BTS: The Most Fun Sleep-Away Camp EVER.

AKA, filming "The Clique" in 2008.

Ellen Marlow

Feb 21, 2025

“What was it like filming The Clique?”

“Did you all get along?”

“Where did you shoot?”

Questions I receive daily.

Let’s go back to 2008. I was in the Eighth Grade, living in Juicy Couture, constantly going over my texting limit, and waiting to turn fourteen. I had read all of The Clique books released at that time before my first audition. My best friends and I would devour these stories, gossip about the Pretty Committee as if they were our friends, and even assign each other characters (funny enough, I was deemed an Alicia).

After months of grueling auditions, I was finally offered the role of Claire Lyons. Two weeks later, the five of us and our parents/guardians met at LAX to head to Newport, Rhode Island for six weeks. For a full length film, this shoot was very quick - and challenging.

We were in Rhode Island in the dead of Winter, (the temperature was in the teens or below zero, the entire six weeks) on a very tight shooting schedule. We were limited to only doing two or three takes, so you had to be on your game. It was hard, but we felt like the luckiest girls in the world to be there. We worked hard, but we played equally as hard.

SO many incredible memories. My fourteenth birthday, was the day we shot the infamous red paint scene. We had Friday night sleepovers - just like the books! Karaoke parties, touring the Newport Mansions, playing dress-up with our brilliant costume designer, and countless inside jokes. We laughed until we cried, talked about boys back home, and filmed ridiculously over the top home videos that we edited in iMovie. I never went to Summer Camp, but this experience is the closest thing that I can imagine. We were living and working on top of each other for six weeks, and loving every minute. I had four new best friends. We SOBBED on the last day of shooting and at the wrap party. We didn’t want it to end. It's funny; when I watched the movie with my boyfriend recently, it was challenging for me to view it as an audience member. Every two seconds I was remembering things that happened on set and dropping my commentary.

“That was the day that Elizabeth had to stand in a tent in front of space heaters”.

“After filming the egg scene, I went to the school room and cried because it felt so real. The other girls huddled around me, giving me hugs and apologizing.”

“My stunt double that looks exactly like me from behind was actually a very sweet forty five year old woman.”

“It was ten degrees that day, and they made us suck on ice cubes so our breath wouldn’t show on camera.”

“My brother was visiting set that day.”

“Those shoes were so uncomfortable and I had blisters for a week.”

I remember everything. We had a blast, and were devastated when it came to an end. All of us were contracted for three films, and when we got word that the sequels weren’t happening, we were gutted, but just tried to quickly move on with our lives.

Cut to 2025. We’re still in touch, have gotten together here and there over the years, and laughed over the shenanigans that we used to get into. But mostly, we still feel so much pride for this thing that we made together seventeen years ago.

I hear the phrase “The Clique is my comfort movie” daily, and I’m so unbelievably honored to have been a part of it.

Thank you for loving this series, and for loving the movie after so many years. We sure loved making it.

Ellen