95 Celebrity Encounter Stories As Shared By People In This Online Thread

"Tom Hanks at Best Buy. He was in line in front of me with a cart full, all by himself. I was only buying a bottle of water because they didn’t have what I was looking for. I just blurted out” Forest Gump is my favorite movie” like a creep, and he turned around, and said “that was my favorite movie to make! I’m glad you love it.” He then chatted with me while about movies as we stood in line. When it was his turn to check out while they were ringing up his stuff he said “oh let me get that water for you” and paid for my water. He kept talking to me and then we walked out and he said “nice talking to you! You’re a very nice young lady and always remember... life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know what your gonna get” in his Forest Gump voice. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER."

"Met Keanu Reeves at a bodega in the West village (this was around that sad Keanu/meme of him eating a sandwich on that bench time). He was tossing the Gatorade he was going to buy and dropped it and picked it up. Didn't pay much attention until then which is when he got in line behind us (me and the people I was with at the time). I turned to my friend and said "this guy looks just like Keanu Reeves" and he's like "Yea, cuz that's Keanu Reeves". Keanu says "hey, how's it going".

Fun times. Also did not know Keanu was that tall until then."

"25 years ago I drove a cab while in college. Picked up Paul McCartney. It was near my mother's birthday and I called her and he sung her happy birthday.

Edit: He got in the cab and asked to be taken to the stadium. (he was doing a show there that night) I'm looking at him going I know this guy (I was 23 at the time, never expected a celeb in my cab in Cincinnati). When I realized who he was, I asked to be sure, and he laughed. I mentioned my mom was a huge fan and asked him if he would do it. He asked which birthday song I wanted him to sing his or the other one. I chose the other one.

I had a Bag phone in the car, I think it might have cost me a small fortune for that call but totally worth it. If only I had had a modern phone for the camera."

"Went to dinner at Buca di Beppo and at the table next to us was Alice Cooper with family and friends. We made a point of not staring or interrupting, but when they left right after we did, we decided to ask for a photo in the parking lot. I said, "I hope it's not a huge intrusion," to which he replied, "Fans are never an intrusion. People like you have made it possible for me to live my dream, and I'm glad to give back any way I can." Damn if that didn't make a lasting impression on me!"

"I once ran into Ryan Reynolds on an elevator and told him he looked exactly like Ryan Reynolds.

He was very amused. I was very embarrassed."

"My grandma met Adam Sandler in an elevator in Mexico. She didn’t speak English but Adam was kind enough to try and speak Spanish with her. She was delighted, she loves his movies."

"This was around 2005/2006, when I was working in a sandwich place in college.

Anyway, somebody had left a copy of The Davinci Code on a table and we kept it on the back counter in case they came back for it. This was right when It was becoming huge, well before the movie.

This one guy had been in a couple times that week. So he comes up to order and sees the book and points saying "Hey, that's my book."

I, being very helpful and good replied "Oh, would you like it back?"

He just smiled and said no thanks and left with his food. I just thought he was a big ole weirdo. Didn't see him again.

Quite literally a week later I happened to open my roommate's copy of the book and saw the author photo.

Could make a nice little TIFU:

I accidentally trying to give a famous author's book right back to him."

"I met Obama in an elevator at the Peninsula in Chicago when he was a Senator. It was months before he announced he was running for President but basically everyone on Earth knew he was going to. I asked what he was doing there and he told me he was buying a spa day for his wife. He definitely had a real relaxed and in control aura to him which for some reason made me oddly nervous. As I got off the elevator I shook his hand and said "seems like you got a lot of momentum behind you. If you become president, don't screw it up and make Chicago look bad." This was totally out of character for me and I still can't believe I said it. He chuckled and I got off."

"Fairly recently I met Jude Law in the HMV store on Oxford Street, London looking at some vinyls. The store started playing some chart pop song (I refuse to remember what) and we both exclaimed "FFS!!!" louder than we anticipated at the same time. He was happy to chat for quite a while about any old bollocks although probably quite glad I made any effort to talk about non film stuff."

"Served jury duty with Steve Carrell. He was great. Talked to him for a little bit while waiting outside a courtroom. The thing that sucked was when we went to lunch I saw paparazzi chasing him as he tried to get something to eat. Just wanted to be a normal guy doing his civic duty."

"After we just moved to CA, my brother and I saw David Hasselhoff at the Grove (outside shopping mall in LA) with what looked like his wife. My brother said under his breath as we walked by “Is that the Hoff?”. Then David perked up and started looking around crazily. His wife asked him what was wrong. He said “I hear my fans calling!”. She said “Please stop”.

We kept walking. Somehow it seemed like it was the best thing to do."

"When I was 4 or 5, my family and I were coming back from a vacation, and my dad and I had the aisle and middle seats, respectively, in one of those areas with three seats. We stayed on the plane during a layover, and dad took a nap. He woke up to hear me talking, at first didn't think anything of it because I had a lot of "imaginary friends" at the time. He looked over and I was sitting on the lap of our seat-mate who had the window seat now, who had gotten on during the layover, talking to him and pointing out the window. Dad had to do a double take to make sure he wasn't still asleep and dreaming, because it was Jerry Garcia, his favourite musician then (and still is). All I really remember is he looked like Santa and was hella nice."

"I work at a tiny movie theatre in Dallas and my manager told me a story. One night, Weird Al randomly came in and went to the bar that we have. He came out of the bar and into the theatre side to use the restroom. He asked my manager where the restroom was and pointed him down the hall. Now, in that hall, you have to pass a janitor’s closet before you get to the men’s room and as Weird Al walked down the hallway, he opened the janitor’s closet door, looked inside for a second, looked back at my manager, gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and proceeded to act like he was taking a leak in the closet."

"Years ago I had an hours long wait at an airport. Bought the latest Stephen King book (Dolores Claieborn?) and started reading in a corner. Across the way, sitting at a table, was Stephen. He was already looking at me read it.

So, like a d*ck, I turned to the back cover, looked at his pic, looked at him, confirmed, checked the cover again.

All the while he just stared blankly at me.

2 mins later he was still staring. It was weird. I always thought that maybe that moment was inspiring him to think up some twisted story about the way he was harmlessly freaking me out."

"Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie came through my drive thru at Sonic about 7 years ago. Transaction was completely normal except they were REALLY smiley. I finally actually looked at them and said, “Anyone ever tell you... Wait. You ARE them aren’t you?!” They nodded, told me to have a nice day, and pulled away. I think they were relieved that it wasn’t a big scene."

"I met Helena Bonham Carter at the American Girl Doll store in New York City in 2011. She was there with her daughter and mom. I asked for a picture but she said no because it confuses her daughter. She was nice about it, though. Same with her mom."

"Ran into Jason Bateman in a Starbucks in NYC. He had a hood on, and was waiting for his coffee off to the side, but I recognized him from his voice. I had to eventually wait next to him for my coffee ( I think I was 16 then) and just said “hey Jason” casually. 16 year old me wanted to “play it cool” whatever that means. He smiled and said “hello” and asked if I wanted to take a photo, probably because I looked young. I don’t remember where this came from, but I feel like I quoted a movie or something cause I said something like “I like to live in the moment but thanks for offering to take one.” He smiled at me and said “I like that, thanks.” His coffee came out and he nodded at me before he left. He’s a really nice guy. Took me a minute to realize why he said thanks, but he’s probably tired of people asking for photos all the time, maybe it was a nice break to just talk to someone, instead of just taking a picture.

A few friends of mine doubted the story because I didn’t take a picture, and this only gives me more reason not to take one. Don’t need to prove this to anyone, just had a nice random encounter with him in a Starbucks, and was good enough for me."

"I ran into Jamie Foxx at a Wal-Mart in Green Valley, Arizona on Thanksgiving Day, 2010. I asked as discretely as possible if I could shake his hand, and he was cool. He got swarmed shortly thereafter and left. Funny part - I was a Mormon Missionary at the time. White shirt, tie, name tag and everything haha. My companion at that time happened to be black, and when Jamie saw him, he said, “Oh sh*t, they got a brother.” Pretty hilarious for us haha."

"I met Simon Pegg when I was working at Borders. I honestly did not even think it was him at first because it was like a Tuesday afternoon and he was just buying some stationery. We really didn't say anything throughout the transaction, but at the end I asked him, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like the guy from Shaun of the Dead?" And he replied in a voice I easily recognized, "I am the guy from Shaun of the Dead.""

"I saw Aubrey Plaza and her friend in the gift store of the Hagley Museum in Delaware (original DuPont homestead and gunpowder mills). We made eye contact as she left.

I smiled and waved. She smiled and flipped me off."