Imagine having full access to the Palace of Versailles in France, or being the first Western film ever granted entry to shoot inside China’s Forbidden City. Here are the stories of 12 actors and directors talking about what it was like to film at famous real-life locations.
Pre-fame Sox fans Matt and Ben just wanted to go to Fenway Park. Bill Paxton oddly enjoyed his zero-gravity roller coaster rides on NASA’s Vomit Comet. Gary Oldman bought into Oliver Stone’s Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories after walking in Lee Harvey Oswald’s shoes at the former Texas School Depository in downtown Dallas.
The experience of filming on-location made these actors and directors feel something they wouldn’t have felt on a soundstage in Hollywood. Being there meant something. Here are their stories.
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Of all the films on Steven Spielberg’s esteemed filmography, his 1993 historical drama Schindler’s List is perhaps his most personal. The Academy Award-winning director traveled to Poland before production began in order to personally speak with Holocaust survivors. He also wanted to tour historic locations like the former Gestapo headquarters.
“I went to Poland, saw the cities and spent time with the people and spoke to the Jews who had come back to Poland after the war and talked about why they had come back,” said Spielberg. “I spent more research time on this project than I had on any previous film, but of course, my films were never based on anything that actually happened.”
Speilberg constructed the Płaszów camp and filmed outside of Auschwitz. The emotional physical and mental journey of essentially recreating the horror Jewish people experienced during WWII deeply affected the director. He explained:
I always knew these things happened, but it’s different when you actually see the sign “Pomorska Street,” and you know all the horrible things that happened on Pomorska Street, but there’s the sign and there’s Schindler’s actual apartment, there’s Amon Goeth’s actual villa where he stayed. And to touch history, to put my hand on 600-year-old masonry, and to step back from it and look at my feet and know that I was standing where, as a Jew, I couldn’t have stood 50 years ago, was a profound moment for me as a re-creator of an incident in history; it meant more to me as a Jew. So, I went there the first time to research a movie and wound up researching my own Judaism.
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teven Spielberg, Filming In Poland For ‘Schindler’s List,’ Realized 50 Years Earlier He Would Have Been Killed Standing In The Same Streets
Photo: Universal Pictures
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When ‘The Last Emperor’ Filmed In China’s Forbidden City, Bernardo Bertolucci Was In Awe As The First Person To Film In The Room Where Puyi Was Crowned
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Acclaimed Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci became the first Western filmmaker to shoot a movie inside China’s 15th-century Forbidden City. Bertolucci didn’t waste that opportunity in his 1987 epic biopic The Last Emperor. The Academy Award-winning auteur beautifully shows off the sheer grandness of the former emperor’s royal palace and its regal surroundings.
The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars including the award for best picture, details the life of Puyi, who served as China’s final emperor before the country became ruled by the Communist Party of China. Bertolucci was only allowed to film inside the sprawling 250-acre Forbidden City under strict guidelines; for instance, he was only allowed to use natural light inside the palace and had to keep indoor film crews limited to 15 people.
Bertolucci said the experience of filming in such a historical, majestic palace nearly overwhelmed him. He related, “When I saw all these extras, I had a moment of panic and I thought, ‘What am I doing, am I going mad?'”
Kirsten Dunst Got To See A Secret Room In Marie Antoinette’s Bedroom At Versailles
Photo: Marie Antoinette / Sony Pictures Releasing
Many of the scenes in writer-director Sofia Coppola’s 2006 period drama Marie Antoinette were filmed at the actual Palace of Versailles. The palace has been the shooting locale for hundreds of feature films. However, Coppola’s biopic was granted an unparalleled level of access to the historical French landmark.
“I’m still surprised to this day that Versailles welcomed us. It was kinda like hosting the ultimate party,” said Coppola. “I think people could see my heart was totally in it and that I was doing something I love.”
“Marie Antoinette was presented as an intimate film, more of an artistic creation inspired by the historical figure. Versailles used to be quite restrictive, with a desire for projects not to stray too far from the historical truth,” explained Jeanne Hollande, shooting coordinator at the Palace of Versailles. “We are much more open-minded today; now the important thing is to show off the palace and make you want to understand more about its history. We immediately agreed to host Sofia.”
Actress Kirsten Dunst, who played the storied French queen, enjoyed the production’s special access. “We got to see a lot more than there is in the film. The docents showed me the little secret backroom in Marie Antoinette’s bedroom,” revealed Dunst. “It’s very tiny but it had the only toilet in the entire palace and a few of her personal items. I asked for a private moment so I could just be alone and look around.”
Producer Ross Katz added, “We literally had the keys to the castle. Once, at the end of a 13-hour day, I was so exhausted that I almost sat on Marie Antoinette’s bed. We got a little too comfortable.”
Photo: Warner Bros.
Oliver Stone is no stranger to controversy. His 1991 political thriller JFK meticulously examines all the events that led up to President Kennedy’s assassination and the possible government cover-up. The film also dissects all the issues with the Warren Commission.
English actor Gary Oldman played Lee Harvey Oswald in Stone’s conspiracy theory-laden movie. The actor walked up the steps of the former Texas School Depository in downtown Dallas across from Dealey Plaza many times. He went about his portrayal of Oswald in the method style of acting. “Every um and ah and pause is absolutely accurate. I do the voice. I do the walk. I do the head movements. Where his eye moves. Where he licks his lips. Everything. I studied for months,” said Oldman.
Oldman sat at the window of the seventh floor of the library, which was redesigned to look like the notorious sixth floor where Oswald reportedly fired the bullet that ended Kennedy. The actor doesn’t believe that the Warren Commission’s conclusion of a single gunman could possibly be correct.
“You get to Dealey Plaza. You go up to that window. And the first thing you say to yourself is, ‘Impossible,'” explained Oldman. “The distance. The angle. You want to take the Warren Commission report and burn it the moment you stand up there.”
David Oyelowo, As Martin Luther King Jr. In ‘Selma,’ Said Filming On The Edmund Pettus Bridge With Others Was ‘Humbling’
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Ava DuVernay’s 2014 historical drama Selma tells the story of the 1965 voting rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, AL. The historical march helped to pave the way for President Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The biopic stars classically trained British actor David Oyelowo as King. The movie’s historical setting became “deeply emotional” for the Golden Globe-nominated actor. He explained:
When you reflect upon the significance of Dr. King to this nation, it’s criminal that he hasn’t had a feature film that was centered around him until now. That, in and of itself, was emotional. But when you’re doing scenes on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, with people still living in Selma and now in their 60s and 70s who had actually marched, who were there that original Bloody Sunday, that’s humbling… that’s deeply moving. You’re no longer acting at that stage, you’re just reacting, because it takes the filmmaking process to another dimension. So, yes it was an intensely emotional shoot, but also an intensely joyful shoot, since we really felt we were paying honor and doing service to these great men and women who had participated.
Fionn Whitehead Said Filming On The Real WWII Beach For ‘Dunkirk’ Made Him Feel ‘Pure Panic’
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war film Dunkirk tells the true story of Allied soldiers attempting to evacuate from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, in 1940 during WWII. Over 300,000 soldiers managed to evacuate through the sea with the help of civilian boats and naval ships. The film was shot in several places throughout Europe. However, the actual evacuation scenes were filmed on the beach in Dunkirk.
In the Academy Award-winning movie, Fionn Whitehead plays Private Tommy, who is a British soldier and survivor of the German ambush. On the Dunkirk beach, Tommy plays hero and helps to evacuate many of his fellow Allied soldiers.
Whitehead talked about the effect of Nolan’s depiction of the chaotic beach scenes: “That’s the closest you can come to putting yourself in that situation and the pure panic and terror.”
As Teenagers, Matt Damon And Ben Affleck Acted As Extras In ‘Field of Dreams’ Just So They Could Go To Fenway Park
Photo: Universal Pictures
Most of the 1989 sports fantasy Field of Dreams was filmed on a magical baseball field in Iowa. However, Ray (Kevin Costner) also travels to Boston in order to find reclusive author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) for reasons that he doesn’t yet know.
Ray “kidnaps” Mann. He takes him to a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston. It’s there that both Ray and Mann receive a dose of magical realism in the form of a message on the scoreboard that reads “go the distance.”
Boston natives and lifelong pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon hadn’t yet struck it big in the industry when the Red Sox fans decided to spend the day as extras in Field of Dreams. They didn’t have any speaking lines in the film.
“Ben and I were extras in that, actually, just to go to Fenway,” said Damon. “We were extras in Field of Dreams, I bet there were probably 3,000 extras in a big crowd scene when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones are at the baseball game.”
Damon added that Costner came out on the field after filming. The future Academy Award winners got to speak with him for a few minutes. “He was incredibly generous with his time,” added Damon.
Gal Gadot Recalled The Humidity And Mosquitos While Filming The ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Scene At The Lincoln Memorial
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Patty Jenkins’s 2020 sequel Wonder Woman 1984 filmed in multiple locations around Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. Several scenes feature historic backdrops like the US Capitol, the White House, and the Landmark Mall in Virginia.
There is a beautiful night scene in the superhero movie that takes place by the Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. The Lincoln Memorial is lit up behind in the distance as Diana (Gal Gadot) and Steve (Chris Pine) are dressed to the nines and get a chance to share a passionate moment.
“That particular night was humid and there were so many mosquitos,” said Gadot of filming the scene. “They bit me like never before.”
Even with the East Coast summer heat, the Israeli actress was touched by the historic locations. “It was my first time being there, and I was shocked by how emotional I got as an Israeli by all the monuments and Lincoln. I think that we also – you know, there’s so many beautiful scenes that we shot there by the reflecting pool or by George Washington Monument or by the Capitol,” explained Gadot. “It’s beautiful and it’s definitely going to have a lot of presence in our movie. The movie is not a political movie, but… it taps into issues that are very current.”
When Tom Hanks Took His Grandkids To Disneyland On A ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ Film Day, The Winnie-The-Pooh Ride Scared His Granddaughter
Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Tom Hanks played Walt Disney in the 2013 biographical drama Saving Mr. Banks. The narrative focuses on the long process of how Disney finally convinces P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to sell the rights to her children’s book Mary Poppins.
Most of the movie was filmed on location at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA.
Hanks discussed why his granddaughter may not consider Disney the “happiest place on earth.” He explained:
I took them to Disneyland, on the day that we shot in Disneyland. An interesting thing happens, as a grandparent. You see no reason, whatsoever, that your granddaughter shouldn’t be delighted to take a ride on the Winnie the Pooh Adventure. It’s Winnie the Pooh! It’s fun! It’s Pooh Bear. It’s Kanga and Roo and Owl. It’s Christopher Robin. It’s gonna be a blast! She’s gonna remember it for the rest of her life. My granddaughter was terrified by the noise and the big spinning bears. She will now be haunted for the rest of her days, by this first image of Winnie the Pooh, in a loud, short, herky-jerky ride that her grandfather forced her to do, on the day he played Walt Disney in Disneyland. That is just a sample of the fantastic job I do as a grandparent.
Helen Mirren Understood Her ‘Winchester’ Character Better After Seeing The Real Winchester House’s Design Details
Photo: Lionsgate
Dame Helen Mirren played an heiress named Sarah Winchester in the 2018 supernatural horror movie Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built. Sarah is the widow of a famous gun manufacturer. In the film, Sarah believes she is cursed by the ghosts of the people killed by Winchester firearms.
The heiress builds a Victorian mansion in San Jose, CA. The real-life Winchester Mystery House later became a popular tourist attraction with its hundreds of rooms and haunted folklore. Mirren wasn’t aware of the Winchester House or its spooky backstory. When the English actress went to San Jose and toured the actual house, it helped her gain perspective on her mysterious character.
“I felt, with all the research I’d done, this was a loving woman. It wasn’t a woman of resentment and hatred and cruelty. It was a woman of love and concern. That was the woman that had appeared in the script, and that was the woman I tried to portray,” said Mirren.
“What a fascinating subject, that is real and historical. Yet, although it’s all so concrete and so present, it’s still completely shrouded in mystery. No one knows why she built the house the way she did. There’s many mysteries within the house that are inexplicable,” added Mirren.
Nicolas Cage And Sean Connery Had Distinctly Different Views About The Erratic Weather At Alcatraz While Filming ‘The Rock’
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay is located about 1.25 miles from the northern shore of San Franciso. And just like the weather in San Fran, the weather on Alcatraz is unpredictable and can quickly change from sunny and beautiful to windy and foggy.
Most of the Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer action thriller The Rock was filmed on location on Alcatraz Island. The weather did not cooperate for most of the production.
The movie’s world premiere also took place on the famous “inescapable” island. Cage said he was happy to return to Alcatraz, despite the production’s horrid weather. “So many people suffered on that little island that I’d be the last person to complain about the weather there,” said Cage.
Cage’s co-star Sean Connery only enjoyed the premiere location for one reason. “It’s thrilling because I know I get to leave in a few hours,” Connery said.
“On Alcatraz… you get the four seasons in a day, ” noted Connery. The actor further called the production, “erratic.”
