(The photo is of Daniel Gillies, from when he totally stole my heart.)
Look, okay, I know that celebs and actors and some vegans are just regular people. I’ve worked with a few of them, so I think I’m generally okay at this concept. And so, I know I shouldn’t glorify the famous for being normal peeps when they have average, polite interactions with other ‘normal’ people. Because that’s just what you should do when you’re a decent human being. But I really can’t help but humble-brag when I meet someone I admire, and they turn out to actually be cool.
I met an actor today who plays Elijah on the ever under-rated TV show The Vampire Diaries, and it was just such a pleasant little meeting. I noticed him as we were both browsing the DVD aisles at Amoeba. I danced around the idea of approaching him, and maybe actually hover-danced around him as I struggled with being bothersome and likely embarrassing as I often am in these situations (right, Justin Long?!) - but, his minor re-occurring role is my absolute favorite character from the past three seasons so I had to at least tell him that I appreciate his work.
And what I thought was going to be a quick ‘hello-thank-you-nice-to-meet-you’ exchange, turned into an engaging conversation. I learned his name was Daniel and from then on, he went from being the face of a character to becoming a person of character. We talked about movies (of which he had excellent taste) and even strongly recommended one for me to see. He did things like pepper my name into the conversation, which was a thoughtful touch. Had it been with any other stranger, it would have been as enjoyable of a conversation, but because we met on the basis of admirer and the admired, I appreciated the extra effort he made to initiate and carry on a chat instead of simply shaking hands of the situation.
It was a little thing but he was such a nice guy, and that’s worth mentioning.
