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Apartment 7A hit Paramount+ last week—read io9’s review here—and if you’re a keen-eyed fan of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, you would have noticed a scene midway through Natalie Erika James’ prequel that seems to be setting up a moment of direct overlap between the two films. Until… it doesn’t. In a new interview, James explained the behind-the-scenes reasons why that happened.
Just in case you were saving Apartment 7A for your October movie list:
The scene in Apartment 7A starts off as the mirror image of a scene in Rosemary’s Baby. It’s when Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Terry (Victoria Vetri in Rosemary’s Baby; Julia Garner in Apartment 7A) share a pleasant chat in the laundry room. Rosemary and her husband have just moved in, and she’s pleased to meet another young woman living in the Bramford. Terry explains she was helped out of a bad situation by elderly couple Roman and Minnie Castevet—Rosemary’s new neighbors—and they’ve given her a place to live because they’re just the kindest people ever.
Rosemary and her new friend agree to do their laundry together again because the basement is creepy as hell. Tragically, however, their next encounter is also their last: Rosemary and Guy just happen to be strolling past when Terry falls to her death from the Castevets’ apartment.
In Apartment 7A, however, the laundry room scene comes too early in the movie for Rosemary even be at the Bramford; the previous tenant, Mrs. Gardenia, is still living in Rosemary’s future apartment. (In James’ film, we learn a lot more about that plant-loving lady, and the sinister reason she departs the building.) Also, the conversation doesn’t happen; Terry sees a blonde woman with pigtails (Rosemary before her famous pixie cut) doing her washing, but they don’t interact.
At the end of Apartment 7A, Terry still meets her death in the same way, and Rosemary and Guy are once again horrified witnesses—but she is a total stranger to them.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, James discussed the delicate line she had to walk, drawing inspiration first from Ira Levin’s novel, but also, inevitably, Polanski’s film too.
“One of the big considerations was making sure that there was a separation between [Apartment 7A] and the original film’s creators not being involved in this one,” James told the trade. “So we had these discussions prior to starting a redraft of the script. We also tried to reference Ira Levin’s original book as much as we possibly could and use that as source material. But, at the same time, because the original film is so iconic, it’s kind of an unavoidable comparison.”
As for that specific scene, “I was always really conscious of the fact that there were already so many parallels to the original film, and we were making these really conscious decisions about using the Bramford and keeping certain design features very consistent,” James said. “But I really shied away from wanting to show Rosemary’s face or any kind of interaction. It felt, strangely, like a step too far to just recast Mia Farrow, even though Minnie and Roman are reimagined in their way.”
She agreed with the THR interviewer who pointed out the scene occurs too early in the movie for the woman depicted to actually be Rosemary. Originally, the director said, the laundry room visit was slated to occur later in the film, meaning the timelines would have lined up more accurately—but an editing choice was made to bump it up. “So you’re right about the lack of continuity from the original with Mrs. Gardenia still being around. In the edit process, there’s always things that have to be shifted to best tell the story, so, unfortunately, that was one of the sacrifices.”
See the scene and imagine a re-re-edited version for yourself: Apartment 7A is now streaming on Paramount+.
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