Recreating Richmond

Making the South rise again on The Gray House

If there’s any one thing that’s stuck with me as I’ve come to know The Gray House, it’s the process of discovery. When Christy Coleman first called me while I was walking the dog in Pueblo, Colorado, I had never even heard of Elizabeth Van Lew, let alone the spy ring she operated. Fortunately, I shared in this moment of discovery with the showrunners. We talked yesterday about casting The Gray House, and how writer Leslie Greif shared how they were looking for characters, not stars to be in the show. And that meant discovering some phenomenal new talent like Amethyst Davis.

But how in the Hell do you rediscover wartime Virginia? That place doesn’t exist anymore. Well, it turns out sometimes you gotta look a long way from home. Like, a really long way. Like, overseas long. Keep thinking.

Ready?

Romania.

The show was filmed near Bucharest, where the countryside mimicked wartime Richmond. This surprised the hell out of me, but not Les, since he was also behind Kevin Costner’s Hatfields and McCoys, which was also filmed there. The place kind of stuck with him so as preproduction began, it quickly emerged as a candidate for the show’s setting. But in order for that to happen, director Roland Joffe had to be able to envision it there, and executive producer Lori McCreary had to be on the end of some pretty interesting phone calls. And then, of course, Richmond had to be built. In this case, the South quite literally rose again.

When I watched the series, it became apparent to me that after people like Mary-Louise Parker and Rob Morrow and Keith David and Daisy Head, one major character needed exploring in our conversation itself: the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia. In this short clip, I asked Lori, Les, and Roland about rebuilding Richmond….in Romania.

When I first came to the series, I expected a small, intimate set piece. And while those spaces certainly exist on the show, as a historian, one of the great delights I had in watching was seeing not only characters’ motivations explored, but quite literally seeing the physical spaces of the American Civil War come to life.

The Gray House debuts in its entirety tomorrow, February 26 on Prime Video. I cannot wait for you to see it.

See it in the trailer below.

One day to go.

Jason