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Spoilers below for NetflixsThe Haunting of Hill House.
You made a number of changes to the characters, starting with Eleanor.
There isnt really a character that is analogous to Shirley in the novel.
What are her origins?
Is she named afterHill Houses author?Shes absolutely named after Shirley Jackson.
It felt like our Shirley would attempt to conquer death that way, in an effort to understand it.
Shed immerse herself in the world of death until it was completely demystified.
Lucas has an incredible and necessary transformation on the show.
When you talk about people being haunted or wrestling demons, that is a rich metaphor.
Of them all, he changes the most, and is ultimately in the most danger.
It isnt just about whether something from the house will get to Luke.
That character breaks my heart.
That meant leaning away from some of her more capricious moments, and bringing her more inward.
That kind of damage to be distant because youre too empathetic was really fun to play with.
At one point, I jokingly described wanting her as a clenched fist with hair.
That conceit felt so perfect that it ended up in our dialogue.
Its a wonderful thing to watch an actor just act.
But a monologue paints a vivid mental picture if its done right.
My favorite one is in episode seven, with Mr. Dudley.
Robert Longstreet hit it out of the park.
Keeping that monologue intact was a hill I was determined to die on, if necessary.
If its done well, theres nothing like it.
But man, it puts pressure on the actor.
That pressure can yield magical, one-of-a-kind moments, though.
Im particularly curious about the Red Room since its different for every one of the Crains.
Its a fully functional, two-story set.
You could walk through the whole house, as it was meant to exist onscreen.
Patricio Farrell designed the set, and it was a thing of beauty.
There was so much care put into the tiniest of details, most of which youll never notice onscreen.
I used to be fascinated just looking for all of the hidden faces he put into the design.
Every inch of that house is staring at you, quite literally.
Even the handles on the desk drawers had faces.
Visualizing the past and the way it informs the present is so crucial to the show.
You directed all ten episodes and wrote a couple, too.
It was the most difficult thing Ive ever done.
Nothing could be left that wasnt holding up that house of cards.
The Steadicam-like camera movements in episode six are amazing.
What was directing that episode like?That episode was part of our original pitch to Netflix.
Id said I wanted to do an episode that appeared to be executed in a single take.
The reality of what that entailed didnt become clear until we started rehearsing the episode.
We shut down the company for over a month to choreograph and rehearse each of our five long takes.
The longest was 17 minutes.
By then, we had already filmed the entire episode with stand-ins and rehearsed the camera moves.
The entire crew had to work together, and if one element went wrong, we were cooked.
The scare scenes are remarkably quiet and patient, with a lighting pattern thats often varying degrees of bluish-gray.
We actuallyhid dozens of ghosts throughout the series, in plain sight, in the deep background of shots.
We dont call any attention to them, but theyre there.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
