Kate’s Apartment from “Picture Perfect”

I wish I could say I’ve never met a Jennifer Aniston movie I didn’t like, but that is not the case.  In fact, the opposite is more true – I’ve rarely met one I truly did enjoy.  Picture Perfect fits into the “didn’t like” category.  If you haven’t seen the film, this review Paul Tatara wrote for CNN perfectly encapsulates the not-so-titillating storyline.  The 1997 romcom did manage to get a bit more interesting years after its release thanks to a 2010 Elle magazine interview with Jen’s costar Jay Mohr in which he had this say to say when asked about his most awkward interaction with a female celebrity – “Being on the set of a movie where the leading woman was unhappy with my presence and made it clear from day one.  I hadn’t done many movies, and even though they screen-tested some pretty famous guys, I somehow snaked into the leading role.  The actress said, ‘No way!  You’ve got to be kidding me!’  Loudly.  Between takes.  To other actors on set.  I would literally go to my mom’s house and cry.”  The interviewer immediately surmised the female celebrity Mohr was referring to was JA, but he refused to confirm or deny the hunch.  It did not take long for him to spill the tea, though.  You can listen to various interviews he’s since given on the subject here and here.  Jen’s animosity toward the comedian apparently stemmed from the fact that she wanted then boyfriend Tate Donovan to play her love interest, Nick, in Picture Perfect, but Mohr snagged the role instead.  As he tells it, she made him pay dearly for the purported slight.  The duo’s onscreen chemistry definitely attests to some friction.  Aniston, as plucky ad-exec Kate, really plays the whole being-annoyed-at-Nick-thing a little too well throughout the film.  Her disdain for him is palpable in practically every scene and the movie kind of suffers for it, to the point that it is not really believable when she inevitably falls for him at the end.  Regardless, when I came across the address of Kate’s apartment from the flick in the book Manhattan on Film, I added it to my stalking itinerary for my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple and headed over there one (rather rainy) morning while in town.

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In Picture Perfect, Kate calls a charming building situated on the corner of West 21st Street and 8th Avenue in Chelsea home.

With its red brick edifice, arched detailing, carved columns, and teal-paned entrance doors, the structure is – dare I say it –  picture perfect.  It is not hard to see how it came to be used as the residence of the movie’s young, free-spirited, bohemian heroine.

In real life, the 5-story complex, which was originally built in 1900, boasts 13 units, a roof deck, a ground floor nail salon, and an elevator.

The building shows up twice in Picture Perfect.  It first pops up in the scene in which Kate coaches Nick, who is posing as her boyfriend for a work event, on the ins-and-outs of their fake relationship.

The site then appears again toward the end of the movie in the scene in which an on-top-of-the-world Kate leaves her apartment to head to work after very publicly “breaking up” with Nick.  Little does she realize, though, how much she’s going to miss him.

For whatever reason, at some point after the movie was shot, a secondary door situated just west of the one Kate was shown exiting in the scenes, was added to the building.  As you can see in the photographs below as compared to the screen captures above, the white limestone-framed entry with the arched glass awning that stands to the left of Kate’s door was not in existence when Picture Perfect was lensed.

The interior of Kate’s apartment was just a set, which I learned via Mohr’s podcast was built on a soundstage at Silvercup Studios in Queens – a soundstage that Jen walked into on the first day of rehearsals and then promptly and loudly announced to Illeana Douglas (who played Aniston’s friend Darcy in the film) right in front of Jay, “Six guys they screen-tested.  Six!  The one f*cking guy I hate, that’s the one they hire!”  Yikes.  In the immortal words of Cher Horowitz, “That was way harsh, Tai!”  The scenes shot inside of the apartment set were some of the last of Picture Perfect to be lensed and by that time Jen had decided she liked Jay and instead switched her vitriol to director Glenn Gordon Caron, though Mohr never forgave her for the hell he experienced during the tumultuous shoot.   Who knows if Jay’s account of the situation is true, but, for reasons I am not going to get into here, I tend to believe it is.  You can check out what the interior of one of the apartments in Kate’s building looks like in real life here and here.  The actual units are much less colorful and far sparser than their onscreen counterpart.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Kate’s apartment building from Picture Perfect is located at 301 West 21st Street in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.