Where Was Netflix’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Filmed?

Hillbilly Elegy on Netlfix—Ron Howard‘s new drama adapted from the 2016 memoir by J.D. Vance, which began streaming today—is all about rust belt pride. The real Vance (who is played by Owen Asztalos as a boy, and Gabriel Basso as an adult) wrote his book in part to explain to coastal elites his experience of growing up working class in Middletown, Ohio, with a family originally from Jackson, Kentucky.

But as audiences know, just because Hollywood makes a movie about a place doesn’t mean that filmmakers and actors actually want to go there.

So where exactly were Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and the rest of the Hillbilly Elegy cast when they filmed this movie? Read on to get the scoop on where Hillbilly Elegy was filmed.

Where was Hillbilly Elegy filmed? What was the Hillbilly Elegy filming location?

If you’re from Ohio and looking for your hometown in Hillbilly Elegy, you might just find it. Hillbilly Elegy was at least in part filmed on location in Middletown, Ohio. The exterior shots of Mamaw, Papaw, and Bev’s homes were all shot on Harrison St. in Middletown, which was just one street over from where the real Mamaw actually lived. The interior shots were filmed on a sound stage in Atlanta, Georgia.

The opening exterior scenes of J.D. in Kentucky were filmed in Clayton, Georgia along the Blue Ridge mountain range. That’s not quite Kentucky, but it is still part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Howard said in an interview for the film’s press notes that the team took care to recreate Vance’s family home.

“J.D. had taken us on tours and we took pictures and we made videos capturing a lot of things,” Howard said. “It wasn’t just about buildings, it was also about the way people were moving around those towns. We wanted the backgrounds to be as authentic as anything that we were doing in the foreground. The attention to detail was important to all of us.”

So there you go: Part movie magic, part authenticity! That’s the Hollywood way.

Watch Hillbilly Elegy on Netflix