DAY 1

We left the hotel around four and walked to the studios. We saw who we thought was her husband sitting near  the trailers (turned out to be her driver). We did not know what to do so we sat on a curb that gave us an across the street view of the trailers. Erica was the first one we saw, wearing a blue blouse and black pants with her hair bouncing in a cute ponytail. She went to her trailer and later came back inside. We waited and took pictures of random people on set and the crew. She came back out and went back to her trailer.  She reappeared in scrubs among several people. She was called onto set, and screamed, “Oh my God, I’m late,“ and ran onto set.  A Julia Taylor-Ross was reading lines with Daniel Gilles.  He went for a walk with his dog. People looked at us. One actress pointed our way.

It was getting really cold, and we saw someone carry Erica’s lab coat onto set.  We were sitting in the freezing cold, and Michael Shanks came out in a black suit and looked right at us. He continued on to his trailer.  He came out multiple times on his cell phone.

One of the crew saw us waiting, and came over to ask us if we were there for the show, and who we were fans of.  We showed her our hoodies, and she asked if we made them. We told her about Priya’s design.  And she asked where we were from.  Told her about being from Pennsylvania, and having two hours of sleep to come on our spring break to Canada (8 hour bus ride).  She thought it was awesome and she told us that she was going to tell Erica we were out there to see if she could come out.

We waited for awhile, saw Michael Shanks come out again, and Daniel Gilles walking his Labrador in his scrubs.  The crew member came out again and told us that we were going IN in 10 minutes.  We had no idea that we could be invited in.  So after awhile, she came to get us, we walked across the road to the set and trailers. We walked though a big open doorway and into the warehouse. There was a “warehouse” like space with a huge wall separating the set from this space and a door with a red blinking light above it.

The woman led us to the door and was really friendly. She asked us if we had ever been on a set before, and we said no. She told us we had to be silent while filming. She then asked if we ever met Erica before, Jen said she had years ago and I said no. She went on to say how sweet Erica is. When they called cut, the buzzer went off and we walked inside to the hospital entrance set. There was a sign-in desk and a ton of hospital props around. It was completely silent because they were in-between scenes, and was filled with extras dressed up as doctors and nurses. You could see the patient waiting room set with some extras sitting there. Tv screens with “Hope Zion” were on the walls. Melanie led us behind the wall of the room they were filming in while they did another take. We could hear some voices but couldn’t make out anything. We just stood there looking around trying to take in everything and memorize every single detail. Once the scene was finished, Melanie led us over closer to the set where they were just filming in and said we could see better here, then she walked away for a minute. We looked over to the set and Erica was standing right there about 10 feet away, staring at us! We weren’t close enough to say anything, but we just stared at each other for a few seconds before we retreated back behind the wall because we didn’t know what else to do haha. Right after that, Melanie came over to us and said “oh! Here she is, come on guys!”. So we slowly walked backed over and Erica said she heard a lot about us and that we came a long way to see her. She asked us our names and shook our hands. She then asked us if we were in high school, we said no we’re in college. As she was talking to us they were taking her mic off and removing props from her pockets. SHE WAS AWESOME, and completely gorgeous in her grey-blue scrubs.

Somehow we moved over by Melanie and Erica asked if she could show us around set, before Melanie had a chance to answer, Erica excitedly said “Let’s go!!“ and we were off! We complimented Erica and said he saw everything she’s done and she replied with “oh no!” (hahaha). I also told her that she has a huge online fan base and everyone’s really proud of her and excited for the show. We first walked down a hallway coming off of the sign-in room we were just in. Erica informed us that she just shot a scene in that hallway. She then pointed to our right and showed us the room they were just filming in. She also pointed out the director who was in there. As we walked by, they were blocking for the next scene which she said she wasn’t going to be in. Connected to that room was a tiny electrical room with tv screens. That’s where they view the footage they had just filmed. Across the hall was a small room with directors chairs setup in a semi circle. Erica said that’s where the cast sits and goes over lines while they’re prepping scenes for filming. She then took us to the room where Michael Shanks’ bed was and she said that they’re lucky because they get to use all real hospital equipment. Went left that room and began walking down the hallway again. When walking down Erica tripped over a cord then pointed to it and said “don’t trip over that” (LOL). She told us that she researched the part by watching real hospital surgeries, and said she felt really ’inadequate’ since she’s just a face saying the words and they’re actually helping people.  She led us through another tight hallway and up some stairs to a hallway of fake doctor’s offices and said that if we watched (hahaha IF??) this summer that we would get to see some fancy scenes in there. Jen asked her about her hours that she has to work, and Erica replied that she works between 12 and 16 hours on set each day and some mornings she had to wake up as early as 4:30am. We told her we woke up at 4:30am that morning too, she laughed. She dove right into what her schedule was like on Smallville (Monday- Friday, different hours) while saying that Tom was just there all the time. After walking down a ramp, we looped back around to the other side of the warehouse where we first came in. There was an ambulance parked there and giant backdrops of the city. As we were walking around all we could say was wow and Erica thought it was because of the huge set and we told her no, it’s the fact that SHE’S giving us a tour!! She joked around with us, and was completely herself. MADE OF PURE AWESOME. We walked back around to the sign-in desk set again and Jen asked if Erica could sign our hooides. She was more than happy to! She signed both of our hoodies personally and asked how to spell our names. She said a crew member spells Jennifer, “Jennifur” and Anna was also her grandmother’s name. As she was signing  she was asking about school again and says she wished she had went to school. After she signed our hoodies, Jen asked if we could get a picture with her, she replied with “of course! Lets find some place cool to take it!”. She waked back through the original hallway and asked a crew member if he’d take a picture of us. He said he knows someplace really awesome. Erica ran after him excitedly saying “where are we going?!”. We went up some stairs and entered a brand new set that Erica’s never seen before! It was one of those rooms that overlook the operating room. They were actually filming below while we were in there! Erica was in awe and was so excited to see a set that was new to her. While she was taking a picture with us, she wrapped her arms around us, and said that she hoped we wouldn’t get yelled at.  That this was about “the love”. We stood in front of the glass and the crew member took 3 pictures of us (you could see them filming behind us!!!)

We then walked down the stairs and one of the actresses (Julia) called Erica over to ask her a question. While Erica was talking, crew members began to approach us asking about our hoodies and our story. They asked us where we were from, and how we knew that Saving Hope was filming. We told them that we follow everything Erica does, and they wanted to know why our hoodies said, “Proud Durancer” and Erica proudly said that “because that’s my last name!!“. It was ADORABLE.  She was so flattered. They all LOVED our hooies and everyone wanted one. When I mentioned about how I was a fan of Rookie Blue, they offered to take us over there for a set tour as well!  Even one of the crew members was talking about Missy Peregrym!

After that we headed back out the way we came and Erica was saying how all these amazing roles keep landing in her lap. Jen reassured her that she deserves every role she gets and is really talented. She escorted us out of the building, where we ended up at catering.  She asked us if we were hungry and we couldn’t even remember the last time we ate. She immediately began picking up everything she could and put it on plates. As she was packing the food she asked us about the city and we said when we first got there we couldn’t hail a cab and she laughed and thought it was cute.  She said we hasn’t seen her family in a while and hasn’t been able to take care of anyone, so she was happy to take care of us. She went up to the catering truck and asked for saran to wrap our food with….SHE PACKED US SAVING HOPE SET FOOD!!! On her way out of the truck she grabbed 2 bags of Doritos saying she got us these because they’re her favorite (TOO CUTE!)

She then asked us what our plans were for the rest of the week and if we were going to visit the city. We told her that the cabs were too expensive, and that we had planned to sit at the set all week anyway.  She said that if we had nothing else to do or that if we were bored the next day, that she would ask her bosses if we could hang around set.  WE FREAKED. She said she come by anytime tomorrow and she’ll have people looking out for us.

 Next she asked us where we were staying, and we told her right around the block.  She told us to hold on and walked away for a minute. As we were standing there a crew member walked over to us and said we could help ourselves to the coolers and take any drink we waned. Erica came back saying that her driver would take back to our hotel! As we were walking to the van where her driver was waiting, we ran into her husband and stepson! She introduced us to David and little David. David was extremely friendly and supportive.  All smiles, he shook our hands while she explained to him our story.  He said he loved our hoodies, and the support. We even got to shake hands with little David.  HE’S A CHARMER.  She walked us to the van and we got in. The driver rolled down the window and Erica waved excitedly saying “get a good nights rest, sleep in and see you tomorrow!!”. 

As we were pulling away, Erica shared a rather tender moment with her family. It was sweet. She had just told us that she hadn’t seen her family in awhile, and we got to witness their being reunited.

Her driver was extremely friendly.  He looked like David from afar.  As he was taking us to our hotel, he asked where we were from and how we knew about SH. He loved that we were so supportive of Erica, and he said that when we come back the next day they would have something special planned for us. When we arrived to our hotel, the driver actually got out of the van and opened the doors for us! We got our and shook us hand.  He was so incredibly nice and told us to get some rest and that he’ll see us tomorrow. We went up to our room and FREAKED OUT!!!!