Memories From The Set: Nikki DeLoach
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CASTLE
Here's a story you'll want to share with every mom ever: Nathan Fillion is "exactly what you see on television," DeLoach insists. "He's funny, he's irreverent, he's sarcastic. Also, I walked into my trailer [after filming a 2015 episode] to find a handwritten note from him, just thanking me for being on the show, with a gift certificate to Drybar. I've worked in this business for 32 years, and that was the first time I saw the lead actor on a show do something like that. What a class act."
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NORTH SHORE
As if the stunning location of this 2004 Fox drama wasn't enough of a draw ("The crew would go surfing on our lunch break!"), working on North Shore also allowed DeLoach to act alongside Kristoffer Polaha (with whom she eventually reunited on Awkward), Jason Momoa ("He's a huge movie star now!") and the legendary Shannen Doherty, who gave DeLoach her family's top-secret turkey recipe for Thanksgiving — one she has used many times since. DeLoach maintains, "It's the best turkey I've ever had."
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AWKWARD
At 30 years old, DeLoach didn't think MTV would take her seriously as the mother of a high school freshman, but she auditioned against all odds — and killed it. In fact, series creator Lauren Iungerich reacted so positively to DeLoach's performance ("Oh my God, you're her!") that she shared Lacey's big secret about the "care-frontation" letter. "Besides Lauren and myself — and Erin Ehrlich, the other showrunner and writer — no one else really knew. I kept that secret for a whole year."
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MAD MEN
DeLoach looks back on her 2015 episode of Mad Men as "probably the most intense day of work I've ever had in my life." She explains, "On Awkward, we'd shoot a whole episode in four days. Here, I was in one scene, and we shot that all day long. ... I had this cherry top with these red pants. I was a stage mom and I had to come in and yell at Elisabeth Moss. Like, 'Hi, I'm Nikki DeLoach and I'm going to yell at you for the next 14 hours.' The fact that it was one of the most critically acclaimed shows on television made it a little intimidating."
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GREY'S ANATOMY
While filming a scene opposite Jessica Capshaw in 2015, DeLoach heard "a familiar voice" coming from down the hall. "Suddenly, Jessica grabs my hand and looks at me, and she's like, 'Don't look now. I don't want to freak you out. But that is Denzel Washington,'" DeLoach recalls. After explaining that Washington was there to shadow the director, Capshaw added, "I just don't want you to lose your mind, because right now, I'm about to vomit, I'm so nervous." DeLoach calls the experience "the most surreal thing. He's a movie star. When you're in his presence, you just feel it."
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AWKWARD, cont'd.
"Ashley [Rickards] didn't even know," DeLoach says of the big reveal. "The reaction that you see in that final scene in the first season when she finds out ... is the real thing. Everyone thought it was going to be either Sadie or Matty. I think Ashley was prepared for it to be Matty. It was such a cool way to unravel that."