Port Hope mayor welcomed author Stephen King to town
PORT HOPE — With filming of Largo, the sequel to It, in full swing, Port Hope Mayor Bob Sanderson said the cast and crew have become part of the community — including author Stephen King who recently visited.
Sanderson got to meet the American author on the set while filming at a downtown Port Hope business on Sept. 11.
“It was lovely, he is a lovely man,” he said of the encounter, adding that King is down to earth and casual. Stephen King himself absolutely loves the community. I don’t think everybody recognizes him so he did go out and it was an incognito sort of thing.”
Sanderson said they shared a laugh when King pointed to the button for re-election he was wearing and said, “If I lived here I would vote for you.
“It was an absolute pleasure to welcome him to the town and we gave him a couple gifts from the community,” Sanderson said.
“I will follow up since I generally follow up with letters from the community. I often do that and try to do it whenever I get to meet somebody.”
Sanderson said he feels it’s his obligation to welcome everyone to the community, whether it’s new ministers forming the government or the author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense and science fiction himself.
“Mr. King himself, the director and the crew are just great,” the mayor added. “They have become part of the community.”
While he admitted that filming throughout the municipality is “a little disruptive,” Sanderson said there is no question everybody is tolerant of it.
“This filming will go on and the community has really engaged with it and are enjoying it,” he said.
Asked about King’s impressions of Port Hope, Sanderson said he likes small towns so he felt comfortable and welcome.
“He did meet some of the people here because he wanted to, and he was very gracious in making his time available,” he said, pointing out that the author was busy while on the set, putting in 12 hours on the day he saw him.
“He is very generous in his comments and I gave him an election button even though he can’t vote for me.”
With filming expected to continue until at least the end of the month, Sanderson said he has been amazed with all the transformation the crews had undertaken.
“A lot of what they do I think shows the community what could be done. We get a lot of comments about Paul Bunyan in the park and whether we can keep him ... so we know there are some things we can do to enhance things, with Memorial Park being one for sure.”