On HBO’s Watchmen, a giant catapult became one of the projects I’ll never forget. The image eventually found another life as a Backlot Boutique puzzle, but the story behind it goes a lot deeper than the finished picture.
I worked on this production as part of the scenic crew led by Joe Hawthorne, a third-generation scenic artist from Los Angeles and the most talented scenic I’ve ever known. Joe was the scenic paint charge on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films. Working for him felt like boot camp every single day—and I loved it.
Joe had a hard-ass, beast-mode mentality and an uncompromising standard for the work. Plenty of painters and scenics found that pace too much; even some from LA would shy away from it. Me? I craved it. I’m a sucker for pain, apparently. I spent more than three and a half years on his core crew, learning from a true master and training like a scenic Marine.
To be on Joe’s crew, you had to be hungry. You had to sweat, bleed, and work harder than you ever had. Across a crew of roughly 30 men in construction, sculpt, plaster, paint, and scenic, I was the only woman for those three and a half years. And actually, let me correct myself: Joe didn’t hire painters. He hired scenics. That’s how hardcore the standard was.
I’m proud of what we made, but I’m just as proud of what it took to stay in the room and earn my place on that crew. Film work has changed, and jobs have dwindled, but the lessons have stayed with me. Even now, I’m not sharing half the things Joe taught me. Some knowledge was earned the hard way.
The catapult photograph became the inspiration for my Catapult at Sunset puzzle at Backlot Boutique—a little piece of the backlot, reimagined for your table.
