To juxtapose all of it, we added human life. Packets of crisps and overflowing ashtrays and cigarette buds everywhere in a Caravaggio way. Even in Oxford, when we scouted it, we did the exteriors there and built the interiors of the boys rooms in another property in London. When we scouted, we came across the most perfect student room. As we were being shown into it, the guy said “I tidied it up for you, don’t worry!” and we walked in. It was an absolute mess. There were underpants and socks and moldy takeaway boxes, but both Emerald and I thought this was Felix’s room because they all overlook these amazing landscapes and courtyards that are overflowing with gorgeous flowers. The juxtaposition to that is exactly what Saltburn’s all about and it was great to have that as our inspiration and we both vibed off of that for sure. 

Leia Mendoza: I feel like the rooms just defy who they are as people in general. I talked about this with Linus yesterday but one thing I really loved about the production design was how much art foreshadows a lot of the plot that we see. 
Suzie Davies: Yes!

Leia Mendoza: Linus said that the estate had actual statues of somebody being murdered, and he said that it was so interesting during the conversation with Elspeth and Oliver and how even artwork that was actually there helped with the aspect ratio. 
Suzie Davies: Absolutely! That’s so great that you spotted that. We had a lot of art made as well and obviously we couldn’t afford real Caravaggio, but there was something similar in the property. When Emerald and I were prepping, we wanted slightly ruder art. We took some elements from the painting of two naked men fighting, and she likes bottoms and armpits, and art that is juxtaposition. In the library living room, we had loads of crude art which you only get glimpses of, but it’s that subconscious level of classy rude art. We had bottoms as ashtrays, we had vases made out of legs and feet. It was fun playing with that and layers of art that we were able to have. The same with the Minotaurs we made as well, they were inspired by an artist called Nicola Hicks. We were actually making those during filming and I’ve noticed that Barry is a very physical actor and he puts his body in odd shapes so we had five Minotaurs inside the maze. You don’t see all of them but we put the effort in and they all take the same stance that I’ve seen Barry take, like leaning over things, sat with his hands over his legs when he’s telling Felix about his parents, and all those are plotted in in a very voyeuristic sinister vibe. But, it was just such a great fun to be able to have that tangent to go down. 

Leia Mendoza: I also want to talk about the differences between party scenes at Oxford versus party scenes at Saltburn. I noticed that Oxford’s party scenes feel very quick and there’s a variety of different locations and different holidays while Oliver’s party has a more vibrant design for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. What was the most unique part of creating designs for the Oxford parties versus creating designs for Oliver’s birthday party? 
Suzie Davies: The Oxford party was very formal and had less characterization like a typical student party. There was nothing in particular about one particular character, it was just about being a college student, whereas the Saltburn party, that episode is the start of where it really starts to ramp up the very sinister and more underlying aspect of Oliver’s desire and ambition and he’s actually going to act on it. In a way, it was more fun to do the Saltburn Midsummer Night’s Dream Party because it was a big pivotal piece and I had the whole estate to play with. It was great. I wanted to put loads of practical lighting in there so that Linus could play with his lighting, which he absolutely knocks out of the park. We had those water lilies in the pond, we had lots of neon lights and we had the biggest glitter balls I had ever seen. They were two meters wide! With all that bright neon light coming, we had loads of fire. Fire was good because it gives you the idea of danger and gives us the opportunity to fill the environment with a lovely layer of smoke so it just gets a bit more gothic. We start to see silhouettes and shadows, there’s a full moon and as they run through the maze, this tumbling feeling of being drunk and not knowing the way around the world was very fun to play with. 

Leia Mendoza: Another scene that I really loved and I feel like one of the most important scenes is the karaoke scene. I feel like it’s the first time we see Saltburn through the eyes of other friends of the Cattons. In the karaoke scene specifically, we get a glimpse of this extravagant lifestyle that the British aristocracy has, but we throw in something like karaoke which is something that everyone does. Because the audience is kind of viewing Saltburn in the way that Oliver views Saltburn, he’s our eyes essentially. What would you say is the defining moment throughout this film where it feels like Saltburn as an estate with glitz and glamour begins to disappear and everyone starts seeing the quirks of this house?
Suzie Davies: That’s a really good question. When does it start to unravel itself? I think that there are little hints along the way. The karaoke scene is really interesting because you’ve got the really tacky book that the waiter is holding but it’s lit perfectly in that whole environment. But I guess it’s things like dinner party scenes. One of my favorite scenes is when they have Shepherd’s Pie after Felix’s death and how Emerald has the bravery to keep those curtains closed so the scene is in orange-red horror two toned color. The food looks awful, where as before, the food has looked sumptuous and amazing and now here we are with this burnt Shepherd’s Pie and the overflowing of wine. The fact that Duncan, the butler, starts to lose his mask of control as well. I think all the way along, you’re thinking that he’s never going to break. But he starts to lose it and I think that may be a more pivotal scene when you get to see the wheels coming off and start separating. 

Leia Mendoza: I also think it’s super interesting how you use production design and pop culture together. We have the Superbad scene and I feel like the living room is one safe space for everyone, even though it’s probably the one place in the house where everyone talks bad about each other secretly. It feels very family in the weirdest way possible, I don’t know how to describe it!
Suzie Davies: No, I get it! 

Leia Mendoza: What elements of pop culture from 2006 and 2007 did you know like, “This has to make it into production design”?
Suzie Davies: It’s weird because we’re all on our phones now. It was things like magazines, everyone was reading magazines and reading books. It was the fact that we didn’t have phones and the fact that people were still smoking, all these kids are smoking and drinking pints. It was drinks rather than bottles and glasses of wine, the pints that the students were drinking. So, I think it was elements of that side of the culture, like sweets and bad behaved student life is the same throughout. It was fun to bring in that slightly trashy magazine. What was great was that we actually got magazines from the time and everyone was reading them saying “Oh my god, I remember that!” which was really fun! 

Leia Mendoza: I grew up way later in the 2010s, so I was very late to 2006 and 2007 and so I wasn’t entirely exposed to everything during this period of time. I thought that was so amazing and I thought it was super informative for me as a viewer to really understand and get the world of Saltburn. At the end of the day, the way we all look at these characters is that they don’t really know what’s going on either. Even though Oliver is plotting against them, they’re very blindsided by everything they have and I feel like production design very much helps in the glitz and glamour. 
Suzie Davies: Thank you! 

Leia Mendoza: I loved the production design and I loved the maze specifically. I think the maze was such an incredible creation and the statues, so I have to applaud you and your team for creating this world. Thank you so much, and congratulations on such an amazing film! 
Suzie Davies: Thank you so much! They were great questions and thanks for noticing all the little bits! It really means a lot. Thank you so much! 

Saltburn is currently in theaters and will be streaming on Amazon Prime on December 22, 2023.
You can read our review of Saltburn here.