on one occasion. Sometimes two directors came in on the same
day. That had its challenges too.
"One location that provided flexibility was a vacant hospital. We
had Kathy's lab in there and all of the memorial hospital interior
scenes, where they did a cat-and-mouse sequence," St-Arnaud
says. "We could easily go in and out of that place if we needed to.
"Some days we had double-up units. One episode was shooting at
one location and another episode was shooting at another loca-
tion. There would be split days, and Unit A and Unit B might be
on different floors of the hospital with different directors, but they
would be sharing the crew—same makeup and same hair. That
was a bit challenging. We had that maybe three or four days."
Filming action scenes was touchy. "We had a terrible event here
in a Montreal college about 15 years ago where students were
shot," St-Arnaud says. "Since then, Anastasia's Law was imple-
mented, and you can't have guns out in public near a school or
Photo
courtesy
of
Michèle
St-Arnaud/LMGI
university. We had to deal with that situation twice. We installed
a very closed set so the public could not see anything. Filming at
night also helped. That's how we got permitted by the provincial
government. The gunfire itself was not a problem. Today, you
can do gunshots that are not too loud. They are emphasized in
post-production.
"The biggest challenge was shooting in the Metro tunnels because
those were real Metro tunnels and Metro stations, and we don't
have any that are really vacant, so you have to work around very
limited availability." The Montreal Metro was standing in for the
DC Metro because filming in the actual DC Metro was too com-
plicated, according to LM Pridemore. "The DC Metro is one of
the most restrictive locations in the city, other than the CIA," she
says. "The Metro has very, very limited work hours, and you're
not allowed to do anything that's illegal in real life. Characters
can't run or jump over turnstiles or push people around or do
anything of a criminal nature. Someone is watching you every
minute. They don't leave you alone. And because they eliminat-
ed the Film Office for the Metro, the person who hosts you has
three other jobs and is not always available to be with you."
"Our hero location was at McGill University," St-Arnaud says. "It
was very busy, but they really worked hard to accommodate us.
The university stood in for the exterior of the hospital and for
Cathy Mueller's father's office (a scene cut from the final edit.)"
Mueller, played by Abbie Cornish, is an infectious disease doctor
and Ryan's romantic interest.
Describing one of her more stressful locations, St-Arnaud says,
"When they're driving toward the hospital going after the ambu-
lance, that location involved 20 blocks of downtown at night. We
