Set Design: Behind-the-Scenes Look at ‘Love the Coopers’
Production designer Beth Rubino talks about creating the family home for the new movie — and the home in ‘Something’s Gotta Give’
How do you make a house a home? Movie production designers and set decorators have a special insight into that process. Their job is to create sets that look authentic to their film’s characters and communicate the essence of “home” through colors, materials, textures, lighting and furnishings.
Beth Rubino, production designer for the new Christmas-themed film Love the Coopers, has helped create movie homes that not only feel right for their characters but that audiences want to live in as well. Her lengthy résumé includes being part of the design team behind the popular homes in Nancy Meyers’ Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated. In advance of the Love the Coopers opening on Friday, November 13, we spoke with Rubino about the process of making movie homes.
Beth Rubino, production designer for the new Christmas-themed film Love the Coopers, has helped create movie homes that not only feel right for their characters but that audiences want to live in as well. Her lengthy résumé includes being part of the design team behind the popular homes in Nancy Meyers’ Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated. In advance of the Love the Coopers opening on Friday, November 13, we spoke with Rubino about the process of making movie homes.
The Cooper home’s interiors, front porch and immediate yard with trees are a set that was built on a Pittsburgh soundstage. The family matriarch, Charlotte Cooper (Diane Keaton), collects snow globes, which also serve as a metaphor for the movie. The home was designed with the idea of a snow globe in mind.
“Snow globes are an image that defines the whimsy and the beauty of winter,” Rubino says. “The essence of the sphere is that you exist within it. So our story, a beautiful Christmas story, exists metaphorically in the snow globe.”
“Snow globes are an image that defines the whimsy and the beauty of winter,” Rubino says. “The essence of the sphere is that you exist within it. So our story, a beautiful Christmas story, exists metaphorically in the snow globe.”
The movie takes place on Christmas Eve as four generations of the Cooper family come together for their annual celebration. Unexpected visitors and events shake things up, and the family rediscovers family ties and the spirit of the holiday.
On the set, snow blankets the exteriors, which can be seen through the home’s many large windows. It snows continually during the movie, forcing people together in confined environments and intensifying their interactions.
Love the Coopers stars, from left, Amanda Seyfried, Jake Lacy, Olivia Wilde, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Alan Arkin and Keaton, as well as Marisa Tomei, June Squibb, Alex Borstein and Anthony Mackie.
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
On the set, snow blankets the exteriors, which can be seen through the home’s many large windows. It snows continually during the movie, forcing people together in confined environments and intensifying their interactions.
Love the Coopers stars, from left, Amanda Seyfried, Jake Lacy, Olivia Wilde, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Alan Arkin and Keaton, as well as Marisa Tomei, June Squibb, Alex Borstein and Anthony Mackie.
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
“The grays and the taupes in the house were based on the stones that the house was built from,” Rubino says. The designers used the same palette in the characters’ wardrobes. They built the dining room table in old-growth wood, so the boards were very wide. The set’s snow-covered trees are visible through the windows.
The lighting for the home is a mix of period and contemporary pieces. The designers chose the lights over the dining room table because they provided the right kind of illumination for the table. The wire LED lights on the table runner add a warm glow.
“We were having a wonderful Christmas experience in the house, and it led to lighting challenges for the cinematographers,” Rubino says. “So we came up with something that allowed beautiful lighting without overwhelming or taking over the environment.”
The lighting for the home is a mix of period and contemporary pieces. The designers chose the lights over the dining room table because they provided the right kind of illumination for the table. The wire LED lights on the table runner add a warm glow.
“We were having a wonderful Christmas experience in the house, and it led to lighting challenges for the cinematographers,” Rubino says. “So we came up with something that allowed beautiful lighting without overwhelming or taking over the environment.”
“The look of the house spoke to Diane Keaton’s character, Charlotte, someone who very much cares about her environment, cares about her home and very much cares about her family,” Rubino says. “So it was a homey manicured house.
“It was a home they had lived in for 30 years. The furnishings and the items that had been there had been collected over a period of time.”
To create this “collected” look, the design team shopped for furnishings and accessories locally and in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Some things came from Rubino’s collection and that of her set decorator, Paul Cheponis.
“It was a home they had lived in for 30 years. The furnishings and the items that had been there had been collected over a period of time.”
To create this “collected” look, the design team shopped for furnishings and accessories locally and in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Some things came from Rubino’s collection and that of her set decorator, Paul Cheponis.
Rubino and Nelson looked at many kitchens in coming up with the design of this space. The back story of the house is that the kitchen had been remodeled 10 years earlier during a revamping of the house. “We loved the idea that after Charlotte’s kids were grown, she renovated her kitchen and put in open shelving so she could display things that she loved,” Rubino says.
Interior design trends don’t factor into the creation of Rubino’s movie homes, she says. “It’s all specific to the script. Our job is to create an environment or domain for these characters to live and exist in.” But she does reference many visuals “as anyone does for an inspiration board.” Ideas may come from magazines, the Internet, books, her own references and other sources.
Interior design trends don’t factor into the creation of Rubino’s movie homes, she says. “It’s all specific to the script. Our job is to create an environment or domain for these characters to live and exist in.” But she does reference many visuals “as anyone does for an inspiration board.” Ideas may come from magazines, the Internet, books, her own references and other sources.
One of the things Rubino likes about the movie is that “the essence of Christmas is visible.” She says the movie shoot lasted from about November to March, and being in a Christmas environment for so long had an interesting effect on the cast and crew. “It really extended the holiday season for us emotionally.”
And that was a good thing, she says. “There’s a joy in bringing Christmas into the home, and I think that’s something that has intrinsic value. Doing things that alter or help our senses really do create tradition. The story shows that, and I think weirdly enough, being a part of that physically, we had that happen continually. So, physically decorating the house, or doing any action during the holiday season, can be a very joyful thing.”
Get recipes from the Cooper family’s Christmas Eve dinner
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
And that was a good thing, she says. “There’s a joy in bringing Christmas into the home, and I think that’s something that has intrinsic value. Doing things that alter or help our senses really do create tradition. The story shows that, and I think weirdly enough, being a part of that physically, we had that happen continually. So, physically decorating the house, or doing any action during the holiday season, can be a very joyful thing.”
Get recipes from the Cooper family’s Christmas Eve dinner
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
Family dog Rags gets into the spirit of the holiday. His enjoyment of Christmas dishes is a running joke in the movie. Luckily, Bolt, the St. Bernard-Australian shepherd who played him, has a tremendous appetite. He also has impressive acting chops. In a multipart living room scene shot with a Steadicam without cuts, he hit all his marks with just a few minutes of rehearsal.
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
In addition to building the dining room table, the production crew also constructed the kitchen cabinets, shelves and island, and hardwood floors. “The kitchen island we had built so that it looked like a wonderful antique but once again worked for our space and our specifications,” Rubino says.
This is not the first movie house Rubino has helped design for actress Keaton, pictured here with Goodman, who plays her husband in the film. Keaton starred in Something’s Gotta Give, and her character owned a Hamptons home with a kitchen that many movie viewers coveted and even drew from in their own kitchens.
“The construct of that was a character who was very successful, had a home in the Hamptons, had it professionally decorated, but very much brought her own taste to the way it was decorated. That look became a signature. But was that the intent? No, the intent was to tell the visual story,” Rubino says.
She adds that she was surprised but thrilled by the response. Director Nancy Meyers wanted to create a very beautiful home, she says, and she thinks they succeeded. “It’s hard to say what creates a trend. But when it hits a certain note, it definitely has a ripple effect that’s profound. And that one definitely hit a note.”
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
“The construct of that was a character who was very successful, had a home in the Hamptons, had it professionally decorated, but very much brought her own taste to the way it was decorated. That look became a signature. But was that the intent? No, the intent was to tell the visual story,” Rubino says.
She adds that she was surprised but thrilled by the response. Director Nancy Meyers wanted to create a very beautiful home, she says, and she thinks they succeeded. “It’s hard to say what creates a trend. But when it hits a certain note, it definitely has a ripple effect that’s profound. And that one definitely hit a note.”
Photo by Suzanne Tenner
Charlotte Cooper’s snow globes are displayed on a table and on lighted shelves.
Part of building a movie home’s back story is including homey personal items. The family’s collections and musical instruments are placed throughout the house. The children’s artwork is displayed above the desk.
The production crew re-created the real Pittsburgh home’s exteriors on a soundstage.
Rubino served as set decorator on It’s Complicated, whose dining room and kitchen are pictured here. She’s been the set decorator or production designer for numerous movies and TV shows, including American Gangster, The Cider House Rules, Twilight and ABC’s Quantico.
Rubino describes the difference between the two design jobs: “As production designer, you are comprehensively dealing with the entire essence of the film: built sets, locations and visual effects, and working in tandem with wardrobe. I guess the analogy would be, in doing a house, you can have an architectural firm designing the house, and the interior designer coming in and doing all the surfaces and all the furnishings. In film, what that equates to is the production designer is the firm doing everything, and then you hire the decorator coming in. ”
Photo courtesy of Universal Studios
More
Christmas Recipes From ‘Love the Coopers’
‘The Intern’: Nancy Meyers on Bringing Movie Interiors to Life
Rubino describes the difference between the two design jobs: “As production designer, you are comprehensively dealing with the entire essence of the film: built sets, locations and visual effects, and working in tandem with wardrobe. I guess the analogy would be, in doing a house, you can have an architectural firm designing the house, and the interior designer coming in and doing all the surfaces and all the furnishings. In film, what that equates to is the production designer is the firm doing everything, and then you hire the decorator coming in. ”
Photo courtesy of Universal Studios
More
Christmas Recipes From ‘Love the Coopers’
‘The Intern’: Nancy Meyers on Bringing Movie Interiors to Life
Love the Coopers is set in the Pittsburgh area and was filmed there as well. Rubino and movie director Jessie Nelson scouted for a house that would serve as the exterior of the Cooper home. “It was important that we find a house that told the story of a family that had been there for 30 years,” Rubino says. “We found two homes that we both coveted. This was one of them.” It’s a Dutch Colonial that had been occupied by members of the same family since it was built in the 1920s.