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Rent Out Your Home To Hollywood Studios For Thousands A Day
Lots of movies take place in and around houses, because they're usually about people, and people often live in houses. And yet Hollywood doesn't actually own one single giant suburb full of every type of house they'll ever need for filming. Often they just send out scouts to prowl local neighborhoods, looking for the right location. If they find a house that looks like somewhere their protagonist would be comfortable pooping, they knock on the door with a suitcase full of movie money.
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"Here's $10,000, now get out. Jennifer Lawrence had enchiladas."
And the great thing is that, most of the time, they won't even make you move out. If you can deal with the imposition, you just say good night to Mark Ruffalo and tell him to keep his feet off the goddamn table, then head up to bed while they film what they need.
That's the deal L.A. local Jessica Fleischmann took, along with $15,000, when she agreed to pretend her house belonged to Ruffalo's character in the 2010 film The Kids Are All Right. The filmmakers dug up her garden and repainted the house, but they put it back together better than how they found it after shooting was finished, so she not only scored a paycheck but a free renovation.
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Though that was in no way repayment for what Ruffalo did to their plumbing.
Some homeowners do this for a living, actually advertising their property through talent agencies, hoping all the attention doesn't turn their precious home into a spoiled brat that eventually turns to drugs for validation. That's why some houses keep turning up in a whole bunch of different movies, shows, and commercials. Allison Du Val lives in a converted ice cream factory that was a setting for Gossip Girl, Boy Meets Grill, The Sopranos, and Sex And The City.
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
That ice cream factory then went on to be revealed as the titular Gossip Girl.