Was having breakfast, in a restaurant in Kansas City. My son noticed Paul Rudd was seated a table away from us. As we were leaving, I noticed he was done eating and just chatting with friends. I stopped and told him I enjoyed almost all his movies. (Yes, I actually said “almost all”). He asked me what I didn’t like, so I told him “Dinner For Schmucks”. He laughed and said, yeah, I understand.
I met Paul McCartney in 2013. I was just picking up some coffee and biscuits. Recognized him immediately when I turned to leave the store, my jaw dropped, I muttered “wow, your music fills my memories,” which was the first thing that came to mind when I saw him, it sounded so lame to me afterwards- but he smiled and said “well I think that’s a lovely thing to hear on a day like today” (it was raining and gloomy).
I’ll never forget it. My dad was a huge Beatles fan. Had every album. Played them every single day. He’d hum the songs while he worked in his garden.
Met Maya Angelou years and years ago. The woman was unequivocally gracious and perfect. I was about ten years old and I walked into a small neighborhood restaurant with my mother and grandmother and she was sitting at a table having coffee or tea with someone. I had just learned about her in school (we’re from the same parts) and recognized her. I pointed her out to my mom and grandmother we just gawked at her as we were waiting to be seated. She saw us staring and got up from her table to come over and introduce herself to us. She was smiling and so so kind. She even took pictures with us. It ended up being my grandmother’s Christmas card before she left us. I can honestly say I will remember Maya Angelou’s smile for the rest of my life. It was a lovely time and an even lovelier memory. Phenomenal woman indeed.
We, as humans, have a tendency to idolize those who impress us. People we think are the epitome of perfection, possessing qualities we dream of and work towards. Whether it’s an actor, musician, any other entertainer, social activist, political leader, or simply someone from your life, like a teacher or a friend – anyone can be someone’s idol.
Yet, what should be kept in mind is that most of the time when we idealize someone like that, we admire a perfect image of them that we came up with in our minds. Most often, we select the part of said person that we admire and tend to eliminate all the others we don’t really like.
Steve Buscemi: stayed for a couple weeks at a hotel where I was the night manager. I saw him every night, since he was working on a film that shot late into the evening.
Total class act, one of my favorite guests ever. He remembered my name, always stopped to say hi after his evening cigarette. Night shift workers are often ignored, so it was quite meaningful.
When he left early one morning, he came by the desk and said, stonefaced:
‘I am leaving for the weekend. Please tell everyone to leave my room alone. I will be back Monday. I will take this pillow with me.’
Steve Buscemi should have all the hotel pillows he wants.
Edit: Another hotel guest was an extra in the movie, and she cornered him for a bit at the front desk. She gushed that he was ‘so different in real life than the character you are playing in the movie!’ To which he (patiently and painstakingly) replied: ‘Well, yes, I was acting.’.
I met Ewan McGregor about 7 years ago in Geneva. He was hosting this big fundraiser and I was part of the crew putting on a show for the event.
After the show, instead of socializing with all the rich attendees for the soirée, he came downstairs where all the artists and the crew were having a drink and hung out with us for a couple of hours, great guy!
Back in 2013 when I was 15 I paid $500 for a Justin Bieber meet and greet (stupid, I know). He arrived over an hour late and did not interact or acknowledge any of us. He stood like a statue wearing sunglasses while 100 very obsessed teenage girls rushed in posed for a photo and were rushed back out. It was over in about 5 seconds. Thinking back now the whole situation was realllly sad. We knew it would be a really quick thing but he arrived so late that his crew came in and was telling us all it wouldn’t be a meet and greet but “a photo opportunity”. It was sad that all of these young girls were soooo excited to meet him and had paid a lot of money to do so and he and his team literally didn’t have a single care at all.
I understand at the time he was going through a lot and since then he has apologised a lot for his various antics, but he has never really apologised to the thousands of young girls that wasted hundreds of dollars for what would be a really terrible and heart breaking experience. Since then I’ve remained a mild fan but I have always sustained the impression that he doesn’t like and has no drive for his career and resents his fans.
A part of it comes down to something called “positive psychological projections” – a phenomenon where we project positive traits we want to have on that person we admire. Thus, we make them some kind of “ideal” being, which isn’t the most realistic thing. But it helps us psychologically.
You see, by admiring someone with certain qualities and values, we want to reflect them on ourselves, which can bring us happiness and energy for positive transformations.
Well I have never met Lauren Graham in person but my friend did and she told Lauren how much I love Gilmore Girls, Lauren gave me an autograph through my friend and the next time they met, Lauren asked my friend how I was doing and addressed me by my name!!!! I love her even more now that I know she’s an actor that appreciates fans.
Not that anyone expected any differently or better — but James Franco smells really really badly, often doesn’t speak/respond when directly spoken to (but will look at you like *you’re* the idiot) and made a suggestive innuendo out of something I said within the first 30 minutes of me working for him.
He also laughed when a PA fell over while setting up video village
Some other random run-ins from my former life:
Tim McGraw is really quiet and always smells like illegal substances, which frankly makes me like him more.
Danny McBride is the nicest actor I’ve ever worked with
Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon and his wife (Lilly Aldridge) are surprisingly down to earth and both stopped to hold a door open for me once
Taylor Swift had a giant, human-sized bird cage in the middle of her living room in her penthouse at The Adelicia building in nashville (not sure if she even still owns it).
I was a waitress at a celebrity hotspot for years. i’ve waited on so many celebs. the top nicest were : Pink, Matthew Perry, Britney Spears
the worst : the Olsen Twins (who at 22 years old got offended that i carded them for alcohol), and Jamie Lynn Spears, who threw a fit that we didn’t have sweet tea, then went on a rant about how she forgot she wasn’t in the south and how bad LA is lol.
At the same time, we shouldn’t build our whole identity on idolizing others, especially to an excessive level. There’s a difference between appreciation and pedestalization, and the latter should be avoided at all costs.
First of all, because it kind of dehumanizes them – by projecting total perfection on anyone, we put unrealistic expectations onto them, which not only forces them to act to certain standards, preventing them from just being human (which is the most common among celebrity idols), but can quickly lead us to misery.
As a young teen I was obsessed with all things Tolkien and I had a little Bilbo Baggins action figure I would take pictures of in random places having predicaments. When I heard the cast of the new Hobbit movie included Benedict Cumberbatch (who played Smaug the dragon) and that Benedict Cumberbatch & Mark Gatiss were in town promoting Sherlock (which I liked) I went with some friends to see the episode premier & hopefully get a picture of Bilbo with the actor playing Smaug. Mark Gatiss took one and was very sweet. BC said “it was an insult to the country of New Zealand” and walked away. It crushed me at the time haha, though now I think it’s hilarious…what did he even mean?? Also sad Martin Freeman was not there since he’s also in Sherlock.
Once met Amy Poheler at an ice cream shop, she was incredibly kind and didn’t mind the quick chat. She complimented my shirt, too.
When I was a teenager (2009 or 2010?) my friend and I ran into Jared Leto before a show of his. We asked for a picture, which he put a middle finger in the middle of his face, obstructing himself in the picture. He just walked off afterward and didn’t say anything.
We literally stood there in disbelief that we just met Jared Leto and he also told us to get lost, basically. Whenever I tell that people who’ve met him, they aren’t surprised.
Cillian Murphy was utterly lovely when I met him. Clever, engaged, and thoughtful. He answered people’s questions with care and interest, and he’s also devastatingly handsome! Obviously I’d seen him onscreen but it shocked me how good looking he was in real life. Cheekbones that could cut glass.
If they do something that doesn’t fit the image we have of them in our heads, it’s easy to get disappointed. Like the saying goes, “Never meet your idols (or heroes).” Basically, it entails that if you meet someone you highly admire, you’re bound to get upset after you realize that they’re far from the picture-perfect image in your head.
This can be attested by people who were not so lucky to meet their heroes. Quite a few stories like that are featured in today’s list. Most of them are about people meeting their favorite celebrities who, after certain run-ins, stopped being favored by them, as the meeting didn’t go so well.
I did a meet and greet at a con with Tom Holland in 2019. I was EXTREMELY nervous because duh, it’s Tom Holland. He was the nicest person ever. Gave me a big hug and asked me how I was doing. He could tell I was lowkey freaking out and told me everything was okay. It went quick but still felt personal. Love that man!!
I met Kit Harrington (after missing my chance to meet him a few years earlier). He was at a food market/court in Covent Garden trying to be very nonchalant. I walked over slowly, said hello and that I loved every scene he was in and was so happy to see him come back alive. He smiled, looked genuinely happy and even shook my hand. I didn’t ask for a picture because he clearly didn’t want that kind of attention. Good experience.
My coworker’s daughter (9 at the time) met Raven Symone after winning a contest and she was really rude when she asked to take a picture with her. She said “You get a handshake or a picture and I just shook your hand so you’re done, go.”
On the reverse I met Tegan and Sara and was so completely star struck I couldn’t speak and Tegan said “Hi sweetie, do you want to take a picture with us?” And it’s one of my favorite memories haha.
Granted, there are enough cases of celebs proving them to be nice humans; not all of them are vicious animals. But still, the bad stories are still common enough to make a point that sometimes it’s best to leave the idolizing out of real life.
Have you ever met a person you admired? How did it go?
When I was 5 we were on the Martha’s Vineyard ferry. All I remember was my 20-something cousin grabbing me and putting me on some man’s lap and taking a photo. He was incredibly nice but I was so confused. I still remember to this day how weird it was to be put on a stranger’s lap!
Turns out it was Bill Murray and my dad treasures that photo to this day. He is so proud. They said he was very nice and they did ask first, but as a kid all I remember was just being placed in his lap lol.
Jack White. I got lucky going into his record shop on the right day, but I had just been dumped. I was sort of shopping to take my mind off things and was lowkey tearing up while I was listening to music. Well, I guess he noticed. Made me take my headphones out, and asked if I was okay. When I said not really, he gave me a hug and told me everything would work out in the end. Nicest experience I’ve ever had.
I worked at a mall J. Crew in college when Steve Carrell was filming “Evan Almighty” in town. He came in pretty regularly to buy socks and khakis and was always so chill. We all had a massive laugh one day when he came in to return something because store policy is to ask for photo ID and he just said, “Oh man, really?” and then everyone just laughed. He was such a good sport about it.
Sissy Spacek shopped at the same store a lot and she is a GEM of a human. Utterly delightful, kind, and generous.
Not really a “meet your hero” thing but many years ago I was (emphasis on “many years ago” and “was”) a fan of Dave Chapelle. He was doing a live show in our town, we waited in line for tickets, and were so excited to go. The show was AWFUL. He was so drunk that he could barely stand up, let alone speak or perform, and he basically just yelled at the audience and made some really gross comments about women and gay people. Needless to say, I stopped being a fan at that point and wasn’t surprised when his current problematic stances became well-known.
I’m old enough that people might not even know who I’m talking about but I met Kurt Vonnegut. He was a little abashed that I thought he was so cool and let him know it lol but he was very gracious and pretty funny.
Robin Williams a year before he left us when I was living in Chicago at Starbucks. My aunts were visiting from Wisconsin and he was so nice. He even told my aunt he was happy her grandkids loved hook.
I have two friends who have met Harry Styles (and the other 1D guys) multiple times and cannot say enough good things about him. Even when he was getting papped, he stopped to take a picture with them and made sure they were safe from the paparazzi.
I’ve never met a celeb but I live outside of Banff and tons of my friends work at the Fairmont and have met loads of them.
Nicest seems to always be Danny DeVito. 😂
Most rude is consistently Gerard Butler.
My expectations are low of all celebs but if I met Alanis Morissette and she was rude I would straight up walk into the ocean.
After a speaking event, I waited in line to have Jane Goodall sign a copy of one of her books. I’d never attended a book signing before, I don’t quite know what I thought would happen. The man in front of me in line spent a long time telling everyone how he was a career autograph hound. The closer I got to my turn, the worse I felt about being there at all. What was the point? Why was an autograph meaningful or worth money to others? Jane was clearly exhausted and made no eye contact. An employee took my book, Jane signed it and the employee returned it to me. It was…depressing! I don’t really blame her or myself, I was young and legitimately believed that she’d be pleased to know how much I enjoyed her book. She was old and probably very tired.
I wouldn’t say regret, but i definitely felt like an idiot after mine. i’m a lifelong, die-hard olsen twins stan. i met them twice at events and they were so lovely and chill and kind. then i happened to stumble upon them on the street in NYC (the famed street where they’re always spotted smoking). i had a job interview in the same building (unbeknownst to me) and when i turned the corner, there they were, smoking. i decided to shoot my shot, so i approached and told them i was a lifelong fan, and asked if i could take a photo with them. they said no, and gave me such a mean look i immediately felt awful for doing it. no one was around (it’s a quiet residential street) so i didn’t cause a scene or anything, but i really felt so dumb for bothering them. they were still semi-public at the time, giving interviews and such, but i understand now that they don’t want to be recognized and i respect that. i should’ve just walked away. 😔😔.
I loved Kelly Osborne back in the early 2000s (her album was better than you would expect, okay?). I got to meet her at a visit she did to the children’s hospital where I worked in the early 2010s and I was pumped to meet her. And she turned out to be just so lovely- funny and kind and generous with her time. She had such a sense of humor about herself and spent one on one time with every kid who wanted to say hi. She even hung out on the beanbags in the mental health ward and told all the kids there how it was going to be okay, she’d been through the same kind of issues and came through it, they would too.
I mentioned to her publicist at one point that I owned her CD, and publicist thought that was great and hilarious, and passed it on to Kelly, who was flattered and gave me a big hug. She was just an all round lovely person (that day, anyway) which tbh was not at all what I expected.
Used to work with Jon Hamm. God that man is handsome and charming. It was not a disappointing experience.
I was a background actor once, spent about 12 hours standing on a sidewalk in Brooklyn on a Saturday about 6 feet away from Jennifer Aniston, she didn’t really acknowledge anyone she wasn’t required to. She’s even better looking in person somehow. I’m not a guy that aggrandizes celebrity but she was by far the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in person.
On the flip side, my family met Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers once about twenty years ago and he was so nice to my family, especially my brother and I (maybe 12 and 14 at the time) that my mom has been an RHCP stan ever since. 🤷♀️.
I met Hunter Schaefer. It was indeed not great. She was very gracious but turns out your fantasies of immediately becoming best friends with your faves don’t actually happen! It’s more just awkward meeting someone you’ve thought so much about and they literally have no idea who you are and you’re kind of imposing on them.
I was a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan even before hunger games. I saw her at the Colbert show at the height of her fame during hunger games. I remember feeling she was so ordinary, not in a bad way but she could have been a girl I went to school with. When she was leaving the event there were a bunch of fans asking for autographs, she signed them but just looked like a sad caged animal. I felt bad for her and stopped idolising her after. I don’t regret meeting her but it humanized her a lot for me, some celebrities revel in the fame but she clearly did not. She seems happier now tho.
I met Ian Watkins. End thread.
But also Jonas brothers, Josh from you me at six, taking back Sunday, Jim and Tom from Jimmy eat world, and Ilan Rubin we’re all fantastic.
Jared Leto yelled at the audience, berated people, and kicked people out for not jumping when he said to. He said he was going “to bring everyone in the back up front and send the front to the back to take a “nap” because we weren’t up to standards. He made everyone takes 3 giant steps forward pushing us in the front. Worse god complex I’ve ever seen. To be fair I didn’t technically meet him though.
When my daughter was about 10 she was obsessed with The Office. We went to Philly and I saw Kate Flannery (Meredith) walking towards us on the street. Kate saw me see and had a please no kind of look. Not rude just living. I turned my daughter to see her and she said hi, Kate smiled and waved. It was sweet!
U2: met all 4 of them and they were all exceptionally nice, talkative and receptive of the fans that had waited to meet them. I’m talking like 60 people and every single one of them left with signatures, pictures and a conversation. This wasn’t at meet or greet. Just fans waiting to meet them. Never once was the band rude, bored, uninterested or annoyed.
Anthony Kiedis: absolute jerk. Was in an empty room besides himself, his girlfriend and a fan. Fan went up to him, told him he loved his music and couldn’t wait to see him at an upcoming show. The entire time Anthony was a jerk, to the point his GF kind of called him out on it.
Dave Navarro: Dude, was the nicest celebrity I ever met. I walked by the archlight movie theatre and he was just chilling outside. Told him I was a fan and just wanted to say hi. The dude proceeded to have a 20 min convo with me where he was constantly asking questions about myself and was genuinely interested. We talked until his girl arrived and he gave me a hug at the end of the conversation and thanked me for the support and love.
Brian Eno: worked with him while he was working on an art exhibit at CSULB. He took the time to thank every single one of us personally, when he did a media Q&A he gave praise to everyone that made the exhibit possible, and was just a fantastic dude to collaborate with.
Lacey Sturm: sweetest woman I’ve ever worked with. She took me and my friend out to dinner afterwards (which she did not have to do. It was completely on her personal time) and proceeded to hang out with us for 2 hours talking about music and life. Wonderful woman.
Jason Bateman: I live in a town that used to have a movie studio in it and he had just filmed something and was at a res light about a mile away. My friends and I pulled up to the light and noticed he was next to us. He was sweet and talked to us the entire red light making jokes.
I met Josh Duhamel when I was managing a western store in Austin, TX. He was so nice and I treasure the photo I have of us.
Sooooo …. i used to work very high end bartending at a famous steakhouse in toronto, and i’m also a huge sports fan. we had players coming in quite often from all three major teams. i ended up hitting it off with the assistant captain of our local hockey team, and one thing led to another.
it was fun, but my god, was it like being intimate with Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, looking in the mirror and flexing.
we did it once. i continued to see him at the restaurant, but we never spoke about it or hooked up again.
My dad worked on the air craft carrier that the Pearl Harbor premier aired on and had to tell Ben Affleck he couldn’t smoke on the flight deck.
I sat next to Charlie Hunnam at this intimate restaurant in LA where the tables were so close together that you basically were dining with guests at the tables on either side of you. All that to say, he was genuinely a very nice person.
My husband works in radio so I have met a lot people in the music industry and for the most part everyone was really nice, even people I had heard could be kind of jerky. I know that they’re a little more “on” at work, but I have never gotten fake nice vibes.
I have met some other musicians outside of radio events on my own and also had really positive experiences, even though I am a pretty awkward person when I get nervous.
I’d say how an experience goes really depends on the timing of when you meet them and how you handle yourself when you meet them. They’re people, they have bad days like anyone else, but get way more attention. I think a lot of celebrities are wary because they don’t know what to expect from you, a stranger, so can come off rude when you catch them at a bad time. I’d say go for it, but a good rule of thumb is be kind, be respectful, be brief, and be gone 😂
I did once ride the same plane from Atlanta to NYC with Paul Rudd and I did not even try to talk to him when he was standing at the gate with an airline rep. I didn’t want to be responsible for starting up people crowding him and I definitely couldn’t handle it if he told me to take a hike. But it’s still one of my favorite celeb encounters because after he went down the jetway onto the plane, an employee was so excited he yelled “Yooooo, that was Ant-Man, bro!” 😂.
Back when my kids were little I went to a book signing by Sandra Boynton. She told me I looked tired. Never felt the same about her books again.
My bff sent fan mail as a kid to Brendan Fraser – she drew a pair of jeans with a 9/11 design on them (kids hey)… sadly she never got a reply.
Didn’t happen to me, but my friend was really into Noah Gundersen and met him after a show. They slept together that night, and then the day after he let her know that she should get tested for an STD since he has it. An awful human and a horrible thing to knowingly do to another person.
💯 agree
For me I’ve gone to several LIVE podcast shows and met the entertainers and it’s always changed my relationship with the podcast… like it stops being as fun now that I have seen it.
Also humans like to overthink.
Not quite the same calibre as other stories here but growing up I was a Figure Skater and met a few of my favourites. One in particular was so so rude to little 11 year old me at a meet and greet that I paid for lol. Anyway it turned out it was because I didn’t speak French. (She’s French Canadian). I left crying 😢.
