In advance of International Production Design Week, running October 17 through 26, 2025, we asked eight designers to discuss a single prop or piece of scenery from their work and its role in the world of the film. This feature was produced by Javier Irazuzta.
Grey Gardens (Michael Sucsy, 2009).
I remember very fondly Big Edie’s portrait in Grey Gardens. The original was painted in oil by Albert Herter, and it remained in the family of its subject, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, until 1977. Big Edie, as she came to be called, is depicted as a radiant young woman in the late 1930s. The painting plays a significant role in the movie, first hanging above the mantelpiece and then, when the house has become a den of decay, gathering dust and cat piss in the ’70s.
It was not only a piece of set dressing but also an element that shows how times have changed for Big Edie. I hired an artist to refabricate the portrait and, on Friday, went to pick it up. To my horror, it was painted in acrylics, a water-based medium very different from oil, but I politely thanked the artist, and left with it in tow.
Top: Grey Gardens (Michael Sucsy, 2009). Bottom: Drawing courtesy of the author.
I was holding in my hands a total disaster, and the portrait was playing the following Monday. We only had the weekend to fix it. On the phone with the art director, Brandt Gordon, I almost broke down in tears. He gave me the address of a Serbian art restorer who also painted in oil. Quick as a flash, I arrived at the Serbian’s apartment and immediately felt reassured: He was surrounded by giant oil paintings of ancient landscapes.
Two days later, I had the perfect portrait in my hands and hung it on stage. The Art Gods were on my side.
Drawing courtesy of the author.
Continue reading “The Prop and the Production Designer.”