When Fifty Shades of Grey hits the big screen on Valentine’s Day, fans of the erotic series can be assured that the infamous Red Room will be directly out of author E.L. James’ imagination.
Erika Leonard, a.k.a. E.L. James, was very concerned about how the infamous Red Room from her book Fifty Shades of Grey would translate to the big screen. So concerned, in fact, that she brought diagrams, pictures, and some very specific ideas to the film’s production designers. The room is the ultimate lair for Christian Grey’s sexual fantasies to play out in real life with a horse saddle chair, a spanking bench, bondage ropes, and leather floors. Leonard was worried that the overall look would be cheesy and asked for the production designers to think more sophisticated and Kubrick-esque.
“She was always mentioning Kubrick movies. She wanted this room to be something that you’d never forget once you saw it,” says Sandy. “She wanted it to be more related to a high end stable. So [the equipment] was built in brown, with brown leathers, and brown burled woods and other woods, versus the black that you see that’s more common. It was pretty.”
If it sounds odd to call a room where floggings might take place ‘pretty’, then the way the designers talk about the equipment will seem equally unusual. “The items that we ended up making were very bespoke, and very beautiful,” says David. Most of the furniture and implements—the custom-made stirrups, horse saddle chair, and the beds were custom made and shipped from England. Extremely soft ropes had to be ordered and dyed red.
“People [working on the film] couldn’t keep their hands off the stuff,” he adds. ” Some of them are tails and fuzzy. They’re really fun.”
Fifty Shades of Grey might not have pushed into the NC-17 rating as some had hoped, but it will feature at least 20 minutes of hot, steamy R-rated sex. Considering how much thought and work went into one red leather room (try saying that 3 times fast), hopefully most of the action will take place in this very classy BDSM dungeon.
Source: Time Magazine
