Nathan Crowley is an Academy Award–winning production designer whose work spans film, television, opera and exhibitions. A frequent collaborator of Christopher Nolan, his credits include The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet, as well as First Man and Wonka. Most recently, Crowley won the Academy Award for his production design on Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, an Oscars Best Picture nominee, and also designed its sequel Wicked: For Good.
In Episode 4 of Apotheosis, Nathan Crowley and_ Apotheosis_host Alexander Whittenberg speak about the winding, often unpredictable path of a creative career, using Crowley’s own journey as a lens for a much broader conversation about imagination, craft and trust.
The conversation moves fluidly from early experiences outside the film industry to the moment Crowley realized he had found his place in filmmaking and into what it means to stay creatively curious over decades of work. Along the way, they dig into the realities of collaborating with directors like Christopher Nolan, the challenge of translating complex ideas into physical worlds, and the ongoing balance between new technologies and hands-on, practical methods.
As the conversation turns to Wonka and Wicked, it becomes a lively exploration of how design, story and performance feed one another—culminating in bold, tactile choices like building vast sets and planting millions of real tulips. The conversation is as much about the joy of making things as it is about the films themselves.
The Wicked Wizard's Throne Room in all its glory.
“The minute I got into film, I knew I found my place. This is where I belong.”
The Tesseract: a physical manifestation of time and love in Interstellar.
The Galéries Gourmet in Wonka.
”If you get into a place where you’re not challenged anymore, you have to change.”
The Wizard's Map Room in Wicked.
Nathan and his team planted over nine million tulips for the Wicked films.
“I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz and I always wanted to go to the Emerald City. I finally got to go.”
