I WON MY DATE WITH…CAST OF DEGRASSI!!!!! Here is my (very) long explanation of events!
Just a little note before reading: This post will be extremely long, so if you don’t care about reading all of it, there is a short little blog I wrote on MuchMusic’s website which can be found here
Once upon a time, Much Music posted a blog entry that would change someone’s life. Okay, maybe not someone’s life, but it would definitely be a huge exciting thing that would happen to someone. They were having a contest to go on the television show “My Date With…” and the celebrity guests happened to be the cast of Degrassi! The contest was only open for a week, so she thought hard about what she was going to do for the video, but ended up procrastinating. On Wednesday March 19th, she hurried home from school to try and make an amazing video before 6pm when the deadline was. She quickly wrote a song, which she would later regret adding to the entry, and would be shown to the whole world (or at least just the producers at Much Music) to see. Quickly editing the video, thinking that nothing would come from this- she never won any contests so why would this one be different? She uploaded the video, feeling doubtful and that was it.
Winning the contest was a total surprise to me, and I couldn’t believe it! I was just happy to be in the Top 4, but to win! Everything happened so fast, and I’m not going to go into all of those details, since so many things had happened within that short time span! I was so doubtful that I’d win, since my video was done last minute, the editing was shitty, and I thought it was horrible. I’ve entered every Degrassi contest that I could, and haven’t won anything, so it was a HUGE surprise.
On Thursday, I invited a few of my friends over after school for the whole “Envelope filming” thing. Much Music was supposed to come at 4pm, but were late and being the paranoid person that I am thought that it was all a set up, and they weren’t going to come. Anyways, my sister went outside, and looked down the street to see if she could see anything, and thought that she saw a car that had the Much logo on it. My Mum pulled in the driveway, and decided that they would do a drive around my street so that they could find out if it was them, and it was. A few minutes later, the producer and camera man were walking down the street and took some shots of my house or something. They knocked on the door, and I immediately ran down stairs with my friends and opened the door, to find them there. We introduced ourselves, and the producer said to me “So, this is the friend you’re going to bring tomorrow?” which totally threw me off, and I’m sure he totally messed up the suspicion. I said “Oh, so I won then”, and he’s like well we don’t know that yet. Anyways, we went up into my room, and filmed some interviews of Joey and I talking about Degrassi, the contest, etc. I sang the song that I had sung in the contest entry, and my friend played the guitar since I had decided to get fake nails the day before, which was a really stupid idea. I apologize to anyone who had to listen to that, since I’m pretty sure I sound like a dying cat or something. I really don’t sound like that regularly…I hope, LOL. After all of the interviews and my embarrassment of singing the song I made up, we all headed downstairs to film the envelope thing. I opened the first envelope, which turned out to be empty, and then the producer told me to look outside, but there was nobody there. Anyways, I opened another letter, which was also empty, and while I was opening the letter, I saw someone peaking through the window of the door. After I had found out that the envelope was empty, there was a “knock” on the door. I went to the door, and saw Liz, a Much Music VJ. I started freaking out, and she told me that I had won the contest. Holy shit!! I don’t even remember what I did when I was told I won, but I think I was in shock or something, or I was extremely hot from the TV light on the camera, I don’t know. Still trying to figure it out….Anyways, we went up to my room to film a few things, and then we were finished! The Producer, Camera Man, and Liz left, and I was freaking out inside, and in shock. I didn’t know what to do or say at all. Joey and I stayed up until around three in the morning, which was a really bad idea, but we were both extremely excited and in shock. Joey drew his “interpretive” drawings of the cast, and I did silhouettes of the cast to sign (which we didn’t get them to sign in the end; we totally forgot).
Of course being Joey and I, we woke up late. Not extremely late, but just late enough to make us have about half an hour to get ready. I curled my hair quickly, and put on some makeup while Joey shaved and did all of his stuff. We got into the car and went to the GO Station, got our tickets and ran to the train, hoping that we would get a seat, since it was a weekday and rush hour. Luckily we did, and throughout the train ride, we kept saying “I can’t believe this happened”, and I kept thinking how the hell I won. It’s still a mystery to me. Anyways, we arrived in Toronto at 8:30, and headed to Starbucks, which was conveniently located right across from the Much building. Millions of thoughts ran though my head, wondering what would happen during the day, would the cast be nice, and would I say something that I probably shouldn’t have, and I’m sure Joey and I did. Especially the swearing on my part, at least. (I’m sorry to the people who edited this!) Around 9 AM, we headed over the building, and waited for the producer to come down so that we could get the day started, but we had to wait, which was totally understandable since he had to do some last minute errands. We were greeted by Liz, who was finishing eating her breakfast, and the Camera Man. Finally, after everything was ready, we headed to our first location in two taxi’s; the producer, camera man, and Liz in one, and Joey and I in the other. The short twenty minute drive was filled with excitement because Joey and I had found out where the first location was. EPITOME PICTURES (Degrassi Set!!!) Our taxi driver needed to put the address in his GPS, and I heard our producer tell the driver the address which sounded familiar, so Joey and I searched the address on his iPhone, and low and behold it was the Degrassi Set! The rest of the ride was spent singing Lady Gaga. Thanks to our taxi driver who had to put up with us singing!
We arrived on the set, and had decided in the car that we probably shouldn’t tell everyone that we knew where we were going, but it was definitely obvious when we pulled into the parking lot. So, we waited for a bit, and I got on a Microphone (which Joey and I miss for some odd reason) and talked with Liz while the producer and camera man went into Epitome to talk to someone. Finally everything was ready, and we filmed our first intro thing, which was to go and get our hair and makeup done on the Degrassi set!! We headed towards the set, and we walked up to the Make Up and Hair room. I was in awe. This was a room in which I had seen in many a Degrassi On Set’s. I went to hair first, and Joey went to Make-Up. The hair stylist gave my hair extra body, and then fixed Joey’s haircut. The makeup artist gave me a Cassie Steele “inspired” look, which was green eyes, and a fuchsia lip and put on some mascara, and foundation on Joey. After that we were all ready to go for the day! We headed back out on the front, and hung out for a while (this is something that was done a LOT during the day). Joey saw a school bus, and told me which was kind of weird, considering it wasn’t in the lot, just outside the building. We definitely thought that we wouldn’t be driving around all day in a school bus, but in the back of our minds we knew we would (and were right!). After both getting on new mics, and having another commentary interview thing, we filmed the intro for the bus, got on and headed into the set! It was like we were arriving at Degrassi for real. I spotted people sitting on the steps, and I had to do a second take to, and realized that it was the Jamie, Ray, Melinda, Sam and Luke! We filmed a little intro thing, and got out of the bus, and introduce ourselves. They were filming an intense scene, so we had to be quiet (which was extremely hard), and went on a really quick set tour, stopping in between scenes. The Dot is all renovated (as you have seen already, but it was new to me two months ago!) which looks amazing and they are building another street set, with lots of stores (and I’m pretty sure Forever 21 is one of them). The school halls looked smaller than I imagined, and everything definitely looked very “school-like.”
After going on the set tour, we went back to the front steps of the school, and said our pretend goodbyes (the tour’s going to be shown at the end of the show I believe). We all decided to do a group hug, and then realized that the camera, sound guy, and producer, as well as Liz were already walking away. It was definitely a funny moment, but I guess you’d have to be there to think it was hilarious like Joey and I thought it was.
We headed to our first location which was GO KARTING! I was basically shitting myself, because if you know me you’ll know that I cannot drive a go kart to save my life! Thankfully it was a small track, and I had gone there many a times when I was younger) Ray and I went in one car, Melinda and Joey went in the other, and the other guys went in their own cars. It started off alright, but then turned out crazy. We had the flip cam, and Ray was taping as we went through all of the laps. At one point, I even almost flipped over the car, which was hilarious (in my mind at least), and came in last, with Joey and Melinda coming in first. All in all it was a fun time, but I wish I didn’t have to drive because we might have won! We obviously had a disadvantage. At least I stopped the go kart without bumping into anything. After we were finished go karting, we headed back onto the bus and made our way to the next location.
Our next location was rock climbing. Now, I’ve never been rock climbing EVER, so I knew that it might end badly, especially since I’m an extremely awkward person in general. We were told the basic safety precautions, and got on all of our harnesses. Thankfully, it didn’t and I ended up going 1/18th of the way up, but it’s all right! It was my first time after all, and on camera too! Plus, I probably look like an idiot with the harness and the clothes I’m wearing…Dear God, why did I not take the extra five minutes to get changed into more appropriate clothing.
The final location was just down the street from the rock climbing place, but we still all went on the bus to get there. (Side-note: If you want to go there, I suggest you don’t). The restaurant was called School, which totally went with the theme for the day (which was School/Whatever It Takes). The service was extremely slow. It took half an hour just to get our drinks! Our food wasn’t any different, and also took a long time to come too. Not to mention there was basically NO ONE in the restaurant! We had a break from the camera filming, except for the intro of course and were able to have time to talk and everything.
Finally, we wrapped up the day, said our goodbyes and took some pictures. Joey and I both got a Degrassi t-shirt, a signed towel by the cast, some Degrassi soundtracks, and a box set of Season Two! We all headed back on the bus, except for Melinda who had to catch a plane to go to New York for the weekend. We arrived back at Much headquarters, said some goodbyes yet again (how many times was that again? Three!) and the guys headed home. We finished the day with having our final interview on Queen Street, talking about the events that had happened throughout the day, and were totally exhausted (by this time it was 7:30pm, and with 3 hours sleep= not a good thing). After giving many hugs and goodbyes, we grabbed some Starbucks and headed home!
I had an amazing time during the day, and wish that it’d never ended. I’m so thankful that I was chosen to do this, and that we had a wonderful experience with the cast, publicist, camera man, producer, and audio technician (If you happen to be reading this, which I doubt, but you know who you are!)
Finally, here are some quotes from the day, but I won’t say who they’re from…You can guess though! Tell me in the comments your guesses.
#1 “There’s about one in ten people who actually give a shit about the Blue Jays on this bus”
#2 “I’m sorry I just can’t stop staring at it; it’s just…there”
#3 “Dude, you’re supposed to be on a date, not showing her pictures of your girlfriend”
#4 “…This definitely wasn’t what I expected it to be”
#5 “…Don’t you just let the soap that washes your body wash your feet”
#6 “I just want some onion rings!”
If any of you have ANY questions, feel free to ask me, and I’ll try my best to answer!
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We arrived in Toronto around 2pm, met up with Kiley and Erin at Much, and headed over to Starbucks since there was literally nothing set up in the Much parking lot and it was really hot outside! After a much need rest, and tons of talking Degrassi among many other things, we headed back over to Much Music to wait in the line! There were already four people in front of us, and when we were in the line, we met and talked to some pretty cool fans! The people at Much were setting up chairs, and Erin, Kiley my friend Kathleen and I were hoping that some of them were for the fans, but soon after that, people came and taped “DEGRASSI CAST” and “RESERVED” across all of the seats(which Kiley, Erin, Kathleen and I took as souvenirs)! A little while later, other chairs were put up on the other side, and thankfully we got to sit in those seats.
We went and got our seats, and left some of our stuff so that they would be saved, and then went to go and see some of the cast. Like, last year, the cast showed up in groups of people, starting first with Ray, Luke, and Munro! I went over and talked to one of the PR girls for a bit, and then saw Jajube and got a picture with her. Then, I saw Luke and went up to him. I was surprised that he wasn’t being bombarded by a whole bunch of girls, but I think it’s just because they didn’t know who he was at first. He walked up to me and gave me a hug, and it was a real hug, not a half-ass hug with one arm! We talked for a bit, and then got pictures with him. Then, I saw Ray(Sav) so I headed towards him, and he also remembered me(which I was really surprised by because I definitely thought they would forget who I was! Maybe they just didn’t know my name or something), and gave me a big hug too, and we joked about something to do with helmets, and talked for a while and of course got a picture together. . Both Ray and Luke are very good hugger’s! I was lucky to get a hug from them because I’m pretty sure not a lot of fans, if any got one! I saw Liz Trinnear (MuchMusic VJ), and talked to her for a couple of minutes and we took a picture. I put on my sunglasses, and then she told me that she had to put hers on too! lol. We then went and talked to a bunch of cast members and also got pictures with them too, such as Jessica Tyler, Shane Kippel, Jessica Tyler, Jordan Todosey, Charlotte Arnold, Miriam McDonald, and Aislinn Paul. The boys of SoundSpeed were there, but unfortunately didn’t play. Instead,they went up in between commercials and did a little interview with one of the VJs
We went back to our seats just in time for the movie to start. I absolutely loved the movie! Even though I had different expectations about the movie, in the end I really liked it. It was also great watching the movie with a big audience and the cast to see their reactions to everything!
I didn’t get a picture with everyone, but it was basically impossible, since there was so many cast members there! It was still amazing to meet and talk to some of the cast members.
Sorry this report is very short! If you have any questions or anything about the premiere, just ask… I tried to put in a few pictures from the event to show you what happened. (thanks to Erin for some of the pictures!)
-Ashley
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