Tuesday, October 27, 2020 by Gabrielle S. Martin
@Tot_For_Tot_Remakes is an Instagram account that has amassed a following of almost-15,000: it all began when Alex Zane started sharing pictures of recreated classic film scenes starring his daughter Matilda (age five).
Zane, who has served as a superior court prosecutor with the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office for over a decade, now lives in Hingham with his wife Jacqui and their two children, Matilda and Holden (age two).
Zane admits his inspiration behind the account was wanting a creative outlet during quarantine while the father-of-two was at home with his children: “It came to me in a flash, like when Newton was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching an apple fall from the tree,” he recalls.
“At one point, we were in the living room hanging out when Matilda climbed atop an old plastic car and started surfing on it. I ignored all parental instincts of concern and instead recalled the iconic scene in Teen Wolf where Mike J. Fox surfs on top of Stiles’ van.” Caught in his movie-scene memories, Zane gave Matilda a quick air guitar lesson and begged her to let him take a photo.
"I guess that’s a long way of saying I started the account to not lose my mind being stuck at home with my kids,” he says good-naturedly. As the account started to gain followers, Zane’s focus shifted: “Now, it’s become about offering people a little bit of humor in these tough times.”
For the next 10 weeks, Alex and Matilda would shoot new content for their followers once-a-day: “After quarantine restrictions eased up, we cut back to posting once a week,” he explains. “We now post a new photo every Thursday morning.”
So, what’s their criteria for selecting which iconic scene they’ll recreate?
“We look for scenes that are iconic enough that people will instantly recognize it, but doesn’t require too much ‘acting’ from Matilda or too much preparation on my part.” Zane describes. He then adds, “If you can think of any iconic movie images where a character is either standing still, smiling, or sleeping, let me know. That being said, I think we have an obligation to tackle the big dogs like Ghostbusters and Point Break.” (I agree, #CrazyforSwayze.)
As for their favorite films, Zane shares that his is The Social Network: “It’s the most important film of the last decade. It’s Citizen Kane with computer coders.” Meanwhile, Matilda’s favorite movie is “either whatever movie she just finished watching, or Babe. If she just finished watching Babe, it would definitely be Babe.”
Alternatively, Alex says his daughter’s favorite recreation was Bridesmaids. “Man, she kept that $16 Amazon wedding dress on for two days straight! She even biked around Bare Cove Park in that thing.”
“The only downside is that the fame has changed how Matilda goes out in public-she insists on wearing a mask to cover part of her face anytime we go into a building, restaurant, or business,” Zane says, showing his lighthearted sense of humor that graces our feed whenever we see @Tot_for_Tot_Remakes has uploaded a new post.
