The beginning of the end of the world for the Sandford family of Netflix’s new thriller Leave the World Behind, is a quick Hamptons getaway to quell the mounting misanthropy of their overworked ad exec matriarch, Amanda (Julia Roberts). Her people-pleaser husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and their two teens are thrilled upon arrival to discover that the abode she booked—in the throes of her desperation that very morning before Clay even wakes up—is a luxe modern sanctuary with a huge swimming pool. Lined with tasteful furniture and priceless art, the sleek suburban dwelling is as close to paradise as they can get within a few hours’ drive of NYC.
It’s the house’s exceedingly elegant look that gives Amanda pause when homeowner G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (a newly mononymous Myha’la, star of the HBO drama Industry) show up unannounced at the doorstep, bearing cryptic news of a Manhattan blackout on the first night of the Sandfords’ stay.
Though she stops short of mentioning anything overtly galling out loud, the split-screen scene of their first meeting is laden with the tension of the racial dynamic at play. Amanda makes it clear that she is more than uncomfortable about their arrival and subsequent request to seek refuge in their own home during the mysterious citywide power outage.
She would like to speak to the Airbnb manager, but with the sudden loss of cell signal and WiFi, they’re left with only each other’s words to trust. And despite G.H.’s easy charisma and black tie threads, it is not-so-subtly implied that Amanda’s dubiosity is rooted in racism: Could he really own this opulent home?
“It’s the home of someone of color, and you’re not supposed to really be able to know that,” renowned collector and curator Racquel Chevremont, who put together the art for the set of Leave the World Behind, tells AD. “But as the story goes on, you realize, if you look back at it, there were these hints throughout the home.” Pieces by legendary Black artists, including Glenn Ligon, Torkwase Dyson, and Julie Mehretu, were chosen because Chevremont and set decorator David Schlesinger (of Knives Out and John Wick chapters two and three) agreed that the Scott family’s art “shouldn’t be representational or figurative art; it should be abstract,” Chevremont says. “We also wanted the artwork to signify [G.H.’s] stature and the family’s wealth, so the pieces were by very well-known artists and were not inexpensive.”
They operate as wordless side characters, adding tension in the background at every turn. A section of Barthélémy Toguo’s Talking to the Moon stares the Sandfords down in the entryway upon their initial encounter with the Scotts, during which Amanda is painfully hesitant to allow them past the threshold. “It’s like they’re being watched and judged,” Schlesinger says. “That’s the audience, basically, watching them.” While the bright eyes of the Toguo painting command some attention, the house’s other artwork plays subtler roles.
In the living room, three Ligon pieces silently ramp up the anxiety from their place on the wall as the signs of impending disaster—among them, loud unexplained screeching sounds, planes crash landing onto the shore, and exotic animals wandering onto the grounds out of nowhere—coalesce into an undeniable Armageddon. “If you go back and take a look at it, [the artwork on the living room wall] changes—a lot of people, I think, might miss that,” Chevremont says. “That staticky, chaotic feeling increases as the film goes on.”
Increasing the atmosphere of anxiety via changing art through the film’s progression was a technique the team employed upstairs as well. “We did the same thing in the bedroom with the wallpaper, which is a seascape,” Schlesinger says. “Early in the movie it’s very calm. By the end, it’s total roaring waves.”
The division of space in the home whilst the two families share it was a key factor in the narrative’s analysis of race and class; even though they’re technically the guests in the situation, the Sandfords mainly occupy the top floor, while the Scotts (the homeowners) are relegated to an in-law bedroom suite in the basement—second-class citizens in their own home. Almost always, they meet in the middle. About half of Leave the World Behind was shot on location in a real home on Long Island, while the other half was filmed on a soundstage recreation, which allowed for camera movement through the floors to illustrate the stark separations cinematically. The IRL home, known as the Open Corner House, was designed by The Up Studio. Netflix enlisted the firm’s help to ensure the soundstage replica of the house was as close to the real thing as possible.
In contrast to the airy primary bedroom on the upper floor inhabited by the Sandfords, Chevremont describes the basement suite, excruciatingly evocatively, as “below deck.” Ruth sleeps on the sole bed in the space, while G.H. selflessly takes the floor of the basement (in his own abode). “The ceiling is very low in there, it’s a very cramped space,” Schlesinger says. “[G.H.] mentioned at one point that they had renovated the house, so we thought maybe the furnishings down there were older. It was more of a 19th-century historic vibe. We’re near the ocean, so there was a lot of thought about the sea and a nautical [feeling], the idea of it was almost like a ship’s cabin.”
The home itself is very contemporary, and Schlesinger didn’t want it overwhelmed with too much furniture. Though most of the pieces embody that same modern style, Schlesinger opted for pieces crafted with “old materials” to give it a timeless look. “Everything in there is either iron, wood, or leather,” he says, like the vintage Ilana Goor side chairs with saddle leather surrounding the dining room table. Much of it was sourced from local New York craftspeople, such as Bronx furniture maker J.M. Szymanski.
Because the Scotts were renting the home out, Schlesinger says he initially struggled with how to make the home personal but not “too personal.” “Realizing [G.H.’s] wife is an art dealer, it just made total sense that we could really tell that story through art,” he says. “To me, it’s the best part of it. The set is the art. It’s just phenomenal, we’re so lucky to have what we have.”
The two families are bound together in this central Long Island house setting for nearly the entire duration of the film. As they strive to grapple with the unknowable future ahead of them, it’s nice, at least, that they’re surrounded by beautiful pieces; they might be there a while.