Film giant Clint Eastwood was beneath bright lights last night on Elm Street in Kearny, where he was directing scenes of the film adaptation of the Broadway smash “Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.”
Filming was done in the home of Mayra Hopson and across Elm Street in a storefront set up as a period liquor and grocery store.
“He talked to everyone and he hugged everyone,” said Hopson, who proudly displayed a picture of her 6-year-old son posing with Eastwood.
Inside Hopson’s living room was a Christmas tree used in the shoot and the walls of the room were lined with cardboard. She said the crew put in a new screen door and front door, and pointing at shrubs in front of the home, Hopson said they weren’t there before either.
“They put all these in too.”
She said two months ago someone left a note at her door saying they wanted to shoot there.
Crowds lined the street to watch the activity, but by 7:15 p.m. the shoot was over, the street was dark, the crowd was gone and the trailers were packing up their gear and pulling away.
“It was cool, he is one of my favorite actors,” Walter Stewart, 42, of Kearny, said of seeing Eastwood. Stewart stood behind the police tape at Seeley Avenue, about half block from where the shooting was taking place. He watched as cars from the period were rolled in and out of the scenes.
“I’ve never seen that big a star, a legend,” continued Stewart, who watched with his mother and brother. “He seemed really cool. He was taking pictures with people and petting someone’s dog.”
Dawn Barbosa of Kearny was also at the police tape showing pictures she snapped of Eastwood and of Frankie Valli as well.
“It was so exciting,” said Barbosa of seeing Eastwood in person. “He is very friendly and very nice.”
Like others in the crowd of more than 100 people at the location, Miguel Abreu, 33, and his wife Erin, 33, of Kearny, craned their necks to get a glimpse of the stars.
“We live around the corner and with all the hoopla, we came to see if we can see anyone,” said Miguel Abreu.
The film stars Christopher Walken as Angelo “Gyp” DeCarlo and John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli. Setup began Tuesday and filming began yesterday after nightfall. Makeup and hair were being done throughout the day at St. Stephen’s R.C. Church, on Kearny and Laurel avenues.
Scenes were shot last night on Elm, between Stuyvesant and Seeley avenues, where
the area was transformed
from a modern day residential street to a 1960s neighborhood.
Elm Street was closed while the shooting continued, but police redirected traffic around the filming.