That time Ashton Kutcher Stopped By

Let’s face it. Our house has character and charm but looks like crap from outside. We know. We refinished floors and bathrooms and made the inside livable but left the outside pretty much the way it was until the front porch started to fall off. Or more accurately until we decided to do something about the porch falling off. But did you know that we actually made money and met Ashton Kutcher because it looked so bad?

A few years after we moved in we got a flyer through our mail slot from a location scout wanting to use our house in a movie. Vancouver has a pretty big film industry and it is not uncommon to see shoots at local schools and trucks taking over the parking lot by our house. We jumped at the chance and were soon talking to a location scout who came by with some paperwork. They were going to be shooting a church at the end of the block and needed a house for a quick exterior scene and ours was perfect. They offered $1000. I don’t remember negotiating or even hesitating. $1000 for basically no work? Sign us up!

Turns out the scene they wanted to film needed and abandoned house. All they had to do for ours was spray some stuff on it to make it a little dirtier, put a couple of tires in the front yard, and replace the front window with a stunt window. The peeling paint, collapsing porch, and general derelict vibe of our house did the rest. The stunt window guys had the storm off, the glass out, and the new window in place in less than an hour. It was amazing to watch and on shooting day our house was a hive of activity.

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The director changed his mind when he arrived and decided he wanted to shoot from inside. Suddenly we had grips and techs hauling furniture out, putting down matts and setting up cameras in the living room. If we had been a bit more on the ball we could have protested and maybe gotten a few extra dollars out of it but it happened so fast and we didn’t have the contract handy to wave in anyone’s face.

Ashton was hanging around talking to the crew and saw us watching from the other side of the street. Someone mentioned it was our house and i guess he pitied us so he came over to say hi. The offspring and a friend had taken the day off school (and Sarah and I had skipped work too) and Ashton teased her a bit. She was a little tongue tied and when she introduced herself and her friend she got their names mixed up. Ashton was sweet and we took a quick snapshot.

The shot has one of the main characters throwing a rock through the window of the house (the house is the source of some past trauma? I dunno, never watched the movie). As they setup they had one guy that stood on the side of the road over a careful collection of rocks. They weren’t stunt rocks or anything, but he needed to make sure that they were there when the talent showed up.

The rocks were thrown, Michelle Pfieiffer rolled up in a big black GMC Yukon (actually i think there were several but she was only in one) got out and did her scene with Ashton and left as quickly as she came. The director left on to the next shot, the window guys put our window back in, someone retrieved the unused rocks and the tires, and the rest of the grips cleaned up. A few days later someone dropped off a signed headshot of Michelle and the crew came back to pressure wash off the grime only to realize they were knocking off too much paint and actually making the house look worse.

Not a problem i said, we are going to do a reno and repaint anyway…. that was 2008.

Watch for the rocks going through our window at 1:05. I don’t think it ever got a theatrical release and reviews are not good. None of them mention our house.