#34 - Stuart Craig, Legendary Set Designer on Creating Hogwarts, Surprising David Lynch, The Power of Teamwork and Crafting The Largest Movie Scene of All Time

Red Carpet Rookies

Today’s guest is one of the most accomplished production designers in the world today. Starting his career under the tutelage of Star Wars designer John Barry, he worked his way through the art department on 1970s classics such as the original Christopher Reeve Superman and Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge too Far.

Here he began a multi-decade collaboration with Attenborough which produced the likes of Gandhi, for which he picked up his first Oscar. As his career moved into the late 80s and 90s he added many other legendary works to his CV including Steven Frears Dangerous Liaisons and Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient, both of which he picked up Oscars for.

It was in the 2000s though that he was introduced to his most famous project, designing Hogwarts. A job that he has done since 2001 on all 8 Harry Potter and 3 fantastic beast films.

If you can believe it in amongst all of that he also found time to design David Lynch’s seminal film, The Elephant Man and much loved classic Notting Hill. My guest is Stuart Craig.