Sinners is defined by moody, intense Southern Gothic visuals that linger long after the credits roll. The film, which broke records to become the most nominated film ever at the Oscars, director Ryan Coogler’s supernatural horror is set in the Mississippi Delta, 1932. It tells the tale of twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan, in a dual role), who return to their hometown of Clarksdale, not far from the Arkansas border, with the dream of opening a juke joint. They enlist local friends to get the operation up and running, blissfully unaware that something evil lurks not far away.
In reality, Louisiana stood in for Mississippi. Though New Orleans has made the state known for its lively nightlife culture, its secluded spots and rural countryside are what make their way into the film. For the film’s Academy Award-winning production designer Hannah Beachler, that filming location gave her a chance to recreate a bygone world within the boundaries of a place she knows intimately—she’s been based in New Orleans for two decades. We sat down with Beechler to discuss harking back to 1930’s Mississippi through the vehicle of Louisiana, using its charms and topography to build Sinners’ world, and the real life places that built the film’s look and feel on screen.
The film is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, but filmed in Louisiana. Why Louisiana for the choice of filming location, and what’s your relationship with the state?
I’ve lived there for over 20 years, originally hailing from Ohio, which I’m also back in a little bit as well. Louisiana has a really great infrastructure for film, with really talented filmmakers. That’s where I started my career, so I’ve done many films there. I came up in New Orleans in the art department, right before Katrina in 2004.
There are a couple different things which made Louisiana perfect. One is proximity to the Delta, and the fact that it has somewhat the same history as Mississippi being its neighbor. In the north, Louisiana also had sharecroppers and still has cotton fields. If we can’t shoot in Mississippi per se, then the next best place that’s geographically and historically similar would be Louisiana. I pitched it to Ryan [Coogler, director of Sinners] right away. I was like, “This is going to be economically fantastic, the infrastructure is fantastic, and we’re going to be able to tell the story the way it needs to be told.”
