By Terry Tang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Before, if Gregory Poirier wanted to film a movie in the College
Library in Powell Hall, he couldn’t make it past the double
doors. Of course, that was back in the late ’80s when he was
a graduate student in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television, making student films.
Though no longer a struggling student, Poirier is still very
much a filmmaker. With a script he penned, the aspiring director is
helming his first feature movie. A romantic comedy set to open
during the spring of next year, “Tomcats” boasts some
rising stars in the guise of Jerry O’Connell (“Mission
to Mars,” “Scream 2″) and Shannon Elizabeth, who
had male viewers wagging their tongues as the exchange student,
Nadia, in last summer’s “American Pie.”
Today, with all the resources of a film studio behind him,
Poirier has the clout to bring an entire film crew as well as a
barrage of equipment into Powell. Only a few weeks into filming,
Poirier and his team need to shoot one scene in the school’s
library.
“I called Richard Walter and said “˜You got to come
by and see me today.’ So, I’m looking for him to show
up,” said Poirier, referring to the chairman of the UCLA
screenwriting program. “It’s like a full-circle kind of
a thing. It’s my first directing movie. So, it’s kind
of neat to be back here.”
In the scene, Michael, a bachelor with a lot of debt
(O’Connell), meets up with Natalie, a beautiful LAPD cop
(Elizabeth), at the city library. Though Michael is trying to set
up Natalie with his chauvinistic friend in order to win a bet and
its monetary ante, he ends up falling for her as well.
In between the many takes, Poirier, who graduated with a
screenwriting degree in ’89, O’Connell and Elizabeth
took time out to chat. Though the three are working on one scene,
they expect to spend most of the day in Powell.
No doubt, Poirier knows how campus filmings are part of going to
school at UCLA. From time to time, buildings and common campus
routes will be closed off to students and staff. Still, these movie
crews don’t infiltrate campus whenever they feel like it. A
great deal of advance planning happens through the UCLA Events
Office.
As a liaison between the university and Tinseltown studios, the
Events Office hands out film permits based on a number of factors.
According to the office’s official guidelines, it must
approve the dates and locations desired, the parking plan and even
the script.
Many people are unaware of how often the Events Office is
approached with requests by film studios. “Scream 2,”
“Threesome,” “The X-Files” and “Buffy
the Vampire Slayer” are just some of the many films and TV
programs that have filmed at UCLA. But if outside movie crews had
their way, they would be able to film during the first week of the
quarter or finals week. So, one of the most crucial jobs of Events
Office is making sure higher education doesn’t take a back
seat to film shoots.
While students do get star-struck when they unexpectedly cross
paths with celebrities on their way to class, they’re usually
still concentrating on class. The cameras, props and movie trailers
are all part and parcel of the experience of going to school in
Southern California.
Meanwhile, O’Connell enjoys shooting at UCLA rather than
“some dirty studio.” The actor considers the campus a
regular hangout. An ardent flag football player, he and his brother
Charlie, also an actor, frequent the intramural field. He also does
weekly laps at Drake Stadium.
“I run all the time at Drake Stadium. You can tell because
I have my green truck out there,” O’Connell said.
“I’ve only gotten two tickets but I paid both of
them.”
“In L.A., especially in Hollywood, you really miss the
college life,” O’Connell continued. “You can
literally come down to Westwood, go to In-N-Out and be right back,
smack in the middle of it.”
Most of the filming will take place in Los Angeles for the next
two months, with the exception of some scenes in Las Vegas. This
schedule works fine for Elizabeth. Though some actors may relish in
the prospect of traveling to different locations, the actor prefers
to stay close to her L.A. residence.
More importantly, Elizabeth took the role of the jaded LAPD
officer because it was a leap from the high school comedy, a genre
in itself.
“I liked that she was tough and she was a cop,” said
Elizabeth, while kicking back outside Schoenberg Hall. “She
plays the tough girl and she plays the vulnerable girl. She just
had a lot of colors to her and it seemed like it would be a lot of
fun.”
Though she’s spending the entire day on a college campus,
the actor never joined in university life. After finishing high
school, Elizabeth opted to model and act and never looked back.
“I was accepted to Texas A&M. I had a scholarship
there and everything,” Elizabeth said. “The opportunity
for me to work came along. So I wanted to take it while I had
it.”
O’Connell, on the other hand, chose to go on to college.
Since his debut at 12 years of age in Rob Reiner’s
“Stand By Me,” O’Connell mingled adolescence with
acting. The actor, who graduated from NYU, credits film school for
teaching him the differences between theater and movies. He is also
grateful that his parents insisted that their son get a college
education.
“These are things that you and I think of as very normal
but a lot of child actors never get to do because their parents are
pretty much making a living on them,” O’Connell said.
“Their children are a source of income. That was not the case
with my parents. And also New York City is not Hollywood.
It’s a pretty cool place to grow up.”
Though there are a plethora of success stories of actors,
directors and screenwriters who bypassed college and went straight
to Hollywood, Poirier found UCLA’s film school very
beneficial. Besides gaining a sense of how the industry worked, he
met his first agent at film school and learned how to whip up a
script in 10 weeks ““ just before the quarter’s end.
“Obviously, the degree itself doesn’t help you. But
it helped me in the sense that everything I know about writing, I
learned here from Richard Walter and Hal Ackerman and all that
gang.”