THE HOAX takes place at once amidst the cosmopolitan, freewheeling atmosphere of the stylish 1970s media world – and in a less anchored realm of flashbacks, hallucinations, paranoia and deceptions. Since Lasse Hallström wanted the characters to always be front-and-center in the film, he envisioned a look for the film that, at times, would feel almost documentary-like in its realism, yet that would also occasionally slip into moments that defy realism. Also key to his approach to the film was capturing the zeitgeist of the 1970s, when politics and talk of lies and corruption were everywhere in the mass media – and yet on the periphery of Clifford Irving’s life.

Richard Gere as Clifford Irving and Hope Davis as Andrea Tate

“It was important to capture a historical sense of those times, even though the story is so relevant to today,” says Josh Maurer. “We wanted to have in the background a sense of everything that was happening in America with Vietnam and Watergate and the whole Anti-Establishment mentality that obviously affected Clifford and Dick as they were writing. Filled with all these elements, the photography, the production design and the costumes make the story an even richer experience.”

The film was shot entirely in New York, both in Manhattan and upstate locations. “It was great fun to be able to work at home,” says Hallström, who has lived in New York for years. “I haven’t had that experience since I was making films in Sweden.”

In forging the look of the film, Hallström collaborated closely with his long-time director of photography Oliver Stapleton in their fifth film together. Like the director, Stapleton couldn’t resist Clifford Irving’s story. “I loved the script as I am fascinated by true stories that are also larger-thanlife,” he says. “When fiction is based on a true story it can give it a real depth.”

The story and the era quickly inspired a lot of creativity. “Lasse was busy finishing CASANOVA during the prep period, so I had a lot of freedom to explore ideas before he was fully on board,” recalls Stapleton. “I came up with the idea of the black-and-white sequences during this time and also started looking at films from the period, including TOOTSIE for the comedy aspect, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN as a political thriller and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR for its atmosphere. The black-and-white segments were also influenced by Orson Welles’ A TOUCH OF EVIL.”

He continues: “I also proposed to Lasse that we filter the whole film through a series of Tiffen FX filters and then sharpen it digitally later to give it some of that 70s softness. We talked about doing some of the sequences – especially those where the truth is in question – in neither color nor black-and-white but in an ‘in-between state’ that was desaturated from the main body of the film but not quite black-and-white either.”

Stapleton credits Hallström with giving him exceptional freedom to explore unorthodox visual concepts, pushing into entirely new territory for both of them. “I often heard the phrase from him, ‘be bold, be different,’” says Stapleton. “We wanted a very different feeling for this film – in a sense, I wanted to make the film look as if someone other than Oliver Stapleton had shot it! Creative renewal is an important part of any long-term relationship and has especially been so with Lasse.”

Another key component for Stapleton was the contribution of editor Andrew Mondshein. “Not only is he a great editor, he also has a very perceptive eye for the nuances of cinematography. He put in a lot of hard work on the digitial intermediate when I couldn’t be there and I couldn’t have had a better person do to stand in for me. Teamwork is one of the aspects of shooting films that I most enjoy and that was very much there on THE HOAX.”

Also keen to join the team was production designer Mark Ricker (THE NANNY DIARIES) who could hardly believe his good fortune when he read the screenplay for THE HOAX, which made it quite clear that this would be the kind of project to stretch a designer’s creativity. “Everything about it stood out,” he says. “There was an equal dose of being excited to work with this great period and also to be building so many unique sets., especially in the high-end New York publishing world.”

From the start Ricker and Lasse Hallström made the decision to create most of their own sets on stages at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, which seemed to suit the tone of the film. “There’s a lot of layers to this story,” Ricker explains. “There are flashbacks, hallucinations and stories within a story, and all these things have different looks, so the design was very much a part of that collaboration.”

Clifford Irving’s journey takes him not only into the corridors of power at McGraw-Hill but into swanky hotel rooms, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress, Las Vegas and the Bahamas, each of which Ricker created in New York. “It was just vast and it was fascinating for me to go to all of these places in my head and then try to make them a reality,” he says. “The great thing about building sets is that you can control where the walls are and how everything’s set up so it’s an open canvas.”

Ricker especially had fun building the interior of McGraw-Hill’s offices from scratch to give it an atmosphere that really brings to life Clifford Irving’s audacity in the face of power and moeny. The 70s-era look is sleek, bright and rife with the visual shock of a publishing office without a single computer – lined instead with electric typewriters.

They also made a switch with the exterior of the building. In 1971, the McGraw-Hill offices of were housed on 42nd Street, atop a classic Art Deco skyscraper, but the locale production logistically impossible to shoot. Since McGraw Hill would move shortly thereafter to Rockefeller Center, the production used that location for such key sequences as when Clifford Irving awaits for Howard Hughes to supposedly arrive in his helicopter (a scene that never happened in real life.) “I really liked the look of the newer offices, they’re slick and stylish and a lot more fun to deal with,” says Ricker.

Wherever possible, Ricker also mixed in authentic touches. For example, the production obtained the rights to use Edith Irving’s real paintings for the scenes that take place in the Irving household. For Lasse Hallström, Ricker’s sets provided both the flexibility and the link to reality he was seeking. “I was really impressed with how atmospheric his interiors are. Yet, there’s nothing flashy about his work, it’s simply very, very real,” observes the director. “He has a great eye and he was able to recreate the 70s with very keen and original details.”

Adds Leslie Holleran: “Oliver and Mark did a fantastic job together with Lasse. They found a different of looking at this world of the 1970s that is very natural and real and yet you feel as if it is happening right now.”

Also helping to evoke the details of the 70s era is costume designer David Robinson, whose work has ranged from the comedy hit ZOOLANDER to Tamara Jenkins’ indie THE SAVAGES. Robinson was so intent on getting the job, he showed up for his initial meeting with Lasse Hallström having already compiled masses of research. “I brought in so much research that he simply could not say no,” laughs Robinson. “I was just very excited about creating a reality for these characters.”

The two hit it off creatively right away. “Lasse explained that he wanted the audience to feel like they were witnessing these events happening and didn’t want to feel the hand of a designer at work,” Robinson recalls, “and that was already my approach – to create the clothing as if you had just run into these people and this is what they were wearing.”

Robinson was also excited to be tackling a fresh subset of the 70s scene – inside the publishing world. “When you think 70s, you usually think bell bottoms, wide ties and paisleys, but there’s a whole different set of codified dressing behaviors inside the publishing world,” he explains. “If you look at photos of publishing executives in the New York Times of 1971, you see people still wearing Brooks Brothers suits from the 60s with narrow ties and button down shirts. So we mixed that kind of look with younger editors who are more swinging and groovy, with the wide lapels and long collar points.”

As for Clifford Irving, Robinson describes the look he gave to Richard Gere as “rather preppy, with lots of button downs and cardigans.” It was largely based on historical photographs of the real Irving. “A lot of the work with Cliff was reproducing ties and suits he actually wore,” states Robinson.

One of Robinson’s most thrilling challenges was designing the costumes for the glamorous Black & White Ball – which was based on Truman Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball in honor of Washington Post editor Katherine Graham, famously attended by such hand-picked luminaries as Candace Bergen, Norman Mailer, Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow. The real party did not include Clifford Irving on the guest list – but in the film, amidst all the intoxicating power and beauty, it is where the character of Irving begins to seal his fate. For Robinson, the fun was in recreating that sense of Irving among the most posh and fabulous elites.

“From a costume perspective, there was just so much variety to play with,” says Robinson. “We have some people who are very avant-garde and then you have others looking like they’re still in the Kennedy Era, with teased hair and empire-waisted gowns,” he notes. “We also recreated costumes and masks for the celebrities at the ball, including Katherine Graham, Candace Bergen and Mia Farrow. “

Perhaps most fun for Robinson was the dress designed for Hope Davis’ editor character.

“Her dress is sort of riffing on Yves Saint Laurent’s African line from that year,” Robinson explains. “It’s very balls out with its African flavor and in keeping with her character – and Hope totally knew how to wear that dress.” He also has a soft spot for Julie Delpy’s dress. “I thought the dress for Nina was just the perfect, princessy gown to wear to a ball, and I think Julie felt very flattered and attractive in it, because she become so stately and classy,” he says.

Another joy was dressing Stanley Tucci as Shelton Fisher. “Stanley’s character was a total blast,” says Robinson., “because this is a man who really knows his suits. And once we started dressing him, Stanley really got into it and channeled that even more..”

For Lasse Hallström, the clothing and all the other design elements helped to further blur the lines between the real world of power and the fantasy world of storytelling that Clifford Irving melded together. Sums up the director: “There was a very loose atmosphere and a lot of joyous exploration by the cast and crew. The film takes full advantage of artistic freedom while remaining true to the essence of Clifford Irving’s hoax.”

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A NOTE ON CLIFFORD IRVING AND WATERGATE
In THE HOAX, Clifford Irving’s story of bold deception collides with one of the biggest scandals of power and corruption that has ever hit the U.S.: the ill-fated and illegal break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate Hotel – an event that would ultimately bring down the administration of President Nixon and permanently change American politics.