The movie Saltburn was filmed at Drayton House, a historic country house in Northamptonshire, England. The house has been owned by the Stopford Sackville family since the 1770s.
It boasts 127 rooms, a Baroque facade, a square pond, a chapel, and formal gardens. During filming, the cast had the opportunity to reside in the house, contributing to a summer camp-like atmosphere. Additionally, the owner of the house made a cameo appearance in the birthday party scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Set Decorator Charlotte Dirickx and Production Designer Suzie Davies had the freedom to redesign interiors, gardens, and other spaces to represent the Catton family. The family is extremely wealthy but emotionally unstable, and the eldest son invites his new friend from Oxford to spend a summer with them.
Director Fennell tells House and Garden, Drayton House was an ideal location for capturing all the action on camera.
That’s why the house was so important,” she explained. “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.
“When I first went into the house the busts in the great hall had silly hats on them and I was like, ‘That’s exactly it. That is exactly what it needs to feel like. To the people who live here it’s just home and it’s just funny. These grand things are just the clutter of your everyday life. That was something I felt we hadn’t really seen before.”
One of the most talked-about sequences is the bathtub scene.
Robbie tells Variety, “It didn’t feel that shocking in the script, because Emerald immerses you into a world so quickly. She’s so masterful at tone and plot; she gets you into it so quickly — you’re just immediately like, ‘I’m in this world.’
“So by the time you get to something like the bathtub scene, she’s primed you for it. She’s got you. You’re, like, picking at a scab; you’re like, ‘I can’t help myself.’ Or like popping a pimple: ‘I know I shouldn’t squeeze but I’m gonna.’”
According to designer Suzie Davies, “The bathroom isn’t a real bathroom — that was a bedroom. So that’s all fake, but it was in the right place to shoot out of the windows and see the parties and things like that.”
Set decorator Charlotte Dirickx put kimono on the back of the chair that Oliver ended up wearing which wasn’t scripted.
Red and green was the designers go-to color. There’s always this red thread going throughout the film. It’s sexy, it’s scary, it’s intense.
Throughout the wild summer at Saltburn, Felix and his friends enjoy lazy, sunny days by the estate’s pools and ponds
These are behind the scenes photos of the cast. Actress Rosamund Pike mentioned that living in the house helped her deeply embody her character.
