Upamanyu Biswas
Directed by Daina O. Pusić, ‘Tuesday’ is a story about grief, strength, and familial bonds told through a fable-like premise involving Death. The film follows Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a mother who spends her time caring for her terminally ill daughter, Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). Their lives are upended when Death arrives at their doorstep in the form of a macaw. With her illness worsening, Zora has to come to terms with Tuesday’s impending death as the macaw teaches them the value of life, loss, and legacy.
The narrative places us in the intimacy of the mother and daughter’s London flat as we watch the fantasy drama unfold amid the family’s crisis. There are forays into open meadows and freezing coastlines while the film grounds us in the emotional and heart-rending relationship at its center. Zora faces the most complex challenges and dilemmas ever presented to a parent as she watches Death wrap its fingers around her precious daughter. The somber, raw, and sometimes funny tone it picks up in its journey through warm landscapes of rocky ridgelines and trees covering the pair’s apartment is worth exploring by diving into the filming locations.
Where Was Tuesday Filmed?
‘Tuesday’ was filmed in the United Kingdom. Principal photography began in June 2021 and ended in late July of the same year. Shooting primarily occurred in London and other parts of England, true to its narrative roots. The crew found picturesque spots around the island country advantageous in constructing their fable narrative.
London, England
London forms a significant part of the setting in ‘Tuesday.’ As such, key scenes were filmed in and around the capital city of England as well as the United Kingdom. While on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Zora, said the weight of the film’s emotional scenes made it difficult to be far from home. “There are a number of scenes that are rough, but I think we did it, and it took a few days to recover,” she said. “I had to call home a lot because I was on location, you know, we were shooting it in London. Yeah, so I was on my own.”
The fairy tale story blended the apartment shots in Zora and Tuesday’s flat with visual effects to portray the fantasy of Death manifesting itself in the form of a talkative macaw. The intermixing of real indoor shots with the bird’s animation helps ground the film’s elevated and heightened concepts in the reality of the mother-daughter duo’s struggles. Though Arinzé Kene doesn’t appear in the film but serves as the voice of Death, he was present on set with the other cast and crew members during their shoot. The animators later removed his presence when they used animation over his bits, utilizing his performance, expressions, and emotions to depict the bird’s movements.
Scenes featuring rocky coasts and meadows were all shot in the United Kingdom, near the film’s central location of London. It is a known fact that the vibrant city has been host to several high-profile movies and shows over the years. Some of the popular productions that were shot in the city are ‘Bridgerton,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Barbie,’ and ‘All of Us Strangers.’ It is equipped with both scenic outdoor sites and advanced production facilities that offer high quality services to anyone seeking to avail them. ‘Tuesday’ features many outdoor locations in grassy plain lands and frigid coasts. Their aesthetic brought the soft, sensitive conversations between an emotional Tuesday and her desperate mother into the realm of reality rather than fantasy.
The film is incredibly grounded and attached to the apartment where Zora lives with Tuesday. The bustling metropolis also served as the shooting site for several scenes that are set in the apartment. During the shooting, Dreyfus posted pictures on her social media of taking a boat ride on the River Thames past the iconic Tower Bridge. Given the weight of the film’s subject matter, these trips were a welcome distraction for the actor during and after the shooting. From what we can tell, it is likely that the production crew also utilized the services of a studio in the city for the interior shots of a few scenes of ‘Tuesday.’
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