In ‘Sugar,’ Colin Farrell’s Titular PI Lives in His Own Film Noir

The shocking twist in Sugar's first season revealed that astute, kindhearted private investigator John Sugar (Colin Farrell) wasn't just a hardcore fan of Silver Screen-era cinema. His Philip Marlowe-inspired suits and ties, 1966 Corvette Stingray straight out of Mike Hammer's garage, and storybook Beverly Hills bungalow were all part of a carefully crafted earthly persona—because Sugar is actually a blue-skinned alien sent to observe humanity as a cautionary tale, alongside fellow operatives embedded around the world. 

With increasing danger from humans, Sugar’s compatriots concluded their mission and decamped back to their home planet. He even gave his beloved canine companion away last season. Now alone, Sugar maintains his earthly routine searching for his long-lost sister and jumping into another missing persons case. He takes comfort in his “American Cinematographer” magazine subscription—thoughtfully renewed by his closest ally Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) before she left—and his atmospheric surroundings at the Hotel Del Corazon.

“He’s in his own movie there,” says production designer Meghan C. Rogers of where we meet him in the second season of the Apple TV series. “This is his safe place, with all the things that he's interested in. But it's almost like he's playing a role whenever he's here.” In a hotel renovation of sorts, Rogers designed and built original sets for the expanded Spanish Colonial Revival–style footprint of the Hotel Del Corazon on Paramount soundstages, including the enticing bar-restaurant, where Sugar ventures when he’s not ordering room service, and the inviting lobby, with stucco walls and a curved staircase.

“This is a safe and romantic place because we're also bringing in the femme fatale this season,” says Rogers. Sugar’s daily rhythm is shaken up one day when he locks eyes with another hotel guest, Charlotte (Laura Donnelly), as she descends the staircase. She looks like she walked out of one of his movies—with her cascading Lana Turner side-parted waves, crimson red lips and nails, and even an alluring mid-Atlantic lilt, as he’ll soon discover.

The circular entrance into the lobby’s atrium and an upstairs level allow for Charlotte to make a grand first entrance, as she glides down the winding stairs—catching Sugar’s eye. “We create their dynamic that she's unreachable or untouchable,” says Rogers, adding that there was some movie magic with the adobe texture on the walls. “Our plasterers had quite the challenge. I wanted the walls to have a metallic sparkle, so, with the lighting, everything always felt alive and warm in the space, instead of dead and masked.”

Leading into the bar, the high ceilings, curved architectural lines, and grand piano evoke “Casablanca”—not just for the film noir connection, but for a glamorous, mysterious, far-flung sense of being away from home. “We also brought in palms to create shadows on the walls,” says Rogers. The arches throughout the hotel speak to the revival architecture of the early 20th century, but also augment the low-lit, romantic, noir-style framing throughout. “The archway leading from the lobby into the restaurant-bar is the same as the lit-up arch up behind the bar,” Rogers points out.

Sugar and Charlotte share a tension-filled meet-cute at the apex of a curved bar, warmly backlit by a vaulted arch framing a grid of recessed arched bottle niches. “The bar is something that you're drawn to—it's like a magnet,” says Rogers, who also devised the lighting to enhance the duo’s silhouettes as they make a connection. “The bar is actually real copper, so you could see some textures of reflection.”

Rogers also gave the interior of Sugar’s bungalow refuge subtle renovations to create a throughline back to the sultry bar—and bolster his spark with Charlotte. A vintage turntable now conveniently rests on the table behind his plush couch. “Music is romantic,” says Rogers of the addition. “It also allows us an aural connection from the lobby and into his room.”

Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice the living space décor has also received an upgrade with glass-enclosed display cabinets, filled with art and sculptures, framing a fireplace similar to the one in the cozy bar, which Rogers reveals was actually a fully functioning installation. “We made all of the fireplaces working, which created an ambiance,” says Rogers. “The fireplace in Sugar's room felt alive.”

Sugar’s reliable uniform of a suit, shirt, and tie also takes on a role, becoming a talking point in multiple instances. So Rogers redesigned a sleek, but generous closet to underscore the dialogue and illustrate his meticulous, out-of-this-world organizational skills. “We gave it lights,” says Rogers. “There's a shot where he pulls the doors apart, and we can see him looking at his suits and realizing, ‘Wow, I do have a lot of suits.’”

Ideal for a nightcap with a special guest, a tiny bar set-up now sits next to his coffee maker, underneath a new black-and-white print of what looks like a nod to Sugar’s origins: two figures facing perhaps a planet rising out of the mist. “We have a lot of circular iconography going on through the entire show,” says Rogers, also pointing to the half-sphere ceiling lights bathing Sugar and Charlotte in a romantic glow. “A little art department joke is they're shaped like spaceships.”

The two 16th-century style portraits and a painting of an armor-clad man in the lobby also hint toward another earth-shattering revelation. “He’s a conquistador or a matador alone in the ring—that kind of metaphor. Very much like what humans have done to Earth is what conquistadors did to the Aztecs,” says Rogers. “We can overthink everything.”