wedgeantilles:

popcultaddict:

fuckyeahcuteactors:

Okay, bragging rights time: I’ve met Robert Sean Leonard. And he was as sweet as sweet can be! It was when I lived in New York, and he was in a play Off Broadway. They began admitting people into the lobby but my father held me back–unbeknownst to me at the time, he had overheard two autograph hunters talking about how they had heard that RSL was running late and he was going to come in the front door. So he suggested we stay out there for a little while longer. When my father was sober, I trusted him with my life and, besides, I thought he knew some special Manhattan secret I didn’t, so there we waited. And after about twenty minutes, when the two autograph hunters were even about to give up, there he came.

He was completely besieged by the two guys who had a literal stack of photocopied copies of the (mostly) positive Times review, and he was very, very polite, despite the fact that they were very disingenuous and seemed more to be collecting him than actually wanting to meet him. He signed a couple of their photocopies and exchanged pleasantries and thanked them for their compliments. And then he turned to me and I turned to mush. I managed a, “I loved you in Dead Poets Society and Swing Kids!” (yeah, I’m old, LOL!) which may or may not have sounded like rushed nonsense. And maybe I flatter myself, but with that he seemed genuinely pleased.

I had nothing for him to sign, so he literally grabs one of the photocopies from the two guys (whose faces were priceless at this point, ahahahaha! that wasn’t my imagination because my dad commented on it later!) and signed the sweetest thing to Jean Marie (my full name), his biggest fan etc. etc.

But this is not the end of my story, oh no!

See, then we were sitting in the lobby waiting to be let into the actual auditorium; it was this nice little cafe (that’s Off Broadway for you) and my dad was having a coffee and I was still staring dreamily at the photocopy with his lovely message on it. And then my dad’s looking up, and my reaction time is slow, still lost in La-La Land, and I look up. And there’s RSL, striding across the lobby with an autographed 8x10 glossy which he presented to me.

I nearly fainted then. He remembered me; he came out to find me to give me this special, special thing. We got both framed, side by side.

And that is the story of the friendliest encounter I ever had with a celebrity. I’ve met some at conventions and events and stuff like that, but this was more personal and he was… more than gracious, he was completely awesome! And it was love for life! :D