Have you ever met a celebrity?

When I was a bank teller in college, I waited on many professional athletes. They lived in a condo development right behind the branch.

Met Kristen Bell in Manhattan. We were both getting drinks at the bar while waiting for a reception to get started and talked for about 15 minutes. Exceptionally nice person and even better looking in person than on camera. She was still doing Veronica Mars I think and I had no clue who she was at the time. My wife still gives me crap to this day that Kristen was hitting on me.

 

Kid Rock, Lewis Black, and random Playmates in Afghanistan. I saw Andrew Zimmerman who is a famous American Celebrity Chef. Never cared about autographs didn't ask.

 

I've met a bunch of professional wrestlers.

 

No! LoL! Been a member at her official website for years. Part of that entailed the admin having us do birthday/Xmas messages/videos for her every year. Though we had a couple hundred members only a small handful of us were particularly active. She almost always replied back, more often than not typing up individual replies for everybody that sent messages in. With only about 7 or 8 of us actively sending in submissions she has gotten to know those few of us relatively well over the years. Hell even to this day she remembers my cat's name even though I told her some 9 years ago or so. Plus I had a friend/fellow member meet her at a convention a couple years ago. Even though he introduced himself using only his forum screen name she almost immediately called him by his real name even without having to tell her. That's pretty good proof how well she appears to know some of us. So yeah we've never officially met but she does kinda know me still. So does her entire family according to her.

 

Somehow this clarification only added to the creepiness.

 

Why? She doesn't seem to mind. If she did I'm pretty sure she would have made her emotions clear by now, or her husband would of at least.

 

And you never said anything???

 

Well nobody asked before lol.

 

Stan Boardman & Cannon and Ball.

 

Thread over.

No fucker is going to top that.

 

I met Catherine Bach (with one of the original General Lees) at a car show, back in the seventies. I also met Tommy Bond (Butch from the Our Gang Comedies), about seven years before his death. He was a tiny little guy, but really friendly.

 

I met Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth at a Neil Young concert in New Orleans. Sonic Youth was one of the openers, and She came down front to watch Neil play and stood right beside me the rest of the show. She even shared one of my cigarettes with me. Unforgettable show. Ahhh sweet memories.

 

My dad, my brother and I work in the movie industry (Lighting Technicians Local 728). I've met a lot of famous people. My dad used to take bring me on set when I was younger for all sorts of TV shows, only a couple movies,

 

So any stories of seeing the starlets in various stages of undress, or access to their dressing rooms perhaps?

 

My dad, my brother and I work in the movie industry (Lighting Technicians Local 728), I've been in the union for 6 years. I've met a lot of famous people. I never ask for pictures or autographs because I'm at work.

I also live in Valencia, so I went to highschool with a lot and knew a few of the Disney kids (most of them are fucking weird, it's hard to explain but every person I've met that has been on the "new" Disney channel for a while are like cocky/nerdy/spoiled/socially awkward aliens that can't figure out how to act like a normal person).

Oh Taylor Lautner, before Twilight, I think all he'd done at that point was Shark Boy and Lava Girl and the Cheaper by the Dozen sequel. He's closer to my brother's age but he was dating this girl Sara so he used to come over to my buddy's house and sit in the corner or on the couch with her and not talk much. Never wanted to play pool or ping pong or kick it like a normal person. When he did talk, he was like this mix of nerdy/douchey/awkward, I could never tell if he thought he was so much cooler than us or if he was just weird and shy.

I'm 26 now but my dad used to take bring me on set when I was younger for all sorts of TV shows, a handful or two movies, so I have autographs from back then though. Britney Spears while they were shooting oops I did it again, she was cordial. Mandy Moore was 100 times nicer but I was a kid.

Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton because I visited the set of Mighty Joe Young a lot, they had a working carnival for everyone on the crew's family, that was cool. Bill Paxton was one of the nicest male actors I've ever met, it's a tie between him and Jimmy Smits.

Jim Carey (huge asshole) on the Grinch. Cameron Diaz (really nice), Drew Barrymore (also very nice, she bought everyone on the crew of Charlies Angel's Full Throttle nice boogie boards and these walkie talkie watches, Demi Moore, I didn't meet Lucy Liu. Will Smith on Seven Pounds (Stuck up racist asshole).

My brother and I worked on Hot Pursuit for a few weeks and did some promos for Hot Pursuit on E! with Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon. Didn't really meet them on either set though, Sofia had her people tell all of us not to stare at her, talk to her or take her picture. Reese Witherspoon seemed way less difficult, I figured it would be the other way around but I'm hardly surprised to find out an actress/actor is a bitch.

Anyway, there's been maybe 200+ celebrities that I've met and spoke to for more than a minute but way more that I just worked with. I already know this post is going to come off as braggy or douchey but if you knew me you'd know I'm anything but. I was initially going to just write a list of names but I got carried away reminiscing.

If anyone has any questions about work or a specific person I might have worked with feel free to ask.

-Ak

 

We just do lights so most of the time I'm carrying/running cable/rigging/up on the catwalks or scaffolds or 40'-80' in the air in a boom lift. I've worked on movies with nudity and sex scenes but a lot of the time you see more in the final movie than when you were shooting it, especially now a days, I'm sure before my time it was a lot more laid back but now everyone's so uptight. None of us have direct access to the stars trailers or anything like that. You do see a lot from above though but a lot of women have a sixth sense about that kind of thing, when someone's peeving out on them. It's really easy to get fired and in this industry, it's who you know and your reputation that can make or break you. If you have a reputation of being a creeper, you won't get work because there's 200 guys begging for work at any one time.

That's why I come here

 

My only claim to fame is having a 15 min chat with Brian Johnson (AC/DC) outside Tampa airport one night. I'm an ex-pat from UK and go back and forth quite a lot. I was waiting for wifey to pick me up and he was waiting for a limo to take him back to his place in Sarasota.

Really nice guy, full of jokes (if you can understand that thick Geordie accent) I think he only had 2 days 'home' and then off to Germany on tour. "I'm gettin tae old for this shit!"

And yes, he was wearing his cap

 

I've met a few famous or relatively famous people over the years. Most notably was Alyssa Milano in the MGM sports book in Las Vegas. She was very charming and down to earth.

 

I've had breakfast with Neil Young a few times, sexy beast that he is...

 

But probably not wearing something like this at the time.