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Have you ever had a conversation with a celebrity? I’m talking about a real conversation that, while brief, wasn’t just you bumping into them on the street and dropping your coffee? Or just posing with them for a photo?
I have a two-way tie: Will Arnett and Harold Ramis. Both solid encounters if I do say so myself.
AskReddit users shared their celebrity stories and some of them might even make you jealous.
Do you have your own celebrity encounter story? Share it in the comments!
1. Dave Chappelle
“Dave Chappelle. I was working Night Audit(overnight) at a Mid Luxury hotel in Napa. He and 6-7 friends rode up on motorcycles at like 2am and asked to get rooms for 2 nights. Apparently, they were in a road trip to nowhere and would just stop each night where they stopped. They had a few people following them in a truck and trailer.
He is a pretty legit insomniac and would sit in the front steps for 5-6 hours each night on his phone smoking. They decided to extend and ended up staying a total of 6 nights. On night 2, I went out and asked for a light and we ended up chatting a few hours. It repeated for 3 nights and I got to hang out with him about 10 hours total. Smart, thoughtful, articulate, and genuine person. The humor is just him. I was actually blown away with how precise his natural whit and timing was.
Saw him at a show in SF last year and he recognized me. Shouted out from stage “Yo… I know you… You still working nights?”
Great human.”
2. Two comedy legends
“Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. They visited the St Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis TN. They both were incredibly nice and hilarious. This small kid fell into the floor and was crying and kicking his legs so Jim Carrey (in a very expensive suit) dropped to the floor and did the same just to stop him from crying. Robin Williams wore the nose from Patch Adams and much more hairy than he looked in the movies.”
3. Buzz
“Buzz Aldrin. Just my family and I got to spend a few days with him touring around the Kennedy Space Center. I was 12 and had no idea what kinds of questions to ask him. So all I could think of was “Were you scared during launch?” and, “What does Moon ground feel like?”
I got back in contact with him l a few years back when I called to notify him that my Dad had passed away. He said that he remembered my father and was proud that I followed in his footsteps by majoring in Aerospace Engineering for my Bachelor’s.”
4. Crocodile Hunter
“Steve Irwin in an elevator when I was 11. He asked me where I was from and if there was any crocodiles in the pool and I told him I went to his zoo and how cool it was. He was exactly how you think he’d be, just a really nice guy and a great dude.”
5. Ripley!
“Sigourney Weaver, just after Aliens was released on VHS. A buddy of mine and I were riding up the gondola at the mountain where we were on the ski team, she was in the singles line, and we didn’t know who she was until the end of the ride up (~10 mins), when she said something, and he and I (both being about 12, so we had both obviously seen Aliens, as good children of the 80’s) were both like… “Ripley?”
She was kind enough to repeat “get away from her, you bitch!” for us.”
6. A nice guy
“Jason Mamoa. Bumped into him when I went rock climbing with my girlfriends. He liked my Batman shirt hahaha.”
7. That is amazing
“Played a round of golf with Bill Murray, was awesome.”
8. Dolly
“Dolly Parton. My grandpa is good friends with her. She’s a peach.”
9. Swayze
“Patrick Swayze! Dude was super nice!
I used to work at a small airport in Van Nuys, CA. Mr. Swayze and his wife owned an older King Air that they flew themselves. My very first day on the job, while I was standing on a ladder fueling his plane, Mr. Swayze was inspecting his plane before a flight. He found a small puddle of fluid (left behind by a previous aircraft) on the ground under one of his engines and dipped his middle finger in it, held it up to me and asked, “Hey what the fuck is this?”
He clarified that he was just joking when he saw me internally freaking out. He usually tipped really really well whenever I helped with his bags and pulled his truck around (especially when his goldendoodle clawed me in the face once) and I remember his wife coming to an older, unused hangar once to pull a litter of kittens out from under a car to take them to the vet.
This was all before he got his cancer diagnosis, and I left the job before he died. I do remember being legitimately sad for his wife when I read he had passed. The guy didn’t really take too much time to know me, but he was always very friendly, very polite, and made it a point to treat us like people. I met a handful of famous (and not famous, but connected and wealthy) people while I worked there – but he was the one I’ll always remember. Dude was awesome.”
10. The Boss
“Bruce Springsteen stayed at the hotel I used to work at in college and I got to carry the band’s guitars from the hotel to the stage which was cool( he was playing before a speech from President Obama).
When I was grabbing them from his room his wife was nagging him about his hair and he just laughed and came out in the hallway with me and chatted for a minute or so. Asked me if I was married(I wasn’t) and told me to expect the nagging if I were to get married.”
11. This is great
“Samuel L. Jackson. Even got to end the conversation on him calling me a motherfucker. I put that shit on my resume.
Was in an IHOP at like 2 am. Went to check out and the cashier was all smiles and anxiously said, “There’s a celebrity behind you.” Rolled my eyes and figured it was gonna be someone like Jimmy Fallon or Joe Rogan. Turn around and there in all his glory is Samuel L. Jackson. In a pink plaid golf outfit. Hat and all. His friend was in the same but it was baby blue. I was legit star struck, mouth agape.
SLJ proceeds to channel some Jules Winfield on me and my friend, “DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN. You two acting like I held you up at gunpoint or some shit. Tell me, do I……… intimidate you? ”
Without missing a beat, and the only time I’ll ever think of anything remotely this witty, I tell him, “We’re not intimidated by anyone that can get their ass kicked by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall with a mop handle.”
SLJ is caught flat footed for a split second and starts laughing his ass off. We get to chill with him for a bit and chat him up. When he says he’s gotta bounce, I ask for a favor. “Now, I don’t do autographs,” he starts. “Ain’t no one gonna believe me with some napkin or something anyways. Could you call me a motherfucker? ”
He laughs uproariously and stone faces us mid laugh, “you’re a motherfucker.”
I’m a six foot three dude and I melted on the spot, shivers running up my spine.”
12. Spike
“I once shot a movie with Spike Lee. Very low budget, independent thing with a tiny crew and tinier cast. We were together everyday for a week but he never said a word to me beyond some notes. Anyway, on the last day of filming we were coming back from lunch and I was standing outside having a cigarette when he comes walking by.
He says something like “Ahh, so this is where the smokers all hang, huh?” and I just kind of laugh and say Yeah. He looks at my beat up sneakers and goes “What kind of shoes are those?” I tell him I don’t actually know, and he looks at me like I just took a dump on the sidewalk and says “You don’t know?” and I tell him I’d run a 5k three years earlier and had needed some running shoes, so I bought the cheapest ones.
This dude reaches into the cargo pocket of his pants and pulls out a fat envelope. He opens the envelope and I see that it’s full of Nike gift cards. Like, a hundred Nike gift cards. He pulls out two, hands them to me, and says “There’s two gift cards, $75 a piece. Get yourself some new Jordans” and walks away.”
13. Full Metal Jacket!
“R. Lee Ermey, The Gunny. Just an all-around down to earth badass dude. Met him at WWII Weekend here in PA years ago, along with my younger brother who got inspired to become an US Marine. It was a honor to meet him.”
14. Tom Hanks
“Tom Hanks. He was the host for the national christmas tree lighting, and I volunteer with the decorations every year. He was looking at some and talking to his wife about them. As I was facing away at first I just kept thinking that sounds like woody from Toy Story.
I turn around and low and behold it was. The nicest couple you could imagine, just pleasent conversation for a few minutes and they were called off to do something. Both pleased and disappointed I didn’t ask for a selfie, but I was geeking out nonetheless.”
15. Rock star
“Steven Tyler came into my car dealership. One of the managers came up to me and said, “I need you to help a VERY special client.” I joking asked who and said, “it isn’t another footballer player, is it?”
He didn’t think it was funny. Walk to where Steven was and my jaw dropped. Hard to maintain professionalism when you have music royalty in front of you. After he had left, one of my coworkers came up to me and said, “whoa! That was the dude from American idol!” I wanted to slap him.”
