Yes, it was outside, it was in the park in Vancouver, in the cold, in the rain. I knew what the physical conditions were going to be. I didn’t know about the rain. But I also knew that I had everybody’s support. We shot that scene the second day of filming in the episode and I was actually glad when it was over because we could get down to business, because we weren’t anticipating it anymore.
Stephen is so kind and, in many ways, protective of us as actors, but to me playing his mother, he said, ‘I just want you to know that if there anything you need for that scene, please speak up. If you want to be filmed first, you just say what you need.’ And I said, ‘thank you, sweetheart.’ But I knew that whatever happened that night it was going to be fine. And I took my contacts out and just went into a zone. And Willa went with me. And Stephen was going to go there. And we did one rehearsal and then Willa came over and just started hugging me and I said ‘we can’t go there right now.’
It was emotionally draining for all of us and the director barely talked to me during the rehearsal and during the filming of it. He barely mentioned anything, because we all came with everything. And I knew it. It was electrically charged and the crew didn’t speak. Everyone just stood there and there was very little chit chatting and frivolity. None of that.