Where was Eric filmed? Location guide for Netflix drama

Joining Vincent, though, is a big furry puppet by the name of Eric, which is crafted from Edgar's own drawings that are found after he disappears.

As the series progresses, we get glimpses into their family life, their history and also the gritty underworld of New York.

The location is most certainly an impressive one in the series, and almost makes the city itself a part of the cast, but where was Eric filmed? Read on for everything you need to know about the locations used in Eric.

Where was Eric filmed?

While Eric is set in the Big Apple and has indeed been filmed in parts of New York, a lot of the filming for Eric was actually also done in Budapest, Hungary.

In fact, for fans of Hellboy 2, some of the streets may be a little familiar, as the same set (which was built in 2008 for the big-budget superhero film) is used in the new Netflix series.

Speaking about the decision to shoot in the European city, director Lucy Forbes said: "There was never going to be an option to shoot the whole thing in New York because it's so expensive. So it was about choosing the right place to go, and Budapest has lots of very good studio space that is cost effective and has an amazing crew."

Forbes continued: "It has a New York backlot which is basically two streets which were built for Hellboy 2. It was pretty tired and falling apart, so we did a lot of work to it and we built a lot. We built loads of interior sets in Budapest. Vincent and Cassie's apartment, Good Day Sunshine etc.

"Then everything exterior-wise is pretty much 80 per cent New York. It's set in 1980s New York, but we wanted to subtly intertwine it. If we’d put someone in a bad '80s wig it would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

"I wanted it to be faithful to the time period but I also wanted it to have a timeless quality, and I think we managed to pull that off."

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press at a screening for Eric, Forbes also said: "Also, the interiors we did use that were in Budapest had lots of interesting architecture, and felt very reminiscent of the time period.

"Like the workshop, I felt - really loved the workshop, really loved the theatre. We used a very popular Hungarian club which we made into The Lux.

"[Budapest] had so much to offer, such talented crew and people. We lived there for six or seven months and I really loved shooting there."

Similarly, series creator and writer Abi Morgan also told RadioTimes.com and other press at the screening about shooting those New York scenes: "What was brilliant was that I think it's pretty seamless the relationship between the two countries. But also, we shot a lot in New York itself.

"The Manhattan/Brooklyn location became New Jersey because, obviously, the architecture there felt much more '80s. New Jersey still had that really architecturally as well."

Talking more about the location scouting for the series, executive producer Lucy Dyke told Netflix: "It's hard because you're searching for a 1980s New York that just doesn't exist anymore. New York is such a completely different place now, so we went all over the world searching for that.

"We looked at Eastern European countries, I went to Bulgaria, and we went to Canada and looked at Vancouver and Toronto, plus different places in America. New Jersey offered us some elements that still felt like New York in the '80s, but that we knew we would need to augment with VFX. We had a brilliant VFX supervisor, called Jean-Louis Autret, who did the most amazing job."

She continued: "We also needed the subway. There are subway stations that you can film in that are disused, and they do feel quite ancient, but then we had to find the rest of it somewhere and there were so many elements to it that we had to put together."

Where were the underground tunnels in Eric filmed?

The underground tunnels that run underneath New York in Eric are in fact real and not just a set for the series.

Speaking about the journey to finding them, executive producer Dyke said: "We needed to create the world of the mole people and the homelessness in tunnels underneath somewhere and they needed to feel big enough. Then we needed other exteriors and interiors, and so we landed on Budapest because it had so many of those things. It has brilliant crews and it has brilliant studios.

"There are some standing backlots of New York in Budapest already, which we were able to adapt and build on. It also has seven kilometres of underground tunnels. It was a long journey to find it and put it together."

Director Forbes also explained the process of shooting the tunnels that we see Yuusuf and the other homeless people living in, saying: "There's an amazing documentary called Dark Days which they made in the '90s, and it's about the mole people that live underground in New York City.

"The access is amazing, and it's incredibly heartbreaking as it follows a group of people living and surviving under the streets.

"You see clotheslines hanging out, one of the characters has dogs that he's feeding and has built a kennel for them... They're all trying to live their lives with dignity. There are drug addicts and there are people that are escaping from society, and I'm so glad we had that reference."

She continued: "There are so many photographs available online and quite a few photographic books about the people that live underground, so again, I wanted everything to be grounded in naturalism, because ultimately, the show on paper is really 'out there'. In order to believe that, I felt our environments had to be as naturalistic as possible, for us to take the audience on the ride.

"There’s around 20 miles of tunnels underneath Budapest which used to store beer and was their network to travel, so we built a big section of the tunnel set under there!"

Eric is available to stream on Netflix from Thursday 30th May. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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