Warner Bros.’ new ‘La La Land’ tour stop is cute, but we found a real-life Mia at the studio Starbucks
In “La La Land,†Emma Stone plays an aspiring actress so in love with Hollywood that she gets a day job in a coffee shop on a studio lot just so she can be in proximity to the movie business.
“I love this stuff,†she says in the film, walking past old sets on the Warner Bros. backlot. “Makes coming to work easier.â€
It’s such a magical spot in the musical that in recent months, some patrons of Warner Bros.’ studio tour began asking where the scene had been filmed. As it turns out, the coffee shop was a fake. Even though there’s a Starbucks and a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on the lot, the production built its own, prettier version of a cafe on French Street — one of the most popular shooting locations on the 110-acre lot.
Because the backlot has so much turnover, the “La La Land†coffee shop was torn down almost as quickly as it went up back in the summer of 2015. But after Damien Chazelle’s film received a record 14 Oscar nominations, Warner Bros. decided to recreate the cafe and temporarily add it as one of the stops on its studio tour through March 6.
On Thursday, the studio opened the tour to the press, putting reporters on a cart and shuttling us to the cafe. Indeed, there it was in all its mint-green glory, vintage bicycles lined up outside the double doors to add character. Everyone whipped out their cellphones, but after Instagramming the location, there wasn’t much else to do there.
I walked up to the tables that had been placed outside the cafe and tried to pick up a blue ceramic cup, but it was glued to the table. There were little menus promising drink specials — alcoholic options like the “Fitzgerald,†made with gin, lemon, sugar and angostura bitters — but no actual drinks being served.
In fact, the inside of the cafe was barren. Warner Bros. had arranged a spread of pastries outside and brought in a mobile cart where a dude was making lattes and hot chocolate.
Vaguely disheartened, I wandered over to an actual working coffee shop on the lot. There, inside a Starbucks, I found Emily Hatfield, a 23-year-old barista who actually bore somewhat of a resemblance to Stone herself.
“I get that a lot,†she said, steaming some milk. “I kind of do feel like the film is based on me.â€
In the movie, Stone’s coffee gig is far from glamorous. While she often serves A-list stars, she herself is running from one botched audition to the next — sometimes in her espresso-stained clothes.
Hatfield said she’s so far been able to balance her job with her Hollywood ambitions — her boss was understanding when she couldn’t close on Mondays because of an acting class. She moved here a year and a half ago from Kansas, but said she’s since lost some of the optimism she once had about becoming a movie star.
“I’m kind of at that stage Emma has in the movie where she’s like, ‘I don’t even know why I’m doing this,’†she said.
She still tries to revel in the perks of working on the lot. On Wednesday, she walked over to the “La La Land†facade and took pictures of the cafe that she posted to her Twitter account.
And plenty of famous people come into the Starbucks, including Joe Jonas, who made Hatfield so nervous that when she offered him his coffee, the plastic lid accidentally flew off.
Unlike in the film, however, she’d never offer a celebrity coffee for free.
“We would never do that!†she said. “They can afford a cup of coffee.â€
Follow me on Twitter @AmyKinLA
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