Public sees Hollywood stars shoot love scene on Vancouver Island beach
at 22:20 on June 14, 2007, EDT.
KEVEN DREWS
TOFINO, B.C. (CP) - Surfers and tourists - along with the ever-present paparazzi - have been given a rare glimpse of two Hollywood movie stars frolicking in a sizzling love scene on a Vancouver Island beach.
Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz spent two days at Cox Bay, just outside Tofino, B.C., this week to shoot about three minutes of film for their upcoming movie Elegy.
Against a backdrop of pounding surf and under sunny skies, the actors shot take after take of the same romantic encounter on Thursday while the film crew kept locals and tourists from walking in front of the rolling cameras.
One scene began with Cruz lying on a blanket on the beach and Kingsley kneeling over her with a camera.
After a few moments, the former girlfriend of actor Tom Cruise got up, skipped down to the beach, hooted and hollered, did a couple jumping jacks, turned around, ran back to Kingsley and straddled him.
Hans Dayal, assistant location manager for Elegy Film Productions Ltd., said the location blew everybody away - even the actors.
"It's really not a hard sell. We woke up this morning and it was like Hawaii."
Based on the novel by Philip Roth, Elegy is about a cultural critic, Kingsley, who has an encounter with a student, Cruz, and then sees his life fall into disarray.
Dayal said the production crew and actors - about 55 in total - arrived Wednesday in Tofino by plane and car, and began shooting almost right away.
Kingsley and Cruz went to work Thursday as surfers walked with boards under their arms and tourists sauntered along the beach while paparazzi shot their cameras.
"It's supposed to be a quiet, private beach in the movie," said Dayal.
"We came here to shoot three minutes, three and one-half minutes of the movie, maybe more, maybe less, depending on how it looks."
Dayal admitted it was tough keeping the surfers out of the way.
"We've probably had a half-dozen instances where they say, 'I won't get out of the way. I don't do it for anybody."'
Dayal said while Kingsley, Cruz and much of the crew planned to leave Thursday night, many will be back.
"Penelope Cruz will tell anybody she knows about Tofino. They've been treated like gold and they're in love."
The actors were unavailable for interviews.
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