If you’ve been watching the USA Network on Wednesday nights lately, some scenes may look familiar: A new series, The Sinner, was filmed in various locations around Rockland and Westchester counties. The cast was spotted at Tallman State Park, and in late June, filming was being done in Yonkers on Brewster Avenue. Filming has also taken place in Haverstraw. Biel and her husband, Justin Timberlake, were also spotted eating dinner at The Inn at Pound Ridge.
Some of those scenes will look most familiar to Tim Cunningham and his family: Their New City home was used in episodes 2, 3, and 5.
In April, Cunningham found a letter attached to the front door of his colonial on Schriever Lane. “We’re currently scouting for homes that could be used in a new television series, produced in part by NBC/Universal,” stated the letter, which was signed by a location scout. “Our house was of interest because of the front porch,” Cunningham explained. The promise of a paid location fee, and all necessary insurance, sealed the deal for Cunningham; soon after he agreed, a crowd of people visited the house, including the scout, multiple directors, and other staff. Photographs were taken of both the interior and exterior of the house, then the real work began. A false wall was built to separate the family room from the kitchen (“It has French doors and everything, and on the other side of it, which you don’t see, there are sandbags holding it up,” Cunningham marveled). Two bedrooms were used as actor “green rooms,” and the master bedroom was painted blue and is featured as the bedroom of the main character.
- Advertisement -
The professionalism of everyone involved in the production made quite an impression on the homeowners: “By the second day, I just handed them a key,” Cunningham said. Shooting began in June, and took about a week. The family just kept out of the way for the first several days, then moved to a hotel for the final three days of shooting.
Cunningham said he’d offer his house again, given the chance. Post-production, everything that was removed or painted was returned, repainted, or otherwise restored. The fee he received for the use of his house won’t make him rich, Cunningham remarked, but it will help pay for his middle child’s first semester at college, which coincidentally was something he was praying for the night before the location scout’s letter appeared.
“And it’s funny,” he laughed, “that the answer to my prayers is a show titled The Sinner!”
