The Real-Life Filming Locations from Where the Crawdads Sing
Like Delia Owens' best-selling book, Reese Witherspoon's movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing manages to transport viewers to another world.
The film is told via two storylines set in two different time periods. The first follows a misunderstood young girl named Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) as she comes of age in the marshes of coastal North Carolina. The second takes place in the same marsh several years later, after her unlikely romance with the town's "golden boy" Chase (Harris Dickinson) ends with her going on trial for his murder.
Although the novel was set in the marshes of North Carolina, filming actually took place in and around Houma and New Orleans in Louisiana.
In downtown Houma, the production transformed Lafayette Street into the fictional, early-60s fishing village of Barkley Cove. The Courier reports that local businesses were converted into a cinema, barbershop, hardware store, and more for the film. The storefront of Linsi L Cenac Interiors was turned into a retro furniture store, while the exterior of La Boujee Boutique was transformed into a hardware store. Even an old rail bus and vintage cars were brought in to complete the look.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
The key setting, Kya's home in the wild marshes, was filmed in the wetlands on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain, specifically in Fontainebleau and Fairview-Riverside State Parks, in the neighboring towns of Mandeville and Madisonville. During the four months of filming, from April to July 2021, the production was faced with numerous shutdowns due to extreme weather, with shoots disrupted by lightning storms, floods, and heat.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
"I never sweated so much in my life," director Olivia Newman told Vanity Fair. "I learned how wonderful linen is."
Some of the movie's most dramatic scenes take place in a grand and imposing courtroom. A representative for Sony Pictures Entertainment told Southern Living, those were shot in the Historic St. Bernard Parish Courthouse, also known as the Beauregard Courthouse, in Chalmette. The 16,800-square-foot historic building, originally erected as a courthouse in 1916, is now a post office and library.
Other iconic locations, like Feather Stump Forest and Jumpin's Bait & Gas, were brought to life on private properties across rural Louisiana.
If the two trailers we've seen so far are any indication, they totally nailed it.
Get ready… Where the Crawdads Sing is set to premiere on July 15.
