Set Visit

Set Visit

I'm back from Boston! I had so much fun visiting the set of What's Your Number?!

So, I'm just gonna tell you what happened from when I arrived in Boston. It might be choppy, but I just want to get it all out.

Okay, so when shooting began, the producer sent me a filming schedule and told me to pick when I wanted to visit the set. The shooting schedule details what scenes are being shot, who's in them, etc. After looking it over, I decided I wanted to see scenes that were shot on the street in Boston (as opposed to on a stage in a studio) because I thought they would be the most fun. I wanted to visit this past Friday because there was a fun night shoot with Anna Faris and Chris Evans that I wanted to see, and then Monday because there were scenes being shot with Anna, Chris, and Andy Samberg.

THURSDAY (the night before I left): I'm at the Dixie Chicks and Eagles concert at the Meadowlands in New Jersey when Tara, the producer's assistant, sends me an email and tells me the Friday night shoot has been cancelled/rescheduled. Instead, they're doing a day shoot that starts at 8am and it's in the studio/on stage. I'm not supposed to arrive in Boston until 3pm the next day, so I rearrange my schedule so I can get in earlier and see part of the day.

FRIDAY: I arrive in Boston at 10am. I fly instead of taking the train because I'm bringing Beverly and Amtrak doesn't allow dogs. (Dumb rule.)

I'm staying at the W Hotel. They allow me to check in early and upgrade me to a Cool Corner Room so I'm happy.

Beverly loves it and thinks it's a racetrack.

I settle in and then go downstairs where a car is waiting to take me to set. When I arrive on set, I look around as I wait for Tara to come get me and I'm shocked at what a massive production this is. There are over a hundred people working on this thing and dozens of trailers... I mean, at one point this existed only in my head and now it's so big. It's weird.

Tara arrives and shows me around the set. I die when I see Anna's apartment because it's EXACTLY how I pictured it when I wrote the book. And I don't think I explained the layout of the apartment in the book either—it's just a freaky coincidence. I get teary-eyed because of this. (I get teary very frequently during my visit.)

I see Mark Mylod, the director, and he's nice and as gracious as ever. I meet a bunch of other people, some of which thank me for feeding their families. (I mean, how nice is that?)

After my little tour, I go to the producer's trailer and chat with him for a while about how well filming is going. After that, he takes me back to the set and we watch as they film a couple of scenes with Anna. Because of the schedule change, it's a slow day. The scenes don't have a lot of dialogue, so after an hour or so I decide to go back to the hotel. I really wanted to see the night shoot and I'm a little bummed about the schedule change, but I know the Monday shoot is going to be majorly fun so I get over it.

Mark arrives later Friday night and we eat dinner at a place called The Butcher Shop. I have the chicken; it's delicious.

SATURDAY: The producer invites us to dinner that evening with a group of people including Anna, Ari Graynor, and Dave Annable, and then out to a club for Chris Evans' birthday party. Of course we say yes.

Dinner is at a place called Mooo. Dave Annable is so personable and amazing; he has the best personality ever. And Ari Graynor is so nice and real. Like, she could be your best friend. As for Anna... she the funniest person on the face of the earth. I mean, you know the funny Anna you see in the movies? She's more hilarious in real life.

After dinner we all jump in cabs and go to Chris Evans' birthday party. On the way there, we chat about the book and how weird it is seeing everything come to life. In the movie-version, they changed Anna's name from Delilah to Ally. I tell Anna I was a little bummed by this and she tells me she liked the name Delilah. "I think it's pretty," she says. This makes me happy.

The party was in a private room at a club somewhere. (Forgot the name.) Chris remembered me from the table read and that was great. I'm going to stop talking about my night here and just say I got home very late. (Sorry!)

SUNDAY: After my late night, I sleep in. Mark and I visit Harvard in the afternoon; I pretend I'm a student. I keep asking people where I sign up to go there; everyone ignores me. We watch True Blood, then I go to sleep.

MONDAY: Call time is 8 AM. I take a cab to set, which is at a park in East Boston. Apparently the set is really dog-friendly and everyone brings their dogs, so I bring Beverly because they told me to.

We get cool passes with our names on them. Like a moron, I take a photo of Beverly with her pass, but not me with mine.

But here's a photo of my pass; I took it five minutes ago just so I can show you.

They made me three of them because they didn't know what I wanted it to say. (While this was a nice gesture, it sort of made me wonder if I'm high-maintenance.)

I meet a whole bunch of people working on the movie... the photographer, publicist, Anna's make-up artist, hair people, camera people, etc. I get a headset so I can listen while Anna and Chris film a scene.

After a couple of takes, Anna comes over to me and we chat about our fun dinner Saturday night. She meets Beverly and tells me about her two pugs. They're a year old and she wishes she brought them to the set now that she sees Beverly.

Andy Samberg shows up. I send him subliminal messages telling him I love him. He doesn't pick up on them, so I walk over and say hello.

Here's the cool thing: When you write the book, you can pretty much go up to anybody on set and be like, "Hi, I wrote the book," and it's not weird. It's not like you're a creepy stalker/fan—people genuinely want to talk to you. So I didn't wait for someone to introduce me to Andy, I just walked up to him and said hello.

Andy and I make love. (Not really.)

Anna and Andy start to film their scene, so I do an interview with someone from Marie Claire magazine. When it's over, I go back to watching the scene.

So now I'm watching and laughing and suddenly I have an idea. I'm not sure what to do, but I think it's a good idea so I decide to share it with the producer. Now, I have to be vague about this because if I tell you what my idea was it will ruin the scene. But it was as raunchy as they come, and when I tell the producer, he's HORRIFIED by it. Rather than be embarrased by this moment, it becomes one of my favorite moments of my visit. It's not that I enjoy shocking people, but if you could've seen his face, it was priceless. (I'll share this moment with you once the movie comes out.)

Everyone breaks for lunch, so I take the opportunity to get some pictures. (It's hard to get photos when everyone is working and they're filming. It's kind of inappropriate, to be honest.) So anyway, here's Beverly...

And here's me...

Although she doesn't have scenes this day, Ari stops by the set, so I get a photo with her too...

Once again, I love her.

Lunch is over, so everyone returns to set. While Anna and Andy go back to filming their scene, the photographer Claire takes some official photos of me holding my book. Had I known they were going to do this, I would've worn a cuter outfit. (I'm going to visit the set again toward the end of filming, so hopefully they can retake them.)

After this, I chat with Chris Evans and his mom. His mom asks if it's hard to let go of the book and let all this happen, because it's kind of like my baby. I tell her yes, but say that I have to trust that everyone's going to do a bang-up job. As for it being my baby, to me this will always be my movie. But to Chris, it's his movie. And to Anna, it's her movie. And to the director, it's his movie. The fact that so many people have made it their own is a good thing because it means the story resonates with people. So I'm happy to let go and share. During our conversation I say, "Fuck," twice and then apologize because I'm talking to Chris' mom. They laugh and tell me not to worry. They're both so down-to-earth.

Right around this point, Andy and Anna come over and join the chat. The photographer then comes over and takes some photos of Anna and me. (Which they told me I can have so I'm patiently waiting!)

Andy is done for the day so he passionately kisses me goodbye, jizzes in his pants, and then leaves. (Okay fine, he just leaves.)

They move the set to the other side of the park, so we go to the director's trailer to watch dailies, which is the raw, unedited footage from filming. For about an hour, I watch a bunch of stuff that's already been shot and laugh so hard I have tears streaming down my face. I want to tell you about everything, but I can't so you're just going to have to believe me when I say Anna kills it. (As do many others.)

While in the director's trailer, Beverly jumps out of her bag. She hasn't pooped all day and I'm pretty positive she's going to take a dump in the director's trailer. Thankfully, she doesn't.

After watching dailies, we go back to the set and find a nice place to sit on the grass. I see a few photographers waiting to take photos of Anna and Chris, so I chat with them for a bit. They're so nice and tell me they don't like to be called paparazzi. They're just normal guys from Boston who happen to be photographers. (Which is true; they were so awesome.) Me chatting with these nice photographers leads to another highlight of my visit...

They end up taking photos of Mark and me, which they emailed to me later in the day. I'm going to share a couple of them with you now.

Now, if I were more vain, I wouldn't post these, but since I'd rather make you laugh than hope you'll want to f*ck me, here you go.

If I were famous and the paparazzi took photos of me, they'd get shit like this. "Karyn Bosnak attempts to do leg lifts to work off her gut on set of her new movie, "What's Your Number?" while her friend Mark supervises. (I seriously almost peed my pants when they sent these to me; I had no idea they captured my butt in the air.)

Anyway, they did get one cute shot:

Thank you, Don and Tim!

Eventually the day wraps and I get a thousand hugs from everyone. Even though I got to see one awesome day instead of two, I had the best time ever and I'm genuinely sad to leave.

Anyway, this has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I'm so happy I get to share it with you. (Even though I have to be vague! The publicist is making me!) The book and story and characters aren't totally mine anymore, and even though that's kind of weird, it's ultimately pretty damn awesome.

Isla Fisher
Kat Von D
Selita Ebanks