About two years ago, my boyfriend Dave and I took a trip to Wilmington. The alone time appealed to him, the possible One Tree Hill sightings appealed to me.
It was our first trip away together as a couple and it was truly memorable. We drove the two hours from Fort Bragg and talked about our lives. We started to talk about our favorite TV shows. He started and told me all about ‘Rescue Me’. My show of choice was of course, One Tree Hill.
For an hour straight, I explained how Lucas and Nathan were half-brothers, how they at first competed against each other in everything from girls to basketball. I talked about Brooke Davis and ‘Clothes Over Bros’. I even told him all about the tragic Jimmy Edwards episode. I’m not sure how much of that he remembered, but I went on and on about it.
Over that weekend, amongst our trips to the beach and dinners out, were the supposed “Tree Hill” moments. Every now and then I’d point and say, “I think they filmed there,” or “That guy looked just like Lee Norris!”. This went on until I admitted that I didn’t believe I saw any of the sites, and was very disappointed.
I still remember what Dave did then. He drove past a rusty old bridge, and said, “I heard they filmed the opening scene of One Tree Hill there,”. I just shook my head, but he insisted that he had heard that somewhere, and that it was true. No wonder I married him, huh?
A lot has happened since then. I’ve been back and forth to Wilmington multiple times, (I gave up on the supposed Tree Hill sightings). I started my job at the credit union, and I settled into my new life as an army wife. Then came this list, and everything changed. Which brings me to the events that led to this photo, my secret celebrity helper herself, “Brooke Davis” aka Sophia Bush.
Here’s how it happened. As you all know, I have a Twitter ID for my list, Melissas100List. Long story short, I had tweeted a request to Sophia to help me with #20. Be an extra on a tv show. Shortly after, I heard from OTH’s casting office in Wilmington. Sophia had read my blog, asked if I could be on the show, and they agreed. Awesome, right? Sophia herself is pretty awesome. She recently rose over $50,000 for the Nature Conservancy on her Crowdwise page. She’s an incredible actress, and even has her own blog (Check it out!) She is also very kind and genuine in person. She came back to the set to meet me, and greeted me like she had known me for years. She had very kind words for Dave and I, and the list. She even told me to say “hi” to my friend Paul Groth, who has a huge crush on her and is also deployed (He’s pretty jazzed about it). I’m SO HAPPY that I got to meet her.
The experience itself was pretty unbelieveable. I played one of Jamie’s teachers on a field trip to a production studio. Both of my scenes were with Austin Nichols (Julian), Jackson Brundage (Jamie), and Michael May (Chuck) with Paul Johansson (Dan Scott) behind the scenes. It was so much fun to watch them work with each other. In between scenes, I even got to meet Austin. He came right over to me and introduced himself, and said that Sophia had told him I would be there today. We talked about my Velma Doo glasses (he thought they had come from wardrobe) and my teacher role. I was just shocked he knew who I was, and was just a little star struck.
But if we want to get into me being star struck, let me just say, Paul Johansson is unbelievable. He’s so great at getting people into character and motivating the crew. I really wish I would have gotten to meet him. I saw him briefly when we all got lunch, but figured he had had a long day and wasn’t in the mood for fans.
Safe to say, #20 is off the list. The episode should air sometime in October or Nov. so I will keep you posted. Also would like to thank Alexis at Fincannon Casting. She was really awesome through all of this.