The Architecture of Espionage: Maria Djurkovic on Designing Rami Malek’s Revenge in “The Amateur”

Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar winner Rami Malik switches it up in The Amateur to play buttoned-down CIA analyst-turned-warrior Charlie Heller, who goes rogue in Europe to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the murder of his wife (Rachel Brosnahan). Tough-as-nails CIA handler (Laurence Fishburne) spearheads the Agency’s efforts to squash Charlie’s self-appointed mission, but he soon learns he’s dealing with a determined, lethally intelligent, and remarkably savvy operator who isn’t above blackmailing his own agency to get the revenge he seeks. He might not be trained in spycraft, hand-to-hand combat, or reconnaissance, but the man is a quick study.

Slow Horses director James Hawes helms The Amateur (in theaters now), which tapped the expertise of production designer Maria Djurkovic to evoke a visual environment steeped in dread. Wryly describing herself as the industry’s go-to “Spy Lady Designer,” Djurkovic, Oscar-nominated for The Imitation Game, has worked on half a dozen thrillers, including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Speaking from her home in West London, Djurkovic discusses location swapping, exploding swimming pools, and the aesthetic perks of shooting The Amateur in the dead of winter. 

The Amateur is fun to watch in part because Charlie goes to all these interesting places in his search for the bad guys. Did location scouting play a key role in your design process?

Absolutely. We went to Paris, Marseille, and Istanbul, which was pretty cool, and we also shot a lot of things that looked like they were in one place but really weren’t. You walk from a Marseille street into an interior bar in [London neighborhood] Hackney. All the American stuff was done in our country. We did shoot Paris for Paris – it’s so unique it can’t do it anywhere else — although the interior of [Parisian assassin] Gretchen’s flat was a set build in London and the hospital scene [where Gretchen is nearly suffocated by Charlie] was shot in an empty hospital near where I live here in West London. Charlie goes from Paris through the door and comes into our interior in London.

Charlie’s main ally, the mysterious hacker Inquiline [Caitríona Balfe], takes him from Istanbul to her charming little cottage on the Turkish coast.

We actually shot that in France near Marseille.

Really?

We found it by going to scout this little hamlet called Martine, an hour or so from Marseille, and having lunch in this restaurant by the sea. As we ate lunch, I looked around and thought, “This could work for Inquiline’s home.” So, the restaurant where we had our unit lunch became Inquiline’s home!

Charlie’s quest leads him to Primorsk, a chilly Russian port city on the Baltic Sea, where everything feels overcast and grey. Were you actually able to shoot in the Soviet Union?

We had planned to shoot in Latvia for the Russian stuff. In Riga, we found fantastic ports and the café where Charlie meets [CIA agent] The Bear [Jon Bernthal]. Back in the UK, our location team found this old wooden cricket pavilion, and we turned that into the interior of the cafe exterior we had shot in Latvia. But then the strike happened.

It gets more complicated?

Yes, because when we came back to work five months later, instead of shooting our foreign locations in August, we now had to shoot them in January. Latvia gets so cold in January that the sea can freeze in the docks. The continuity of everything we’d previously shot wouldn’t have worked, so it was decided not to go back to Latvia. Now we had to build the exterior to match the interior that matched the exterior that we were no longer shooting in Latvia. We built the Russian hotel and the Russian café to match those locations that were now tied to our interiors.

In Madrid, Charlie tracks one of the villains to this sleek, glass-bottomed swimming pool perched several stories above street level. It makes for a very striking visual.

And that pool really exists! It’s in a hotel next door to the U.S. Embassy in London. Rather than going to Madrid to find the pool, it was a no-brainer to use that swimming pool here in the UK and surround it with Madrid.

SPOILER ALERT

Charlie uses his nerd ingenuity to blow up the pool, and glass goes flying everywhere. How did you pull that off?

We built this crazy thing in the studio: an enormous concrete tank full of water with a section made of pre-cut glass. When it “went,” the water really did hit real furniture and real paving stones. Then, VFX very cleverly pasted everything together.

CIA headquarters stands in dramatic contrast to Charlie and wife Sarah’s lovely farmhouse in “Virginia,” which is in fact rural Kent outside of London. But when he gets to work, Charlie literally descends to this dimly lit underground bunker. How did you put together that claustrophobic workspace?

Initially, we were going to build the CIA space, but then we did the math and decided we should find a location for the CIA that we can build into rather than building sets from scratch, which is a very expensive business.

What space did you convert into the CIA’s cryptology bunker?

It’s actually the old cafeteria of a vacant building. We put in fake concrete walls and glass partitions and completely blocked all the windows. Since the building had an open floor plan, we were able to build little boxes within that and control the palette, everything from the curtains to the furniture, which was really important to me.

Can you elaborate on this muted color palette that seems to inform The Amateur look?

The only good thing about having to go on hiatus is that we didn’t have to shoot the film in the summer [as originally planned] because I felt it would look much better in winter. Spending January of last year in France and Turkey, I was very pleased that we had wintery grey skies because it’s all about atmosphere and mood. Looking out my window now, England is so green, with blue skies, and that would have been completely wrong for this particular film.

Your palette minimized the presence of bright colors like red?

Our director, James Hawes, really doesn’t like red. I love red, so I had to restrain myself. My palette was being reduced, but I actually think it’s quite good to have restrictions. It means you will do something different. Funny enough, this Blood on Snow movie I’ve just finished for Cary Joji Fukunaga has so much red! And that’s what I love about my job. I don’t want two films to look the same. I want to come at each movie with something fresh and different.

The Imitation Game showcased the analog era of code breaking in the 1940s, whereas The Amateur deals with 21st-century surveillance technology and facial recognition software that relies on AI. In your own practice as a production designer, do you use AI?

I do not, though I know people who have. I’m very old-fashioned. I even, dare I admit, sketch with a pencil at times! [laughing]. I really need to get with it, but I have not relied on AI at all. And I have made more than my share of spy movies. I think I’ve been designated Spy Lady Designer. I did Tinker Tailor, Little Drummer Girl, The Imitation Game, Red Sparrow, and now The Amateur.

The Amateur is in theaters now.

Featured image: Rami Malek as Heller in 20th Century Studio’s THE AMATEUR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.