Director David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller Dead Ringers gave us a memorable outing with Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. But everything takes a refreshing and inventive turn in 2023’s adaptation from writer Alice Birch, the insightful screenwriter from Normal People and Succession. In this modern update, Rachel Weisz stars in double-lead roles as Elliot and Beverly Mantle. The Mantle twins are identical in nearly every way, and the two siblings are on a quest to change the way women give birth.

That’s the compelling spin this miniseries delivers. The twins lean into their codependency with fervor and are unapologetic and vigilant as they challenge outdated practices and push the boundaries of medical ethics. The miniseries hit Prime Video to rave reviews. The cast includes Britne Oldford (The Umbrella Academy), Poppy Liu (Hacks), Michael Chernus (Severance, Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty), and Emily Meade (The Deuce).

Leaping off Cronenberg’s classic film, production designer Erin Magill was tasked with creating a fresh female perspective here. Reinventing the Mantle twins as women gave her the opportunity to create new visual worlds that are essential to today’s cultural conversations. There’s also a lovely subversive if not twisted tone throughout this go around. Most interesting perhaps for Magill was that her approach was to visually examine codependency, toxic behavior, excess in all forms, gender, and sexual fluidity and, fittingly, women’s healthcare in America. She shares more about the process with MovieWeb.

Similar Story Told Through Different Eyes

MovieWeb: Can you share more about what you were tasked with in creating a female perspective here in terms of production design?

Erin Magill: I was a fan of the original film for all of its, I’d say, eccentric Cronenberg wonders. When I had the chance to read Alice’s script — every script doesn’t read like the best book you’ve ever read — but with hers, I just wanted more of it. It was just so smart the way that she took the concept from Rachel Weisz having be women [characters] and then from their perspective, really build off the original.

MW: What were some of the initial concepts you had to consider?

Erin Magill: First off, and most importantly, just the idea of women’s health care. Where we started with them in the hospital was, again, from this female lens. Thinking about the whole project, it was really important right away for me, because there’s so much in the dialogue and the characters commenting, sometimes very hilariously and frankly, and a lot of wonderful satire. It allowed me to kind of play with the idea of, “Okay, what am I going to show that’s very realistic so that we are grounded it in the reality of our world, no matter how horrific that can be?” Then it was, “Where can we play and style it up a bit?”

MW: That evolves though, right?

Erin Magill: As the story goes along it gets, I’d say, a little more operatic, more stylized and into a thriller, but still really grounded. Starting with just that very old guard hospital that’s very antiquated […] as much as it’s the best of the best, it’s still very much in the bureaucracy that’s very man-made. And therefore, what would that female perspective and female design, and the perspective of the twins, affect them at their center? That was the initial jumping off point for us.

Related: David Cronenberg’s Best Movies, Ranked

MW: Rachel Weisz truly stands out as executive producer and actor. What was it like working with Rachel?

Erin Magill: Rachel and [screenwriter] Alice Birch were interviewing me for the position, and I was very flattered. She had seen a smaller film I had done, Swallow, which was again, from a female perspective, a psychological thriller, with a far smaller budget. I knew in our early conversations on my lookbook the tone and visual environment that Alice and Rachel were looking for. We wanted a bit of an homage to the original. What was so interesting to Rachel, not only in terms of a female perspective and for these doctors, and the commentary of healthcare, but most of all, the twins, and this idea of sisterhood and that relationship. The codependency and the toxicity.

Erin Magill: Rachel was able to capture that psychologically in her performance so well. I really knew it was this kind of top level theme and idea we wanted to explore. So, as the designer, it was, “How can I help with that?” Early on, with Rachel’s apartment [in the series], there was a bit of an evolvement. As in, “How were we going to create that space to show a complete lack of order and complete codependency between the two sisters? Rachel was very involved in that.

Related: Dead Ringers Review: A Masterful if Morbid Meditation on Misery

Understanding True Production Design

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MW: Why is it important to reimagine some of these stories and bring in new perspectives, especially the female perspective?

Erin Magill: As a designer, I’m always looking. I want to be inspired. The work itself takes so much from you. So, I want it to be something I can connect to. As an artist, I think you want to help create something that you’re hopefully putting back into the world something of value to a cultural conversation. We scratched the surface, just very broadly of okay, a female perspective and those stories. It was refreshing to see how utterly layered and flawed and wonderful in what Alice Birch was showing because we know every human, however anyone identifies—their sexuality, work or gender—we’re all incredibly complicated.

MW: What else would you love for viewers to understand about this version of Dead Ringers?

Erin Magill: I think a lot of times, there are a lot of stories that might be one type of “story” that gets told and told and told. And that’s all that’s been shared. What was really most interesting to me at first was the amount of variety of different types of women in this. From the twins to the character of Rebecca to this idea of women in power, and how flawed and complicated that can be. Even if they’re trying, in theory, to do something good. That was just really interesting to me to finally get to see a little more of that on screen that we don’t always get to see.

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MW: One last question. What don’t most people know about production design?

Erin Magill: Thank you for asking, because I feel like we try to advocate for ourselves. But you know, a huge part of it is that most of the time if we’ve done our job, people don’t know that we’ve done our job. Because we’ve created a world that’s so believable that nobody is questioning the surroundings. And so that’s why obviously when things are very “period,” or very future-fantasy, it’s a little more obvious that someone has created that space. These days, there are fascinating spaces for making social commentary, and let’s do with design and amp up your choices, and stylistically, play with things. All those subtle things are really exciting for me as a designer.

Dead Ringers is streaming on Prime Video.