I met Elijah Wood at a convention several years ago. He was doing a signing booth, and I showed up extra early to be first in line. It was only the second day of the convention.
The handler at the front was trying to hype him up, telling us he was very kind and always made sure to be on time for his fans.
He ended up being over half an hour late and didn’t have an excuse. Just told the handler he just didn’t get ready on time this morning. He then proceeded to wordlessly sign headshots and hand them out, not even looking at anyone in line. I was excited to meet him in person, but he just wasn’t interested in talking to anyone.
I get that he’s human. He may be going through something, or maybe he just was having a bad day. But I was kind of disappointed that I spent a lot of money just to be handed a signed headshot and quickly shooed out of the line.
At the same convention, David Tenant showed up, and not only did he have a seminar where he talked about his upcoming roles (the whole audience sang the DuckTales theme to him, as he was about to play Scrooge McDuck in the rebooted series), but he did action poses for photos with every fan who visited him at his signing booth and even chatted them up a bit. His handler had to keep reminding him to keep the line moving, because he would chat your ear off forever; everything fascinated him and he was so excited for each person he met! It was a fantastic experience.
I had an opportunity to meet Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart performing in New York once, but my wife dragged us away at the last minute because our schedule was booked solid that day. It’s one of my greatest regrets, as I heard it was a small showing and they even sat with the audience and BS’d for a while after the show. I would totally vibe with both of those guys, especially together.
I’m no one special, but I have worked multiple conventions promoting stuff I was involved in and I have to say I sympathize with Elijah Wood here because there are a lot of real entitled assholes at those cons. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to do it in the first place, but it’s actually pretty amazing how many times I saw people come up to someone well-known at a table next to me and were just incredible dicks to them because they think they deserved to be talked down over some show they were in.
I sat next to the late Richard Hatch at a convention once (awesome guy, by the way) and it was amazing the shit people gave him for having the nerve to be in the original Battlestar Galactica. They would say shit to him like, “I love you in the new BSG, but wow that original show sucked in every way and I hated your character.” And then there were all the “you didn’t write a long paragraph on my 8x10 and I’m mad about it! Don’t you know how big a fan I am?!” people.
I’ve been pretty lucky in my life to have been around multiple well-known people and in my experience, they really appreciate it if you just talk to them on a person-to-person level. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go up to Elijah Wood at a convention and say, “I loved you as Frodo!” but if you come up with something more human-to-human to say to them, you’ll get a better reaction. Especially if they’re having a bad day. If you had said to Elijah Wood, “these conventions must be really tiring with all the signing you have to do,” he probably would have appreciated it (assuming he isn’t just an asshole himself).
I doubt it’s the same thing exactly but when I worked in marketing you had to do the same kind of thing. Even if you felt terrible and really didn’t feel like talking to anyone you have to play a role and be exciting and energetic.
I met Elijah Wood at a convention several years ago. He was doing a signing booth, and I showed up extra early to be first in line. It was only the second day of the convention.
The handler at the front was trying to hype him up, telling us he was very kind and always made sure to be on time for his fans.
He ended up being over half an hour late and didn’t have an excuse. Just told the handler he just didn’t get ready on time this morning. He then proceeded to wordlessly sign headshots and hand them out, not even looking at anyone in line. I was excited to meet him in person, but he just wasn’t interested in talking to anyone.
I get that he’s human. He may be going through something, or maybe he just was having a bad day. But I was kind of disappointed that I spent a lot of money just to be handed a signed headshot and quickly shooed out of the line.
At the same convention, David Tenant showed up, and not only did he have a seminar where he talked about his upcoming roles (the whole audience sang the DuckTales theme to him, as he was about to play Scrooge McDuck in the rebooted series), but he did action poses for photos with every fan who visited him at his signing booth and even chatted them up a bit. His handler had to keep reminding him to keep the line moving, because he would chat your ear off forever; everything fascinated him and he was so excited for each person he met! It was a fantastic experience.
I had an opportunity to meet Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart performing in New York once, but my wife dragged us away at the last minute because our schedule was booked solid that day. It’s one of my greatest regrets, as I heard it was a small showing and they even sat with the audience and BS’d for a while after the show. I would totally vibe with both of those guys, especially together.
I’m no one special, but I have worked multiple conventions promoting stuff I was involved in and I have to say I sympathize with Elijah Wood here because there are a lot of real entitled assholes at those cons. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to do it in the first place, but it’s actually pretty amazing how many times I saw people come up to someone well-known at a table next to me and were just incredible dicks to them because they think they deserved to be talked down over some show they were in.
I sat next to the late Richard Hatch at a convention once (awesome guy, by the way) and it was amazing the shit people gave him for having the nerve to be in the original Battlestar Galactica. They would say shit to him like, “I love you in the new BSG, but wow that original show sucked in every way and I hated your character.” And then there were all the “you didn’t write a long paragraph on my 8x10 and I’m mad about it! Don’t you know how big a fan I am?!” people.
I’ve been pretty lucky in my life to have been around multiple well-known people and in my experience, they really appreciate it if you just talk to them on a person-to-person level. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go up to Elijah Wood at a convention and say, “I loved you as Frodo!” but if you come up with something more human-to-human to say to them, you’ll get a better reaction. Especially if they’re having a bad day. If you had said to Elijah Wood, “these conventions must be really tiring with all the signing you have to do,” he probably would have appreciated it (assuming he isn’t just an asshole himself).
I’m willing to give most the benefit of the doubt, it’s gotta be hard to be on all the time. Having a shit day but you’re booked? Well you’re there.
I doubt it’s the same thing exactly but when I worked in marketing you had to do the same kind of thing. Even if you felt terrible and really didn’t feel like talking to anyone you have to play a role and be exciting and energetic.