“People Say It's Best ‘If You Never Meet Your Idol’: Share Your Experiences” (43 Stories)

I loved Kelly Osborne back in the early 2000s (her album was better than you would expect, okay?). I got to meet her at a visit she did to the children's hospital where I worked in the early 2010s and I was pumped to meet her. And she turned out to be just so lovely- funny and kind and generous with her time. She had such a sense of humor about herself and spent one on one time with every kid who wanted to say hi. She even hung out on the beanbags in the mental health ward and told all the kids there how it was going to be okay, she'd been through the same kind of issues and came through it, they would too.

I mentioned to her publicist at one point that I owned her CD, and publicist thought that was great and hilarious, and passed it on to Kelly, who was flattered and gave me a big hug. She was just an all round lovely person (that day, anyway) which tbh was not at all what I expected.

I’ve never met a celeb but I live outside of Banff and tons of my friends work at the Fairmont and have met loads of them.

Nicest seems to always be Danny DeVito. 😂

Most rude is consistently Gerard Butler.

My expectations are low of all celebs but if I met Alanis Morissette and she was rude I would straight up walk into the ocean.

I have two friends who have met Harry Styles (and the other 1D guys) multiple times and cannot say enough good things about him. Even when he was getting papped, he stopped to take a picture with them and made sure they were safe from the paparazzi.

Used to work with Jon Hamm. God that man is handsome and charming. It was not a disappointing experience.

I was a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan even before hunger games. I saw her at the Colbert show at the height of her fame during hunger games. I remember feeling she was so ordinary, not in a bad way but she could have been a girl I went to school with. When she was leaving the event there were a bunch of fans asking for autographs, she signed them but just looked like a sad caged animal. I felt bad for her and stopped idolising her after. I don't regret meeting her but it humanized her a lot for me, some celebrities revel in the fame but she clearly did not. She seems happier now tho.

After a speaking event, I waited in line to have Jane Goodall sign a copy of one of her books. I'd never attended a book signing before, I don't quite know what I thought would happen. The man in front of me in line spent a long time telling everyone how he was a career autograph hound. The closer I got to my turn, the worse I felt about being there at all. What was the point? Why was an autograph meaningful or worth money to others? Jane was clearly exhausted and made no eye contact. An employee took my book, Jane signed it and the employee returned it to me. It was...depressing! I don't really blame her or myself, I was young and legitimately believed that she'd be pleased to know how much I enjoyed her book. She was old and probably very tired.

I wouldn’t say regret, but i definitely felt like an idiot after mine. i’m a lifelong, die-hard olsen twins stan. i met them twice at events and they were so lovely and chill and kind. then i happened to stumble upon them on the street in NYC (the famed street where they’re always spotted smoking). i had a job interview in the same building (unbeknownst to me) and when i turned the corner, there they were, smoking. i decided to shoot my shot, so i approached and told them i was a lifelong fan, and asked if i could take a photo with them. they said no, and gave me such a mean look i immediately felt awful for doing it. no one was around (it’s a quiet residential street) so i didn’t cause a scene or anything, but i really felt so dumb for bothering them. they were still semi-public at the time, giving interviews and such, but i understand now that they don’t want to be recognized and i respect that. i should’ve just walked away. 😔😔.

On the flip side, my family met Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers once about twenty years ago and he was so nice to my family, especially my brother and I (maybe 12 and 14 at the time) that my mom has been an RHCP stan ever since. 🤷‍♀️.

When my daughter was about 10 she was obsessed with The Office. We went to Philly and I saw Kate Flannery (Meredith) walking towards us on the street. Kate saw me see and had a please no kind of look. Not rude just living. I turned my daughter to see her and she said hi, Kate smiled and waved. It was sweet!

I sat next to Charlie Hunnam at this intimate restaurant in LA where the tables were so close together that you basically were dining with guests at the tables on either side of you. All that to say, he was genuinely a very nice person.

I met Hunter Schaefer. It was indeed not great. She was very gracious but turns out your fantasies of immediately becoming best friends with your faves don’t actually happen! It’s more just awkward meeting someone you’ve thought so much about and they literally have no idea who you are and you’re kind of imposing on them.

U2: met all 4 of them and they were all exceptionally nice, talkative and receptive of the fans that had waited to meet them. I’m talking like 60 people and every single one of them left with signatures, pictures and a conversation. This wasn’t at meet or greet. Just fans waiting to meet them. Never once was the band rude, bored, uninterested or annoyed.

Anthony Kiedis: absolute jerk. Was in an empty room besides himself, his girlfriend and a fan. Fan went up to him, told him he loved his music and couldn’t wait to see him at an upcoming show. The entire time Anthony was a jerk, to the point his GF kind of called him out on it.

Dave Navarro: Dude, was the nicest celebrity I ever met. I walked by the archlight movie theatre and he was just chilling outside. Told him I was a fan and just wanted to say hi. The dude proceeded to have a 20 min convo with me where he was constantly asking questions about myself and was genuinely interested. We talked until his girl arrived and he gave me a hug at the end of the conversation and thanked me for the support and love.

Brian Eno: worked with him while he was working on an art exhibit at CSULB. He took the time to thank every single one of us personally, when he did a media Q&A he gave praise to everyone that made the exhibit possible, and was just a fantastic dude to collaborate with.

Lacey Sturm: sweetest woman I’ve ever worked with. She took me and my friend out to dinner afterwards (which she did not have to do. It was completely on her personal time) and proceeded to hang out with us for 2 hours talking about music and life. Wonderful woman.

Jason Bateman: I live in a town that used to have a movie studio in it and he had just filmed something and was at a res light about a mile away. My friends and I pulled up to the light and noticed he was next to us. He was sweet and talked to us the entire red light making jokes.

I was a background actor once, spent about 12 hours standing on a sidewalk in Brooklyn on a Saturday about 6 feet away from Jennifer Aniston, she didn’t really acknowledge anyone she wasn’t required to. She’s even better looking in person somehow. I’m not a guy that aggrandizes celebrity but she was by far the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in person.

I met Josh Duhamel when I was managing a western store in Austin, TX. He was so nice and I treasure the photo I have of us.

I met Ian Watkins. End thread.


But also Jonas brothers, Josh from you me at six, taking back Sunday, Jim and Tom from Jimmy eat world, and Ilan Rubin we’re all fantastic.

Jared Leto yelled at the audience, berated people, and kicked people out for not jumping when he said to. He said he was going “to bring everyone in the back up front and send the front to the back to take a "nap” because we weren’t up to standards. He made everyone takes 3 giant steps forward pushing us in the front. Worse god complex I’ve ever seen. To be fair I didn’t technically meet him though.

My husband works in radio so I have met a lot people in the music industry and for the most part everyone was really nice, even people I had heard could be kind of jerky. I know that they’re a little more “on” at work, but I have never gotten fake nice vibes.

I have met some other musicians outside of radio events on my own and also had really positive experiences, even though I am a pretty awkward person when I get nervous.

I’d say how an experience goes really depends on the timing of when you meet them and how you handle yourself when you meet them. They’re people, they have bad days like anyone else, but get way more attention. I think a lot of celebrities are wary because they don’t know what to expect from you, a stranger, so can come off rude when you catch them at a bad time. I’d say go for it, but a good rule of thumb is be kind, be respectful, be brief, and be gone 😂

I did once ride the same plane from Atlanta to NYC with Paul Rudd and I did not even try to talk to him when he was standing at the gate with an airline rep. I didn’t want to be responsible for starting up people crowding him and I definitely couldn’t handle it if he told me to take a hike. But it’s still one of my favorite celeb encounters because after he went down the jetway onto the plane, an employee was so excited he yelled “Yooooo, that was Ant-Man, bro!” 😂.

Sooooo …. i used to work very high end bartending at a famous steakhouse in toronto, and i’m also a huge sports fan. we had players coming in quite often from all three major teams. i ended up hitting it off with the assistant captain of our local hockey team, and one thing led to another.

it was fun, but my god, was it like being intimate with Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, looking in the mirror and flexing.

we did it once. i continued to see him at the restaurant, but we never spoke about it or hooked up again.

Back when my kids were little I went to a book signing by Sandra Boynton. She told me I looked tired. Never felt the same about her books again.

My dad worked on the air craft carrier that the Pearl Harbor premier aired on and had to tell Ben Affleck he couldn’t smoke on the flight deck.

My bff sent fan mail as a kid to Brendan Fraser - she drew a pair of jeans with a 9/11 design on them (kids hey)… sadly she never got a reply.