Renting 'Undoing,' 'Succession,' 'Younger' houses on Long Island
That shoreside home in Greenport where Hannah and her friends spend a weekend in "Girls?" In real life, it's a Vrbo in East Marion.
How about the Hungarian castle where the Roys stayed for a corporate retreat in "Succession?" That's actually Oheka Castle in Huntington.
Or the spooky settings of the upcoming indie horror flick "Awaken the Reaper?" Those were rentals in Commack and East Northport.
Homes, hotels and resorts across Long Island have been the stars of movies and TV going way back to silent films and such classics as 1941's "Citizen Kane" and 1959’s "North by Northwest."
Many films, shows and music videos continue to be shot here, many on public land, streets and beaches, or at private homes inaccessible to the public.
But there are a select few of them where you can stay, and for a little while occupy the spaces where your favorite TV and movie stars made on-screen magic. Fans can enjoy a vicarious thrill by visiting the real-life locales of their fictional faves. "People want to experience what somebody else, like a celebrity or a character, experienced," said Michael Nenner, president and chief operating officer of Gurney’s Resorts.
At the hotel and spa Gurney's Montauk, for instance, visitors can book the actual room where Sutton Foster's character stayed in "Younger" — although the experience could cost more than $1,100 per night in the busy season.
East Marion home from 'Girls,' 'The Undoing'
An East Marion home, called "Tower at Rocky Point," was used in two popular HBO productions: the 2012-17 series "Girls," created by and starring Lena Dunham, and 2020 miniseries "The Undoing," starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
The owner is director and former Lemonheads bassist Jesse Peretz, whose credits include the 2011 Paul Rudd film "Our Idiot Brother" and the 2014 episode of "Girls," "Beach House," that shot there. Completed in 1896, it was originally a maritime station for the U.S. Life-Saving Service, a federal precursor of the U.S. Coast Guard. It closed in 1925 and was abandoned in 1946 before going into private hands. An owner in 2007 made extensive renovations, according to The U.S. Life Saving Service Heritage Association.
The six-bedroom, four-bathroom house sleeps up to 13, has been available to rent since 2009 and carries a practically perfect rating on both Vrbo and Airbnb. It sports views from the top of its five-story tower and sits on 3 acres including 300 feet of private beach on Long Island Sound.
Amenities, per its listing, include a kitchen with two ovens and a six-burner Wolf stove, a 120-inch HDTV with multiple streaming services and cable, a Sonos Bluetooth sound system, central heat and air conditioning, Wi-Fi, a 50-by-16-foot swimming pool open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a backyard with a jungle gym and an outdoor barbecue area and grill.
During the summer, in which a minimum seven-night booking is required, the charge for eight guests is $1,697 per night (or $11,876 total), plus a $400 cleaning fee and a booking service fee — $1,733 on Airbnb, $979 on Vrbo — plus tax. By November, renters can do three nights minimum rather than seven, for $1,100 a night plus additional fees.
In addition to "Tower at Rocky Point," "The Undoing" was also shot at a nearby home in East Marion called "Aquaview," which sleeps six, has many of the same amenities plus a fireplace and an outdoor fire pit, on just over an acre of land with what the home’s website calls "100 feet of deeded beach access." Rates and details are available by contacting the owner through the home’s website.
'Awaken the Reaper' indie horror movie shot in Commack, Northport
Indie horror flick "Awaken the Reaper" shot at homes in Commack, top, and Northport. Credit: Impact Media Productions LLC
If your tastes run more to Halloween than summer fun, you might consider renting a home used in the coming horror film "Awaken the Reaper" from East Northport writer and co-director David Campfield and Babylon co-director and cinematographer Justin Perez, known professionally as Justin Paul.
"We used several locations" on Long Island and elsewhere, said Campfield, who used Airbnb listings to find "two that were difficult to track down" — a suburban home in East Northport and an old, weather-beaten house in Commack.
"I wanted to have a very specific look for the central character's home," Campfield explained of the film, which stars Lance Henriksen and the late Louis Gossett Jr. The two-bed, 2½-bath home in East Northport, with a gas fireplace, a covered back porch and a backyard with a trampoline, barbecue and treehouse, had a look the filmmaker calls "quintessential suburban" but with "a bit of a storybook quality to it." Three nights in August cost $425 a night, plus a $250 cleaning fee and a $215 Airbnb fee.The dilapidated house in Commack, which is no longer on Airbnb while it is being renovated, "is almost a dark mirror image" of the other, he added.
'The Affair,' 'Younger' go to Montauk
"The Affair" was primarily set in Montauk and chronicled the dissolution of novelist Noah Solloway’s (Dominic West) marriage to wife Helen (Maura Tierney) due to his affair-turned-marriage with Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson). By season 4, Wilson's character is studying to become an EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) psychotherapist, and attends a conference at Gurney’s Montauk.
The conference scene was "shot it in our Great Hall ballroom," said Nenner, who notes that the location in the fictional drama was specifically the real-life Gurney’s. "Our guest shuttle outside the building said Gurney’s on the side of it and the [conference] podium said Gurney’s on it as well."
While the ballroom, which overlooks the ocean, is only available for events, fans of the show "could stand on the deck outside the ballroom and have that same view that there was in the scene where Ruth Wilson’s character was talking to [someone] standing on that deck, having a conversation."
Fans of TV Land's "Younger" can do even more. The hourlong season three finale that aired in December 2016 finds 40-something single mother Liza Miller (Sutton Foster) spending a weekend at Gurney’s with her co-worker Kelsey Peters (Hilary Duff).
In the show, their publishing company employer is putting them up while they attend a Hamptons book fair. You, however, would spend anywhere from $880 to $1,125 a night, depending on season, for their bi-level Ocean View Junior Suite, room 525. Although if that room is not available, there are four more just like it.
"And then the walkway leading to it is ivy-covered, and you would recognize that from the show as well," Nenner said. Liza and Kelsey also are seen lounging on deck chairs in the sand at Gurney's Beach Club.
'Succession' turns Oheka into Hungary
HBO's "Succession," top, turned Oheka Castle into Hungary in its first season. Credit: Peter Kramer; Raychel Brightman; Dick Yarwood
The Huntington hotel and event space Oheka Castle, a monumental, French-style château built in 1919 for financier and philanthropist Otto Hermann Kahn, has appeared onscreen dozens of times. One of its most visible recent uses was in season two of HBO's ultrarich-family corporate drama "Succession." The 2019 episode "Hunting" took place primarily at a Hungarian hunting resort — in reality, Oheka.
A one-hour mansion tour ($30 adults, $25 seniors, $20 students, $10 children 12 and under) includes "access to the Grand Ballroom (dinner scene) and the Formal Gardens (wild boars)," said Oheka executive Nancy Melius in an email. To book a room overnight there, the base rate $495 a night.
More off the beaten path is the Saint Josaphat's Monastery in Glen Cove, built in 1916 by executive John E. Aldred and now home to Ukrainian Catholic priests and monks. Open to the public for regularly scheduled services and to other visits by appointment, it is where singer-songwriter Role Model (né Tucker Pillsbury) shot his "Death Wish" music video.
That location, as well as private homes you might see onscreen and in photo shoots, was found by producers via the monastery’s listing at Giggster.com, one of a handful of sites that find locations for professional film productions. Indeed, the monastery made use of the company’s concierge service, Giggster Select, headed by Adrian Ramos, who handles other high-end Long Island locations — mostly private homes.
Do filmmakers use Airbnb, Vrbo and other short-term rental websites? Sometimes.
For "Awaken the Reaper," Campfield, through Airbnb, found not only two Long Island homes to use as exterior locations for his $400,000 feature but also a West Babylon studio space, Impact Media Productions, for shooting the interiors.
Indeed, it’s only the likes of such independent features or student productions that might use such regular-public rental sites to find a location. Studios have their own location-management departments.
Manhattan’s David Brotsky, who has worked locations for series including "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," films including "Midsommar" and numerous corporate clients, said a consumer-oriented service such as Airbnb is not a first step he would take. "A lot of producers on the lower end [of budgets] try to use these sites and then find themselves struggling," he said, since homeowners unused to the needs of film productions often balk when they learn what’s involved — the number of people, the long hours, the heavy equipment moving from room to room.
"People think, ‘Oh, it's just the set where they’re filming.’ But we also need to be concerned about parking, about catering spaces, holding areas [for extras and other talent not in a shot], lights placements, camera placements," Brotsky noted.
Yet Long Islanders interested in having their homes, barns, stables, private waterfronts or other property appear onscreen can contact local, independent location-management companies such as Debbie Regan Locations or list them at such industry websites as Giggster.com, Peerspace.com and FilmLocationsWanted.com.
“You make an account and list your space, and then the website takes you through an onboarding flow where you upload photos, set pricing, things like that,” said Giggster executive Alison O’Brien. “Then we'll review the listing and set it live,”
Nassau and Suffolk Counties do not require permits for film production in private homes. Individual towns, villages and hamlets have varying rules, but none seems to require a permit for shoots on private property.
That doesn’t mean a film crew can fill the streets with more cars than you might find at a party. If that’s going to be the case, a homeowner would be wise to ensure the filmmaker has arranged permission with the local police or other municipal authorities for such street use, particularly involving large production trucks or trailers — which most small productions don’t usually have.
And if you don’t want to go through any of that and still reap some Hollywood caché, you might find your Vrbo or Airbnb listing catching the eye of location managers looking to house a star.
"A lot of times we have to put cast up in a house because maybe we're shooting in a neighborhood where we can't get the trucks or trailers in close enough, and so we will go on Airbnb," said location manager Collin Smith, whose credits include "Blue Bloods," "Only Murders in the Building" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
When the movie "A Little Help" (2010) was shooting in Plandome Manor, Smith used Airbnb to put up some of the actors. He likewise used the service to find an Old Westbury home to house actors during a shoot in that village for the CBS series "God Friended Me," starring Brandon Micheal Hall.
"There are a lot of people who don't want filming at their house," said Smith, "but they do want to have actors in their house" for bragging rights.—F.L.