This article contains spoilers for the film Here.
For director Robert Zemeckis’ latest film, Here, one filming location in particular was paramount: home—specifically, the living room. The movie, which stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, showcases various families as they reside in the same house over the course of a century. Built in 1900, the unremarkable but cozy home is a half-colonial. At 1,800 square feet, it has four bedrooms, a back porch, and a breakfast nook.
The camera stays focused on the living room for the majority of Here, beginning—2001-style—with what it looked like when it was just a plot of land, hundreds of millions of years ago. The room eventually appears, it evolves from the dark-and-moody aesthetic of the Victorian era all the way up to the transitional design style of the 2020s, Roomba and all.
While much of the living room changes as Here progresses, the bones do not. This was intentional on director Bob Zemeckis’s part, who insisted that the room’s main window should never change position or size, says the film’s production designer, Ashley Lamont.
Zemeckis, Wright, and Hanks in front of the living room’s bay window.
That was not always part of the plan. “Originally, Bob and I wanted to change lots of things throughout the room to better reflect each era—fireplaces, windows, moldings, etc.,” says Lamont. “It did become clear, however, as we move through the years and jump between looks [that] it would become too jarring to the eye. And so, Bob believed it would be more pleasing to keep the main structure of the house largely the same and change the dressing throughout instead.”
The couch and the window dressing were the two elements that Lamont and Zemeckis would start with when designing—and re-designing—the look of the room. “These two elements help define eras quickly and easily,” says Lamont.
A scene from Here.
The room’s decor does more than just reflect each era, it was also a visual clue to how the residents’ lives had changed as well. When Richard and Margaret (played by Hanks and Wright, respectively) experience major life changes in the 1990s and early 2000s, the living room, says Lamont, undergoes “more subtle change to reflect Margaret’s growing absence within the house.”
Inspiration for the living room’s design came from a multitude of places. Zemeckis’ own life experiences, as well as ideas from crewmembers and old shelter magazines collected by Lamont’s mother-in-law, were all sources of inspiration. Ultimately, it was important to Zemeckis “that each era feels like a room you’ve been in before” and it was paramount “that each element work[ed] absolutely perfectly within the space.” That meant getting rid of even some beloved pieces. “Some of the best or favorite furniture had to be removed because it didn’t work for Bob’s frame,” says Lamont. “Sometimes we’d even have to adjust things to minimize their presence on camera. The frame had to be our starting point; if it didn’t work for the frame, it had to go.”
Wright and Hanks in Here.
Two identical living rooms were constructed for the filming process, as were two adjacent stages, to make the process of decorating and filming each set more manageable. A third stage was used for the exterior of the house, which is only shown at the very end of the film. The house and its neighborhood were designed by the film’s art department and built by a VFX team.
Zemeckis used AI to de-age Hanks and Wright.
Working on a film that spans more than a century can be, understandably, a bit existential. “For me, this [film] makes me think of the life of every room,” muses Lamont. “I often now stand in rooms and wonder, ‘If I would stand here for eternity, what would I see?’ That’s what my wonderful team and I tried to bring to Here.”
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