‘Death and Other Details:’ Production Designer James Philpott Created a Lusciously Decadent Art Deco Cruise Liner Perfectly Suited For Murder

Hulu’s Death and Other Details transported viewers to a gorgeous luxury cruise liner where the world’s wealthiest guests lounge about in the height of personal comfort and style. It’s the kind of world where every attention is paid. Every detail is carefully planned and orchestrated. No desire is left unfulfilled.

That is, until someone ends up dead.

Starring Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) as Rufus Cotesworth (formerly “the world’s greatest detective”), the series becomes something of a “locked room” murder mystery that offers ample odes to the great Agatha Christie. Someone died, and someone’s responsible who is trapped, along with the rest of the guest and crew, on this beautifully appointed cruise liner.

Fortunately for the cast and crew, the cruise liner’s remarkable art deco-inspired interior was designed by production designer James Philpott. Traditionally working within the sci-fi worlds of Smallville and The 100, Philpott combined his love for history and his architectural background to create an incredibly unique space. The goal for the sets was to blend the luxurious appeal of art deco with modern day splendor reflecting the amenities provided to the rarest 1 percent.

James Philpott sat down with Awards Daily to discuss the challenges and pleasures of working within this remarkable world.

Awards Daily: What was it about Death and Other Details that attracted you to the project?

James Philpott: Well, there were actually a few things that inspired me to come on board. First of all had to be the people who were involved. I was approached by Marc Webb and Mark Martin, who I’ve worked with before and really enjoyed them. Then, the showrunner, Heidi Cole McAdams, I had worked with before on The 100. So, it ended up being a really great opportunity because, essentially, I knew everybody before I even started the show. But the opportunity to design an art deco ocean liner was just such a juicy project as a production designer. It was almost a no-brainer because I have a personal interest in history. When I watch television myself, I’m always geared towards more period things but much of my work has been sci-fi. So this was a really great opportunity to marry my work with things that I love to do and love to see. That was really what drove me to the show. Also, the show itself was fun and had interesting twists, and there were so many great opportunities to do fun things over the course of the series.

Awards Daily: One aspect of the series that I found very interesting is that the cruise liner is very specifically steeped in 1930s art deco, but it is a modern-set series. Were there complexities navigating between those two eras?

James Philpott: Well, one of the directions of the series was that the cruise liner was supposed to be very appealing to today’s 1 percent demographic, so it was very important that we look at every single period touch and ask ourselves if this was still something that would be considered luxurious today. It wasn’t so much complex, but everything had to be examined through two different lenses. One of the things I found really fabulous about our art deco, which is an endearing style, is that its luxury still stands up as a hallmark of luxury in general. So that made it a little bit easier from that point of view, but it also freed us too because we could have modern technologies. We could have moderate elements and weren’t as rigid as if we were to do a true period piece. So, we were able to have a bit of play and flexibility, which made the design very fun.

Awards Daily: When you were constructing the sets to reflect the interior of the cruise liner, did you have to worry about spatial orientation of these rooms?

James Philpott: We did. We had situations where we were not necessary building every single room. We were changing rooms, and we were redressing rooms and architecturally altering rooms. We were always very cognitive of the geography of the ship. Also, because we were reusing some of the hallways that were redressed, we created these giant maps of where every room was in the ship and what floor it was on. That was also something that helped us when we went to the VFX portion. We always knew where every single room was on the cruise ship so that, when the directors and actors walk through some of the sets which may be the same sets, everybody knew where everything was. Everybody knew where they had to go, which direction they had to turn. The layout of the cruise liner was something that was very carefully planned out.

Awards Daily: As I watched the series, I noticed how frequently amber hues are used throughout the cruise liner, particularly on the bar set with that giant glass wall. Why is that color so prominent within the set? 

James Philpott: One of the things that we really wanted to do was embrace warmth in coloration. There was all this warm wood appropriate for the time period, and we supplemented that with amber, which tends to have a little bit of a vintage vibe. We had a whole color theme that went through the show, and several of the costumes and different characters had specific colors assigned to them. For instance, Imogen (Violett Beane) wears a lot of yellow. Anna (Lauren Patten) wore a lot of red. Our villain’s color was blue, so we intentionally did not use blue for anything in the ship unless it was specifically connected to this particular character. There were several subtle touches like that contributing to an overall warm color palette.

Awards Daily: Before I move on, I have to say that the bar set is a work of art, and I want a house completely designed around that. It’s just absolutely amazing.

James Philpott: Oh, I know. The bar was the real work of art. It was just crazy how many people had to work on that project. I love that bar. I wish it still existed, it was just so beautiful.

Awards Daily: It must be heartbreaking to see those things deconstructed at the end of the shoot.

James Philpott: Fortunately, I make a habit of making sure I’m off the show by the time they actually tear things down. Early in my career, I saw them tearing sets down, so I decided that I don’t really want to be there for that.

Awards Daily: What was your personal favorite set to design for the series? 

James Philpott: Well, Sunil’s (Rahul Kohli) office was the very first set that I drew for the series when I took it, and I really had so much fun with the floor plan. I was able to lavish as many details as I can humanly think about into that set. It’s always the first one that all your creative ideas start coming out on. Also in some ways, it was one of the more architectural sets, and I trained as an architect. So, I’m always still thinking in terms of the structural architecture, and I was able to create the center colonnade and have a higher ceilings and manipulate the actual volumes of the room. That was very fun. Then, when I worked with my decorator Alex Rojek who is an amazing decorator, she brought in so many fabulous pieces into that set. So, that was why I really liked that set. Obviously, there’s also the dining room and the bar, which we talked about. Those two also stand very tall in my favorites of the show for sure.