Celebrity jerks?

[Stormtrooper]

Celebrity Jerk?
Got to be George Lucas!

Oh wait, the Boycott the Star Wars Blu Rays thread is two places over... D'Oh!

Cheers,
John

 

[Zombie_61]

Someone over on theforce.net was claiming that at a particular con, David Prowse was signing all his autographs that day with "David Prowse IS Darth Vader".

I haven't seen too many Prowse autographs that weren't signed exactly that way. If I were in his place, I might feel the same way he does. I've met casual fans who thought James Earl Jones was in the suit; it must be difficult to get so little recognition (comparatively) for playing one of the most well-liked villains in movie history.

 

[ShadowX81]

Ive heard Jeremy Bolloch is the same way about Boba Fett. That hes essentially made it his mission in life to let the world know it was him in the suit.

 

[Stormtrooper]

Ive heard Jeremy Bolloch is the same way about Boba Fett. That hes essentially made it his mission in life to let the world know it was him in the suit.

I personally doubt that is the case with Jeremy Bulloch, as when I met him he was an absolute gentleman. :confused
He was very chatty and friendly, and I never once felt that I was being pushed along the line for his autograph on a 'Time Is Money' basis.
He spoke to me and my friend at length about his experiences when filming TESB and ROTJ including fun 'lil anecdotes like when his legs were burned by the steam on the Carbon Freezing Chamber set for TESB. :cool
And he personalised the autograph that I got off him, by including 'Happy Birthday' on the 8" X 10" he was signing for me, as my birthday was on the horizon.

I didn't mention Jeremy Bulloch previously in this thread, as this is a Celebrity Jerks thread afterall, but since someone has questioned his character, I feel the need to defend him!

BTW I can personally understand the point made about actors who appear behind the masks of certain characters... but considering Star Wars fans are pretty obsessive and well-informed I don't believe it applies in relation to actors such as David Prowse or Jeremy Bulloch.
90% of adult Star Wars fans are likely to know the name of the actor who portrays a central role in the movie(s) whether or not their face is visible in the movie.

Cheers,
John
john@manicminer.plus.com

 

[clancampbell]

I'm with John on this one.

I met Jeremy Buloch quite a long time ago now, and the guy was just so laid back and easy going. I brought my modified and painted up Boba Fett helmet with me and he was really impressed with it! This was long before the RPF. It was one of the early DP's which had a pretty good shape. He took the helmet and had a play with it, then without asking, got his silver pen and signed it! Looked at me sheepishly and said, "that's ok, isn't it?"

We had a great chat about the suit, the desert and other actors, then he signed an 8 x 10 as well.

Totally awesome bloke!

Rich

 

[SOXMIS]

I've met quite a few "celebs", usually in strange places. I met Tom Cruise walking around Perth city centre, didn't recognise him at first, he's really small, but a pretty nice guy. Paris Hilton was probably the worst, I was with my then girlfriend in a shop on the Gold Coast while Paris was walking around trying to attract everyones attention, she was ignored for the most part but I got a case of the giggles and she stormed out leaving a pile of goods with a confused shop assistant! I nearly punched Noel Edmonds lights out in Birmingham, England after he barged into me while he was exiting Rackhams, many of my friends wished I had. I had drinks with a few of the celebs from Star Wars in a hotel bar in Brisbane, Dave Prowse was great, he's hated by so many people in the SW production but he was really great to chat with. Mayhew is an A***, I was very tempted to ask him if he'd make some furniture for me as I loved his work but didn't want to offend anyone else at the table. Matt Sloan (Plo Koon) was fantastic, very funny and interesting to chat to, I even got invited to his house a few times. I'd say the best experience I've had is with James Hong, he is very funny and seems to love his fans, I could hang out with him all day if I weren't afraid of peeing my pants too often.

 

[clancampbell]

I nearly punched Noel Edmonds lights out in Birmingham, England after he barged into me while he was exiting Rackhams, many of my friends wished I had.

Yup, Edmonds needs a smack, that's for sure!

Rich

 

[SOXMIS]

Yup, Edmonds needs a smack, that's for sure!

If I'd known it was him at the time I would have! It was only after he'd stormed off one of my chums said "That's Edmonds!"


I worked a the EMU workshop near Winson Green prison for a few years, would see Pat Roach outside his scrap yard daily, always wanted to pop in and say hi, but I'd heard he could be a nasty bugger, it was only after he'd died I found out he was good with his fans.

 

[stmike73]

Interesting thread....I've had chance to meet a number of "famous" people over the years although most were associated with fandom and wouldn't be considered "A" list. I have picked up most of my autographs at cons, Dragon Con in particular. The vast majority of encounters I've had have been overwhelmingly positive and most of the celebs are very good to meet and deal with. I think you just have to understand the dynamics of it all. It's kind of like an unwritten contract between the stars and the fans. The fans have to understand that the celebs are there to make money. In the case of people that aren't really working much any more this is quite possibly one of their only sources of income outside of royalties. We also have to understand that they are people too with good days and bad, warts and all. Sometimes I think some fans forget that.

On the other hand celebrities need to understand the contract at cons and not be jerks. People pay real money to get an autograph and a brief kind word. Without the fans these guys wouldn't be where they are now. A bad experience can have a ripple effect that lasts for years. I think someone said it best earlier....You're actors so at least act.

As I said the vast majority of my encounters have been very positive. Some that come to mind....

Jeremy Bulloch: Class act. Have drank and chatted with him at 501st functions and one small con in Va. Gracious, talkative and very real.

Peter and Angie Mayhew: Wonderful, gracious people who genuinely love the fans. As many have mentioned earlier you just have to remember that Peter is in a lot of pain and sometimes the long days wear on him.

Gil Gerard: Class act. Very personable. He wasn't at Dragon Con this year and he was missed.

Ray Park: Fun, friendly and approachable. One of the firs times I saw him was at what was supposed to be a Q and A panel at Dragon Con '06 instead he made it into a jedi / wu-shu class for small children in the audience. It was a nice change-up and the kids loved it.

Most of the cast of the new BSG is great. Aaron Douglas regularly hangs out in the fan areas after hours just doing what everyone else does. On D*C I remember most of the cast that was there was at the Marriott sail bar drinking with fans and happily posing for pics. Kandyse McClure is very gracious not to mention unbelievably cute. Luciana Carro will damn ear do a whole photoshoot with you at her table. ....and then there's Mike Hogan.

Met him the first time a couple of year ago when I said "hi" and joined him on a smoke break outside the Hilton at D*C. Had a great chat and told him my wife was not into scifi or fandom at all but absolutely loved the show and happened to be in NYC at the time. I asked him if he would leave her a voicemail blessing her out in character. He laughed, said it was a great idea and said to come find him at his table in about 45 minutes. I did and he left her a great message. Remembering the "contract" I talked about earlier I offered to pay him and he refused saying it was his pleasure. We did the same this year with a cardboard cut-out of a friend deployed in the middle-east. Once again, Hogan stepped up ad recorded a Youtube message and never asked for thing saying he was honored to do it.

Rober Englund.....Stood in line to get his autograph one year. The line was filled with Freddy fans with all kinds of merchandise for him to sign. Then there was me decked out in my V security uniform simply wanting an autograph and a pic with him I got up to his table and told his handler what I wanted. She said that he wasn't doing pics at the table but then got this look in her eye and nudged Englund who hadn't noticed me just yet. He looked over at me and lit up. Needless to say I got my pic with him no questioned asked. Guess he was happy to do something non-Freddy that day.

Stephen Furst....Saw him at his table by himself not signing anything. I've always admired his work and knew he studied drama at my alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University. I just struck up a conversation with him about VCU and life back in Richmond. He was really nice. Unfortunately I never bought and autograph and probably should have.

Adam Savage....Met him in a room party at D*C 2010. I was dressed as a Colonial Warrior from classic BSG. He asked to see my blaster and then went on about the design linage. Truly a geek amongest geeks.

Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson....Not sure they qualify as celebs but they are famous. Met them both about four times both in and out of con settings. I happen to be an officer in a TAPS family paranormal investigations group in Va. Our director knew them before they were on TV so there's some history there. Each time I've been treated like a fellow investigator and not a fanboy. Both guys are very down to earth.

Oddest encounter I had was at this years D*C....An older man gets into the elevator with me, complements me on the kilt I have on asks me about the tartan. We chat about it for a while he gets off on his floor and says goodnight. It finally dawns on my it was Sylvester McCoy. Suffice to say I have never really been a Doctor Who fan.

The only bad encounter I remember was with Dominic Keating of Enterprise. I went up and had him sign an AA phase pistol. The man looked miserable and could not have cared less. In fact he acted like he was doing me a favor. Maybe he was having an off day.

 

[Jumpergal]

Most everyone I've met, either at cons or through my occupation, were at least pleasant and a few stood out as truly gracious. However, one celebrity that just consistently is a complete dodwhacker is Harlan Ellison. What a knob. Small man syndrome to the moon. Dude's not a good enough writer to be that much of a doof.

 

[firesprite]

Most everyone I've met, either at cons or through my occupation, were at least pleasant and a few stood out as truly gracious. However, one celebrity that just consistently is a complete dodwhacker is Harlan Ellison. What a knob. Small man syndrome to the moon. Dude's not a good enough writer to be that much of a doof.

I've heard that about Ellison... Ironically, there seem to be quite a few writers who feel that the fact that they've written a few books gives them permission to be complete dipsticks for some reason. Generally speaking, writers don't tend to have the best people skills (fortunately, this seems to be changing with the rise in importance of Social media in terms of book sales).

I've heard similar stories about C. J. Cherryh. A friend of mine was actually quite jazzed to meet her at one of the Vampire: The Masquerade events, but she turned out to be a complete jerk.

 

[Apollo]

I've know Harlan for years first met him in 1976 and while he does'nt suffer fools well and has a biting sarcastic sense of humor he is a great guy!

I've heard that about Ellison...

 

[Hfuy]

Generally speaking, writers don't tend to have the best people skills (fortunately, this seems to be changing with the rise in importance of Social media in terms of book sales).

******, I hope not...

(glances nervously around)

 

[grimlock2d]

On the topic of Shatner I was amazed at how personable he was when I worked with him at Emerald City Comicon last year.

He did move a ton of people through his line fast and furious. Then again he wanted to make sure everyone got their things signed. He didn't talk to too many people but he didn't have much time available due to line size and his panel.

I talked to him briefly as I was escorting him around and he was friendly enough. He had his game face on and was going full Shat most of the time. Imagine James T. Kirk saying, "ooooh grilled onions..." when offered some for his lunch. I still get a chuckle out of the delivery. One thing Shatner did do was make certain that all of us knew that our show was one of the best he had been to. His agent was stunned as that apparently doesn't happen.

Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes were awesome. Several of us were eating dinner at the same place they were and they stopped at our table to tell us how impressed they were with the show and the job we were doing.

Xander from Buffy was a giant tool to most people. He called his handler some very unkind things for no reason and his agent said that's just his way of showing affection. He disappeared on us more than once, and bailed on his panel. All in all a guy I wouldn't hire to cut my grass let alone act due to his unprofessional personality and his lack of work ethic.

The strange part with him was that he was nice to me the three times I talked to him prior to the incident with the handler. Even his agent insisted that his handler didn't do anything and that it was just Nicolas' personality. D-Bag.

 

[SOTI]

On the topic of Shatner I was amazed at how personable he was when I worked with him at Emerald City Comicon last year.

He did move a ton of people through his line fast and furious. Then again he wanted to make sure everyone got their things signed. He didn't talk to too many people but he didn't have much time available due to line size and his panel.

I talked to him briefly as I was escorting him around and he was friendly enough. He had his game face on and was going full Shat most of the time. Imagine James T. Kirk saying, "ooooh grilled onions..." when offered some for his lunch. I still get a chuckle out of the delivery. One thing Shatner did do was make certain that all of us knew that our show was one of the best he had been to. His agent was stunned as that apparently doesn't happen.

Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes were awesome. Several of us were eating dinner at the same place they were and they stopped at our table to tell us how impressed they were with the show and the job we were doing.

Xander from Buffy was a giant tool to most people. He called his handler some very unkind things for no reason and his agent said that's just his way of showing affection. He disappeared on us more than once, and bailed on his panel. All in all a guy I wouldn't hire to cut my grass let alone act due to his unprofessional personality and his lack of work ethic.

The strange part with him was that he was nice to me the three times I talked to him prior to the incident with the handler. Even his agent insisted that his handler didn't do anything and that it was just Nicolas' personality. D-Bag.

Never, ever play pool with J. Frakes! He will take you for every dime you have! :eek If he wasn't an actor/director he could easily have been a pro pool player. He was by far one of the most fun celebrities I've dealt with. I've worked with almost everyone all of you have mentioned and more, and while most of my stories would match what I've read so far, a few of them don't jibe with my experiences.

 

[Rdmaul]

I havent had to many jerk celebs but I have had some really awesome ones. I met Nick Swardson twice once at SDCC at a food court just hangin out, no on noticed him and my wife and I walked up and he was so awesome! We stood there for 10-15 minutes chatting. I met him again this month at the Call of Duty Xp thing in LA, I walked up and said "Nick I met you a year ago at Sdcc" he was like "No ****? dude thats awesome!" and took a pic with me then talked Call of Duty with me for a bit, very cool guy.

Met Debra Ann Woll Jessica from TrueBlood and she couldnt be nicer to her fans! She agreed to do a short video for our firends who couldnt make it to see her and took pictures with my wife and I!


I met Alan Tudyk this year at SDCC, asked for a picture and he was very humble. I told him I was a huge fan and he actually asked to shake my hand! I was blown away at how awesome he was!

My wife and I were at the Long Beach grand Prix this year and Michale Trucco was in the celeb race! well we are huge BSG fans and made it our goal to meet him. So we finally find him doing a interview and we start yelling "BSG, BSG RULES!!" he literally stops the interview and says "I need to go talk to my BSG fans!" he came over and talked to us for half a hour about BSG and racing!

 

[MPsy]

Usually the celebrities I've dealt with were all pretty cool. Such as Mick Foley who was at a signing that I was doing event photography at. When it was time for him to head out he saw that there were still a few people waiting and said that he'll leave once everyone in line got their time with him. Now that's a class act and someone who cares about their fan base.

Now dealing with a celebrities' agent or manager...they can run the gambit from really cool to kind of a ****** bag.

 

[Stencil]

Today I met Anthony Michael Hall, John Carpenter, Tom Atkins, and WWE Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff. All were very cool, talked to you for a little bit, and took pictures. Pretty good time.

 

[Noeland]

So, I hit Detroit Fanfare this past weekend to hang out with my buddy Tim Bradstreet, and my brother Andy, and we ended up having a few drinks with Adam Baldwin Friday night! Tim didn't have a car waiting for him at the airport, so Adam was kind enough to offer him a ride to the hotel, and they hit it off. So, when we joined them they were chatting away like old friends. My brother and I joined in for a short time (talked hockey mostly) then moved to a table to have some food. Adam could have just left the bar and not said a thing to us, but he made a point of walking over to our table to shake our hands and say good night. The man is a class act.

 

[Wolfie138]

i've met a few at Cons etc, i never get into much dialogue w/ people as i'm pretty shy but you can tell from watching them whilst in the queue who are the ones genuinely interested in the fans etc.
Dave Prowse - met him as a kid when he was the Green Cross Man ~ that was before he was seduced by the dark side :-D
Claudia Christian - total honey, very nice and damn pretty
Dario Argento - at a horror fest in London, he signed a few autos, then when the lights went down for the next film he just moved off to one side and stayed until everyone had gotten their stuff signed.
Lucio Fulci (RIP) and David Warbeck - as a fest in London. both AWESOME guys. LF had his foot in plaster from an injury, but they did the Q&A, film intro etce etc. in the bar for the signings, they just signed *everything* (LF signed a book of mine several times on different pages :-D ) and believe me, some fanboys had armloads of stuff. DW was great, signing and chatting for ages, real nice friendly guy, had a laugh w/ people at some of the daft stuff he's done on screen etc.
Charisma Carpenter - O-M-G. If you thought she was pretty in Buffy/Angel, you need to see her IRL. :loveShe had her long hair back and was just flat-out stunning. very very good w/ the fans too, signed like a fricking machine.
Adam Baldwin, Ron Perlman, same event - both nice, didn't talk to them much but they were both cool w/ the fans. Val Kilmer was supposed to be there too, he was a main reson i'd gone, but he no-showed. Something about one of his stalkers having been spotted at the event :-/
Kelly Hu - very nice. gorgeous.
Amber Benson : as per Charisma, beautiful on every level. delightfully pretty and very nice.
Joss Whedon - nice guy, tried to talk and sign etc but ended p having such a queue etc that the wizard con staff ended up capping people to 3 autos each etc. still, i asked if he wouldn't mind signing 4 (i had stuff for friends) and he said no bother.
Kev Smith i just saw when he was doing a sale at the comic art auction in Chicago one year. he got into a bidding war w/ a guy himself and was very funny. A freind of mine jumped into his limo when they were pulling up and he was pretty cool w/ it - the fact she was a total beaut mighta beena factor tho :-D
Stan Winston (RIP) - was at Chic one year. He was at a booth and virtually no one was around. i said hi and how much i loved his stuff etc, he was very nice and friendly, seemed pretty unassuming and humble too. wish i'd talked a lot more to him, but i'm shy.
most others i've met have been comic guys. Met a load who worked at Chaos when i went to the cons/fests. Rich Larson is great too, so is Kyle Hotz.
Met Iron Maiden a couple times, once after a gig they opened the hall up again and let us in, and signed everything for everyone. Blaze of Wolfsbane was hanging about too, having a laugh and carry on w/ the fans, he went in too! Steve Harris was like "don't i know you?!" "Yes, i'm in the support band!"
Saw Danzig after a gig, was just sitting in the bus doorway chatting and signing, was very calm, cool and fan-friendly.
Got a meet and greet ticket for Alice Cooper a few years back - absolute top notch gent. Can't say enough, he's just so friendly, humble, a great laugh and so entertaining. Was great w/ photos and signings, not paying much attention to the number-of-items-limit stipulation etc that had been on the ticket conditions. going for a M&G again this year on Hallowe'en, i'm going in costume as Severen from Near Dark so hopefully he'll get a kick out of that.

Never really had a bad incident that i can think of, loads of people said Todd McFarlane was a fkwit though.

mate met Crispin Glover when he did a signing at the local fleapit film night thing, says he was phenomenal, great to chat and talk to, he's done a few books (on films, i think?) and he gave my mate a full set, and signed them.
another mate did the security for Y2J at a local comic shop, said he was a total pro, extremely friendly and accomodating. I've heard that of virtually all the top-rank WWE people, actually.