Just Another Day In L.A.!

On Monday, I decided to do a little stalking of the horror movie Scream 2, a movie which I am sad to say was nowhere near as good as its predecessor. But since I had found the address of the fraternity house used in the movie and since the location fit in with my Halloween theme, I had to run right out to stalk it. The fraternity house was featured in the beginning of Scream 2 as the location of the party Sidney and her friends attend. It is while everyone is at this party that Sarah Michelle Geller gets thrown from the balcony of a supposedly nearby sorority house. Unfortunately I have yet to locate that sorority house and from what I can tell, in real life it is nowhere near the party house. LOL Anyway, the Scream 2 party house looks pretty much exactly the same as it does in the movie, minus all of the fraternity signs, of course. In real life, it is just a normal privately owned residence and it is not located anywhere near a college campus. But it was actually after leaving the Scream house, that my day got a whole lot more exciting.

My mom is always telling me to trust in the universe and it is times like this past Monday morning that convince me that I need to listen to her. While leaving the Scream house, I got a bit lost, as I have been known to do (I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever!). So I put my address into my trusty GPS unit hoping that it would lead me home, but, instead, it led me right to the filming of one of my favorite TV shows ever – TNT'”‘”‘s The Closer. As I came around a bend after leaving the Scream house, I noticed some trucks and filming lights set up on the side of the road. Then all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, there were Kyra Sedgwick and G.W. Bailey (my fave actor on the show!) standing just a few feet from my car as I drove by! So, of course, I just had to pull over! 🙂

The policeman on duty at the set could not have been nicer to me and asked one of the A.D.'”‘”‘s if I could sit on the sidelines and watch the filming. The A.D. said no problem, so I got to sit down for about an hour and a half and observe the making of one of my favorite shows. And I have to say I could not have been more impressed with what I witnessed. Every single person on the crew was extremely friendly and it seems like a truly fun set to work on – and believe me, I'”‘”‘ve been on my fair share of sets and that is not always the case. The cast members were extremely friendly with each other – there was a lot of laughing and joking around in between takes. And I was super excited when the cast took a break and came to sit down right next to where I was sitting. Kyra'”‘”‘s director'”‘”‘s chair was set up very close to me, actually, and I could not have been more excited. I love me some Kyra! But instead of being starstruck by her, I was actually more struck by her level of professionalism. Out of all the actors and actresses that I have been fortunate enough to observe in person, she was by far the most focused on her work. During every single break, Kyra went straight to her director'”‘”‘s chair, took out her script, studied her lines and made notes in a notebook – much like I do in my acting classes. 🙂 As an actress, this was fascinating for me to watch and I could not have been more impressed. At her level, she could just as easily have goofed off during her breaks, or gone to grab an iced latte or something, but instead she was 100% focused on her work. I have always felt that I have learned far more from observing professional actors at work than I have from any of my acting classes and this was of course true yesterday as I watched Kyra. (I only took a couple of pictures of the filming as I did not want to disturb anyone – or get kicked off the set.) 🙂

After the producers wrapped up the filming and the actors were shuttled back to base camp, the policeman on duty told me they were moving to a new location and invited me to come along. So I immediately called my dad and asked him to join me, as he is a big fan of the show, too, and he has a better camera than I do. 🙂 The next location where The Closer filmed, also located in Pasadena, is a mansion that has actually been home to many a film shoot. Apparently the mansion has a resume as long as my arm, but unfortunately I don'”‘”‘t know the specifics of the filming that has taken place there. I do know, though, that it was used in the pilot episode of CSI: Miami, as the Las Vegas home of a swinging couple whose daughter is kidnapped during a party.

My dad took quite a few photos of the filming, but because we didn'”‘”‘t want to disturb anyone, unfortunately I didn'”‘”‘t get a pic with Kyra or any of the other cast members. 🙁 We had such a blast being on the set, though, and watching the filming! I can'”‘”‘t even believe I got to spend my day there! And to think, if I hadn'”‘”‘t gotten lost, I might never have experienced any of it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The party house from Scream 2 is located at 350 S. Grand Avenue in Pasadena. The Closer was filmed at 141 N. Grand Avenue, also in Pasadena, and on Arroyo Drive underneath the Colorado Street Bridge. Look for that Closer episode to air next January or February on TNT.

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