Diksha Sundriyal
2004’s ‘White Chicks’ follows the misadventures of two FBI agents who end up impersonating the girls they were supposed to protect. The film features Shawn and Marlon Wayans as Kevin and Marcus Copeland, who transform into Brittany and Tiffany Wilson (with the help of a lot of prosthetics and makeup) and spend a weekend being the girls, taking up their persona so well that no one, even suspects them of being someone else. They mingle with the Wilson sisters’ social circle and set camp at the Royal Hampton Hotel, where they keep all the stuff they need to turn in to the girls whenever needed. The hotel is lavish and very different from what Kevin and Marcus are used to. Being one of the primary locations of the movie, it is bound to attract the interest of the viewers.
The Royal Hampton is a Fictional Hotel in White Chicks
The events of ‘White Chicks’ take place over a weekend in the Hamptons. However, most of the filming locations are in British Columbia, Canada. The crew turned towards locations in Victoria and Chilliwack to create the Hamptons, where Kevin and Marcus spend a weekend. The filming for the scenes concerning the Royal Hampton, where the socialites descend for the final social event of the season, was filmed in Victoria.
Two different locations were used to create the Royal Hamptons for the movie. The exterior scenes were lensed at the Government House at 1401 Rockland Avenue in Victoria. This is where some of the funniest scenes in the movie take place, like Kevin and Marcus’ arrival as Brittany and Tiffany, where they are eve-teased by boys and break character to teach those boys a lesson. The location was also employed while filming the scene in which Latrell arrives at the hotel to pick up Marcus/Tiffany for their date. When they get in the car, Marcus plays “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, believing that Latrell, a black man, wouldn’t like it. But it turns out that this is Latrell’s favorite song, and he knows every beat and lyric by heart.
For the scenes taking place inside the hotel, the crew turned towards the Fairmont Empress Hotel at 721 Government Street in Victoria. Almost all interior scenes were filmed here, with different sections of the hotel being used for different things. The lobby scene, where Kevin and Marcus check into the hotel as Tiffany and Brittany and put their knowledge about the girls’ behavior, especially their entitlement to use, was filmed in the real hotel’s lobby. The crew also used the halls of the place to film the following scene, where Marcus and Kevin meet the Wilson sisters’ friends for the first time.
The Crystal Ballroom in the hotel was used for the scene featuring the charity auction SNOB, where Latrell wins a date with Marcus/Tiffany. This is one of the more important scenes in the movie, as it sets the chess pieces in motion as new information comes to light, giving Marcus and Kevin the opportunity to dig further into the identity of the kidnapper.
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