“Blink Twice” Production Designer Roberto Bonelli on Crafting the Sinister Façade of Zoë Kravitz’s Thriller

For her feature directing debut, actor-turned-director Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies, The Batman) has chosen a visually luscious, sinister psychological thriller, which she co-wrote with screenwriter E.T. Feigenbaum. Exploring themes ranging from trauma and misogyny to sexual exploitation and greed, Blink Twice also shines a light on the vast chasm between the haves and have-nots. Cocktail cater-waitresses Frida (Naomi Ackie) and roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) are struggling to make ends meet when they are lured by the seemingly endearing and handsome tech mogul, Slater King (Channing Tatum), to his unlimited, all-expense-paid party vacation on his private island.

And here is when you heed the cautionary notion of “when it seems too good to be true, it usually is.” Sure enough, as soon as they arrive at Slater’s palatial hacienda, everyone is “invited” to surrender their smartphones, you know, to get the most out of this heavenly retreat. When champagne-filled days by the pool bleed into wild hedonistic nights, some of the female guests begin to lose track of time, and with that, large swaths of their collective memory. But when Jess goes missing, the terrifying truth behind the façade unravels.

Production took place at the Hacienda Temozon Sur in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, where production designer Roberto Bonelli (Madame Web, The Romanoffs) crafted the sumptuous set. We spoke to Bonelli about crafting the look for Kravitz’s trippy, twitchy thriller.

Zoë Kravitz set out to make a psychological thriller that feels bright and beautiful. How did that influence your color palette to foreshadow what’s really going on at King’s private island?

The colors set a tone and mood, creating suspense and anxiety. There are a lot of greens naturally in the hacienda, and we took some of that into the interiors and added them to the pillows and deck chairs.

There is a lot of focus on bright red, for instance, in the flowers and the raspberries floating in the glasses of champagne. What does this mean?

Yeah, we have a lot of red from the building, the flowers, the red chair in Slater’s room, and other props. Yellow was the secondary color. The blue here is more like the reds in other films—it’s a warning color subliminally telling you that something’s off.

The crimson flower is very prominent. It shows up as décor in the ladies’ bedrooms, but it’s also related to the memory wipe. What kind of flower is it?

At first, we stumbled upon a local hibiscus—the Hibiscus tiliaceus—which was imported to the Yucatán many years ago. But it was too complicated to use: it’s yellow in the morning, turns red in the afternoon, and falls off the tree by evening. We thought about making a fake version using latex but ended up using this lily from a local market two hours away in Mérida. We had to alter them by pulling out some of the center bits and dipping them in curry powder—because we didn’t want to paint them—so it would get that ochre yellow interior, like pollen. We wanted it to be special and recognizable since it’s supposed to only grow on the island.

The cast and some of the crew actually stayed at the hacienda during production. How did that work as you prepped the location?

We stayed there when we first went scouting. Then, I came in with the construction crew, then it was the set decorators, the ADs, and the producers. By the time the cast arrived, we moved out since it couldn’t fit all of us. So, we all got to stay there to get a feel for the space, which was really interesting. It was a functional hotel and we just booked it for the shoot.

How did your team transform the hacienda into a dreamy yet eerie mansion on a remote island?

We prepped in warehouses for two weeks. Then, a week of rehearsals, test shoots, and pre-lights before filming there for six weeks. After that, we had a week to get it back in order. We got rid of everything that showed it was a hotel—all the signage, safety rails by the pool, etc., changed the area surrounding the pool and added big marble slabs. We designed our own deck chairs because we wanted something casual that didn’t look like it was in a hotel. The façade in the pool had too much red, so we put a wall up with greens and the red flowers. We painted all the rooms, all the interiors and bedrooms, and did some work to the ceiling where the dinner area is to hang those heavy lamps. So, it was quite a challenge to get it all back to a fully operating hotel just one week after we wrapped.

The film is visually stunning with vibrant colors and gorgeous visuals. How did the hacienda reflect Slater’s sadistic ways?

The hacienda has been around since the 19^th century, so it has more history and culture than a modern mansion to reflect that Slater is pretending to be reformed. He claims he’s not this yuppie anymore, but someone who appreciates culture and art. It wasn’t just about decorating with good taste, it also has to reflect that it’s all fake. Slater would’ve definitely had a designer. So, I invented this alter ego designer who came up his décor. When Slater’s guests first arrive, they’re wowed by everything because it looks very tasteful, but gradually, we know that something’s off.

Slater’s friend and personal chef, Cody (Simon Rex), serves up delicious couture meals every evening. So much happens at those dinners. How did you set the stage?

That was in the open space in the industrial section of the hacienda. The food is supposed to be overly pretentious—local ingredients from the island, the chickens that Slater raises at the hacienda, exotic fish flown in from everywhere in the world, and some of the desserts are reimagined based on childhood favorites, like Cody’s “pop rocks in a tangerine mojito sorbet.” The presentation was minimalist but graphic. During two of the dinners, they have a blackout. When it’s lit by candlelight, the colors need to be stronger. So, we developed dishes that were yummy-looking, but also very graphic to impress the guests.

What about that red chair in Slater’s room—why was he so obsessed with it?

That’s his latest impulse purchase, which is a little pretentious. He gets frustrated because it doesn’t fit with anything. It needed to look like a designer chair, over-the-top and recognizable. But since bad things happen in and around it, legally, it couldn’t resemble any existing designer chair. So, it was quite challenging to design. It’s kind of designed by my alter ego, who’s really pretentious, but that’s not me.

How much of the furniture was built in-house?

For all the furniture, planters, and bits and pieces around the set, I had a wonderful team, including the fantastic set decorator, Paula Enriquez. We built the dinner table and chairs around it, the lamps—all this was in close development with my set decorator and Paula’s team. We bought a lot of the pieces locally too.

Frida is perplexed when she encounters the room with shelves of red gift bags. Was that in the hacienda?

Yes, that room is set inside a traditional Mayan construction, which are huts with stone walls and a thatch roof. We built this showcase bookshelf, put some milky Plexiglass at the end, and then lit it up from behind.

How much of this was shot in the hacienda versus on a soundstage?

We built Slater’s office and foyer on a soundstage in Mexico City, including part of the terrace where a lot of things happen. That space didn’t exist in the hacienda. It was a great opportunity to add our own colors and come up with cool floor designs. You may notice that the blue and white chessboard that a couple of the characters were playing with has the exact same color pattern as that room. We added these subliminal clues.

What was in Frida’s room/bungalow to foreshadow what Slater and his sick pals are really doing to these women?

We wanted to maintain the originality and minimalist style of the hacienda, but also make it luxurious. The bathroom is the most important aspect since many things happen there. We painted and cladded it with a local marble from the Yucatán, which has this creamy, warm marble look. We put in a fake floor because there’s a lot of falling around on it, and we matched it to the marble on the low walls. The first thing that sprang to my mind was her room should be blue, which played well with the facial masks the women had at the spa. This is when you realize that something is off, whenever blue comes up. 

Blink Twice is playing in theaters now.

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Featured image: Actor Channing Tatum and director Zoë Kravitz on the set of their film BLINK TWICE, an Amazon MGM Studios film. Photo credit: Carlos Somonte. © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.