‘Lessons in Chemistry:’ Production Designer Cat Smith Created a Period Authentic, Lived-In World for Elizabeth Zott

Production designer Catherine (Cat) Smith’s work can be found in some of the buzziest, most critically acclaimed series of the past decade. She envisioned the medical start-up world of Theranos in 2022’s The Dropout as well as set the stage for horror with the Yellowjackets pilot. Her work in Transparent spanned multiple eras and satirized the modern-day Los Angeles lifestyle.

Now, her work continues with Apple TV’s acclaimed limited series Lessons in Chemistry. There, she leveraged Bonnie Garmus’s beloved source novel to bring the late 1950s and early 1960s to life in vivid, loving detail. Starring Brie Larson as the incredibly intelligent but slightly aloof Elizabeth Zott, Lessons in Chemistry shows Zott’s absorbing journey from an emotionally scarred sexual abuse survivor to grieving lover to defiant single mother to the host of a national sensation, the cooking show “Supper At Six.”

The set for “Supper At Six” emerges as Smith’s most iconic work from the series. Every detail included in Garmus’s novel feels brilliantly realized on Smith’s set. The finished product on display in the series emerged from Smith’s work on the highly collaborative set, including star / executive producer Larson.

“The funny thing about that set is that it was more influenced by Brie and her thoughts on it than the book. I designed a set that I thought would appeal to women of the day with the most up-to-date design of the time. Brie took one look at it and said, ‘Wow, I really like this kitchen, but I don’t think that’s the point. I don’t think I should like the kitchen’,” Smith recalled. “So, that started a discussion about what a guy’s idea of the perfect kitchen would be. After all, that’s where the design for that kitchen came from because the [“Supper At Six”] producer designs it.”

That collaboration with Larson sent Smith in a totally different direction with the kitchen set. The color pattern evolved to include extensive pinks and other elements underscoring general frilliness to overly accentuate its femininity. After all, Larson’s Zott has to be physically repulsed by what she sees. So much so, in fact, that she gives away components of the set to the studio audience to make room for her more scientific approach to cooking.

Outside of the “Supper At Six” set, Smith also designed and built two key residences that would serve to define the very characters that inhabited them. Zott’s partner Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman) owned his own home in the then Sugar Hill community in Los Angeles. As a single man with only a mind for his work at Hastings Research Institute, Evans had little time for, or interest in, home decor. His kitchen was barren because he never cooked there. He had only a single set of silverware and plate for himself. It is the hallmark of a lonely bachelor who defines himself through his celebrated scientific work.

As Zott moves into the space and as the story progresses beyond Evans’s untimely death, the house changes over time.

“When she first moves into his house, it’s very messy, and we did neaten up a little bit after she becomes part of it. My design idea behind his space was that he didn’t design it at all. He bought the house furnished, designed by someone else. We added a few things that were Calvin’s like rowing items and some more Calvin-specific artwork like water views and more modern pieces,” Smith shared. “Then, you can see how much his house changed after he dies. We even redid the bedroom so that, when she gets the job on TV and more money, she upgrades her living space.”

Later, of course, as Elizabeth constructs a home lab, Calvin’s kitchen takes on a dramatically different look. When Elizabeth destroys the old kitchen, Smith created multiple variations of the tiled countertop to provide the crew ample opportunities to reshoot the sequence. Damaged counters would be quickly removed and replaced with fresh tile. She employed several techniques like that to illustrate a kitchen in transition that would support the filmmaking process.

Across the street from the Evans / Zott house lives the Sloane family. As brought to life by Aja Naomi King, Harriet Sloane in the limited series is a very different person from the Harriet Sloane of the novel. In the novel, Harriet escapes a bad marriage to both support Elizabeth and to find new love within the “Supper At Six” creative team. In the limited series, King’s Harriet loves her husband and the family they’ve created together as much as she loves embarking on a crusade to save their very community from the uncaring wheels of progress.

That radical difference from book to screen necessitated significant changes in the design of the Sloane home.

“Harriet’s house needed to feel like a loving family lived there. Also, the two of them put together memories, and they designed it themselves. They bought the furniture. They’re an upper-middle class family, and so it was more up to date. It was more of the time,” Smith revealed. “We also imagined how they might know other African-American artists of the time, so we filled the place with images reflecting that. We even gave them a piano. We imagined what their family life would be: sitting by the piano, singing, and having dinner parties. Even the kitchen was the most current kitchen that we did.”

Lessons in Chemistry streams exclusively on Apple TV+.