Eliza Dushku

It was just like any other day on Roslindale’s Canterbury Street last week. Except outside No. 1082, where former New Kids on the Block star Joey McIntyre held Eliza Dushku of "Buffy the Vampire" fame in his arms as cameras rolled and onlookers stopped for double takes.

"Joey! Joey!" yelled one driver as he passed the house, which sits across from Sacred Heart School.

The filming was part of West Roxbury native Dave McLaughlin’s independently produced film "On Broadway," featuring McIntyre, Dushku, Amy Poehler of "Saturday Night Live" and her husband, Will Arnett of "Arrested Development." McLaughlin, who wrote the play "God Willing" and "Southie" before that, is the writer and director of the film.

The move takes place in Jamaica Plain, but McLaughlin found the Roslindale house more than fitting. Both the inside and outside were used for the movie. The location is just one of several McLaughlin will use from around the city.

"There’s a great variety of architectural vocabulary and a great variety of people around here," he said in between filming scenes in the house. "There’s energy to inform the story."

Canterbury Street is not too distant from where he used to hang out when he was younger.

"I used to play sports," said McLaughlin. "CYO basketball, Parkway Little League. I was always down at Billings Field."

McLaughlin, the son of a Boston College professor and Boston Public Schools teacher, was focused on playwriting since college, when he picked up a series of 12 books about screenwriting.

McLaughlin, who went to St. Theresa’s, Roxbury Latin and then Catholic Memorial, attended to the same college his father taught, but "I left college for a couple of years to do some writing."

Before he graduated college, he had sold his first play: "Southie," which won the Jury Prize for Best American Independent Film at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival.

After graduating Boston College in 1995, McLaughlin had a variety of jobs.

"I tended bar, worked in a bar, sanded floors," he said.

But all the while, he had his own vision of what he ultimately wanted to do.

McLaughlin’s latest project is about a couple (McIntyre plays the husband, Jack O’Toole) who are just starting out married when Jack’s godfather dies after falling from a roof. O’Toole, driven by the voice of his godfather, writes and then produces a play "on the only stage he can afford:" the back room of a local pub.

"This is where he and his wife live," said McLaughlin, looking around the kitchen of 1082 Canterbury.

McLaughlin looked to actors with Boston roots - McIntyre, Dushku and Poehler are all Boston natives - although the cast and crew come from New York and Los Angeles as well.

"It gives you this core of authenticity," he said. "A lot of them have strong ties to Boston."

He also turned to his own family.

"My brother Frank is a police officer," said McLaughlin, who now lives in the South End with wife Beth. "He’s an extra as a cop in the funeral scene."

McLaughlin also utilized his nieces and nephews in some other scenes.

As the cameras focused on McIntyre and Dushku and McLaughlin intensely focused on the scene, next-door neighbors Ed and Eleanor McCabe wondered out on their front porch to watch and take photos with their disposable camera.

"It’s terrific," said Eleanor, a former Boston Public Schools teacher. "They are wonderful."

It just so happened that Eleanor went to Boston College with McLaughlin’s father.

"They’re a beautiful family," she said.

Within the next minute, Ed was whisked away by a production assistant to be an extra in one of the scenes. "Let’s get you into wardrobe," the assistant said.

McLaughlin isn’t sure what he’s going to do next. First, he’s got to think about the six months that he’ll spend editing and doing post-production work. He’s hoping to enter the movie in the Sundance Film Festival.

"I’m keeping my eye on the ball," he said.