Life on the set

A NEIGHBORHOOD STREET IN COTSWOLD IS THE BACKDROP FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION OF JUDY BLUME’S BELOVED COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL, ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE APRIL 28.

by Sharon Smith

Only Hollywood magic could make it snow in Charlotte during late spring. Much to the delight of neighbors on Cavendish Court in Cotswold, when the filming of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. called for a snowy scene, the white stuff did indeed materialize magically along the street.

The movie, filmed in locations across the Charlotte area, chronicles sixth grader Margaret Simon as she navigates puberty growing up in New Jersey as part of an interfaith family. Set in the 1960s, a midcentury-style home on Cavendish Court was the perfect place to re-create Margaret’s childhood home.

“It was fantastic. They moved in vintage cars and a vintage mail truck. They did a lemonade stand scene, a car wash scene,” says Sally Mueller, who has lived on Cavendish Court for 18 years and observed filming over the course of three months.

Some two years later, her face still lights up describing the excitement when their quiet street became a movie set in 2021. “It was so much more extensive than what we thought it would be,” she says. “We had no idea it was going to be as big as it was.”

Mueller got to rub elbows with Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates, who plays Margaret’s beloved grandmother. “I just started chatting with this lovely man on the set one day,” Sally says. Turns out it was producer James L. Brooks, who became a friendly face during filming.

But the highlight was meeting the author herself. Sally had already begged a member of Blume’s team for signed books to give the neighborhood kids. ”It looked like a little book club out there. They would sit on the lawn and watch the filming while they were reading.” Once word got to Blume about the “book club,”