‘Only Murders in the Building’: All the Meryl Streep Easter Eggs Inside Loretta’s Apartment

In Hulus Only Murders in the Building, season threes newest star Meryl Streep plays Loretta Durkin, a scatter-brained and quirky struggling actor. When production designer Rich Murray got the creative brief, he was told, Shes charming and warm and has lived in the same studio apartment for the past 35 to 40 years. With that, Murray peppered in Easter eggs galore as an homage to Streeps illustrious career.

Murray first had to come up with a concept for the space, and found inspiration from the 1951 film An American in Paris. Jerry Mulligans (Gene Kelly) apartment was ideal. It has a lot of built-in quirkiness with drop-down, pull-down things, says Murray. Everyone has everything so neatly finessed, tucked in and tightened cornered, and so we sort of pull from that.

Aside from showrunner John Hoffmans initial brief, Murray got no other notes on design requirements, so he decided to attack with all the Easter eggs and inside jokes you could find. With over 95 credits to her name, it wasnt hard for Murray to dive into Streeps body of work and turn Lorettas apartment into a treasure trove.

Episode 5 sees Martin Shorts Oliver have dinner at Lorettas apartment, and audiences finally get to see a detailed glimpse into her humble abode. Here, Murray walks through a few surprises some obvious, others not so much.

Suffragette 2015

HULU The framed hanging tea towel is a nod to the 2015 film Suffragette in which Streep played British political activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Says Murray, It hangs between the window. Her characters name is on the tea towel. Suffragette is a magazine that came out in the early 1900s and it was an activist pamphlet so we put her name on that.

Kramer vs. Kramer 1979

The homage to Kramer vs. Kramer is on Lorettas fridge door.

Says Murray, It closely mimics the bulletin board over her son Billy Kramers bed in the film. And theres a Christmas card from her character to Billy. So, we recreated that card and hung the images around it.

Julie Julia 2009

Screenshot/Sony Pictures Releasing The tulips on Lorettas desk were pulled from the 2009 film Julie Julia which starred Streep and Stanley Tucci.

Murray was drawn to the flower arrangement when the couple goes out to dinner in Paris. Theyre in a booth and there is a gorgeous arrangement of French tulips that looked like they had been moved a couple of times. It was this gargantuan arrangement. So, I always put an arrangement of French tulips on her desk, and they were weirdly arranged like in the film.

He adds, The scripts on her desk were plays or movies that she had been in.

Out of Africa 1985

In a nod to Streeps character Karen Blixen from the 1985 film Out of Africa, Murray covered an ottoman in a burlap fabric with a Kenyan coffee design. Murray says, Her character lived on a coffee plantation, so we put that next to the couch.

The Devil Wears Prada -2006

Of course, Murray had to pay homage to Streeps iconic character in The Devil Wears Prada. We built a series of books in her bookcase, and across the book spines is the logo from the film.