God paid a visit Tuesday to the Loyola Jesuit Center in Morristown.
Morgan Freeman, who portrayed the deity opposite Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty, and later hosted The Story of God series, came to the bucolic center for filming of A Good Person.
Written and directed by Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State, Ted Lasso), A Good Person stars his girlfriend, Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Little Women, Black Widow), as a woman whose life is shattered by a fatal car crash.
Freeman, 84, plays her would-be father-in-law, who tries to help her. The movie also features Celeste O’Connor (Ghostbusters:Afterlife, Freaky), former Saturday Night Live cast member Molly Shannon, and Zoe Lister-Jones (Life in Pieces, New Girl).
Pugh was at Loyola on Monday for scenes inside the mansion, made to look like a rehab facility. Exterior footage shot on Tuesday morning was intended to double for Seton Hall University.
Scenes also have been shot at Braff’s alma mater, Columbia High School in Maplewood; and in Edison and Jersey City, according to people familiar with the project.
“To have Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh come onto our grounds is a little surreal,” said Scott Ardinger, director of stewardship and marketing for Loyola.
Set on a rolling hillside, amidst statues of Jesus, Mary and St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuit Center usually is populated with individuals and groups seeking quiet spiritual retreats.
This week, a busload of Catholic high school students had to navigate past dozens of film crew members, whose lighting- and sound gear filled several trucks in the parking lot. The students made their way to a portion of the mansion not commandeered by the movie.
Known as the Spring Brook House when erected in 1906 by industrialist Robert Foote Jr., the building was gifted to the Society of Jesus for $1 in 1927.
It’s among the last reminders of Gilded Age splendor from Greater Moristown’s Millionaires Row, once regarded as the greatest concentration of wealth ever seen.
NO BLOOD-AND-GUTS, THANK YOU
More recently, Loyola landed on a scouting list for movie locations. Ardinger said the Jesuits turned down a couple of horror films.
“We just couldn’t do it, blood-and-guts in a retreat center,” he said.
As a fan of the TV series Scrubs (2001-2010), Ardinger was thrilled to briefly meet Braff, 46, who starred as J.D.
“He is so down-to-earth,” Ardinger said. “He is very respectful and very professional, and very friendly. I feel like he’s a good man.”
Braff directed Freeman in Going Out in Style in 2017. Freeman won an Oscar in 2005 as best supporting actor in Million Dollar Baby.
Ardinger snuck a peek into a day room, where Braff was directing an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting scene on Monday.
Pugh, 25, who plays an American, chatted in her native British accent during a sound check.
“Florence, could you please speak in your American accent?” Braff asked, according to Ardinger.
The production rented the Great Hall at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown for crew lunch breaks.
St. Peter’s is becoming a movie magnet.
The church was among several Greater Morristown locations last month for the movie Cocoa, a comedy co-directed by Sopranos’ star John Bianco, a.k.a. Gerardo “Gerry the Hairdo” Torciano.
Back in January, Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey shot scenes at St. Peter’s for a CBS pilot episode of Ways & Means. The network passed on that congressional drama.
A Good Person means a good payday for Loyola. The production’s “generous” donation should help the center emerge from the pandemic, Ardinger said.
“We need every revenue source we can get for our operating budget,” he said.
Loyola’s $2.1 million sale of 11 acres to conservation agencies led to expansion of Foote’s Pond Wood, dedicated by Morristown officials earlier this year.
