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Jennifer Morrison

WEEK: February 11-17, 2013

SHOOT: Run Emma Run! ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison Running in Gastown for 2×14

Run Emma Run! In Once Upon a Time 2×14 Manhattan, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) chases a man in a grey hoodie  — who she thinks could be Rumple’s son Bae —  through SoHo in New York City (Gastown in Vancouver). He jumps from an old wrought iron fire escape staircase down onto the street below (Powell Street), runs along the sidewalk and through a cobbled square (Maple Tree Square) dodging yellow NYC taxi-cabs, past SoParlo Boots (prop sign) into a corridor (Gaelor’s Mews) of stores and restaurants until she tackles him in an alley (east end of Trounce Alley in Blood Alley Square).

Once Upon a Time filmed this foot chase in mid-December in four legs with Jennifer Morrison doing all her own running stunts and some of the tackling. The day started  in reverse with the Emma stunt double tackling the Grey-Hoodie-Man stunt double in the east end of Trounce Alley, followed by a dialogue scene of Morrison getting up from the ground, seeing the actor (not stunt double) who she’d tackled and talking to him. Each time the two actors finished a take they dissolved into fits of laughter. The Trounce Alley part of the foot chase sequence was closed to the public but I could see  the two actors’ heads through  the glass windows of  a restaurant from the south end of  the Coffee Bar. I stayed at my Coffee Bar window seat  to watch the next leg of  Morrison running from prop SoParlo Boots on Carrall Street  right past me through Gaelor’s Mews.  Don’t listen to anyone who says Morrison is a diva. None of the Once Upon a Time cast are from what I’ve seen. Morrison did all of Emma’s running in take after take. Smiling and laughing from the exhilaration.

Next came the big public scene of Jennifer Morrison chasing  the Grey-Hoodie-Man stunt double  though Maple Tree Square dodging yellow NYC taxi cabs and other prop vehicles in front of spectators, fans and photographers. She did it once in rehearsal with the Emma stunt double leading the way. Read More »SHOOT: Run Emma Run! ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison Running in Gastown for 2×14

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME Turns Gastown into Manhattan for Robert Carlyle, Jennifer Morrison & Jared Gilmore

Some fans spotted prop New York taxi cabs and other NYC set dressing last December in Gastown and hoped it would be for one final downtown shoot of their show Fringe. Surprisingly, it turned out to be for Once Upon a Time instead. The modern fairy tale series shot scenes of famous fairy tale character Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) out of Storybrooke and in Manhattan, where a coerced Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry (Jared Gilmore) help him search for his long-lost son Bae. Is Bae found? Well, that’s a spoiler for another post.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME Turns Gastown into Manhattan for Robert Carlyle, Jennifer Morrison & Jared Gilmore

SET: ONCE UPON A TIME Films on its Floating Pirate Ship Set in Steveston

Is Storybrooke offering weekly tours of Captain Hook’s pirate ship? It sure seems so. Ever since Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Cora (Barbara Hershey) sailed through a portal into this sequestered town in Maine at the end of the mid-season finale, we’ve seen a parade of townsfolk visiting the ship from the kidnapped Archie (Raphael Sbarge) to the uninvited RumBelle (Robert Carlyle & Emilie de Ravin) to the kidnapped Giant (Jorge Garcia), who’ll show up when the show returns with new episodes in February.

I’ve also spotted Charming (Josh Dallas), Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin), Emma (Jennifer Morrison), Henry (Jared Gilmore), Grumpy (Lee Arenberg), Regina (Lana Parrilla) and others too spoilery to mention on board since late last year when Once Upon a Time started filming scenes on this new floating set at the Britannia Heritage Shipyard Park in Steveston south of Vancouver.

The priate ship set is a truncated version of the Tall Ship Lady Washington which first appeared in Fairytale Land flashbacks of Captain Hook on his pirate ship — the Lady Washington is the exact same ship used in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie when it was known as the HMS Interceptor, the fastest ship in the Caribbean. It looked magnificent as Captain Hook’s ship sailing up Howe Sound Read More »SET: ONCE UPON A TIME Films on its Floating Pirate Ship Set in Steveston

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison at The Blarney Stone in Gastown for 2×14 – Updated

[Update Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is talking on the phone to her mother Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin)  in Storybrooke ,telling her that Mr. Gold’s son Bae (Michael Raymond-James) is Henry (Jared Gilmore)’s father]

]

Since the secret is well and truly out about Once Upon a Time’s upcoming episode called Manhattan, I’m overdue sharing photos I took of a two-day shoot last December in Gastown dressed as Soho. I’ll start with these ones of Jennifer Morrison (not in one of Emma’s usual kickass leather jackets) getting ready to do a scene of Emma talking on her cell phone. Later she will meet someone inside the bar for a night shoot.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison at The Blarney Stone in Gastown for 2×14 – Updated

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

Whatever else happens next Sunday on Once Upon a Time, it’s a Rumple vs Hook showdown on Hook’s pirate ship in the Storybrooke harbour with Belle watching as Rumple adminsters a beat-down with his cane. But later, when Rumple finds a way to cross the town line without losing his memory of Bae — “Now you can find your son, ” says Belle  — a bloodied Hook, holding a gun, is having none of it — “I wouldn’t count on it,” he tells Rumple. This is what I’ve been waiting for since The Crocodile episode showed us their backstory.

RELATED – Hook & Smee spying from a Steveston roof

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

BEST of 2012 Lists

  • Friday, December 21st – Entertainment Weekly names Arrow‘s Stephen Amell a Breakout Star of 2012
  • Friday, Decmeber 21st – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks Fringe‘s animated homage to Monty Python as 75th
  • Wednesday, December 19th – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks the harness factory on Falling Skies as 98th.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks a guy exploding on The Secret Circle as 99th.

Read More »BEST of 2012 Lists

WEEK: December 10-16, 2012

SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

It was such a cold, wet October day in Steveston south of Vancouver when Once Upon a Time filmed the happy family reunion of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow, Josh Dallas’s Charming, Jennifer Morrison’s Emma and Jared Gilmore’s Henry walking arms round one another past the Storybrooke Library for tonight’s mid-season finale. But there was so much joy. I laughed when I saw Goodwin coming out of the cast van wearing an old-fashioned rain bonnet to protect her Mary Margaret pixie cut. Only Goodwin could look cute in one of these. And when Goodwin walked back from one of the takes with her arms outstretched like a monster.

But it’s been a long wait for this reunion scene to appear on screen. So it’s a bonus to have our season two villains, Barbara Hershey’s Cora and Colin O’Donoughe’s Hook, heading into Storybrooke on his pirate ship in the final scene. I photographed this dastardly pair disembarking from the ship at Steveston’s Britannia Shipyards a few weeks before Once Upon a Time filmed the reunion scene. Storybrooke is going to be one busy place in the new year.

Read More »SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10