The new Netflix romantic comedy starring Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, A Family Affair—which began streaming today—will speak to anyone’s who’s worked an assistant job in Hollywood.

Efron stars as a fictional movie named Chris Cole, who is a stereotypical self-absorbed and somewhat clueless celebrity. Joey King stars as his long-suffering assistant, Zara, who is finally pushed to quit after a particularly ridiculous tantrum from Chris. Unfortunately for Zara, then Chris starts dating her mother (played by Nicole Kidman). Poor Zara just can’t catch a break!

A Family Affair is very much a Hollywood story, so, naturally, the movie takes place in Los Angeles. But as anyone working in Hollywood today knows, quite a few “Hollywood” movies aren’t filmed in Hollywood at all anymore. Those California tax incentives just aren’t incentive enough!

Read on to learn more about the filming locations for A Family Affair.

Where was A Family Affair filmed?

The majority of A Family Affair was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, both on location and on sound stages. In addition, some parts of A Family Affair were filmed on location in Los Angeles, California.

In a recent interview with Decider, director Richard LaGravenese revealed that “the bulk” of the movie was filmed in Atlanta, but that certain exterior shots were done in LA. “The house that Joey and Nicole live in is in the [Pacific] Palisades,” LaGravenese explained, referencing an LA neighborhood in the city’s Westside region. “The interior was built in Atlanta, but the exterior, and the backyard, is LA. All the Malibu stuff was [shot in] LA—the Trancas [Country] Market in Malibu, and all that. But most of it was Atlanta.”
Photo: Tina Rowden/Netflix
That includes the mansion where Zac Efron’s character lives, which LaGravenese chose for its huge, ridiculous door—which gave Joey King a chance to show off her physical comedy chops when she struggles to open it, mid storm-out.

“Getting that door open just cracked me up,” LaGravenese said. “Also, when I went in there, they had that Star Wars sculpture. That’s exactly something his kind of character would buy. That was all there. We had to shoot Los Angeles in Atlanta, and that house was in Buckhead, Atlanta—an upper echelon Atlanta neighborhood. That house looked very LA to me—very bachelor LA.”

Quite a few films are shot in Atlanta these days, thanks to Georgia’s generous tax credit that can save film productions a significant amount of money. Another Netflix title, Stranger Things, for example, is filmed in Atlanta. That’s why they call it the Hollywood of the south!