The Poster Memorabilia blog

My Night with Mia Wallace

A lifelong movie crush, one December premiere, and the signature that sent him packing for LA.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

Every movie fan has that one star who got to them first. For me, it was Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction. I've seen a lot of beautiful people on screen and in person since, but nobody has ever quite matched that first impression. We only met once, but it's still one of my fondest memories.

I first saw Pulp Fiction when I was a teenager, and it's safe to say that was my first real movie crush. Growing up on Disney movies with dainty princesses, I'd never seen a woman on screen like Mia Wallace — cool, dangerous, funny, completely in control of every room she walked into.

I think she's the reason I've always been drawn to badass women in movies. It turns out I was never the type to root for damsels in distress. Give me the woman who's the most interesting person in the scene, and I'm sold.

“They say you should never meet your idols, but they never said anything about crushes.”

She starred in a movie called Playing for Keeps in 2012, and it held its premiere in New York City. I was in the city for work at the time, but when I heard she'd be appearing at the event, I brought my Pulp Fiction poster for her to sign.

Her co-stars Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel were there too, and they both looked great, but they couldn't hold a candle to Uma Thurman as far as I was concerned. I'll admit I was a complete mess when she walked over to our side of the barrier.

Thank God I got it together just in time to ask for her autograph. She smiled at me as she signed my poster, and I was never the same again. I knew she'd look good in person, but up close? Lord help me! She was the most striking movie star I've ever seen in real life.

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After getting her autograph, I figured I could get the rest of the cast to sign my Pulp Fiction poster, too. So I turned my life around, moved to Los Angeles, and became an autograph hound.

I had a ball chasing down the rest of the cast, which wasn't that hard considering that many of them stayed active throughout the 2010s. I eventually met John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, and Ving Rhames, and got their autographs too. I never saw Bruce Willis, though, and now that he's retired from acting, I doubt I ever will.

Still, I'll always go back to the night I met Uma Thurman. They say you should never meet your idols because they might disappoint you, but they never said anything about crushes. And I had the best movie crush of them all. Not only did she not disappoint me, but she shattered all of my expectations.

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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