Kick Ass 2 films scenes in Hamilton, ON with Chloe Grace Moretz, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Claudia Lee & Morris Chestnut

On Saturday, after my grueling, fairly unsuccessful TIFF was wrapped, I traveled most of the way across Hamilton in the hopes of catching filming for the 2nd time during my trip here. This time, a film series I was familiar with & excited about, KICK ASS 2 was doing scenes at Sir Winston Churchill High School. The Canadian school was playing the part of Millard Fillmore High School in New York somewhere.

On set that day were several notable & smaller role cast members. When I first got there I saw several areas blocked off to traffic, so I set up near the Pat Quinn Arena (I really didnt know he had an arena in Hamilton) and took a few shots. I soon realized, I was a little TOO far away. I shot a couple frames, and couldnt at the time even tell what I was shooting but knew to follow the cameras, and sure enough, caught a couple partial frames of Chloe Moretz & Aaron Taylor Johnson doing a scene as Mindy Macready & Dave Lizewski, the non-superhero everyday high schoolers that are of course Hit Girl & Kick Ass. This was Chloe's 1st day on set, so I knew these were sure to be probably the 1st pics of her.

As I ventured closer to the set I saw several "please no photos" signs around. After discussing with the cop on how legal it was, which he of course told me what I already knew, it was really, just a request, not an order.... I decided to do my shooting from a distance as to not make an international incident about it.

So for a couple hours I would stay low key, and was sneaking a quick pic here or there of the set when there was a chance, but wasnt shooting with a blatant intent to disrupt or be noticed.

The scene was mostly of Mindy & Dave walking, then Mindy essentially snubbing Dave & getting into an SUV that Marcus, Mindy's guardian was driving.

As lunch time closed in, I learned the "Marcus" character from the 1st movie had been re-cast & the man I saw playing him (which I instantly knew wasnt the original one) was Morris Chestnut who I know from his time in Vancouver filming "V". Funny part was, I asked a crew member if she knew the 1st film & she said she did. so I asked "is that guy supposed to be the character Marcus?" She said yes. I replied "they recast him?" & she said no, its the same actor.  Guess she didnt pay THAT close of attention to the original.

I saw a character dressed in a grey hoodie that I never got a clear look at, and who was seemingly not in the later scenes. I dont know who it was, or what his importance, if any was. May have just been a background character, but he seemed to hang around the tent the talent was at during breaks sometimes..... so, unsure who it might be. I never actually had a chance to shoot any frames of him, so its a mystery to me who it is, if anyone notable at all. I also cant even recall what he did in the scenes. It was sort of odd. I wondered if it was Christopher Mintz-Plasse for awhile, but convinced myself it probably wasnt.

Eventually lunch was called and I attempted to get an autograph, but my timing was just a couple seconds too late and Moretz & Johnson had gone inside the school and away from the set.

In no time I found their trailers on the other side of the school & amused myself with games & internet on my blackberry as I waited for lunch to end. Soon, I saw Chestnut go back to set & I knew that Moretz & Johnson would soon follow. I moved as close as I was really allowed to, and called out to Chloe as she went by, but she either didnt hear me, or chose not to, as I didnt even get a partial head turn in my direction.  Moments later Aaron came by & I spoke up a bit louder, he saw me & thought for a moment about going right in, but came over, signed 2 items for me & hurried to set. I am sure Aaron didnt know, or frankly cares, but he is the 1st celeb I have ever gotten IN Hamilton. I've gotten AHL autographs here before, but never any TV or Movie autographs. A couple weeks earlier, Lily Collins COULD have been the 1st, but she opted to deny me. So the honour now instead goes to Aaron Taylor Johnson.

After lunch they had more scenes with Dave & Mindy having discussions in front of the school. It seemed to be the theme of the day, this wasnt the only scene where there seemed to be long discussions going on between the pair.

During an extended break after lunch I went & hung not far from the tent the talent waited in during breaks. Aaron saw me there & told Chloe & her handler I wanted an autograph. Instantly she got up, walked over with her handler and willingly signed a couple items for me. I was pleased to have that out of the way, then I could focus on trying to take a few more pics of the shoot.

After a couple more set changes for different angles, I moved along from where I was standing most of the day. I found by fluke a little driveway that was not seen by crew & was being used by a couple background extras to sit on between takes. It was out of sight of the crew during takes, so I sat back, out of the way, then once the extras would move on to do their walk thru, I moved to the end of the small driveway area & would shoot off a few frames of Chloe just standing alone on the sidewalk.

Shortly after a couple takes of that, i felt I had enough & headed home with what I felt was a decent take from the set.

My interpretation of things I saw & heard at set were... they shot scenes of Mindy getting picked up by Marcus, then dropped off by Marcus & her then waiting for Marcus to drive off before hailing a cab. Mindy would have a couple discussions with Dave, 1 ending with her essentially leaving him looking upset/sorry as she got into Marcus's truck. The other, which I heard better implied that Dave was asking Mind to "train" him & her eventually caving in & agreeing to do it.

Another scene they shot simply had Mindy on the sidewalk, with kids walking by her & a well dressed blonde girl in all blue who I found out thru reading reports about this shoot is Claudia Lee, her character "Brooke" is essentially Mindys school nemesis. Since this was Chloes 1st day on set, I would have to believe, this was 1 of the 1st scenes these 2 would have done together. There wasnt much to it that I recall, just Brooke walking past Mindy as she waited for a cab.

I know, you have likely seen some of these shots already on Just Jared or Perez Hilton, but here is an extended set of the photos from this shoot, including Chloe, Aaron, Morris & Claudia.