Sarah Greenwood is a production designer who has been nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Production Design, earning her most recent acknowledgment for her work on Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023). Greenwood works closely with Katie Spencer, her longtime collaborator.
Katie Spencer is a set decorator who has been nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Production Design for her work with Greenwood on films including Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), Darkest Hour (2017), Sherlock Holmes(2009), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Barbie (2023).
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For the first episode of Apotheosis: On Collaboration, PDC member Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer chat with host Alexander Whittenberg about the essential collaboration between a production designer and a set decorator.
With candor, Greenwood and Spencer reflect on the evolution of their decades-long partnership which began during their early theatre days through decades of filmmaking together. They unpack how their films Anna Karenina, Darkest Hour, Barbie, Beauty and the Beast, and Pride and Prejudice each demanded entirely different visual and emotional languages.
They dive into the theatrical invention behind Anna Karenina, revealing how budgetary restraints unexpectedly led to the film’s bold stage-inspired concept, and discuss the emotional truth hidden beneath historical accuracy in Darkest Hour.
Their conversation also explores the weathered realism of the Bennet house in Pride and Prejudice, the dreamlike psychology of color and memory in Atonement and the surreal balancing act of making Barbie feel simultaneously artificial and sincere.
Throughout the conversation, Greenwood and Spencer reflect on the importance of creating collaborative spaces where ideas can develop freely, ultimately describing the relationship between a production designer and set decorator as a deep creative collaboration.
The theatrical magic of _Anna_ Karenina.
“Everything that we do comes out of creativity and curiosity and knowledge and garnering everything in this world.”
Sarah Greenwood
Churchill (Gary Oldman) takes his morning cigar in bed in _Darkest_ Hour.
Lizzie Bennet (Keira Knightley) makes her way through the Bennet House in _Pride_ and Prejudice.
”If you’ve got it right, you learn to have empathy and understanding for the time you’re dealing with.”
Katie Spencer
Night falls over Barbieland in Barbie.
