Production Designer Bill Groom Talks 'Boardwalk Empire' Season 5 & 2015 Emmy Awards! EXCLUSIVE

Though the Season 5 finale of Boardwalk Empire previously aired, the HBO period drama continues to be praised by critics. In an exclusive interview with MStars News, Production Designer Bill Groom discusses recreating history through Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and being nominated for the 2015 Emmy Awards.

As we previously mentioned, in the fifth and final season, the turf war between Nucky (Buscemi) and Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazaa) has been brewing to an intense confrontation. Elsewhere, in Chicago, the FBI is gathering evidence against Al Capone (Stephen Graham) for tax evasion. While double-crosses are being made, Nucky races against the clock as he attempts to escape from his criminal lifestyle before Luciano and his trigger-happy henchmen come crashing through his door

Known for his work on Saturday Night Live and Awakenings, Groom discusses capturing the historical look for the final episodes, his thoughts on being Emmy nominated, and reuniting with Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter for the upcoming Vinyl.

MStars News: Tell me about the research you went into for Boardwalk Empire. What was it about that time period that appealed to you?

Bill Groom: The '20s were an interesting period because culture follows pattern of old rules, no rules, and new rules. And Prohibition coincides with the period of no rules in the country. There was a privileged class that carried through into the early teens, across the world really; certainly in Europe and America.

There was just a point where that couldn't be sustained. You see that actually in Downton Abbey, where the privileged class should have realized they could no longer live that way. They had to adapt to that. That coincided with World War I and then Prohibition in the United States. Prohibition ushered in a period of no rules. It became pretty lawless, despite the best intentions of people who supported Prohibition. That was a pretty interesting thing to follow, all the way through 1919 to 1931, which was our last season.

MS: What do you feel you learned most from the research?

BG: It was a period of great change in this country. All sort of things started happening. Women's skirts got shorter. It was a big era for women's rights. There was a flip side to it, women were smoking in public, cop kills flourished in spite of Prohibition, and the youth movement sort of happened.

There were many shifts that happened over the decade. In the end, the Great Depression changed everything again. We tried to reflect that in the show. I wasn't always focused on the historical shifts. We also had to take into consideration Nucky and where he was emotionally, financially, and socially. I tried to incorporate Nucky's interior life in the environments of the show.

MS: Tell me about the final season reflecting the downfall of Nucky Thompson's mob empire.

BG: We stared to see that in about season four. Back in the beginning, in the first season of the show, the palette was very much of the Edwardian period. Some would argue the Edwardian Age ended earlier but really the aesthetics, sensibilities lingered into 1920. As things started to change, certainly by the time you get into the Great Depression, the palette is very somber.

I anticipated that with Nucky's downfall, as you say, in season four. It kind of stayed that all the way through the last season. There was a palette shift throughout the season. In season four, in terms of Nucky's financial state and his personal life, we shifted to a darker and somber palette, based less on history and more on his emotional state.

MS: Tell me about the news of hearing your Emmy nomination.

BG: Well, it's four nominations in a row! I've won three in a row! It's kind of exciting! I think the work we did in Season 5 was by far the best, the whole series. I'm hopeful that it will be recognized. I'm not writing any acceptance speech because I don't want to take anything for granted! I feel honored to be nominated!

MS: Is the nomination bittersweet because it's the final season?

BG: Well, you know I'm working with the same people right now. I'm working on this project called Vinyl. I would say more than half the people on the staff here were on Boardwalk Empire. It's the same producer/writer Terrence Winter, Martin Scorsese, and it's Mick Jagger. Bittersweet...yes but there's a sense of accomplishment when you finish something, like a whole series.

That's how I feel about most projects. Once they're finished, there's a sense of completion, which is good.

MS: You're nominated for the episode, Golden Days For Boys and Girls. Do you have any anecdotes that stood out to you?

BG: That's the one that appears online. The art direction category allows three episodes. I submitted three, that one, number seven, and number eight. One of them is called Eldoardo. I think it's good that the category recognizes three. It's very hard to capture a whole season in a single episode.

MS: Tell me about recreating Cuba for the episode, Golden Days For Boys and Girls.

BG: The first episode involved Cuba, and Nucky having come back from Cuba. That's was the most interesting challenge in the five years. How do you create Cuba in New York City? I think we did it successfully.

I had people in the industry asking me where we shot it. Obviously, we shot it in New York, which was good. I think it captured what we saw in the research. Havana was kind of exploding in that period of history. There was a lot happening in New York at the same time. We were able to ground the architecture that was very close to what was going on in Cuba at the time. We brought in palm trees and all the things needed to set it in the locale.

It was a huge challenge but we had a huge staff. There was a lot of people working to make it happen. We had a great crew in every department really for all five seasons. Everybody's heart was in it really. We didn't get much resistance from anybody. Everyone was willing to throw 100 percent to the process and do what needed to be done. If we needed to put a dozen palm tress in the middle of the plaza in New York and make that happen, we did it.

It was a rare experience working on Boardwalk Empire. I don't think I'll ever experience something quite like it again. I don't think it happens so often.

MS: Do you have a favorite episode that comes to mind?

BG: I really don't. They all have their challenges. They all have their rewards. Sometimes the simplest locations are some of the best because in the end, you're telling a story. Sometimes you build the most elaborate set and it does very little. The point is to do what you're hired to do, to help tell the story, and everybody works together on that. It's a very collaborative process.

I'm always working with different directors. It's a different process with every director. Some things are exactly the same and some things are quite different from the perspective of the director. The variety of that is very rewarding. I feel very fortunate working in an industry where that's the case.

Every single episode of a television show, every single feature film, it's all hand-crafted. Each one is unique in its own way. I would say they're all hard in their own special ways. You're in charge of what you have to convey the story to the audience and help express characters. It's all about character and story in the end; that's what it's about.

MS: As you mentioned before, you'e working on Vinyl. Which is more challenging, the music scene in Vinyl or the mob underworld in Boardwalk Empire?

BG: I don't think it's an oversimplification. The process is the same no matter you're doing. You decide what needs to be done and then you do it. It's that simple really. Deciding what needs to be done is the most exciting part. It's the discovery of what makes the story work and what works in coordination with the director, the director of photography, the costume designer. It's that process of making something. There's a lot to keep in mind. There's a lot in the air juggling things.

In a television series, I'm often working with two directors in a day. On Boardwalk, there was a time, I was working with 5 directors in the same day. I have to keep everything straight where we are in terms of the story arc, how I'm working on that episode, moving ahead to another episode, times doing photography on another episode, until the season finishes.

MS: What other projects are working on now?

BG: I'm just working on Vinyl at the moment. There's not one spare minute. I'm sometimes here till one in the morning, but not every morning. We're here late and return early in the morning. It consumes all of your time and all of your thinking. There's not enough time to do another project.

Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) will host the Emmy Awards on September 20, 2015.

The final season of Boardwalk Empire is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.

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