Grown Ups Actors Go To Middle School

set up a school within a school Tuesday at Forest Avenue where make believe Stanton and real life Swampscott occasionally bumped into each other in the hallways.

Swampscott mom Lyn Blum said she arrived to the late in the morning to pick up her son, Nate, a sixth grader, for an appointment.

Nate was in a mostly empty hallway heading out to meet her when he turned and, to his amazement, saw, she said.

“Did you say anything to him?” she asked her son.

“I couldn’t think of anything to say,” he told her.

The middle school was home to Hollywood sets — inside and outside. 

Outside, later in the day, after the school day was over, cameras and lighting hovered above a bus stop with a yellow Stanton School District bus parked at the curb.

Inside, during the school day, filming took place on the third floor, in the fifth grade wing where a history class was transformed to a French class.

Dozens of students from other schools were hired to act as movie extras, playing students in a school packed wth real students.

Several of the Swampscott kids saw members of the cast but mostly at a distance as the kids were navigating hallways between lockers and classrooms.

Students Jordan Cox and Anna Cilley said they got to see or say hi to Adam Sandler or Alexander Ludwig.

What did Jordan think?

“Cool,” he said.

Sixth grader Youssef Baba was a little annoyed that he had to struggle to get to his locker when a logjam erupted over a star sighting.

Still, he said it was cool to have scenes shot in his school.

He wants to see the movie — and especially his school — if his parents let him, he said.

His mom, sitting nearby, said she’ll let him go so long as the movie is appropriate for kids to see.

Parent Lyn Blum said she thinks the movie shoots in town are good for the town, overall, so long as the rental income the town is getting is put to good use.

And as far as having a school within school, Stanton in Swampscott, she said she did not object so long as the movie making was not disruptive to the students' education.