The English country house is a familiar character, but often the fictional houses seen on screen are the same repurposed National Trust properties. For Saltburn, about a young man who is drawn into the tempting world of the aristocratic Catton family, writer/director Emerald Fennell wanted to find a unique house that could also serve as a single location. She and production designer Suzie Davies discovered a 127-room privately owned manor in Northamptonshire that hit every mark. (As part of the agreement to film there, no one involved in the production is allowed to disclose the name of the house).
“We managed to persuade the owners,” Davies says of filming in the house. “Usually in National Trust and English Heritage properties you’re not allowed to paint anything or move pictures or augment or change anything. This family let us do quite a bit to the house and gave us free rein.”
Usually, it’s not practical or possible for filmmakers to find every aspect of a set in one location. “That’s why the house was so important,” Fennell says. “And it needed to be something that hadn’t been used before. This hadn’t been photographed even, let alone put on film. We always wanted the exact sense that it is a real place.”
The actual house was built around 1300, although the site dates back to 1066. It has since undergone several transformations, including one in the 1700s when it was refurbished with an ornate Baroque façade. Many of the existing rooms were used in the film, which is set in 2006, as was the square pond, the chapel, and the gardens. The team added topiary and contemporary art and sculptures and brought in furniture from Lots Road Auctions in London. Some of the modern artwork was created by the art department, but the team also got permission to reproduce pieces by Ryan Mosley and Colin Harris, and film artist Jason Line did the portraits of the Catton family that can be seen throughout the house.
