THE GREAT GATSBY Production Notes - Visual Hollywood

THE GREAT GATSBY (2013)
PRODUCTION NOTES
"The story of the book really starts here, the night Nick went to the Buchanans' for the very first
time," says Martin, "and Baz always points out that in the book it says that the Buchanans were unbelievably
wealthy—Fitzgerald uses names of very prominent families at the time whose wealth
was unbelievable. So, with the house, you needed to understand how wealthy Tom Buchanan was,
and therefore we needed to make Gatsby's wealth feel competitive, because in Gatsby's heart he has
always believed that the reason he didn't get Daisy was because he was poor."
"My favorite set was the Buchanan house, and as you walked down the hallway—they called it a
Hallway of Champions—there are hundreds of portraits and pictures of Tom Buchanan standing in
his polo gear," says Mulligan. "They go from the floor to the ceiling and every single one of them
has the intricate print written on it about his sporting achievements. You get sucked in to the world
so easily; it sort of does half the work for you."
Another important set created in the studio was the speakeasy where Nick meets Gatsby's dubious
associate, Meyer Wolfshiem. The underground club is part of the seedy back story of the prohibition
era, when corruption, organized crime, boozing and debauchery ran rife.
"There were many speakeasies," says Martin. "In Harlem you had the very famous Cotton Club,
where you had a black review but only white patrons. In our speakeasy you had a mixture of white
and black patrons, which was very common, particularly in Harlem."
A sound stage at the studios was also used to create a room in The Plaza Hotel, on an unbearably
hot summer's day during which the five key characters play out one of the most dramatic scenes in
the film: the moment Tom confronts Gatsby and demands to know the truth about his past.
"I've never experienced anything like when we were shooting the Plaza suite," remembers Mulligan.
"For days we shot conventional coverage of all of us in the scene, quite a long scene, quite a
sort of 'dance' of a scene. Then, right at the end, Baz took all the cameras outside of the windows of
the suite. So, there was no crew, there were no lights inside, you couldn't see any technical equipment.
It was like performing on stage, but with no audience. You really felt like you were alone, but
for just the five of us. It was sort of one of the most extraordinary experiences that I've had working,
let alone on this film."
"The Plaza scene, when they are just going at each other, is ten pages of pure acting that takes place
in one room," explains Luhrmann. "The immersion is somewhat like theatre, and I really wanted to
make the most of these wonderfully talented actors."
Beyond the studio, various other scenes were shot in locations in and around Sydney. The picturesque
town of Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains, and the surrounding area, was the setting for
Long Island environs. "There's a beautiful place, a family property, called Breenhold, and it's covered
in European trees," says Knapman. "So, it was very suitable for Long Island."
Nick's bungalow was also built there. "Nick's bungalow is described in the book as a 'cardboard
bungalow at eighty a month,'" says Martin of her initial inspiration for Nick's house. "So, when we
did research into the West Egg of Long Island, which was sort of where the new money went, we
realized that there had been early 19th century holidaymakers' cottages sandwiched exactly as was
described in the book between various piles that were built in the early 20th century. So, you had
this strange occurrence of enormous houses and then forgotten little bungalows, weekenders, for
people that lived in New York. And we felt that probably was the kind of house that Fitzgerald was
describing."
© 2013 Warner Bros. Pictures
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