How Bonavista became a run-down Lumon company town for Severance
Blocks of ice were brought in to make snow during during the May shoot in 2023
The Bonavista Peninsula was converted into Salt's Neck in 2023, a fictional Lumon company town that held an ether factory for the hit Apple TV show Severance.
The show, directed by Ben Stiller, had crews take over the area for about a month that spring to shoot just one episode.
To help crews find the perfect locations for Harmony Cobel's journey into her dark past, the show went to Edith Samson, the executive director of the Sir William Ford Coaker Heritage Foundation.
The episode — the eighth of Season 2 called Sweet Vitriol — tells the story of Cobel's journey back to her hometown to find a missing item and subsequently face her demons.
Cobel is played by Patricia Arquette.
"I was just waiting for every scene to see all of the area, what I could recognize," Samson told CBC Radio's Weekend AM.
The Bicycle Picnics Café in Bonavista was redesigned to become the rugged Drippy Pot Café. Port Union also had its moment in the spotlight along Open Hall and Fogo Island.
On the most recent episode of Audacy's The Severance Podcast, Ben Stiller discussed the decision to shoot in Newfoundland and Labrador.
He said he wanted the location to seem like it was northeast of Kier, the town where the show takes place.
That's when the show's cinematographer, Jessica Lee Gagné, who previously worked on Fogo Island, suggested Newfoundland.
"The thing about the terrain in Newfoundland is it's rugged and beautiful, but it's not the scale, it is not like somewhere like Iceland or Greenland or something like that where it's gigantic mountains," said Stiller. "It's a little bit smaller, but it's still as beautiful in its own way."
Actor Adam Scott chimed in.
"It has a vastness to it," he said.
Arquette said she loved the area.
TV take over
Samson said crews scouted the area for about five months leading up to filming, and a lot of the foundation's buildings were used for actors to get ready.
An art director from New York did drawings of the buildings and made plans to repaint one of them, before painting it back to how it was.
"That was really kind of an interesting process to go through," said Samson.
Samson worked with Stiller and gave him a lesson about the area.
In a behind-the-scenes video on Apple TV, Arquette describes the area as cinematic.
"It was so cold, and icebergs are floating by and I felt like it was very much in keeping with Harmony's inner landscape," said Arquette in the video.
On The Severance Podcast, Arquette also described Newfoundland as a special and unique place.
"It's so difficult to get to and so difficult to live there that it's very locked in its own time. And it had this sort of difficult terrain to survive in," she said.
While Arquette found it cold, Samson said they had nice spring weather during the time of filming. She said crews even had to ship in ice to make snow, which lasted for nearly three weeks after filming.
Samson said the large numbers of crew members coming to the town also boosted the local economy, which usually peaks during the summer tourism season.
"There were a lot of tourism operators who would have had extra cash coming in," said Samson. "So I think that was great."
However, Samson said she was surprised by how short the latest episode was, considering how long they filmed for. She thinks there will be more clips featuring the area in future episodes.
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With files from Weekend AM