The HBO series' executive producer also reveals the moment everyone thought, 'This can't possibly be real.'
Season one of Westworld was just as magical for the cast and crew to shoot as it was for us to watch.
As the HBO drama films its second season, ET is taking an exclusive look back at the series' first week of shooting season one on location in Castle Valley, Utah.
"I grew up in a film household. My brother was shooting on Super 8 when I was 3 years old, so as long as I can remember, film has been a part of my life," Westworld co-creator and executive producer Jonathan Nolan says in the clip of his famous director brother, Christopher Nolan. "It was especially important for this project because of the other films we were trying to evoke."
"Paul Cameron, who is a masterful cinematographer, had worked with some of my favorite directors [and] kindly agreed to come on board and shoot on film with us," he continues over behind-the-scenes shots from Harley Bates Ranch in Castle Valley, Utah.
According to Nolan, the ranch's beauty not only became the perfect location to film the show's in-park scenes with Evan Rachel Wood, but became a symbol of the series actually coming to fruition.
"You have what looks like someone took the alps and stapled them to Monument Valley. Just everywhere you pointed that camera, it's a place of stunning beauty, and again, everyone felt it,'" he recalls, amid shots of Wood in character as Dolores. "We'd flown our crew and the cast out from L.A., and they all found themselves pinching themselves, saying, 'This can't possibly be real.'"
Watch the clip in the video player above.
Westworld season one releases on 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray on Nov. 7.
See what the cast told ET about filming season two in the video below.