One of the first thing Joe Riela, the owner of the Hudson Plaza Motel, did when he met standup comic-turned movie star Robin Williams, was to offer him a canoli.
Riela had just come back from Vinnie’s Pastries on Avenue C in Bayonne where he had purchased the ricotta-cheese-and-chocolate-chip-stuffed Italian pasteries as a snack.
Williams, who had come to the Bayonne motel Riela owned to film “The Night Listeners”, said yes. It was Williams’s first taste of Bayonne.
“He said he had been to Jersey City before,” Riela said. “But this was his first trip to Bayonne. He said he liked it.”
Williams, along with co-star Toni Collette had come to Hudson County for a few days of filming, scheduling one day at the Riela’s motel and another at St. Francis Hospital in Jersey City. The film based on The Night Listener, a best selling novel by Armistead Maupin (author of Tales of the City). The story revolves about Gabriel Noone – played by Williams, who is a radio storytelling in New York City who strikes up a phone relationship with one of his listeners, a 13-year-old boy in rural Wisconsin. The film is directed by Patrick Stettner and produced by Hart Sharp Entertainment.
Located on the extreme southern end of Route 440 just as it crosses the border into Bayonne, Hudson Plaza Motel seems an idea for film production, isolated from nearby houses by the 65th Street ramp as well as strategically located stands of pine trees.
“They (the set crews) said it was a good location for the scenes they wanted to shoot,” Riela said.
Crews arrived on March 21 to set up shots scheduled for the next afternoon, although the final take was not complete until early March 23, when the crews packed up and headed for St. Francis.
The shoots at the motel took place inside Room No. 109 as well as on the deck outside, in some of the external passages and in the parking lot. At least one scene depicted an actor playing a blind woman with a seeing eye dog, Riela said.
While he had expected a film double for Williams, who would stand in while the director set up the shot, Riela said he had not expected a double for the dog as well, but there was. “They did for shots of every scene,” Riela recalled, “each one from a different angle.”
Room No.109 had been refitted with 1970s style furniture and repainted in gold to reflect that era’s tastes. As with many of the props used in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds filmed at the other end of Bayonne last November, many of the props were apparently acquired from charity stores such as Salvation Army.
“I remember they bragged about getting the dresser for free,” Riela said. “I don’t know where they got that.”
Riela, however, did not know if he would take up the film crews suggestion and leave the room as it was decorated, selling it to the public as the room in which Robin Williams filmed.
Proving just how small the celebrity world is, Williams had worked with Spielberg on two projects serving as a voice over in Artificial Intelligence and as the lead character in “Hook.” But Williams is best known for his Academy Award winning performance in Good Will Hunting and his other major roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, The Fisher King, Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and The World According to Garp.
Riela said he spoke to Williams several times during makeup and costume changes between shoots.
“He was extremely pleasant,” Riela said.
This is not the first film shot at The Hudson Plaza Motel.
“Over the years, we’ve had quite a few films shot here,” Riela said.
Built in 1973, the motel has drawn the attention of other movie and TV directors, and served as a regular set for Gerry Orbach’s Law and Order TV series as well as other professional and student productions – including Comedy Central’s parody of the Tania Harding Story.
Riela said he usually allows student productions to use the motel for only the cost of the room, provided it doesn’t interfere with other guests. Silvercup Studios, the production company for The Night Listeners, rented several other rooms around the shoot in order to avoid having guests walking in and out of shots.
“A lot of people stopped and watched,” Riela said.
