'Apartment 7A' Director Natalie Erika James on the Challenges of ...

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Natalie Erika James’ feature directorial debut, Relic, received critical acclaim at Sundance in January 2020, but then, like everything else, it was lost in the shuffle of the world-altering pandemic. The horror film — which had backing from the respective production companies of the Russo brothers and Jake Gyllenhaal — used the genre to deliver an allegory on dementia and the pain that accompanies our older loved ones’ aging process. The low-budget Australian-American co-production still managed to make a few million dollars at 2020’s beleaguered global box office, but all in all, Relic deservedly put James on the studio system’s radar. 

In March 2021, the Japanese-Australian filmmaker was hired to co-write and direct the Julia Garner-led Apartment 7A for Paramount+. This time, she had support from the production banners of John Krasinski (Sunday Night Productions) and Michael Bay (Platinum Dunes). While the title gave the game away to certain cinephiles, the production didn’t immediately disclose that Apartment 7A was a prequel to 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby. And given the legal baggage that comes with the latter’s filmmaker, Roman Polanski, James, understandably, had to weigh the considerable cons before finally committing.

“One of the big considerations was making sure that there was a separation between [Apartment 7A] and the original film’s creators not being involved in this one,” James tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So we had these discussions prior to starting a redraft of the script. We also tried to reference Ira Levin’s original book as much as we possibly could and use that as source material. But, at the same time, because the original film is so iconic, it’s kind of an unavoidable comparison.”

James’ psychological thriller is about the tragedy of aspiring singer-dancer, Terry Gionoffrio (Garner), who was the recipient of Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman Castevets’ underhanded benefaction before Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse moved into the neighboring apartment, 7E. In Rosemary’s Baby, Terry and Rosemary (Mia Farrow) bonded in the Bramford building’s creepy laundry room, prompting Terry to tell Rosemary about her seemingly wonderful benefactors, the Castevets. Less than a minute later in terms of runtime, the Woodhouses discovered Terry’s dead body on the sidewalk after her apparent suicide.

Apartment 7A does have a brief laundry room scene with Terry and someone who appears to look a lot like Rosemary, but it ends before any such exchange can happen. It also takes place at a point in James’ story where Mrs. Gardenia, the tenant who resided in 7E before the Woodhouses, was still living at the Bramford. James acknowledges that the scene was, in fact, supposed to be the beginning of the Rosemary’s Baby scene between Terry and Rosemary, but it was repositioned in post-production on account of where Apartment 7A’s Terry was in her arc. It just wouldn’t have made sense to have a chipper Terry, per Rosemary’s Baby, speak so glowingly about the Castevets in the hours leading up to her death. (Prior to this interview, I unknowingly treated Apartment 7A’s laundry room scene as a wink and a nod to the future scene between Terry and Rosemary, and that the blonde woman was only meant to be reminiscent of Rosemary, not actually Rosemary.)

“I really shied away from wanting to show Rosemary’s face or any kind of interaction. It felt, strangely, like a step too far to just recast Mia Farrow, even though Minnie and Roman [Castevet] are reimagined in their way,” James shares. “So you’re right about the lack of continuity from the original with Mrs. Gardenia still being around. In the edit process, there’s always things that have to be shifted to best tell the story, so, unfortunately, that was one of the sacrifices.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, James also discusses the haunting piece of music that serves as a common thread between her own childhood fears, Relic, Rosemary’s Baby and Apartment 7A. 

So the “Für Elise” scene in Relic, was that you leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in case you ever got to make a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby someday? 

(Laughs.) That’s so funny. It’s actually a song that’s been haunting me since childhood. When I was in Prep [at age five], they used to play classical music, and I used to have these really intense nightmares about my mom dying. So that was why I chose that for Relic. But you’re absolutely right that it is a haunting thing in Rosemary’s Baby, as well. I watched that film very early in my teens, so it all came together. (Writer’s Note: Beethoven’s “Für Elise” recurs in the background throughout Rosemary’s Baby, as a nearby tenant learns to play it more and more proficiently.)

Of course, I also caught your use of it in Apartment 7A, but at this rate, maybe you should just keep tucking that piece of music into everything you do. It’d be your own personal Easter egg.

(Laughs.) A hundred percent, yeah. I’m about to shoot another one in six weeks, so, yeah, I’ll take that on. I’ll credit you for that.

Rosemary’s Baby has such a rich world to play in, creatively, but given the elephant in the room (Roman Polanski), did you have to deliberate for a bit before getting involved? 

Yeah, absolutely. In general, I was definitely skeptical of making remakes, but even a prequel to a big IP, that was something that I didn’t necessarily see for myself. But one of the big considerations was making sure that there was a separation between [Apartment 7A] and the original film’s creators not being involved in this one, as well. So we had these discussions prior to starting a redraft of the script. We also tried to reference Ira Levin’s original book as much as we possibly could and use that as source material. But, at the same time, because the original film is so iconic, it’s kind of an unavoidable comparison. 

In taking on the project, the most important thematic thread for me was the assault that Terry experiences, and I wanted to tell that story in a way that uses the horror genre to portray that experience. Her journey has a real coming back to self, and there’s a real triumph in that, even though she’s cornered at the end. So those were the kinds of things I was thinking about when taking on the project.

People who know Rosemary’s Baby inside out were tipped off by the title, but it seemed like there was once a plan to keep Apartment 7A’s prequel connection as quiet as possible. Was that actually the case? Or was everyone just waiting for the right time to unveil it in the marketing? (Writer’s Note: When THR covered James and Garner’s involvement, neither story mentioned any connection to Rosemary’s Baby.)

I’m not too sure. When it was announced, there was no direct connection to it, so maybe that decision hadn’t been made yet, potentially. But I really can’t say. I’m not sure if they intended to just do a surprise reveal, but when we were shooting, there were definitely some rumors and stuff happening. So I think it was like, “Let’s hold until we figure out what the plan is.” 

Casting Minnie Castevet, as a follow-up to Ruth Gordon’s Oscar-winning performance in 1969, must’ve been a daunting exercise. So how soon did two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest enter into the equation?

She came up very early. Given that she has such a wonderful history of portraying these incredibly amazing, larger-than-life characters, but with such grounded realism as well, she seemed like a really exciting fit. We were really conscious of trying to create a Minnie performance that stood apart from Ruth Gordon’s very iconic performance. So we spent a lot of time looking for the right kind of voice or the right reference for that voice. We eventually landed on Mae Questel, who is most known for voicing Betty Boop. So that felt like an interesting mix of sweet, but unhinged, as well. And apart from the voice, we also took a different approach in terms of wardrobe just to differentiate the two.

Did the studio have any blueprints or materials from Rosemary’s Baby in their archives still? Or did you just print out every frame of the movie and work off of all that? 

It would’ve been so great to have had some of the original props. There was so much attention to detail that went into recreating the Bramford sets and the furniture inside the Castevets’ apartment. The one relic that we had was a frame from the original film. It was a shot that looked into the Dakota Building’s courtyard, and we used it as a base. We VFX’d that and then used it in our film as an establishing [shot]. We shot in London, and it’s set in 1960s New York, so one of the harder things was to have enough establishing and world building shots.

Did you still send a crew to NYC to shoot the exteriors of the Dakota Building? 

We definitely did shoot there, but that was more for plates that were used in conjunction with VFX and the London location where we shot. You’re just going there to get stills, essentially, and there’s certainly no drone shots looking down onto the Dakota. 

There’s a laundry room scene that’s meant to be reminiscent of the one Terry and Rosemary have in Rosemary’s Baby, but Mrs. Gardenia is still living in 7E at that point in your story. (Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse eventually moved into her apartment after she passed.) So how close were you to actually showing Terry’s perspective on the first time she met Rosemary? 

I was always really conscious of the fact that there were already so many parallels to the original film, and we were making these really conscious decisions about using the Bramford and keeping certain design features very consistent. But I really shied away from wanting to show Rosemary’s face or any kind of interaction. It felt, strangely, like a step too far to just recast Mia Farrow, even though Minnie and Roman are reimagined in their way. So you’re right about the lack of continuity from the original with Mrs. Gardenia still being around. In the edit process, there’s always things that have to be shifted to best tell the story, so, unfortunately, that was one of the sacrifices.

Naturally, I went into Apartment 7A with the expectation that Terry’s death would be depicted, because we saw the immediate aftermath of her death in Rosemary’s Baby. But knowing what evil the Castevets’ coven was up to in both movies, I actually found myself rooting for her death in the end. It’s triumphant in a weird way because it’s on her terms and against the coven’s. 

Yeah, it’s quite dark, isn’t it? It’s what I was describing before about her coming back to self. She’s a character whose bodily autonomy has been snatched from her in the worst way possible on several fronts. So, even though the actual outcome is quite tragic, you do root for her because she does take back control in the only parameters that she can.

The first time I ever saw Julia Garner, I said that she needs to play Madonna in a biopic. Years later, Madonna actually cast her to star in her biopic, but as of January 2023, it lost momentum until Madonna showed herself rewriting in July 2024. Anyway, now that you’ve had a front-row seat to Julia as a singer and dancer in Apartment 7A, do you want to watch her take on Madonna even more now? 

Oh my god, of course, and it’s wild that that was your first impression of her. I would watch Julia in anything, but hearing the stories about training with Madonna, I would absolutely love to see that film.

Once Rosemary is drugged by the chocolate mousse, she has a partial hallucination where she imagines herself on a boat. So there was something in her subconscious that put her at that location. In Terry’s case, she has this extended musical theater sequence, presumably because her dreams have always been tied to the stage. Am I on the same page as you? 

Yeah, completely. I was referencing the Broadway musicals or films that she’d seen growing up and likely imagined herself starring in, as well. So that was definitely the track we were going down.

When you think back on this experience many decades from now, will you likely recall those shooting days first? 

Yeah, I think you’re right. The choreography scenes were quite new for me. I’d never done a big dance sequence before, and the talent of the dancers, as well as how everything works together with the production design, was pretty incredible and thrilling. It gave me a similar feeling to doing stunts on Relic and just being able to play with the craft. There’s something similar between stunts and dance sequences, just in terms of what you’re trying to achieve and how the camera moves. So I loved every moment of it.

Lastly, you mentioned earlier that you’re about to shoot something. Can you share any information about it?

Yes, I’m doing another psychological horror, and this one’s called Saccharine. It’s about a woman who eats human ash to lose weight, and she becomes haunted by the ghost of the person she’s eating. So it has a bit of an absurd bent to it, but I’m very excited and we’re shooting here in Melbourne.

Well, I look forward to hearing “Für Elise” in it. 

Yes! (Laughs.)

***Apartment 7A is now streaming on Paramount+.