'Daisy Jones and the Six': Why Filming at L.A. Rock 'n' Roll Landmarks Was a 'Gift for Actors'

They say L.A. has no history, and yet, thankfully, there is still enough remnants of the Laurel Canyon-rock people of the 1970s to fully store a retro series like "Daisy Jones & the Six". Set among the flowing dresses and shaggy mustaches of the city's rock 'n' roll heyday, the series offers aspiring rockers Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, played by Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, plenty of classic places to hang out. , giving the vaporous musical series an anchor in a precise time and place.

The show's production designer, Jessica Kender, explains that in some cases it was more important to capture the feeling of the era than using the exact location. A perfect example is the facade of the Six's house in Laurel Canyon, which was designed to evoke the iconic cover of "Crosby, Stills & Nash" with the band sitting on a brown sofa in front of a house demolished long ago.

But when the vintage locations were available, the team felt it was important to shoot there -down. “Being in the real places provides that intangible quality – it's kind of a gift for the actors to be in the real places where this beautiful music actually happened,” she says. "Our director said that being in the places where this music is played will change the behavior of our actors."

Kender wanted to make sure the show looked as gritty and golden as the 70s l really were. "We stayed away from the bright colors of Austin Powers and tried to stay more in the tones that were actually there, like browns and yellows," says Kender.

Here's how Kender and his team found the perfect historic locations and made them work for the show.

Riley Keough (Daisy) at the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop/ Duke's Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop/ Duke's

The Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop quickly became a Hollywood classic after being cleaned up with a makeover and a new leader in 1994 and was later immortalized in the 1996 film "Swingers." Was it a popular hangout for rockers and hangers in the 1970s? Not really, although it did exist. In those days, scratchers and songbirds were much more likely to be found at Duke's Tropicana Coffee Shop or Barney's Beanery. Since Duke's is long gone, the series was filmed at the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop.

Recently reborn as Clark Street Diner, it looks convincingly like somewhere Daisy would have been able to throw hash before hitting hard, with its flagstone wall, gilded Naugahyde booths and rows of photos of famous patrons. However, a neon sign for Duke's has been added. "I felt like if we couldn't get the real thing, since Duke's no longer exists, as long as we mimicked the vibe of the place, that was enough," Kender says.

Whiskey has Go Go

It's no surprise that Daisy showed up at the Whiskey on one of her very first forays into the music of the L.A. world - the rock club was essentially the epicenter of the Sunset Strip scene from the mid-1960s until...