It’s not every Monday you see Jon Hamm circling the central business district of Rye in a black Maserati.
It’s even stranger to see that happen repeatedly over a 30-minute period. On Monday April 29, Rye’s central business district became a television set for Apple TV’s recently announced suburban drama “Your Friends and Neighbors.”
In the show, according to IMBD, Hamm plays a recently fired hedge fund manager named Coop, who takes up petty crime as a means of funding the lifestyle to which he and his wife, played by Amanda Peet, have grown accustomed. That apparently includes the black Maserati.
Background actors, cosplaying Rye residents in impeccable preppy attire, covered the same small stretch of sidewalk as Hamm drove by, sunglasses on and window down. A woman in a light blue cardigan led a small stubborn Pomeranian across the sidewalk, painfully slowly in front of Hamm’s car, as a pickup truck with a camera mounted by crane rolled ahead. As Hamm rounded the corner, the woman and Pomeranian, now cooperatively in tow, rushed back across the street, in between traffic, to reset for the next take.
It was a blisteringly hot day, as black crates of film equipment, dollies and wires, lined the street outside Sunrise Pizza, and film crew loitered beside truck beds parked behind June & Ho. Rye Police ushered cars and pedestrians across intersections between takes seamlessly, the extra four officers staffed that day were paid for by the production.
Even by 9 a.m. it was clear it was going to be a very hot, very long day for the crew, who had a permit from the City that cost $30,000 to film from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hamm was later spotted at La Fenice Gelateria on Purdy Street and in The Snackery on Purchase Street.
Initial concerns expressed by the Chamber of Commerce that the production might keep shoppers away were apparently assuaged, as throngs of interested passers-by ogled the movie star.
City Manager Greg Usry said the city did not receive any complaints about the production and was pleased the large production seemed to go off without a hitch. Usry, who helped coordinate the shoot with production and police, said the end result was a “very, very good experience” for Rye officials with production staff. He said it was a “good opportunity to review” what would be required if Rye were ever again to find itself with a film crew, a movie star, and a black Maserati on its main street all at once.