The Poster Memorabilia blog

A stellar Night with the Stars

A sceptic, a bet, and a first night in the fan pit at the Interstellar premiere in London.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

Can I be vulnerable with you guys for a second? I used to hate autograph hounds. I found them annoying, and I felt for the celebrities who had to endure them. Why do they exist in the first place? What's so good about getting autographs if it means disturbing other people’s peace?

Well, it turns out, it's not that bad. I had a stellar time myself when I first did it at the 2014 Interstellar premiere in London.

Let me start at the beginning. My friend lives in London, and she is an autograph hound. It was always a source of contention between us because I thought that she was wasting her life away chasing celebrities around. The tension built up so much that she bet me to do it. Or rather, that I couldn’t do it. It just so happened that I was visiting her in London at the same time that Christopher Nolan's Interstellar held its European premiere in the city. And so the bet was made.

She didn't even accompany me. She literally threw me to the wolves without so much as guiding me through my first time. I had never attended this sort of thing before, and while she did offer some tips, I had to do it all by myself.

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You could practically see steam coming out of my ears with how boiling I was having to get myself ready for the occasion. I wasn't gonna be face-to-face with Hollywood celebrities and look like a bum. I did myself up as best I could and took it head-on.

And then, there were the fans. I always sneered at the screaming fans when I watched red carpet events on TV because they looked bonkers. Now that I got to see and actually be one of them... I still think that. I may have lightened up my views a bit, but still find some parts of it ridiculous. There I was, in one of my nicest outfits, hair and makeup all done up, surrounded by screeching hyenas destroying my eardrums.

I was ready to leave even before the stars got there, but a bet was a bet. I had money on the line, as well as my friend's future, since she promised me she'd let up on the autograph-hounding if I was successful. Little did I know, however, that I'd find a new appreciation for it instead.

To this day, I still don't know what happened. Perhaps it was seeing these incredible movie stars in real life and actually experiencing their incredible aura in person. Maybe it was the energy I felt from the fans, who I initially found annoying, but then got caught up in their frenzy. Or, now that I think about it, it's possibly the fact that I did get their autographs in the end, which I admit did feel exhilarating.

Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, and even Christopher Nolan himself signed my poster. They all looked incredible, far more beautiful in real life. I worked up quite a sweat getting their attention, but they all eventually got to me.

“In the middle of it all, it was like a switch flipped inside me.”

In the middle of it all, it was like a switch flipped inside me. What I previously found a total waste of time and extremely rude was suddenly so fun and thrilling. I actually got to meet these celebrities and talk to them a little bit. Right then and there, I finally understood why my friend loves it so much.

Though I didn't get the entire cast's autographs, since they weren't all there, I still won the bet. But instead of forcing her to stop autograph-hounding, we just agreed that she won't do it as much as before. I do have to commend her, though, because she eventually got Bill Irwin and Ellen Burstyn's autographs on the same poster later down the line.

So, to you hounds, I come in peace and have made peace with your hobby. I'm not gonna do it myself, but more power to you for getting all those autographs.

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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