Meeting celebrities is one of the best perks of being a film reporter.
WWTW has been fortunate enough to chat with the likes of Tom Hanks (friendly but guarded), Christian Slater (not so professional) and many more. Typically, the actors know they’re dealing with the press and they’re on their best behavior.
Meeting George Clooney is my fondest memory.
I was covering my first-ever film junket for “The Perfect Storm,” and the actor couldn’t have been more engaging during the roundtable chat. But as I was walking back to my hotel I spotted him slipping into his trailer.
I stopped him before he could disappear. I’m not usually that bold.
He graciously spoke with me for a few minutes, talking about how excited he was about one of his next projects, a quirky comedy with the Coen brothers (“O Brother Where Art Thou?”).
He wasn’t a big movie star … yet. But he could have easily brushed me aside all the same. But he didn’t.
I’ve heard some horror stories from fellow scribes about meeting actors for interviews, actors you wouldn’t expect to be so unpleasant.
So far, I’ve been lucky – the Slater incident notwithstanding.
Actor Brendan Fraser visited Denver recently to promote “Extraordinary Measures.” The new film casts Fraser as a dad frantically trying to find a cure for his children’s deadly illness.
My Boxoffice.com feature shares the meat of my chat with Fraser. Suffice to say he was a gentleman in person, affable as expected and far more youthful than his 41 years would indicate.
(Photo: Brendan Fraser stars as John Crowley in CBS Films’ “Extraordinary Measures.” CBS Films, Inc. All Rights Reserved)
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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Brendan Fraser is one of my favorite actors. I still remember the time when of his first movie appearance–Encino Man–which was a hit. I’m looking forward to his new movie.
Always been a fan of Brendan’s…even if the movie was atrocious, you could count on getting a good performance from him no matter what.
He really doesn’t take himself seriously, Paul. That was crystal clear to me during our chat.
Glad to see you writing for an additional venue – Box Office! Good on ya’.
I write two stories a week for boxoffice.com … it’s a wonderful gig. I don’t always link to the pieces, though. Self promotion doesn’t come easy! But with this I figured I could share a bit about my reporting history.