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Once Upon a Time - Episode Commentary Notes

Episode: 4x01, A Tale of Two Sisters

Commentary By: Jennifer Morrison, Eddy Kitsis, & Adam Horowitz

Quote:

Jennifer Morrison: Elsa was a “crucial turning point for Emma because she was the first person in Emma’s life that had to deal with many of the same issues that Emma did. It was the first time Emma had a “real friend” who she could relate to. Elsa is a “pivotal part” of Emma embracing the magic within her. With regard to Emma bringing Marian back from the past and it’s effect on Regina: “How can you say ‘sorry’ for not letting someone die?” She had to treat Elsa’s dress as another person when rehearsing and shooting so she didn’t step on it or get in the way of it (or have it get in the way). Georgina was always cold. When she’s wearing sweaters and doing the intense emotional scenes, sometimes she just gets too hot (from the emotional intensity of portraying Emma in that moment), so that’s really the reason why Emma is in a tank top a couple of times this season (she specifically mentions the scene in the station where she’s showing Hook the trinkets from her childhood). She always makes the magical elements of the show more real in her mind by relating them to and substituting them with something real in life. As a little girl, she loved to play dress-up with her friends. She had a red “Southern belle” gown and a blue one - the red one was her favorite. Emma’s magic (the way she uses it physically) is very much influenced by Elsa, so she put “Emma’s spin on Elsa’s magic” and tried to put some of Georgina’s and Elsa’s mannerisms into her own. When she’s channeling magic from a darker place (Cruella’s death was the example given), she doesn’t use Elsa’s mannerisms as inspiration, because Elsa didn’t influence her magic originating from a dark place. In those cases, her mannerisms and magic are more “raw and unformed.” She and Colin love working together and have a really good time: “We have such a good time working together. It’s one of those things where it’s so rare that, um, you just have that kind of ease with a co-worker when you need to have chemistry and you then can just be with someone and be like ‘Oh, okay. We don’t have to try to fake this.’” Eddy Kitsis: Jen had to ice her hands during breaks when she was shooting the interrogation scene with the Snow Queen in the sheriff station because she had to bang the table over and over and she couldn’t fake it. Jen goes for it - she’s usually been pretty bruised up by the end of the season. They wanted to parallel Anna and Elsa to Emma and Regina. When Regina chooses to save Marian from the snow monster, he feels as though “Regina herself was surprised she made the right decision” because most of her life was spent making the wrong decisions. When Jen and Colin are together as Emma and Hook it’s a writer favorite and a fan favorite. Emma and Regina “begrudgingly sort of realize by the end of the year that [they] are friends and [they] are family.” In the Sorcerer’s Hat, Rumple sees freedom and ultimate power, even though Belle should have been his happy ending. “He can’t resist the power.” Adam Horowitz: The room with Anna’s wedding dress was also Rumple’s tower, Rapunzel’s tower, Snow and Charming’s bedroom, and where Robin Hood was tortured, among other things. One of the editors did the “voice” of Sven.

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