Naman Shrestha
Created by Steven Knight, Hulu’s ‘The Veil’ is a spy thriller series that focuses on two women who are connected by a secret — one has a secret that she must protect while the other has a mission to bring it to light in order to save thousands of innocent lives. In the meantime, the CIA and French DGSE combine their forces and work together to do what they can to avert the potential danger at hand.
Led by the brilliant and compelling onscreen performance of Elisabeth Moss, the thriller show also consists of other talented actors in supporting roles, including Yumna Marwan, Dali Benssalah, Josh Charles, James Purefoy, and Joana Ribeiro. The deadly game of truth and lies takes us on a globe-trotting journey from the bustling streets of Istanbul to the culturally vibrant locales and neighborhoods of Paris and London. The wide range of interesting visuals not only holds the attention of the viewers but also raises questions about the real locations in their minds.
Where is The Veil Filmed?
The shooting of ‘The Veil’ takes place on location in several areas in and around Turkey, France, and England. Just like in the show, the cast and crew move through multiple sites across Istanbul, Paris, and London to depict the cat-and-mouse chase between the characters on the show. Filming for the first season began in Spring 2023, with production likely commencing in March and concluding after a few weeks in the same year.
Istanbul, Turkey
The city of Istanbul in Turkey is one of the primary filming locations of the spy thriller series. The taping of season 1 was done in the month of March in 2023. While the production process went smoothly, one of the main cast members met with an unfortunate accident on set. When Elisabeth Moss, who essays the character of undercover MI6 agent Imogen Salter in the series, was shooting a fight sequence on a rooftop in the Grand Bazaar with an actor portraying an assailant for episode 2, she hit a wall and injured herself. Following the mishap over the largest and oldest covered market in the globe, Elisabeth reportedly couldn’t get up from the floor for two hours.
It was only when she garnered the strength to get up and climb down the stairs to get herself checked that she learned she was dealing with fractured vertebrae. Despite displaying limited mobility, the actress showed up on set the following day. The exact scene was recorded at the same location six weeks later. In January 2024, the actress opened up about the severe spinal injury and her eventual recovery on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!.’ She said, “We trained for weeks and weeks and weeks, and apparently it may not have actually quite been enough because the first take, which that’s actually the second time what you saw that we shot the whole scene, the first take.”
She added, “I went and did the wrong thing. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, and I went up against a wall and actually broke my back.” In conversation with Variety, Executive Producer Denise Di Novi spilled further beans on the incident, explaining, “She is underselling how hard a lot of the stunt was that she did.” With the assistance, support, and care of her team, friends, family, and other loved ones, the actress fully recovered.
Paris, France
Interestingly, the very next day following the incident at the historic Grand Market in Istanbul, Elisabeth revealed that they had fled to France and shot a few scenes at the Paris Airport. In the same interview with Variety, the actress explained how she tried to convince the VFX team to erase her from the scene during post-production. She stated, “We actually shot the next day at the airport, those are the Paris airport scenes you see (in the episode), and I actually have, like, a broken back. I tried to get them to put a green blanket over me, and just VFX me out. I was like, ‘Look, just put the green blanket over me and you can scrub me out in post.’” It clearly didn’t happen, and the final sequence turned out exactly as the team wanted it to. Paris, the capital city of France, is where multiple scenes of the show are recorded.
London, England
‘The Veil’ is also shot in several areas in London, the stunning capital of England and the United Kingdom and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Since filming mostly took place on location, many famous sites in the city can be spotted as the backdrop of undercover agent Imogen Salter’s pursuit of truth and the prevention of a terrorist attack.
Kent, England
Located in the southeastern part of England, the county of Kent also serves as a filming location for ‘The Veil.’ In particular, the cast and crew visit the cathedral city of Canterbury in the eastern part of Kent. A few scenes featuring Elisabeth Moss running through the streets as Imogen are lensed in the streets of Buttermarket and Burgate, as well as Mercery Lane and Butchery Lane.
The team taped many scenes around the renowned Canterbury Cathedral, situated at Cathedral House, 11 The Precincts. Apart from Canterbury, the port town of Folkestone on the English Channel is also one of the locations where ‘The Veil’ is filmed. To be specific, the production team settled on the magnificent property of 14 Augusta Gardens as one of the shooting sites.
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