#1
I’ve met a fair number of musicians but probably the nicest was Weird Al. My daughter was shy but really wanted his autograph and he was so kind! I understood why the line (after a show) was so slow. He took time with each person, made a little personal connection, and left them feeling seen and heard. It was honestly amazing.
#2
Replying on a throwaway account.
Worked for the first time with a major A-List talent many years ago when I was first starting out. They (trying to remain gender neutral as to not give too much away) have quite the reputation for being phenomenally talented but also rude, abrasive, and arrogant for a lack of better words.
Going in, I knew that I had to walk carefully tread around them because of their reputation but I was a little surprised by how “not rude” they were. But most people generally are around me as I’m quite tall, by most means conventionally attractive and ex-military (at a time when most people held the military in a higher regard compared to today).
Because they were rather friendly with me from the get-go, I didn’t have to walk around egg shells while interacting with them and could be myself. Also, I’m generally not the kind of person who ever really asks for pictures, autographs etc so that helped.
Couple weeks in we had a quiet moment together and they broke down in front of me. At first, I thought to myself, “oh s**t, I’m f****d” but those were tears of joy as I was the first person in a long time to have treated them like a normal person and not as some diva or someone who should be placed on a pedestal.
They opened up about the fact that they enjoyed acting as an art form but hated much of pageantry and attention they got as a celebrity and much of their abrasive personality came from years of being exploited by people who they assumed to be friends and feeling like a “zoo animal” whenever they were out and about with people treating them like they were the latest attraction to see and forgetting that there was an actual person underneath.
Are there some genuinely horrible people in hollywood, entertainment etc? Absolutely. But it also taught me not to always judge a book by it’s cover and a lot of times when people who are famous come across as abrasive, it’s a bit of a defense mechanism.
#3
There’s so much more to the movie industry than meets the eye. To get a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, we spoke to someone who’s been in the thick of it.
We had a chat with an assistant director and video editor in Bollywood, who shared some juicy secrets from his 10 years of experience in the industry. Choosing to stay anonymous to avoid unnecessary drama, he gave us a peek into the world of glitz and glamour.
#4
I’ve known a bunch of minor B-C list celebs. Musicians, Broadway, movies, all of it. One of my very best friends is a C-list working actor. 15-20 years ago in my younger years we’d go to parties around Hollywood and run into other C-listers. One of the things that sticks out to me, as a theatre kid myself, is that they are ALL the obnoxious annoying theatre kid that sang Sondheim in the hallways and had a lot of feelings. They all had that energy. The parties would sometimes get really weird. And deep down these are not the cool kids. I always remember that when people hold celebs up to these super high standards and take political and life advice from them. They’re just people. They’re the theatre kid from school and everyone needs to calm down.
#5
They are all frozen at the age the become famous. Christina Aguilera was alway a 13 year old girl. Adam Levine is a horny 18 year old guy. Robin Williams was a hilarious and kind 25 year old. Etc…
I think after you are famous, the systems around you stop saying “no,” stop supporting/disciplining you like they probably should, and continuing to mature on the same path as normal people becomes harder.
I never had a “bad” experience with the celebs I worked with, and many I would say were friends, but my interactions were never totally in line with the “regular” folks I really spent my quality time with.
#6
He started by saying, “Not all of it is bad. The industry is overall good, but it’s incredibly insecure.” He explained how the competitive nature of Bollywood makes actors and actresses constantly insecure—not just about their roles, but their appearance and even their personalities.
He revealed some eyebrow-raising moments, like when junior artists (background actors) look too good. “If a junior artist looks better than an actor, they’ll ask the director to change them,” he shared.
#7
Worked for one very long day on Batman Vs Superman. In between takes my friend and I had a few minutes to talk with Zach Snyder, thanking him for the invite to come be in the film (he’d called in to the sports radio station he was listening to locally while in town and offered extra roles to people at the station…I’m just the lucky friend of one). Wasn’t like we knew the guy or anything but for a few minutes we were just chopping it up with another guy about current sports…right after walking by the goddamned Batcave set!
In hindsight we both felt like maybe it wasn’t so acceptable for a couple of extras to just grab the director of a big budget movie during a night shoot and just attempt to chit chat with the guy but he never made us feel like we were out of line or bugging him. He seemed genuinely happy we’d taken him up on the offer…and I even made it in the movie for like 1.2 seconds.
