Southport has been home to a lot of big movies over the years. The small town charm and unique buildings provide a wonderful background for numerous Hollywood hits.
“A Walk to Remember,” starring a then-17-year-old Mandy Moore and Shane West shot scenes in Southport’s Old Smithville Burying Ground and other locations in the spring of 2001, as well as at nearby Orton Plantation.
In 1986, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek came to town for a film version of the Beth Henley play “Crimes of the Heart,” directed by Australian Bruce Beresford. The Northrup House at 229 N. Caswell Ave., which served as the fictional Magrath sisters’ home in the movie, became known locally as “the ‘Crimes of the Heart’ house.” The film also used the Old Brunswick County Jail , the old Harrelson’s IGA building, Harrell’s Department Store and Dosher Memorial Hospital.
The Southport-Fort Fisher ferry and the Southport ferry landing appeared in the 1991 comedy “The Butcher’s Wife,” starring Demi Moore and Jeff Daniels, and the 1993 comedy “Amos and Andrew,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and Nicolas Cage.
“I Know What You Did Last Summer,” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, her future husband Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ryan Philippe shot scenes with the Amuzu Theater and much of Howe, Moore and Short streets for the horror film. Film crews had to age and stress a number of structures to make Southport resemble a rundown fishing port.
The Southport Fire Department made it’s debut in “Holy Joe,” a 1999 TV movie starring the late John Ritter as an Episcopal priest who doubles as a volunteer firefighter.
The Southport waterfront can be spotted in the 1997 period crime drama “This World, Then the Fireworks,” the 1996 TV movie “The Crying Child” and the 1992 Disney Channel movie “Spies.” Since the feature was supposed to be taking place on Long Island during World War II, some palm trees had to be camouflaged. A boat was blown up at a marina for the 1994 TV movie “The Birds II.” And much of “Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding” with Halle Berry was shot at The Brunswick Inn, 301 E. Bay St.
You can also spot Southport locations in old episodes of “Matlock,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “American Gothic.” Our little town on the water has made it’s way into the glitz and glam of the big screen, but it’s still just our small town.
Perhaps the best known movie filmed in Southport is “Safe Haven” a 2013 American romantic drama fantasy thriller film starring Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel and Cobie Smulders from the novel by North Carolina’s own Nicholas Sparks.
The film marked the final film role for actor Red West. It was released theatrically in North America on February 14, 2013. The film was directed by Lasse Hallström, and is an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ 2010 novel of the same name.
