COLUMBUS — He arrived at the back door like a gangster should, well hidden from the street by a large tree and carriage house.

With such a special guest coming to her home in Columbus, Mary Poser knew sacrifices would have to be made — like finding a different place to sleep in the house she has owned since 1952.

"I couldn't use my bedroom anymore, I had to move," said the 85-year-old. "That was the brothel."

With the guest arriving just outside, family called Mary to come out of the house and meet Johnny.

"Johnny. Johnny who?" she said as she stepped outside.

"That's what I ask myself every morning when I look in the mirror," replied Depp, who was standing just a few feet away.

With vintage cars parked in the driveway, 1930s period furniture in the house and people everywhere, the Poser mansion on Charles Street became Columbus' classy brothel last year for its only customer — Johnny Depp.

And it was Mary Poser who had the honor of giving up her bedroom for a few weeks for a love scene for the movie "Public Enemies," which opens Wednesday.

"They gave us the opportunity to stay in Chicago, and they would put us up anyplace, but we didn't want to leave our home," Poser said of the film company that shot in spring 2008 in Columbus.

In the film, the Poser mansion will be one of the local stars, playing a brothel and the office of gangster Frank Nitti.

"We've all been kind of laughing. I have a feeling that probably the part that's even our house will go so fast you'll think, 'is that a stairway?'" Poser said.

The invasion

It's not easy becoming a brothel.

There are people carrying furniture in and out, electricians running power cords and truck drivers ready to move the home's original items to storage.

And when a director doesn't like the wallpaper put up in the brothel bedroom for the love scene, prep work must be done again.

"So they redid the room, painted it and put it back to what it was (after shooting)," said Heidi Poser, Mary's daughter.

And on the day of filming, more than 100 people are around to help make the love scene come to life.

"We call it the invasion," Poser joked of the filming process, where countless people descended upon her home for a week in March and the month of May prepping for two days of filming.

The entire Poser family got to meet Depp and Cotillard, and watched a portion of the shooting from an attic window so they would be out of the way.

"At one point, 16 of our family (members) were up in that upper attic window all hovering and fighting for space to watch what was going on down here," Poser said.

"We tried clearly to not be in the way, but the whole family, and of course I have a number of granddaughters, could not wait to see Johnny Depp. He's extremely gracious and had his picture taken with the girls, who were smitten," she said.

Poser also had her picture taken with Depp, and the photo sits on a mantel in the house.

The house

Along a quiet street in Columbus, the Craftsman-era Poser mansion graces a half block.

Its 13 rooms are large, with a grand staircase and paneled woodwork that still looks new.

What's impressive about the home is more than its attention to detail and how well its original look is preserved. What's unique is Poser is only the second owner of the house, which was built in 1900.

The home was originally owned by Frederick Chadbourn, who was president of the First National Bank in Columbus at the time. Along Charles Street, the Chadbourn family also owned the house next door, and a brother lived across the street.

"We haven't changed it. We think it's a house that should be well kept up," Poser said, adding that only the kitchen is not its original look, and sun rooms were added in 1928.

While she is from Massachusetts, Poser said her grandparents on both sides are from Wisconsin, and her parents attended the University of Wisconsin, where Poser met her husband, Rolf.

"My father-in-law was German. He became a real horse-and-buggy doctor right here in Columbus. He had four sons. Three became doctors and one was a lawyer. And I was married to one of the doctors," she said.

When the Chadbourn family decided to sell the house in 1952, they were looking for another family who would keep it in pristine condition.

At the time, there was inquiry about the place being bought and turned into a nursing home.

"The owners lived right next door knew, and they were right, that this should never have been made into a nursing home. It would have been ruined," Poser said.

The house only sat empty for a few months before the Posers purchased it and moved their two children in.

"When we moved in, we were used to living in an upstairs apartment and this was a pretty big house. And the first night in the house, it was kind of windy and cold and one of my sons, who was about 3, kept calling to me, 'who were those people coming up the stairs,'" Poser said of the noises the house made because of the weather.

The Posers raised all six of their children in the home.

Learning to make a movie

There are things just right about her house, Mary Poser said, that makes it a good place to film a movie.

But it was more than the vintage look.

"One was we have big halls," she said, sitting out in the courtyard with mint iced tea on a hot afternoon. "The halls enable them to put a camera in where they can film into the room."

The open spaces outside were another.

The Poser mansion has a large courtyard in back with a carriage house with garage doors on both sides so a car could drive right through.

"They didn't (drive through) though, but they thought they might," Heidi said of the filming.

The courtyard made for a nice welcome area.

"Cotillard comes out of (the house) and Johnny walks out of (the carriage area), so there's this nice connection," Poser said.

"We learned a lot about filming just having them here."

While her bedroom was doubling as a brothel, Poser and her family lived in the basement. But it had the comforts of home: a refrigerator, running water and a microwave. And everyone involved with the filming was polite.

"From the truck drivers to (director) Michael Mann, there was not a sour note. People were very nice, able to get along and considerate," Poser said.

But the mansion's days on the silver screen may be over.

"It was neat to look at. We wouldn't give up having done it for a million dollars, but we wouldn't do it again, either."

On Tuesday evening, 25 members of the Poser family will head to Madison for the premiere to see their home on the big screen next to Depp.

"We can't wait," Poser said.

But there was more to the experience of having a blockbuster movie filmed at their home.

"It's a special thing to have happen and it's pretty exciting," Poser said. "You really learn the basic lesson that people are people, and it doesn't matter what their status is in life, but they're other humans driving to do whatever they can."