“Unforgettable Moments: The Jaw-Dropping Celebrity Encounters That Left Fans Speechless!”
“Thanks.”
“Enjoy the con!”
“Thanks, you too.”
The doors shut and I stand there awkwardly for a moment as the elevator keeps going up. I break the silence.
“Is it bad that I don’t recognize you?”
“I’ve just been drawing for a few years…”
He didn’t tell me his name. I felt awful. I tried to describe him to friends and google him and had absolutely no luck.
Older man. Bigger nose. White guy with kind of a ruddy complexion. White hair back in a pony tail. I think he had glasses but I may be mistaken. This was San Diego Comic-Con 2017.
I was front desk manager at a hotel years back, and I came to the desk while a guest was getting checked in. When we locked eyes I immediately felt a recognition, but it didn’t register how I knew this person, just that I knew them, so I said “Oh hey! How’s it going?” Super happy and all friendly, like we were friends. This guest looked at me kinda confused, said “Hey, goood?” and I just kept walking. Immediately after, I was trying my hardest to remember who this person was and how I knew them.
At the time I was on a 30 Rock binge for the second or third time in a year and turns out it was Michael Sheen. I didn’t realize it was him until I looked up his reservation, but I legit was thinking in my brain at the time “Oh look, here’s my friend. Suuuuup” He spent the rest of his two week stay looking at me funny. I was hoping he’d come talk to me so I could save a bit of face, but clearly he felt it was best to keep his distance.
I was in a mostly empty hotel bar with the band Drowning Pool during Ozzfest 2001.
I’ve met Michelle Kwan while working at an ice skating show once. It was before the event started and she came up to me asked where the changing room was and I pointed it out to her not knowing who she was. It was only after my aunt came up to me and said I just talked to Michelle Kwan. Probably should have showed more courtesy…
I worked for Disney for about 6 years and back in 2010 I was working the Grad Nights which is when local Florida high schools take over the parks. Anyway my job that night was to escort some special guests through the park so they weren’t bothered by the kids. Now I’m from Virginia so I really only knew country and old rock music at this point in my life so I had no idea who this girl I was walking around the park with. Turns out she was Hayley Williams and was one of the nicest celebrities I had the privilege of meeting while at Disney.
I used to be an usher at a theatre, the upside is we often could get comps to shows. I was in theatre school at the time and there was a play by the New York experimental company the Wooster group, so I got my then-girlfriend, who was also in theatre school, a ticket. I also do a podcast where we rewatch old movies from the 80’s and 90’s, so I’m sort of immersed in actors and pop-culture.
Anyway, after the show I was on duty, but chatting to my girlfriend when this dude comes up, he says he’d like to know how he can speak to one of the company members, Elizabeth. Thinking this was just an audience member wanting to rub elbows with fancy New York actors, I told him he couldn’t really do that. I really just wanted to get back to talking to my girlfriend. But this guy persisted, and eventually it comes out that he knows this woman, who is the director of the company, and went to theatre school with this person. Obviously he won my sympathies with the theatre school thing, and also he could have been somebody nominally important in the experimental scene, who knows. So I told him I could try to get his name to the person to ask if they have can see him, so what is his name?
“Bill. Bill Paxton”.
And I get a flash of recognition so strong it nearly knocks me on my a*s. I later figured out he was in town promoting the re-release of Titanic, then like the biggest movie of all time. Of course I wanted to say something about how much I appreciated his work, because I do, but this was around the time that the Bill Paxton/Bill Pullman which is which joke was happening, and honestly in the moment could only think of movies that Bill Pullman was in, so I just said, “Right, of course” with a little snap- gun-finger motion, and then very sheepishly found a supervisor to go backstage and find his friend.
I can’t believe I forgot about Aliens! Game over man!
Also RIP Bill.
I was working front desk at the power house gym in STL and a couple of really tall and big guys walk in, they weren’t members so they asked me what was de fee. They paid and walked in.
3 seconds later my coworker comes running and asks me. Do you know who they are? Me: no…
