Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Ozark
    • The Masked Singer
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      Your guide to 2022's biggest tours

      From Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Weeknd, here are all the artists who can't wait to get on the road again. Read More
    • Your guide to the 2022 TV premiere dates

      Your guide to the 2022 TV premiere dates

      Read More
    • The 20 most anticipated books of 2022

      The 20 most anticipated books of 2022

      Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Ozark
    • The Masked Singer
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. Once Upon a Time 100th episode: Cast reveals favorite memories from shooting the pilot

Once Upon a Time 100th episode: Cast reveals favorite memories from shooting the pilot

In honor of the 100th episode, we look back to where it all began
Natalie Abrams
By Natalie Abrams Updated March 02, 2016 at 03:06 PM EST
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

'Once Upon a Time' hits 100 episodes

'Once Upon a Time' hits 100 episodes
Credit: ABC

In honor of the ABC fairy tale drama's landmark episode, EW hit the set of Once Upon a Time, where the original cast and executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis shared their fondest memories of shooting the pilot.

 

1 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Josh Dallas on the famous kiss

Josh Dallas on the famous kiss
Credit: Jack Rowand/ABC

"I can remember distinctly that it wasn't the first day that I filmed on the pilot; it might've been the second or the third," Dallas says. "It was the wake-up scene where Charming kisses Snow. She wakes up and she's surrounded by the dwarves in the woods and she's in that wood-log coffin with the glass top on it. You can see her lying there looking very beautiful and very Snow White-esque. He rides up on the horse. We were filming deep in the woods in this beautiful place. On that day, right when we started shooting that scene, it started to snow. It was symbolic of the whole scene. We were shooting, in live action, one of the most famous and well-known fairy tale scenes that there is, the true love's kiss, and it just started to snow. It was a special moment."

 

2 of 10

3 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Edward Kitsis on the glass coffin

Edward Kitsis on the glass coffin
Credit: Jack Rowand/ABC

"We decided that the coffin would be a hollowed-out tree," Kitsis says. "We really hollowed out a tree. We were two hours away, there was no cell service, it was snowing, and we brought Ginny out in that gown. We knew her from Big Love, and we were fans, but we weren't really friends yet; we barely knew her. We wrote the part for her, she said yes, [and] we were shocked.  We brought her out to the set and there she sees she has to be in this dress in the cold getting snowed on and lay in this hollowed-out tree trunk. She has this look on her face. She goes, 'Is that the coffin?' and we said, 'Yes.' Inside, I'm like, 'Oh God, this is going to be a problem.' We were like, 'Yeah, what do you think?' She just looked at it and goes, 'F---ing awesome.'"

 

3 of 10

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lana Parrilla on the Evil Queen's entrance

Lana Parrilla on the Evil Queen's entrance
Credit: ABC

"I would say the first time we meet the Evil Queen at the wedding," Parrilla says. "That was my first day as her. It was my first day in full costume, hair, and makeup. I remember being very nervous and had my music playing on my iPod and I was really focused. I just wanted to do great and I wanted to do great for Regina. I wanted her to be the character that they've created and so much more. I remember when those doors flung open, even though they weren't really there, just looking up and making that entrance was something that was very powerful for me as this character. I learned that that's what she does; she knows how to make an entrance. That's how she intimidates people. It was the fun; the joy in it and also the real truth of this pain and anger and resentment that she's been carrying all these years.

"That was very informative for me moving forward with Regina and playing the Evil Queen, how she holds on to the past and she lets the past dictate her future and the choices that she makes, but she was in a very particular place in that time in her life and she didn't have love. She wasn't happy. Even though her father had been giving her that message and trying to show her a better way, she didn't respect him. She never trusted him and she was blinded by her hatred and resentment for Snow. It's only when we jump forward into Storybrooke when she adopts Henry, she learns from him that she can be happy. He brings that happiness into her life, but ultimately it's the love that does."

 

4 of 10

Advertisement

5 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Edward Kitsis on that big wedding

Edward Kitsis on that big wedding
Credit: ABC

"It was the wedding," Kitsis says. "There was just something about Lana in that costume, and Snow and Charming, and seeing all the people and dwarves come in. I remember we were cranking Ziggy Stardust — me, [pilot director] Mark Mylod and Adam — from behind video village just to get everyone excited, because we wanted it to be a Bowie wedding. There was something about, 'Wow, this was an idea that Adam and I had 11 years earlier,' and to see it actually coming to life was one of those rare times where one of your dreams come true."

 

5 of 10

6 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Robert Carlyle on shooting underground

Robert Carlyle on shooting underground
Credit: ABC

"I was only in two scenes in the pilot," Carlyle says. "The introduction of Rumplestiltskin in the cell was a massive moment that established the character from then on. That's a great memory for me. Where we shot it as well, that wasn't shot in the studio. It looks like it when you look at it because that set was recreated for future episodes. We first shot that in the Britannia Mines, which is in Squamish just outside Vancouver below the surface of the earth. It was quite an interesting place to go to work. It certainly helped the atmosphere in that scene. That was my biggest memory of the pilot and creating the voice and the character that Rumplestiltskin then became." 

 

6 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Adam Horowitz on Rumplestiltskin coming to life

Adam Horowitz on Rumplestiltskin coming to life
Credit: ABC

"One of the moments I'll never forget was being on location for Rumplestiltskin's jail cell," Horowitz says. "We had written the part for Robert Carlyle. We had been huge fans forever and had been dying to work with him. We were so thrilled he had agreed to do this part, but we hadn't seen what he was going to do. He was in the cave, he was in his costume and in the rehearsal he didn't do anything — he was saving it all for camera. When the director yelled 'Action' and he dropped down from the shadows and yelled out at Snow White, it was the most startling transformation."

 

7 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Jennifer Morrison on Emma's arrival in Storybrooke

Jennifer Morrison on Emma's arrival in Storybrooke
Credit: ABC

"It was such a blur," Morrison says. "I was still working on How I Met Your Mother when I was shooting the pilot, so I was going back and forth between the two shows. I was delirious the whole time, I feel like. I remember when we were shooting the scene where Emma pulls into Storybrooke with the yellow bug for the first time with Henry in the car, and he's been talking non-stop the whole journey from Boston. She gets out of the car and slams the door. 'All right! Enough!' There was just something about that moment where I think that was the first time I really felt Emma in my bones. There was just something about that scene where it all clicked. It felt like a part of me."

 

8 of 10

Advertisement

9 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Ginnifer Goodwin on the destructive curse

Ginnifer Goodwin on the destructive curse
Credit: ABC

"The pilot was so magical," she says. "As a professional, blowing up the nursery when the curse hit was a pretty insane experience. I'd never been part of something like that before."

 

9 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 10

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Jared Gilmore on the magic of the clock coming to life

Jared Gilmore on the magic of the clock coming to life
Credit: ABC

"That was a very good scene," he says. "My favorite part about that one is him preparing to look out the window to see the clock move, because it was such an interesting moment to see what Henry does in his spare time. He turns on his music and looks out the window. That was a nice and fun scene to film. I also remember all the scenes driving in the car with Emma were really fun and cool to film, because it was the first time I've ever done something like that."

 

10 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

  • By Natalie Abrams @NatalieAbrams

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 10 'Once Upon a Time' hits 100 episodes
    2 of 10 Josh Dallas on the famous kiss
    3 of 10 Edward Kitsis on the glass coffin
    4 of 10 Lana Parrilla on the Evil Queen's entrance
    5 of 10 Edward Kitsis on that big wedding
    6 of 10 Robert Carlyle on shooting underground
    7 of 10 Adam Horowitz on Rumplestiltskin coming to life
    8 of 10 Jennifer Morrison on Emma's arrival in Storybrooke
    9 of 10 Ginnifer Goodwin on the destructive curse
    10 of 10 Jared Gilmore on the magic of the clock coming to life

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    Once Upon a Time 100th episode: Cast reveals favorite memories from shooting the pilot
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.