50 Moments Of Casual Conversations That Turned Into “Wait, Aren’t You Famous?”

For a few years, I worked at Goorin Brothers in North Beach (in San Francisco) and one day this guy came in with a bunch of his friends. They were obviously a bit toasted from drinks they were having in the neighborhood but all very friendly, funny guys.

They kept calling one gentleman “Geri” and I immediately hit it off with Geri. He was telling me about how he recently went surfing in Half Moon Bay and simply loved the Bay Area. As a lifelong Bay Area native, I appreciated his enthusiasm and encouraged him to move here, telling him he would absolutely love it, even if he just got a small apartment, despite the rising rent costs in the Bay Area. We really did get along very swimmingly, as me and my co-worker helped him & his friends to pick out some hats.

At one point, he stepped outside.

My co-worker asked: “Um, you know who that is right?”
I replied: “uh…no?”
Co-worker: “That’s Gerard Butler.”
Me: “Um…I’m not sure who that is.”
Co-worker: “Have you ever seen 300?”
Me: “….wait. The lead guy?”
Co-worker: “Yes!”
Me: “But…that guy has black hair in that movie…”
Co-worker: “Oh my GOD he’s an actor and he dyed his hair!”
Me: “….oh.”

So when he came back, with this knowledge, I still tried to be courteous to him and it seemed to be to a benefit because he later invited both of us to a screening of his new movie in downtown SF. My co-worker couldn’t make it so I took my boyfriend at the time to the theater.

Well, as we walked up, security intensely walked over to us and said “excuse me, what are you here for?” and before I could finish, I heard someone go “MOOOONIIIIIIQUUUEEE!”

It was Gerard Butler. He came running up to me at full speed, picked me up and twirled me around with a full hug. The look of defeat on my boyfriends face is a look I will never forget.

Anyway, he was happy to see me and lead us into the theater where he announced his new film “Machine Gun Preacher.”

He was a very friendly guy and this is one of my favorite stories. I hope you are doing well today, Geri!

I was working at Blockbuster, and a guy came in wearing a long trench coat and acting kind of shady. Head down, grabbing a bunch of Blu-Rays, etc. I kept watching him in the mirror because I thought he may be trying to steal them. He gets to the counter with a stack of LOTR movies. I knew he looked familiar, but I didn't get it until he handed me his credit card... It was Viggo Mortensen. I know he doesn't like a big fuss made, so I did the opposite and acted like I had no clue. He was on the swim team with my dad in high school, looking back I wish I had mentioned that! My mom saw him getting groceries for his mother once too. Seems like a nice guy, was very quiet and polite!

I was about 8 years old with my family in a canteen at the BBC head quarters, as I was passing, an older lady asked me to return her empty tray for her. When I got back to my table, having returned the tray, my mum was very excited as the older lady was none other than Dame Judy Dench.
Me..... completely oblivious!

My brother once was in a restaurant, making small talk with a guy sitting at the bar. Toward the end of their conversation the bartender comes up to the guy and politely asks if he could get an autograph. My brother says, "What, you think you're famous or something?"

The dude laughs and says yeah and leaves. He found out from the bartender it was David Byrne of the Talking Heads.

I colleague took me to lunch at a private club in Hong Kong in early 1995. As he was settling the bill I started walking out the door to his car. A friendly-looking guy walked past me, smiled and asked me how I was. I smiled and said "Fine, and you?" He said "Good, thanks" and walked into the club. My colleague, having watched the exchange, rushed up and excitedly asked what was said. I told him and he smiled and told me that it was Jackie Chan. I had seen a couple of his movies, but he wasn't the international star that he is today. Still, I thought he was friendly and polite.

In the eighties, my old man had a fight with mum and f****d off for the night. Anyhoo, he goes to Fremantle and ends up getting drunk with some long red haired male with a bandanna and some security detail. Doesn't think much of it.
About 5 years ago, he sees a Guns n Roses filmclip (November Rain) and proceeds to tell me he got drunk with that guy. So, it was only Axel Rose. If only my brother knew!

I was working at Gap in London in the late 90’s. A gorgeous brunette came in and had a browse. She looked very familiar to me, but I wasn’t sure exactly who she was. She eventually chose a few thing and came up to the counter to pay. The name on her credit card was Angelina Jolie. She was so friendly, nice and stunning close up!

I moved from Canada to London in 2004 and worked for a while in one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. One night, David Beckham came in and he entered through the kitchen not to cause havoc... knowing nothing about soccer, I had no idea who he was. I only learned later who he was when my flatmates couldn't believe I didn't know of him.

Not me but my dad - before Bruce Willis was famous, he used to bartend in Wildwood, NJ. My parents went to the bar where he worked all the time and said he was super nice.

My job sent me to E3. Lots of b-list celebs, video game actors, that kind of thing. I'm in the bathroom and the sink is really nice, pretty sure it's some kind of real polished stone, not synthetic. I put my hand under the faucet and as it turns on and I'm really digging the whole design I go "wow, this is so cool". The guy next to me says "yeah, It's really me".

I still don't know who he was.

2004 or so, waiting in line at LAX, taking forever. Got bored, checked out the tiny bald chick in front of me. Poor girl, is it cancer maybe? She looked underweight. So I imagined what she’d look like with hair... and it hit me: Natalie Portman.

Went to pick up season tickets for work for the Arizona Cardinals, at the office at the training facility. Met 3 huge dudes in the parking lot, all getting into black SUVs. They stopped me, and asked who my favorite Cardinal was. I, being the awkward genius that I am, just stuttered and said "idk I'm an Eagles fan, these are not for me". Got in the car and went OH F**K ME THEY WERE PLAYERS. Still haunts me to this day around 5 years later.

Friend of mine (for 50 years since we were 11) is very successful in his field but a bit otherworldly shall we say - he is a scientist and engineer, spends most of his time out of the UK in strange places and is not really aware of modern culture. Anyway, he gets invited to a big dinner event and thinks ‘what the hell I’ll go’. So he walks in, sits at his seat between a couple of guys and starts talking to the guy on his right. He is aware that the guy on his left is getting a lot of attention but is having a good time. When everyone settles down as the food arrives he thinks he had better be polite, so he turns to the black guy on his left and says Hi I’m Paul114ks-mate, and guy gives him a big smile and says ‘Hi I’m Will Smith’, and my mate says oh hi, what do you do??.

He had no idea.

When I was younger, my dad got tickets to a movie premiere and decided to take my 12-year-old brother and I (11 years old). After the movie (which was pretty bad), we were exiting into the lobby and my brother missed a step and essentially fell down 5 steps into an older man who made a nice, loud yelp. Charlton Heston turned around and helped my brother up asking if he was ok or something. I didn't actually know who he was then so it didn't mean much to me. I just thought it was funny my brother fell down a bunch of steps.

When I was in Australia, I met/had a photo taken with Margot Robbie (from Wolf of Wall Street). She used to be in an Australian soap opera called Neighbours. I had no idea who she was at the time, just wanted a photo with her because she was gorgeous. Four years later I saw the film and still didn't realise. It was only when I saw her on the front cover of a magazine with the title 'formerly from Neighbours' did it click.

Pizza place called Mellow Mushroom in Herndon, VA. Out with my girlfriend and i see some guy in sweats and a weekend beard walk by with his kid. I had been watching Agents of SHIELD at the time and said,"haha, that guy looks just like Patton Oswalt." 15 minutes later my girlfriend is staring over my shoulder at a crowd formed around this guys table. Turns out it was Patton Oswalt. I didn't know he lived in the area.

I already posted here once but this one was kinda cool of my dad though. I was technically there, just sorta, uh, in development. Anyway my dad was at an alumni event with the family at his old frat. Purdue university's phi delta theta. (Some of you already know where this is going). He was talking to a buddy of his while my mom was with my older sister, talking to another wife. Eventually my dad turns around, and thinks for a second and he realizes that isnt just any old wife, thats Mrs. Armstrong, Neil Armstrong's wife. Taken aback for a moment, until Neil Armstrong himself walks up and starts speaking with my mother too. My dad instantly comes up and asks for some pictures with them all. Thats pretty cool to me.

My wife and I were doing henna body art at a sci fi convention in Minneapoils. I noticed a fellow standing off to the side all by himself. I went to get something to eat and on the way back I said hello and mentioned how excited I was about the Fellowship of the Rings movie that was coming out soon, he was standing next to the poster. Then this oddly dressed man started to talk and talk and talk. Then he sort of followed me back to our table and just sort of hung out. Honestly it sort of made me a tad uncomfortable because we also had our two young kids with us. A bit later I had to go to the bathroom and started to follow me. “Oh great the weird guy is following me to the bathroom”. Thankfully he didn't follow me in but stopped in mid sentence of what he was saying only to resume it when I came back out. Well to make the long story short he sort of “stalked”e the entire weekend. I have to say he was a nice and very intelligent man, this was also the around the time that Douglas Adams died, and apparently this fellow knew him and told some stories about Douglas. I spent the weekend trying to keep him away from the kids and besides he was sort of keeping people away from my booth. The weekend got done and afterbi said farewell to my strange new friend some of the other vendors and attendees came up to me to ask what it was like hanging out “with HIM”? I replied nice guy, kind of strange. And asked who was that anyway. From the looks from those standing there I must have asked the most stupid question of all time. A guy said “dude that was Gary Gygax, he created Dungeons and Dragons”

I used to be an usher at a theatre, the upside is we often could get comps to shows. I was in theatre school at the time and there was a play by the New York experimental company the Wooster group, so I got my then-girlfriend, who was also in theatre school, a ticket. I also do a podcast where we rewatch old movies from the 80's and 90's, so I'm sort of immersed in actors and pop-culture.

Anyway, after the show I was on duty, but chatting to my girlfriend when this dude comes up, he says he'd like to know how he can speak to one of the company members, Elizabeth. Thinking this was just an audience member wanting to rub elbows with fancy New York actors, I told him he couldn't really do that. I really just wanted to get back to talking to my girlfriend. But this guy persisted, and eventually it comes out that he knows this woman, who is the director of the company, and went to theatre school with this person. Obviously he won my sympathies with the theatre school thing, and also he could have been somebody nominally important in the experimental scene, who knows. So I told him I could try to get his name to the person to ask if they have can see him, so what is his name?

"Bill. Bill Paxton".

And I get a flash of recognition so strong it nearly knocks me on my a*s. I later figured out he was in town promoting the re-release of Titanic, then like the biggest movie of all time. Of course I wanted to say something about how much I appreciated his work, because I do, but this was around the time that the Bill Paxton/Bill Pullman which is which joke was happening, and honestly in the moment could only think of movies that Bill Pullman was in, so I just said, "Right, of course" with a little snap- gun-finger motion, and then very sheepishly found a supervisor to go backstage and find his friend.

I can't believe I forgot about Aliens! Game over man!

Also RIP Bill.

I was at a training a few years ago and sat in a small session with a guy that seemed familiar. I thought maybe we had just been to trainings together before. We reached the door at the same time and were chatting when I happened to glance at his name tag and realize...my husband had just bought this guy's latest album. It was Todd Pipes, who was the lead singer for Deep Blue Something ("Breakfast at Tiffany's").