The new remake of She’s All That, titled He’s All That, is currently in production in L.A. and the city almost shut down a COVID testing site so the crew could film. The remake is a gender flipped version of the original 1999 film that starred Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Paul Walker, Matthew Lillard and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe. The remake, dubbed He’s All That, is set to star TikTok phenomenon and Kourtney Kardashian BFF Addison Rae, as well as Madison Pettis and Tanner Buchanan.
The film will see Rae trying to make a boy of her choosing popular, a flip of the original plot which saw Prinze Jr.’s character try to makeover Cook’s. Rae’s casting has been a point of contention for fans of the original who fear she will ruin the film. Rae has no prior acting experience. What she does have, though, is over 70 million followers on TikTok, making her an instant draw regardless of her lack of acting credits.
According to Deadline, the film was granted a permit to shoot at the iconic Union Station terminal in L.A., bringing over 170 cast and crew members to the site. The terminal is also home to a heavily trafficked testing site that sees hundreds of patients a day. The testing site was to be shutdown and those who had made appointments were asked to reschedule. The decision was made by Curative, a nationwide testing organization, and the city of L.A. After much backlash, the decision was reversed and it was revealed the production was working closely with Curative to ensure testing would progress as normal.
The decision to close the testing site in favor of a film production was a reckless one. L.A. has long been the location of many iconic films, but with reports that L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti was up all night fielding phone calls, it seems as if many L.A. residents felt the same. With the city of L.A. and the state of California experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, like much of the rest of the U.S., testing is vital to stopping the spread, especially after a holiday week that saw many flout travel restrictions to see their families. It’s hard to imagine that the filming of He’s All That is more important than curbing the continued spread of COVID.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if Garcetti felt the same. While it is vital that the industry continues operating, it shouldn’t be at the expense of L.A. residents, who have been trying to adapt to COVID restrictions in any way they can. With the revelation that the He’s All That production team was trying to keep the testing site open while they filmed, Garcetti and Curative are sure to face a new set of questions as to why they decided to shut down the site in the first place. Productions were allowed to resume filming in California over the summer and, up until now, nothing like this had occurred. With a vaccine on the horizon, let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.
