If you spot Charlize Theron walking down Troutman Street today or tomorrow, know that she’s not just doing normal Celebrity Visiting Bushwick stuff like checking out the street art or looking for a house to flip. She’ll be working on the set of “Tully,” a new movie directed by “Juno” auteurs Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody.
Sort of like Reitman and Cody’s first big hit, “Tully” centers around the trials and tribulations of life with children. Theron plays a mother of three who receives the gift of childcare from her brother, who mysteriously procures her a young nanny named Tully, played by Mackenzie Davis of “The Martian” and “Black Mirror.”
Production notices are up all over the neighborhood, from Grattan Street at Bogart Street to Troutman Street at St. Nicholas Avenue, an intersection that recently appeared in Noah Baumbach’s midlife crisis and/or coming of age drama, “While We’re Young,” which was led by A-listers Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried.
This week, “Tully” casting directors were also looking for “edgy Bushwick hipsters” to play extras. The production’s descriptors qualifying edginess include “tattoos, crazy hair, leathers, ripped clothes, etc,” you know, the stuff a Halloween store’s mass-produced rocker costume might consist of.
Even those among us who are not edgy and on brand enough to be an extra in a pretty wholesome-sounding indie comedy can walk down any block in North Bushwick and see “no parking” signs for the production. Starr Street was already a sea of trailers last night!
One has to wonder what they need all of that space for. A driving scene? A foot race? Will Theron’s character sprint through Bushwick, dodging rats and the odd pile of old unraveling VHS tapes on Knickerbocker Avenue?
Maybe tonight’s the night to hit up one of Bushwick’s Hype Restaurants—you might see a “Tully” star grabbing a bite!
Then again, perhaps instead of Roberta’s, Charlize and friends will consider a trip to the new and hyped Ichiran— where the isolation booths offer a break from the fans and the paparazzi.
Featured image: Charlize Theron in 2012. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.