Naman Shrestha
Based on the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie starrer 2005 film of the same name, Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ is a striking concoction of relationship drama, romance, comedy, thrilling action sequences, and spy hijinks, driven by compelling performances by Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. Taking a slight tonal detour from the Doug Liman directorial, the Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover creation follows the lives of two desolate spies as their world turns upside down courtesy of a recruitment program. The two individuals are fed up with their dull lives and the doom-laden world, so they sign up for a job with an espionage agency.
They are struck with a jolt of bittersweet emotions upon learning that they are promised a life of luxury and trips across the globe, but only after banding together to execute the missions and adopting new identities for the same. As their relationship status changes from being complete strangers to leading their lives as a faux couple named John and Jane Smith, the duo embarks upon a risk-filled journey filled with high-octane action and interpersonal banter, leading to them trying to dodge flying bullets while on the job and the intense sparks between them in their downtime. The show takes the audience on a ride across various locations that might make them want to learn all about them.
Where is Mr. & Mrs. Smith Filmed?
The filming of ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ takes place in the city of New York in the eponymous state. Aside from the homeland, the team also makes use of the locales of Italy for recording a significant portion of the television series. Shooting for the first installment commenced in June 2022 and was carried out for months before concluding in December of the same year. According to reports, the cast and crew reassembled in April 2023 to take care of the reshoots for the season.
New York City, New York
Located in the southern part of the state, the capital city of New York is a major shooting site of ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’ The production team utilizes a number of locations in The Big Apple, which is world-renowned as a prominent destination for filming a wide variety of projects of varied genres, thus serving as an ideal backdrop for the Donald Glover starrer. A few sequences of season 1 were captured at Christopher Street in the West Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan. It also appears that the posh neighborhood of Tribeca in Lower Manhattan served as a site to tape some scenes of the season.
In an interview with The Guardian, Erskine, who plays Jane Smith, reflected on her journey from being a “perennial outsider” to landing the role of the co-lead in an Amazon Prime show. Expressing her delight in being part of such a big-budgeted project and opening up about her experience filming the first season, she shared that they were on “this massive set with big lights and cranes. We’d basically taken over the neighborhood, and I couldn’t believe that we were in it. Me, Donald, and Francesca were walking the streets hand in hand just gazing at it all, giggling to each other and saying: ‘How did they let us do this?'”
Italy
A considerable slice of the spy comedy television series is filmed in many parts of the European country of Italy. Embellished with the stunning Mediterranean coastline, the Italian Republic lends several of its scenic areas to power the narrative and complement the aesthetic factor of the show. To be specific, the highest mountain village in Alta Badia — Calfosch or Colfosco, located in the municipality of Corvara in Badia in the South Tyrol province in north-eastern Italy, serves as a filming spot for the series.
Alongside that, the shooting takes place in the San Cassiano village in Alta Badia. The production team also decided to deploy the mesmerizing allure of the majestic Dolomite Alps in the northeastern part of the country to double up as the backdrop for ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’ Furthermore, the cast and crew also visit a few places in the Province of Como in the Lombardy region to lens a few chunks of the series. The quaint charm of the township of Moltrasio as well as the breathtaking scenery of Lake Como at the bottom of the Alps are some other spots where the show is filmed.
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