There are many aspects to a production of television or film that make it look the way it does, and this is always done by conscious choice by members of the production team. One crucial cog in this machine is the set design, forming the very basis for any scene to be shot the best way possible.
In Legion's series premiere, there are plenty of incredible and important sets used by Emmy Award-winning production designer Michael Wylie, who has worked on Pushing Daises, Californication, Masters of Sex, and Agent Carter. Below, Wylie discusses some of his work from the premiere, as well as what it's like working with creator Noah Hawley.
This interview has been lightly edited to improve readability.
SpoilerTV: What kind of thing did Noah Hawley ask for in the set design?
Michael Wylie: He made a look book that he handed me at the job interview. I’m a visual person so sometimes when directors are talking it’s a bit like the Peanuts Teacher for me. But give me a book - I’m there! His visual brief for the whole show was right there on those pages. The rest was easy. Just design and build it all in a couple [of] weeks.
How different was it working on Legion in comparison to previous jobs?
The jaded answer is “It’s all the same.” And in a lot of ways, it was. It’s a pretty brutal experience making a TV show. It’s long hours and really high pressure and a lot of time in scouting vans, but we got to break some rules on this show. Though, things like that sometimes make one’s work harder sometimes because you have to pay extra attention to continuity, for example. On Legion, we had some flexibility because we are telling this story through the eyes of the unreliable narrator. And, to that end, sometimes we did stuff for no other reason than because it looked cool. There was a freedom to design things for pure aesthetic joy. That doesn’t happen on L.A. Law.
This isn’t your first dive into the Marvel universe, after working on Agent Carter. Were there any similarities between the two?Yes: Marvel! They are awesome to work for. They seem to respect the creative process and after a certain point move away from it in order for the film makers to make. They are a cool bunch.
Clockworks, the psychiatric facility in the first episode, has an incredibly modern look. What was the thinking behind how that was designed?
We shoot the show in Vancouver. Vancouver has a lot of brutalist architecture. There is a thing that happens a lot in TV production where we are constantly trying to hide things. When you shoot Boston Legal in Los Angeles you spend an exhausting amount of time avoiding palm trees and the Hollywood sign. We wanted to embrace brutalism. Noah also wanted a nod to "A Clockwork Orange", so it all came together in Clockworks. It was built on stage and was enormous. It came out great and adds a bit of whimsy. We didn’t want to do the usual mental hospital and, since there is no evidence that this place ever even existed, then why not make it odd?
There’s a divide in the building where David is interrogated: on one side, there’s a swimming pool area, and on the other is a much more impressive observation room of sorts. Was it difficult to find something that fit what was needed?
Those scenes were shot in an abandoned youth detention center directly behind our production office. I think we had all envisioned a bigger pool in a much more Chernobyl-like setting, but we got everything we needed.
The house David was in as a young boy plays a key role in the character’s backstory. Were you or Noah looking for anything specific there?The script called for a farmhouse. The closest farmhouse we could find to fit the brief was 25 feet from the U.S. border (that’s far from Vancouver) so we found this beautiful house right in town. It is on a lake that is completely filled with goose poop but has this incredible mossy creek running through the back. It’s spectacular! We made it work.
Similarly, Amy’s basement - where David stays temporarily - is obviously strikingly more inviting and home-like than his room at Clockworks. Was that the intent?
It seems inviting, but it’s really filled with David’s past. It’s also sad because he knows his sister gets to live out in the world and he doesn’t. That set was fun for me because we were running out of time to get drawings made to build sets, so I pulled a drawing of a basement we built for a horrible suicide attempt scene from Masters of Sex and just rebuilt it in Canada. Voila - basement.
Are there any sets used throughout the season that you’re particularly proud of, or excited for viewers to see?
All of them. I think it’s a really thoughtfully-crafted visual journey that helps to tell a really out-there story. I’m very proud of it.
Legion airs Wednesdays at 10pm on FX.
