my visit to the movie set of “the best of me” – part 1

Best of Me - Luke Bracey and me
Some days, I am especially grateful for my job.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to travel to New Orleans to visit the set of TheĀ Best Of Me, the movie based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel.

In the story, Dawson and Amanda are former high school sweethearts who return to the small town in which they grew up for the funeral of a mutual friend. Their unexpected reunion shows them both that, although they haven’t seen each other for 20 years, their feelings are as strong as ever — and so are the forces that drove them apart. It’s a juicy, emotional love story that really makes you think about first love and second chances.

James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan star as Dawson and Amanda, with Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato portraying their younger selves. It was so much fun meeting all of them and they were so warm and down to earth, it was like hanging out with friends.

I had already met Nicholas Sparks a couple of years ago when I visited the set of Safe Haven, and I like to pretend James Marsden is pointing to me in this picture and asking Nick (you know we’re like BFFs now), “Hey, isn’t that the cute middle-aged chick you were raving about?” See how they’re both smiling?

Best of Me - Nicholas Sparks, James Marsden

Anyway, I’m heading to L.A. on Monday to actually see the final movie (yay!) and interview the cast again, but I thought I’d first share some of the photos from my day on the set. Today I’ll focus on the guys šŸ™‚

Although I’ve interviewed Nicholas Sparks before — and the question I should have asked this time is how he’s managed to get younger looking — it was so interesting to hear him talk about The Best of Me.

Best of Me - Nicholas Sparks

“I was in my 40s when I wrote The Best of Me, and I think that’s a very interesting period of peoples’ lives. In your 20s, you believe your dreams can come true. You’ll meet the right guy, or you’ll be famous, or whatever your dreams are. As you go through your 30s, part of you just knows you’ve still got a shot. Well, in your 50s, 60s, and 70s, you kind of reach a point where you look back and say, ‘Well, I’m never going to be an astronaut. I think I’ve now passed the NASA retirement age.’

So, the 40s is this period when there tends to be a lot of self-reflection. ‘Who am I? How did I get here? And is this the life I want to lead for the next 40 years or so?’ You’ve reached the age where you’re also very conscious of the fact that life is about choices, and, you know, sometimes you reach that point of ‘now or never.'”

James Marsden is in his 40s now and the last time he worked with Nicholas Sparks was a decade ago on the classic romance,Ā The Notebook. This time around, he plays the older guy and, when we asked him about his favorite scene, he was very quick with an answer.

Best of Me - James Marsden

“Michelle and I had about an 11 minute love scene take, which was very nice. I finally said, ‘All right, this is going to get into R territory from PG-13 pretty quick if you don’t cut.’ She is such a joy to work with. We’re both from the Midwest and it’s just good to work with somebody that you really do have intimate chemistry with. And she’s a sweetheart.

I knew that Michelle was a big country music fan like me, so I made some CDs of all these love songs from the early ’90s: love songs by Garth Brooks and George Straight– songs that Amanda and Dawson would have listened to.

And I put it on in the trailer and the first song was Cowboy, Take Me Away by the Dixie Chicks. She turned and I said, ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ She said, ‘That’s the song that I danced to at my wedding.’ So, every song, she was like, ‘You know me so well.'”

Um, for the record, that’s one of my favorite songs, too, James. You know me so well, too!

And now we all know the adorable Luke Bracey, pictured with me, above. (As an aside, I posted that photo on Facebook while we there, and my husband gave us all a good laugh when he replied, “Whatever.”) Luke shared his feelings about love scenes — and we discovered the real way to his heart.

Best of Me - Luke Bracey

“Let me tell you, love scenes are not as romantic as they look. They are far from romantic. You’re in a small room with you, an actress, and seven sweaty men. And you’ve got to pretend like they’re not sitting there and that it’s all natural and beautiful, and you’ve got to do it a bunch of times. It might have been one of my least favorite scenes to film, actually, because it’s really strange to be sitting there in nude-colored underwear for a good couple of hours.

Being from Australia, what I really miss here are my meat pies. Meat pies. Hand-sized meat pie, tomato sauce, ketchup on the top. Always miss that. I go home every December and January for five weeks or so for Christmas and New Year, and there are moments in June and July where I’ll wake up in the morning, thinking, ‘I’m going to go get a meat oue. Oh, no, it’s going to be six months until I have a meat pie.’

That’s the one food I do miss. And, of course, my mother’s Spaghetti Bolognese.”

Start cooking, ladies! And come back tomorrow to read about Michelle Monaghan, Liana Liberato and the Magnolia House.

Meanwhile, enjoy this sneek peak at the movie, featuring a great new song by Lady Antebellum.

42 thoughts on “my visit to the movie set of “the best of me” – part 1

  1. So many good looking men.. šŸ™‚ Looking forward to watching the movie snuggled up against my boyfriend! Sounds like a good romantic flick.

  2. You are such a rock star that I am glad to know you, Lolo. You already knew James and Nicholas? Awesome. James is a cutie aside from a wonderful actor. I look forward to this movie.

    You are amazing.

    1. Ha ha! I met Nicholas Sparks on the set of Safe Haven but it was the first time I met James Marsden. Hopefully not the last! xo

  3. Lois I love how you have uncovered the men behind the characters, it makes me feel as if I know them a little bit and that makes me want to like the movie. And for what it’s worth I am certain that Nick (see how you did that? Now he and I are on a first name basis too) would have definitely raved about you to James Marsden, you have a way of making everyone love you. Have fun in LA!

  4. Some great insights there and I was glad to hear (for my grandson’s girlfriend’s sake – he is an actor and she doesn’t like it when he has to do love scenes), that they are not all they are cracked up to be. Beside that, I love reading about creative and successful people.

  5. OK, whereas I’m not a “star struck” kind of person, I smiled all the way through this piece because of the very human faces you gave these stars. So relatable, and I love Michael’s comment on your FB page. LOL!!

  6. Aren’t you looking for an assistant? I mean I am so jealous you got to sit down with Nicholas Sparks, one of my favorite writers. Yep I’m jealous and I’m pouting. Okay this was an awesome visit you had and I personally can’t wait to see the movie cause the book was AMAZING!!

  7. Wow you did a great job with this! Nicholas Sparks is one of my literary heroes! I would love to just sit and talk to him for a few minutes/weeks! This looks like it will be another great movie and I can’t wait to see it! I read part 2 first but had to come back and see this one since I missed it earlier!

  8. This is such a great post! Sounds like you had an AMAZING time. I will definitely be checking this one out šŸ™‚

  9. I don’t know whether to be more jealous of the fact that you got to go to my favorite city or that you got to go to the set of the movie. Sounds like a great movie and looks like you had a ton of fun!

  10. I am not usually a emotional love story kind of girl, but this is one that I have wanted to see. For some reason it just reaches out to me.

  11. What a wonderful opportunity to get out and enjoy the company of two hunks. I like Nick and James and will look out for the movie.

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