WILMINGTON — For a generation of teen drama TV watchers, Wilmington and Cape Cod have been indelibly connected since the late 1990s.
Across six seasons of The WB's series "Dawson's Creek," the Port City played the role of the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, which North Carolina-native creator Kevin Williamson set on Cape Cod.
As the series and its young cast including James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes became phenomenons, Wilmington — for the first time — became fused in the national consciousness with its on-screen role, a feat it later replicated to an even greater degree with "One Tree Hill."
Through "Dawson's Creek," Wilmington not only established itself as a viable candidate for television production, but also as a perfectly suitable stand-in for Cape Cod — a role it's currently pulling double duty at again.
This month, Cape Cod Chips, the iconic potato chip brand that evokes its New England heritage with its lighthouse logo, is filming a commercial on Wrightsville Beach. If the sun can break through the clouds long enough, 45 crew members and three cast members will shoot a spot that features a woman lounging in a hammock snacking on the kettle-cooked chips.
But in a bit of ironic timing, Cape Cod is already being represented by another production currently filming in Wilmington.
Starz's crime drama series "Hightown" is also set on Cape Cod and even shot its first season partially in and around the hook-shaped peninsula in Massachusetts, before moving production to Wilmington for season two.
In 2000, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel also came to Wilmington and Southport to film a Cape Cod-set story in the baseball comedy "Summer Catch."
The Wilmington region has portrayed everything from Jules Verne's Mysterious Island to purgatory to outer space, but its recurrent role as Cape Cod is becoming quite the trend.
So why has Wilmington become such an appetizing alternative to the real thing for film industry projects going back two decades?
Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, said Wilmington offers milder filming conditions for crews and cheaper options for producers when compared to the real Cape Cod, especially this time of year.
"Almost immediately, you've got weather issues to deal with there," he said. "Winters are colder, and if you want to get people in the water, you can do that sooner here in the spring and later in the fall."
Unlike Wilmington, Cape Cod doesn't have a homegrown film industry with a deep bench of crew members ready to be hired when productions come in. Griffin said most productions would have to bring crew members in from nearby places like Boston if it wants to capture the real Cape Cod.
To Wilmington's credit, for years it has pitched itself as being able to play Any Town, USA — and Cape Cod is no different. Here, producers get a Mid-Atlantic beach that can pass off for just about any beach necessary.
"We have always been an easy sell for a beach community that doesn't look too Southern," Griffin said. "If you go more south to Charleston or Savannah, you are where you are and there's no way to disguise it."
But it is also about setting the mood. Wilmington hasn't just played Cape Cod over the years. It has played all of its different sides.
"Dawson's Creek" showed the sleepy small town side, where love-lorn teenagers don't want to wait for their lives to be over. "Summer Catch" captures the simmering summers of blended residents and tourists — an annual melting pot Wilmington and Cape Cod have in common.
The food commercial will likely go for a more charming atmosphere to sell the experience of Cape Cod Chips. While "Hightown" is expected to showcase a darker underbelly of the northern vacation spot, as it chronicles the realities of the rampant opioid epidemic and the crime of Provincetown.
In other words, Wilmington has the range to show the multitudes of Cape Cod whenever it is called upon. After all, it's been doing it for more than 20 years.
February 15, 2021 at 02:00AM
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Cape Cod Chips to 'Dawson's Creek': Why does Wilmington so often play Cape Cod? - Greensboro News & Record
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