The Best Scenes from The Politician Were Actually Filmed in Los Angeles
Ryan Murphy’s first Netflix show, The Politician, launched last month, following the story of an ambitious high schooler (Ben Platt) running for class president.
The show largely takes place in Santa Barbara, California, except for its finale, which is set in New York after a time jump.
Below, a few details on the real locations behind the show.
We get it. You've already binged The Politician and are officially obsessed with it. You've read everything there is to read about the already-announced second season, you've listened to "River" and "Vienna" on a loop, and now you're ready to delve into some behind-the-scenes facts.
The show takes place in Santa Barbara, California, where Payton (Ben Platt) attends high school, a beautiful coastal city that's often described as "the American Riviera." And judging by the pastel-hued, permanently sunny situation on the show, it lives up to the title. But as is often the case on TV, the real location doesn't match the fictional one. In fact, most of the show was actually filmed in Los Angeles.
Saint Sebastian High School
The high school attended by Payton, Alice, River, and the gang was created using an amalgamation of different locations, according to Atlas of Wonders. Many of the interior and courtyard shots were filmed at Marymount High School, which sits at 10643 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, close to UCLA. (Fun fact: this is Kim Kardashian's alma mater.) Fullerton Union High School in Orange County was also heavily used in the show—the auditorium, in which a number of key scenes take place, is part of Fullerton High.
The stunning Saint Sebastian school library—where Astrid memorably confronts Payton to reveal that she knows about his relationship with River—is the Woodbury University Library in the Burbank neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The Santa Barbara "airport"
Remember when Payton's mom, a.k.a. Gwyneth Paltrow, drives him to the airport at the end of episode seven? Remember how that looked like no airport you've ever seen in your life, because it's architecturally stunning and has soaring windows and a beautiful tile floor and altogether looks like a gorgeous old-school train station? That's because it is, in fact, a gorgeous old-school train station—specifically Union Station in Los Angeles.
Payton's piano bar
The finale jumps forward three years and picks up with Payton in New York, where his only income seems to come from playing gigs in bars. His unforgettable rendition of Billy Joel's "Vienna" was filmed at Marie's Crisis Cafe in Greenwich Village, N.Y.C.
Payton, Alice, and Astrid's houses
There's sadly not a ton of information out there about the stunning Hobart mansion, but according to Architectural Digest the location is a private home in Thousand Oaks, California. Alice's house is the Paramour Estate in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, a 1923 mansion built for silent film star Antonio Moreno. And Astrid's equally gorgeous house is a villa in the Greater Wiltshire-Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, the juicy details of which are available on Zillow.
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