Claims To Fame, or "I touched a celebrity"
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The film industry is a bit nuts.
I was working on a film a couple of years ago and we had a load of gear loaned to us by Matchless and some sold to us at a discount. I was hankering after one of the coats one of the actors wore; we had a few of them, but were returning those that weren't used. Production said I could have one at about half price as that's what they'd paid.
For the fire gag in the opening scene an actor was wearing a genuine article that caught fire, but we also had three or four cheap replicas made that could be used if we did a number of takes and needed to burn more than one. These had to be destroyed after we'd wrapped and were. None were used so all were destroyed. They were crappy things, but they cost something…weren't they supposed to save us money???
On the first day of shooting that scene we had in the region of 150 crew and 100 extras in, plus the actors and stunties. We rehearsed for a few hours in the morning while we waited for the lead to arrive. At lunch time we were all fed and sent home because he had basically phoned in sick. The money lost that day was huge; everyone was being paid and fed, equipment was on hire, the sound stage at Pinewood wasn't exactly cheap and the knock on was that we ended up working a load of overtime including a seventh day that week and everyone earns double bubble on that day.It's the individual departments' jobs to save themselves money, and you can't blame them for that, but there's no point bending over for them unless you want that kind of advertising, which can be massively powerful.
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Living in Los Angeles, and working in the places I did definitely exposed me to a ton of celebrities over the years. That being said, most of the celebrities I encountered that would have been considered "major" at the time, I either didn't recognize (despite knowing who they were), or had to be told who they were/that I'd just talked to them, after the fact. As proof that I'm not being coy with my shoulder-shrugging attitude towards celebrity, I once had an espresso sent to the back of the shop where one of my espresso aficionado regulars at the time, Tobey Maguire was pausing, seeming to be trying to determine if he'd be able to wait in the long line at the very busy Saturday afternoon cafe without causing too much of a scene. While my gesture was well received (I don't know who would be unhappy to have an espresso sent their way helping them avoid a 15-minute plus line), it was complicated by the fact that "Tobey" was actually Elijah Wood.
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great stuff guys, some years back I was invited to an event where Jarno Trulli the former Formula 1 driver was present. beside his watch sponsor he also promoted his wine. Most of the attendees known him personally and it was quite a fun event, especially as one Gentleman showed me his backpack full with rare watches that was quite impressive and we had a nice talk. So as everybody knew Mr Trulli I tried to get in touch with him as well and thought it might be a good idea giving him my business card…well his manager was not very amused and he immediately interrupted my conversation and told me to leave. good idea went wrong lol. but I still got a photo with him somewhere
We have sometimes international celebs, actors visiting Zurich but don't really pay that much attention over here. But crowd is getting crazy when the Zurich film festival is taking place and some have the chance to snap some pics
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I'm usually excited to meet Iron Heart forum folks as most are "celebrities" to me & 9 times out of 10 I make sure I get my picture taken with them a chat them up when around.
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I did not only get a hug by arnim of the beatsteaks but also touched mr. Springsteen himself. Im happy as a little boy.
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necro bump
when I was a young lad and lived in Japan I was once on the same flight as Antonio Inoki, former pro wrestler turned politician. my mom and I were on a flight to northern Japan to visit relatives and he was sitting in first class.
years ago I saw Vernon Wells at the Mall of America doing a signing at some comic shop/toy store. I wanted to talk to him but he looked like he didn't want to be there being asked silly questions by fans.
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I ended up chatting to Justin Townes Earle in Pickings and Parry, which is a Self Edge or Rivet & Hide style shop in Melbourne.
Chris, the owner, told me who he was after he'd left. They're friends.
Justin picked up a very nice Aero Leather Dustbowl whilst there.
