The production of Oliver Stone’s new ‘Savages’ began filming in Malibu, which doubled for Laguna. Producer Moritz Borman explains the logic: “Oliver likes to stay as chronological as possible so that the actors can grow. It’s a good way of doing it, if you can logistically afford it.”

For about two weeks, the cast and crew decamped to a former baseball player’s 3,500-square-foot house that boasts a breathtaking view of the Pacific. The area that became O, Chon and Ben’s residence features vaulted ceilings, sliding glass doors and an outdoor dining area with a fire pit and a spa. Production designer Tomás Voth lent it a Zen/rock ’n’ roll vibe: Layers of colorful Indian tapestries and small shrines to various Hindu gods were folded into pops of primary color from vibrant, raucous paintings. Of course, he added the requisite paraphernalia a weed grower—and smoker—might need.

Voth also had to create a version of Mexico in California, specifically Elena’s villa. One of her many domiciles, this residence had to reflect her power, wealth and isolation. The production found an extraordinary property called the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains. With its Spanish-style architecture and décor, it looks exactly like a grand Mexican hacienda— replete with stables, fountains, a swimming pool, an endless façade of windows and a mammoth, regal bedroom. The Hummingbird Nest Ranch may accommodate up to 5,000 people, yet Elena and her security were the sole guests. It was, in fact, an exquisite jail.

Despite all of her wealth and power, Elena’s alone, and that’s what the team wanted to convey in her villa. “For her to be ‘queen of the Cartel,’ to survive, persevere and succeed says a lot about her ambition,” Voth says. “We wanted her home to reveal that, as well as what she had to give up attaining it. So we designed the villa from the character out. I wanted it to be elegant and massive and also offer a glimpse of what it is like to make it to the top and be completely alone. Fortunately, we found this fantastic place in Simi Valley that looks like Tijuana, and it fulfilled everything we needed.”

Voth’s designs helped Salma Hayek understand her character long before cameras rolled, even if initially they gave the actress’ husband pause. Hayek recalls: “Tomás kindly made me huge boards of every single one of Elena’s properties, that I kept in my bedroom, which helped me understand her. My husband saw them and said, ‘Wait, are we buying another house?’ I said, ‘No, don’t worry, they’re already mine.’”

Image Courtesy of  Savages

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New movie ‘Savages’ begins in an idyllic California dream, and as it progresses, that reverie becomes a nightmare. “There wasn’t one wild idea that Oliver [Stone] didn’t get excited about,” says production designer Tomás Voth. “Because it’s ‘Savages’, it’s a slightly different view of reality. Early on, we agreed that there’s a subtext of hypocrisy: who calls who a savage and the notion that anybody can become one. Plus, there is a complex weave of Americans and Mexicans in California. There’s a border, but they are so much a part of each other that you almost don’t notice it. The idea was to translate that into visuals, so we had potent, vibrant colors. We wanted a hard edge and didn’t want the film to be monochromatic. That freed me to do wilder things than usual.”

The peripatetic production began at a Malibu beach house but traveled to such locales as Pyramid Dam in the mountains north of L.A., Dana Point and Laguna Beach to the south, the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley and Pacific Palisades, and downtown L.A. Voth had to rapidly refashion each site into a ‘Savages’ set.

“I’ve done a lot of stage work, but that didn’t feel right for this film,” he says. “The locations became so much a part of the design. Oliver and I were inspired by the locations when we saw them. He would start seeing the scene in a slightly different way because of the layout of the house or the geography of the landscape. The distribution of each space affected the dynamic of every scene.”

Producer Eric Kopeloff adds: “If we have to build, we try it on real locations. We did one day on a stage because we wanted to incorporate four different locations and that was the only way to do it. But 95 percent of our sets were practical locations, as close to what the script described as possible. So when you look out the window, there’s the actual ocean and the sun going down. You’re fighting the elements, but when you shoot that shot and the birds are flying by, it’s real…and helpful for the actors.”

While the company lensed for a week in Laguna Beach and Dana Point, aspects unique to production impacted the time spent there. “Our plan was to shoot a third of the movie in Orange County, two-thirds in L.A.,” says the producer. “We needed to make the movie in the spring and summertime because of the weather and light we wanted. We hit a lot of roadblocks—places that weren’t excited about us shooting there because of the content. And then we got into simple logistics. Laguna makes its money during the summer through tourism, so our footprint there had to be mitigated to after Labor Day. We came down for a week to establish the look and then came back after Labor Day to access the beach shots that required our actors.”

Image Courtesy of  Savages

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