The Great Escape Book Store plays key role during recent filming of The Last Word

By JESSICA SHACKLETON

If you walked by The Great Escape Book Store on Kingston Road last week and wondered what was going on, we have the answer.

Don’t worry, though the store looked like it was vandalized, it was only closed for a film shoot.

Owner Katya Nosko said there’s a general location registry that film companies shooting in Toronto can access, but The Great Escape is not on the list.

“Whatever they were finding wasn’t working for the vibe of the movie because it needs an old-fashioned feeling bookstore, somewhere you might go in and say, ‘Is it dusty in here? These are old books!’ They came, they looked, and decided that this was the spot,” said Nosko of how here shop ended up playing a key role in the filming for The Last Word.

A cozy atmosphere was essential to the plot, and The Great Escape fit the bill. It only took a few weeks for production to start once the location was decided on.

In the past few months, the shop has also been used for a documentary and for a film by students at the Toronto Film School. Filming means the shop has to close, said Nosko, so they don’t do it too often.

“Even if I’m closed and I’m in there, usually there’s someone at the door wanting to come in. So this particular time, there were people saying, ‘Hey, can we come in!’” she said.  

The Last Word is a short film about a chronically online “bookfluencer” who relies on an AI app to tell her which books are safe to read and an unplugged bookseller who challenges her to stop outsourcing her thinking and start trusting her own curiosity, said writer and director Sarah Morford.

Though Morford is based in Los Angles, the film stars Beach residents Natalie Jane and Michael Hanrahan. The director of photography, Adam Crosby, also grew up in the East Toronto area.

“The shop is really a secondary character in the story, which meant it required careful ‘casting.’ I spent hours scouring Google Maps from afar, hoping to find a space that invoked a sense of wonder and that rare, authentic nostalgia you just can’t manufacture,” Morford told Beach Metro Community News.

“The first time I walked into The Great Escape, I knew I had found my store. Katya has curated a space that is whimsical, cozy, and eclectic. It’s a booklover’s dream, and it became the visual heart of the film.”

When the climax was being shot, Morford realized that she had selected a special spot.

“The scene involves the bookstore being heavily vandalized, and after our art department transformed the space over a single lunch break, the community reaction was immediate. A number of residents stopped by, distressed to see their local shop in such a sad state,” said Morford.

“It really warmed my heart to see how much they care for the place. Of course, no actual damage was done, and by the time some returned with friends to show them the “crime scene,” the store was back to normal. That’s the magic of filmmaking.”

The Great Escape Book Store has been on Kingston Road for more than 50 years, and has seen shifts in the reading habits of customers in that time.

Morford said the film’s content is important now because the realities of what’s behind a screen and what’s outside the window are blurring.

Books, and what we can learn from them, continue to have an important place in society and the discussion of ideas, as something that surrounds a bookstore, added Nosko. 

For local residents wondering how Scout, the dog familiar to anyone who’s visited The Great Escape Book Store, dealt with the disruption of filming, the answer is he loved having The Last Word’s production crew around

Though Toronto often portrays other cities on screen, at least one aspect will remain the same when The Last Word reaches audiences.  

“What was nice is that they wanted to keep the name of the store. They asked for permission to be able to use it as The Great Escape, so I was, of course, thrilled by that,” said Nosko.