THE LUCKIEST: Dear Dumb Diary, My Name is Hannah

A bunch of my nieces and nephews were used as extras in the movie, Dear Dumb Diary

Matt, Becca, Hannah, and Mike arriving on set one day.

which was based on the very popular book series.

During production, one of the producers noticed my niece Hannah bore a resemblance to the lead, Emily Alyn Lind, and their hair was quite similar in color, etc. So they decided to use Hannah as a body double for the character of Jamie Kelly (the main character).

Hannah (left) with Emily Alyn Lind (Right) both dressed as Jamie Kelly

They cut Hannah's hair and dressed her up in all these crazy outfits that Jamie wears. They (of course) never showed Hannah's face while being the body double, but a lot of the scenes when Jamie is seen from behind, or when she is writing in her diary, it is actually Hannah as Jamie, not Emily.

Kim had some other stuff she had to do so one of the days I got to be with Hannah during filming. And it was a lot of fun. Kim told me to just act like I belonged there--like I owned the place--and no one would question it and I could go in and watch her filming, etc. It took me a while to get comfortable, but eventually I took what she said to heart and did just that.

I went right into the bedroom and sat on the bed while they filmed her in the closet, etc. At one point I got in trouble because apparently I was standing in the doorway of the room and in the whole scene they could see me in the reflection in the mirror...OOPS!

I think Hannah's favorite scene to film was when she was playing with a Barbie and then got to rip her head off. :) There were about 100 of the same nasty looking Barbie so they could film the scene again and again. She kept having to rip heads off. She was loving it. After they were all done filming, I managed to get them to give Hannah one of the barbies (with the head still attached) and all the producers, directors, etc, signed it for her. She was pretty stoked.

Here's Hannah chatting on the bed with Kristin Hanggi, the director. Hannah is lucky she was the body double, not the main character, because she is way to shy for any speaking roles! :)

The bedroom of Jamie Kelly was extremely eclectic. But it was adorable too. I liked this quote on the door, "Today is a perfect day for a perfect day."

Hannah slept over at my house that night and I was supposed to drop her off at the set the next morning where Kim would meet her and be with her for the day. It was the final day of filming and Hannah called her mom the night before BEGGING her to let me spend the day with her instead. Kim was insistent on her being there with Hannah for the special day, but eventually gave in to Hannah's begging and said I could come too and that Kim would pretend she wasn't even there. ;)

Apparently I had taken Kim's advice to "act like I owned the place" a little more seriously than she'd thought. When she was there with us, she was shocked with how comfortable I made myself on set, walking around like I belonged there and stepping in when I (or Hannah) wanted something. I had gotten chummy with the director and assistant director and talked to them quite frequently, joking around, etc. Then when I just walked into the bedroom where they were filming and sat on the bed, she was shocked. WHAT WAS I DOING??! Well...she told me to act like I owned the place. I just assumed she'd done the same when she was there--that's what gave me the guts to act like that. Lol. Apparently I was wrong. She said she now understood why Hannah wanted me there instead of her. Haha.

For lunch, because it was the last day, we had a super fancy meal. We had crab legs with drawn butter, etc. It was really delicious.

I'll admit the diet coke and roll were still my favorite though...

Hannah wasn't too sure how she felt about the crab legs though...

Hannah made this cute drawing for Kristin and she was so surprised and touched. I asked if I could get a picture and she kindly obliged. That's when I asked if we could maybe get Hannah a little souvenir to take home. I had suggested one of the Barbies and she said she'd see what she could do. People weren't supposed to take anything from set, but we managed to pull it off with their approval. We had to talk to the prop guy and a bunch of people. I think that was what surprised Kim the most was that I just took matters into my own hands.