Touring the ‘You’ Season 5 Set With Penn Badgley

Architectural Digest

Today, AD joins Penn Badgley to tour the ‘You’ season 5 set. From the cage underneath Mooney’s to Joe Goldberg and Kate's billionaire NYC apartment, take a look at the sets where the final chapter of the hit Netflix series will unfold.  The final season of You is available to stream exclusively on Netflix.  Hosted by: Penn Badgley; Madeline Brewer Director: Skylar Economy Director of Photography: Eric Brouse Editor: Ron Douglas Featuring: Adam Scher Senior Producer: Alyssa Marino Williams Line Producer: Joe Buscemi Associate Producer: Noah Bierbrier Production Manager: Melissa Heber Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila Camera Operator: Duell Davis Sound Mixer: Brett Van Deusen Production Assistant: Francis McNeill Entertainment Editor: Mica Medoff Entertainment Editor (On- Site): Jenna Caldwell Director of Creative Development: Morgan Crossley Director of Content: Keleigh Nealon Director, Post Production: Nicholas Ascanio Post Production Supervisor: Andrew Montague Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew Supervising Editor: Christina Mankellow Additional Editor: Letícia Villarinho Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds Colorist: Oliver Eid

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Penn Badgley. Welcome to The Set of You. Let's take a tour.

00:22Welcome to Mooney's Bookstore. And here we have, oh my goodness, we've discovered our

00:26first Easter egg. This is Madeleine Brewer. Hello. She plays a character whose name I guess

00:31we can reveal. It's Bronte. What's your name? It's, uh, Bronte. No, it's not. I know. Um, anyway.

00:41This cash register, this season doesn't work. The first season, it did, and I had to learn how to use

00:45it. This is a really lovely message. Hate has no business here. However, Joe Goldberg does. So,

00:51I don't know, take that for what you want. This was recreated from the first season. This is not

00:56a real bookstore. This is not even a real ladder. I don't think it could scarcely support my weight,

01:01but I will try it. So, ooh. It's so canned. That was just foolish of you. Yeah. So, you'll notice here

01:08that we have subjects, titles here. However, each and every single book is real. So, every book in the

01:15shelf, every book in the environment is a real book. Most of them purchased from used book wholesalers,

01:21and we actually even sorted some of them into categories so that the right books were in the

01:24right section. You searched the books, uh, fiction, F through K. Where we had specific books that were

01:33going to be featured, it was required, actually, that we create our own book jackets and our own

01:37graphics and our own titles and our own authors. It feels very real upon first entrance, and then you

01:46realize after a bit that it is covered in fake dust, which is worse than real dust, and everything

01:51feels kind of flimsy. So, there's something about being here that at once is very real and very fake.

01:56I disagree, because I watched the first season of the show and was obsessed with Moonies,

02:00because it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. To walk in for the first time with, like,

02:04fog in the air going through the lights, it's, like, gorgeous. It's something to be gorgeous and

02:08flimsy, I think. It's like, you know, that ladder. Right. It's like me, I'm gorgeous and flimsy. Exactly.

02:15Season five would be also in New York, as season one was, so it was important to really familiarize

02:21myself, assemble the information, the drawings, which were brilliant. If I were a patron, I think

02:26I'd want to hang out there. It seems like the kind of place that you could lose maybe a whole

02:30afternoon if you had it. That, to me, is a measure of success. This is where Joe and Beck would have

02:35met, right here, for the first time. This is the part of the bookstore, and so I was just getting to

02:40know Joe Goldberg right about here. In fact, this is that turn where he's like, huh. And you murmur

02:45your first word to me. Hello. Do you work here? Guilty. Another aspect of the bookstore set, which is

02:55probably most exciting, is the fact that we have an LED screen, which represents York Avenue, that is

03:00seen when you look out the front windows. And the LED screen has imagery on it that has been shot that

03:07looks exactly like our location. We're in our bookstore. We look east. We see that. Cars go by.

03:12It's fully animated. It's like you were on York Avenue. It's very effective.

03:17Well, Maddie, it's been nice knowing you, but we're going to go somewhere no one else wants to go.

03:23Okay, have fun.

03:24Thanks.

03:25Bye.

03:26That's what you've all been waiting for.

03:29And here's a little secret. This is not where we're going. This is in a different building from

03:35the cage. This is meant to be the top of the stairs. This would be where Paco would have seen

03:41Beck and then turned away from her.

03:43Oh, Paco!

03:45No, he was mostly an angel, but he did let her die.

03:49This is where I get to do my theater stairs.

03:51So if you can't already tell, usually I'd flip this light on for dramatic effect, but it's already on.

04:14Here we are in

04:17the cage. This is the cage. This has been reconstructed every season, but this is where

04:22it all happens. It doesn't have a handle on this side, obviously, because no one's supposed to get

04:28out.

04:29Don't leave!

04:31I'm good.

04:33We're going to get through this.

04:35From the season one design, everything was completely replicated. The cage itself, we built from the exact

04:40same drawings that they built season one.

04:42I promised you the truth, and I'm going to give you that.

04:46This is actually a really cool little detail. This does not open unless this is closed.

04:53I thought that was a really nice touch. That way, people can't get out, obviously.

05:00Doesn't work that way. There's only one way.

05:03Probably done some of my best and worst work in here, I'd say. There's nothing like a cage

05:10scene. As ready as I am to take off the Joe boots and untuck his shirt and high-waisted pants.

05:17I'll never get to do this stuff again. It's a really particular kind of thing, and it's very

05:20intense, and I've been really fortunate to have it. This thing is always really well-made.

05:25The joke is that Joe builds this on his own every season. This one was supposed to be built by

05:30Mr. Mooney, but every other one was built by Joe. He's wiry, but very strong. This table is meant

05:35to look like I do a lot of work here. You've got to be precise and use exactly the force needed.

05:43Secret? I never do any work here. Joe is always supposed to be binding books, right? He's never

05:48binding books. He doesn't even sleep. If you track Joe's waking life and then killing life schedule,

05:53this man does not sleep. He rarely eats. I've got to be honest. There are interesting, strange tools.

05:59Look at this thing. This must be an old press, you know, like literally just like a binding

06:04mechanism. These arches, I think they're gorgeous. Oh, and this is an area that we've never

06:10utilized really at all, but it gives the whole place, you know, dimension. This, I have bound

06:17one book here, exactly one book here, and I think exactly one book on that table that I said I never

06:22used, so I've used it once. I lied. See this dust? You see how like just there's a thick coat of dust on

06:28everything. I believe it's chocolate powder, but I wouldn't eat it. We're getting a set to look this

06:34aged requires many passes. So we told our painters, our scenic artists, it needs to look like this,

06:42and we gave them the reference, and they made a pass. Then the producers come down for a walkthrough

06:46because that's what happens every so often, and they ask the question, so you're going to age the

06:50basement, right? As though it's never been aged. It's like, yeah, of course, we're on it, right? So

06:55we redouble our efforts, and we had painters in here for a week. Every corner has dust or grime in

07:01it where the walls meet the floor, look like they've never been mopped, but that doesn't happen

07:06in one pass. You have to stick with it. You can't actually make a set out of masonry because it weighs

07:11a tremendous amount, and we try to make things as light as possible. Concrete block is a thin layer of

07:17plaster with scored lines. The brick is a material where they mold recycled paper.

07:25Our carpenters and our art people, our set people, they put a lot of work into this. They do it so

07:29quickly. It's ridiculous. It's a gift to us as actors because you know that what you're in feels

07:35real. It looks real. You feel very supportive. We border on the sort of absurdist and comedy and

07:42melodramatic. What were you trying to do to me? I was just making it cozy. Look. And that's the

07:48whole point of the tone and the horror of it. But these sets are to me what helped make the difference.

07:55A little bit of an interesting note. This is where we shot Gossip Girl. This is the same stage

07:59where the Waldorf suites or whatever, where they live, was in this stage. The stage with the bookstore

08:05was where the Humphrey loft was. So this place is extremely familiar to me. I was just standing outside

08:10looking at the trees and I thought, I've been looking at these trees for nearly 20 years now.

08:14And I thought to myself, have they grown? Do trees in the city over the course of 20 years, do they

08:19grow? They must. So that's just a little window into my brain. Back in the end, the cage was a good

08:25thing for me. I'm hoping it'll be the same for you. Look, hence, typewriter, paper, no distractions.

08:30It's the low-tech writer's retreat you always want.

08:40This is my front door. You can't tell? Doesn't look like a front door? No. Well, I don't know what

08:48kind of places you're living in, but this is an elevator shaft. Not in real life. It would be a

08:53working elevator. For a billionaire apartment, it's massive. I mean, it's meant to be two floors. If

08:59you notice, there's stairs that lead to nowhere. All the light you see here is not daylight. Like all

09:04that, you know, that's supposed to look like sunlight, right? That's not what that is.

09:08Joe's studio and Joe and Kate's apartment, those were being built from scratch. And so we had to

09:12sort of decide as a group what the language of that apartment was going to be. One of the specific

09:18references was from the Dakota. That's the direction that we went. So this is the Lockwood Goldberg

09:24living room, non-working fireplace that when we needed to work, there's a whole gas apparatus. That's my

09:31real life human boy who plays my child. His character name is Henry. Henry, I'm sorry that

09:37she said that to you. Is it true what Christian said? Here's the conversation you've been dreading

09:43for years. Oh, and over here, there's a nice photoshopped image of Charlotte who plays Kate

09:49with her longtime family friend in the show. That's not real. They've never been together on a

09:55horse. And it has this terrace that looks out onto the city, which we can never shoot in,

09:59by the way, because as gorgeous as it looks from far away, the closer you get, you start

10:03to see, you start to see, this ain't real. This is not real at all. It's not called the Lockwood

10:11Goldberg. That was a total ad lib. It's Lockwood. It's Charlotte's character. Charlotte Ritchie

10:16plays Kate Lockwood, who is the heiress to a billionaire magnate.

10:21My family are wealthier than any of them.

10:23You don't go by Lockwood?

10:24Yes. When I was designing it, I was trying to figure out how much of this apartment is

10:29Kate's apartment and how much of this apartment is Joe's apartment. It's mostly Kate. Her resources

10:34went into this, but there had to be a place where you saw Joe's character and Joe was into

10:39books. And so we found places. Joe's world is on the bottom because that's where all the

10:42bookcases are and Kate's world is on top because that's where all the art is.

10:48Oh, what kind of kitchen is this? Hello, New York City.

10:50We'll just, we'll find another way. Your sister. Stop it. That is not who we are.

10:54Not who we are. You want us to kill everyone who becomes suspicious of us for the rest of

11:00our lives. That oven stove. This thing is ridiculously beautiful.

11:06Yeah, just so nice. Look, look at that. We've never used any of that. I didn't even know that

11:09was in there. Really, really, really well-made cutting boards. Look at that. These rounded edges.

11:15The appliances are real. These fruits are very fake. That might be real salt. Real nice salt.

11:21Black truffle salt. That's real.

11:22Selezioni tartufi. Tartufi.

11:25It's expired.

11:26I feel like Joe would cook a steak well. Is that on the nose? I feel like he'd cook meat well. He is a

11:34working class guy. He would have had to cook him for himself. And I feel like he'd probably be pretty

11:38good with a few key things. He probably makes a good chicken, you know, once you nail a chicken and you

11:44have that. It's an infinite resource. You can cook chicken anywhere. Well, having exited the kitchen

11:49on the first floor in the hallway, we're going to magically enter the second floor into Henry's

11:53bedroom through his closet. It's a little bit like Narnia, but different.

11:56So now, we're in Henry's bedroom, which is meant to be right up there. Reminder, there is no

12:13second floor. I really like this. Welcome, Henry.

12:18Henry's, I suppose, growing up a little bit like his father. Hopefully, only just a little bit.

12:27He might have violence in his blood.

12:30Oh! Oh!

12:31Whether that's a real thing or not, holding back the truth isn't the way to protect him.

12:36He likes to read. He's six years old, so he's reading all about, you know, giraffes.

12:40For Henry, one of the things we did in his room, the upper floors of the Dakota all have

12:46these giant angled ceilings, which correspond to angled roofs, which to me is a very playful

12:52kind of idea.

12:54Here we have a fake child's drawing. This one looks like it might be real. No, probably not.

12:59But they look pretty convincing, don't they?

13:01And we also have some actual art that is done by, theoretically, Henry. But I think it's

13:07actually the art director's son, who happens to be the same age as Henry.

13:14This looks to be, is it a real fire alarm smoke detector? Look, there's a canister there.

13:21I don't know what that's for. I don't know why that's there. Maybe an end-of-season gag.

13:25Maybe it involves fire. Maybe that's a spoiler. I don't know.

13:37So this is Joe and Kate's bedroom, where, admittedly, very little of the magic happens.

13:46It is an absurdly huge New York City bedroom, and very well-appointed. It's very light.

13:51It's very not Joe, I think, in a way. In fact, for me, as Joe, I just don't really feel like

13:56this is home at all.

13:58These are meant to be closets. There was nothing in them. But that is what they're meant to be,

14:02a his-and-hers closet.

14:03Ooh, you know what? A little detail I've never noticed. Look at those.

14:06Those corner moldings up there. It's very nice.

14:10It's very extraordinary, frankly, to have an apartment of that scale in New York. And I think

14:15that is probably its most awesome feature, because it is so much grander than anything

14:20that you would normally see. I'm very fortunate in my life to have actually

14:23walked through the Dakota, and the walls are actually taller than what we built. That's all the

14:29studio could fit. But the scale of it, from a design standpoint, one of the most interesting

14:35features of it, because of the sort of subconscious statement it makes about status, and about

14:41wealth, and about privilege.

14:43So, what's next for the power couple?

14:45We're largely focused on changing the world.

14:48So many ways.

14:49Now you're in the real world, which is like the bowels of the fake world. Or maybe it's

15:10the other way around. It's the fake world, the bowels of the real world, and we'll never

15:13know. This is the outside of the cage set, right? That's the first floor of the Lockwood

15:20suite. This is the, like, the reality of what we do. A television show or a movie is made

15:25by hundreds, if not sometimes, depending on the scale, thousands. Men and women put this

15:30thing up. This was built, and it was built, like, very quickly. So, I just think seeing

15:36this is a testament to the scope of the craft. You know, how many people are involved, how many

15:43people make it their life's work. That's why people get into this business, is to tell

15:47some stories, and this is how you do it. I've got to go shoot something else now, but

15:53we'll see you later. Toodles.

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