Mrs. Baker wraps principal photography - July 15, 2001
On Friday morning, July 6th, Mrs. Baker wrapped production at 6 in the morning. The final scene to be filmed was one where Abbey Nielson discovers that the ghost of Mrs. Baker has started to physically transform her by cutting and dying her hair.

Abbey and the spirit of Mrs. Baker
"This was a long shoot," stated director and co-writer Kris Kristensen, "Eight days longer than it should have been." Kristensen is referring to the fact that after 8 days of principal photography the shoot was shut down for 24 hours in order to replace lead actress Katheryn Cain with Jen Taylor.

The decision to replace Cain was due to "creative differences." Producer and co-writer Brian McDonald added "Shutting down production was not an easy decision to make. We'd already invested all that time and money into the first week and half, but we had to do what was best for the film."

"We were very lucky that Jen was available to fulfill the role so readily," said co-producer Lisa Halpern. "If she had said no to Kris, I don't know what we would have done."

Taylor had previously read the role of Abbey at several live script readings for the producers. "Jen possessed the role of Abbey like Mrs. Baker herself," joked Kristensen. "I feel stupid for not hiring her in the first place. It was a foolish decision not to make."

There was also some concern as to how the crew would react to the change. "Generally most of the crew stood behind our decision. Actually several of them told me that they were proud of us for making such a tough call," said McDonald. Kristensen added, "Yeah, and these are people who were more or less working for minimum wage. Most of the crew stuck with us through the reshoots. A couple of crew had to leave for shows that were actually paying a living wage, but I can't blame them for that. You've got to pay your bills. I probably would have done the same."

The film now goes into post-production. The producers anticipate having the film ready for distributors around mid-October. Producer Scott Schill summed up his enthusiasm, "I'm afraid I wasn't able to be on set that often, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing come together. The days I did make it to set I overheard a couple of crew members referring to Marjorie (Nelson, aka Mrs. Baker) 'Man, she is creeping me out.' All the woman was doing was sipping a cup of tea."

"Yeah, but they were right. Marjorie was creeping us all out," added McDonald.