Looking for a thrilling new series to keep you entertained during these cold January nights? Apple TV+’s “Surface” should fit the bill. The gripping psychological mystery, which debuted last July and was just renewed for a second season, follows wealthy British expat/San Francisco denizen Sophie Ellis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw of “The Morning Show” fame), who finds herself suffering from amnesia following a jump from a local ferry in what is believed to have been a suicide attempt. Struggling to return to normalcy in the aftermath, she discovers that, while her life appears perfect from the outside, with a dream husband, a dream house, a closet full of designer clothes and all the money in the world, things aren’t exactly as they seem. Dark, captivating and full of twists and turns, in the end, Sophie herself proves to be the biggest mystery of all.
In the same vein as HBO’s 2020 hit “The Undoing,” the series also features some serious eye candy by way of its locations. The New Yorker’s Rachel Syme notes, “‘Surface’ isn’t breaking any new ground, but it does provide a pretty, gleamy veneer to gaze upon while the mystery unfolds.”
Although set in San Francisco, with the city almost serving as a main character, creator/executive producer Veronica West (who was also behind Hulu’s television adaptation of “High Fidelity”) initially envisioned the story taking place in England. She tells Slash Film, “The original spec script that I wrote was set in London and Sophie was American because I always thought there was something very interesting about crossing overseas to escape your past. What would have to go so wrong that you were willing to make that leap? But when Gugu came on board, we thought it would be so interesting for her to play British — people were saying this show feels like a throwback to noir, and San Francisco, with the ‘Vertigo’ connection and that timeless classic mystery that the city has. It has a soulfulness that some other major cities don’t. So having Sophie play British in San Francisco just all came together.”
Despite SF figuring at the center of the tale, with its foggy aesthetic enhancing the storyline and overall look immensely, filming primarily took place 1,000 miles away in Vancouver, British Columbia. The cast and crew only descended upon the City by the Bay for a brief week at the end of the shoot to capture a handful of segments at iconic spots like Union Square’s Palace Hotel, the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District and along the 600 block of Haight Street, where Sophie goes for a jog in episode one, “Ictus.”
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Image Credit: Google The gorgeous monochromatic residence belonging to Sophie and her venture capitalist husband, James Ellis (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), is also a San Francisco locale. Said to be at 6212 Waller St., the four-story pad can actually be found straddling the Duboce Triangle and Lower Haight neighborhoods amongst a slew of picturesque Victorians at 621 Waller St. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
The five-bedroom, three-bath structure, which measures 2,050 square feet and stands on a postcard stamp-sized 0.05-acre lot, last sold for $1.975 million just two weeks after hitting the market in March 2010. Redfin estimates its current worth at slightly north of $3.2 million.
Features include a gourmet kitchen, formal living and dining rooms, a study, an ornate central staircase, high ceilings, French doors, two fireplaces, a two-car garage, a rear deck and a garden. While thoroughly remodeled prior to the 2010 sale, a plethora of original details and built-ins remain dotted throughout.
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Image Credit: Google While quintessentially San Franciscan in style, the residence does break from city tradition with its decidedly dark exterior. As Mbatha-Raw told Datebook, “The fact that it’s the only black house on the street tells you there’s something sort of dark going on in this marriage. With its staircases and shadows, it perfectly captured the (show’s) Hitchcockian mood.”
Interestingly, the coloring was not a production choice but is the home’s actual hue. As series production designer Jeremy Stanbridge expressed on Instagram, “It was interesting to have something that stood out from the gingerbread-looking houses that are typical in San Francisco.” Indeed! Tall, dark and towering, the dwelling certainly cuts a foreboding figure amongst its pastel neighbors.
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Image Credit: Apple Studios -
Image Credit: Google Stanbridge and his team did make one significant change to the property for the shoot, repainting the canary yellow front door a dark black to match the rest of the exterior.
Although the house is featured throughout “Surface,” it is not until a flashback scene in episode six, titled “The Myth of California,” that we see James first buying it for Sophie in a surprise grand gesture.
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Image Credit: Apple Studios Only the exterior of 621 Waller was utilized in “Surface.” The inside of the Ellis residence – along with Sophie’s closet, which is so large it is said to “give Siberia a run for its money!” – was a set finely crafted by Stanbridge on a soundstage at Vancouver Film Studios. The production designer describes his creation as “two-faced,” explaining in an Apple TV+ Instagram post, “In San Francisco, there’s what’s called a two-faced house. So we created a house like that. So it’d have traditional aspects near the front and as you moved into the house, it was a modern space. I thought that sort of spoke to Sophie’s character as being multi-sided.” Stanbridge also outfitted the space with a multitude of French doors to provide “reflections” and “so the characters can be obscured by their surroundings at all times.”
The interiors seen onscreen are markedly different from those of the actual home. Although the inside of 621 Waller is undeniably handsome, it is nowhere near as gorgeous or opulent as the set. In fact, viewing the 2010 MLS imagery after being immersed in Sophie and James’ fashionable world for eight hour-long episodes proves somewhat underwhelming. But such is the skill of a Hollywood production designer!
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Image Credit: Apple Studios Set decorator Victoria Pearson also contributed significantly to Stanbridge’s design, outfitting the Ellis home with items sourced from around the globe. As she details on TikTok, “Probably one of the most exciting sets, particularly on this show, was Sophie’s house. Picking every single detail inside that house, in my mind, tells a story, and we were shipping in lighting from Venice, we have vases from Turkey, we have lighting from Greece and light switches from England. I mean, it’s shocking what is in that house and having all of those pieces kind of come together and build that space for our characters to dwell in is really, really exciting.”
The excitement certainly carries over to the screen, yielding a thoroughly moody and dramatic backdrop for “Surface’s” dark action to play out.