More daunting than bringing
Psycho’s infamous killer to life in
his youth for A&E’s prequelBates
Motel, which debuted in 2013 and
starred Freddie Highmore and
Vera Farmiga, was the task of re-
creating one of the most iconic
landmarks in film history. Co-
creator Kerry Ehrin and produc-
tion designer Mark Freeborn
walk us through the construction
of the Bates Motel and home.
THE ORIGINS OF
A SETWith the show aiming to pay
homage toPsychodirector
Alfred Hitchcock, Universal
graciously provided the
blueprints from the 1960
movie, which was filmed on
the backlot. However, the
Batesteam discovered that
the drawings for the infa-
mous house on the hill
were under scale, so they
were forced to start over.
They made two versions—
an interior on a soundstage
in Vancouver and an exterior
shell of the house and motel
45 minutes southeast from
downtown—changing both
as they went.AN ALL-TOO-REALISTIC
MOTEL EXTERIORThe exterior locale was built
on a decommissioned landfill.
“When the rains came, the
first few minutes on set were
aromatic,” Freeborn says,
noting that the motel sank
eight inches over five seasons
of filming, forcing the crew to
keep refilling the parking lot.
To keep costs down, the
house was initially built with-
out its signature Victorian
tower. “We couldn’t afford it,”
Ehrin says, “[and] had to CGI
the roof the first season.” Still,
the Bates Motel looked so
real, many passers-by sought
lodging. The house was never
vandalized, which Freeborn
credits to an unofficial secu-
rity guard: a Hitchcock cutout
pinned to a window. “When
we weren’t shooting, he was
watching,” Freeborn says.2013
When the creators ofBates Motel wanted to replicate the set ofPsycho, they were forced to start from scratch.THE INNARDS OF
THE HOUSEThe new interior was signifi-
cantly larger than the original,
namely in extending rooms to
give production more space
and adding a vestibule to the
home’s entrance. Using Hitch-
cock’s film as reference, the
show’s original set decorator
even found what Freeborn
calls “the absolute twin to the
lamp that sat on the master
staircase,” which was one of
the few antique flourishes.
“We were very careful about
adding contemporary
touches whenever we could,”
Freeborn says of their aim
not to be a period piece.
Batesbosses Ehrin and Carl-
ton Cuse also didn’t want to
re-create the interior precisely
because they wanted viewers
to see the evolution of Norma
(Farmiga). “Norma was a dif-
ferent person than the mother
in the film,” Ehrin says. “My
fear was that if the house
looked exactly like it did in
the film, people would just
think she was crazy.”BATES MOTEL PSYCHOBATES MOTEL: A&E NETWORK (2);PSYCHO: PARAMOUNT PICTURES/PHOTOFEST (2);MAHNKE: LAURA CAVANAUGH/GETTY IMAGES;FREDDY VS. JASON: JAMES DITTIGER