Home is where the film is
Last Friday, I received a hand-delivered flyer from Jillian, a Location Scout for the upcoming film “The Fighter,” due to begin shooting in Lowell over the next few weeks. Jillian was interested in possibly using our home as a setting for the film based on the life of local celebrity boxer, Micky Ward. To say my kids were excited is an understatement; of course they immediately fantasized about meeting stars Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in person, not to mention how “awesome” it would be to have our house in a movie. “We’re definitely buying a copy of this movie,” announced my teenager. For my part, all I could think about was getting the house clean before they came. True to her word, Jillian arrived Monday and took photographs throughout the house, the porches, yard, and from the top-floor windows looking out to Tyler Park. According to her, the film includes a scene where the main character brings a girl to a beautiful Victorian and she says, “You live here?!” only to discover that he lives in a tiny apartment inside the Victorian, which has been converted to a rooming house. Hearing that, I figured our inside didn’t match the setting they were looking for, but Jillian said they may use outside shots of the house or ones from inside looking down at the park—so there was still hope. Her parting comment nailed my doubts though: “The director was looking for a yellow house,” she said, and seeing my disappointment added: “They have been known to paint houses the color they want,” she noted, as we gazed up at the three, very tall floors of turret that is the front of my house. “Or maybe, he’d be okay with the purple…We’ll let you know.”
Let’s just say, I’m betting our big, old, beautiful, purple house will remain the setting for family Christmas cards and movies of the home-grown kind only, and that’s okay with me.