It’s easy to idolize someone you haven’t met. You can build them up in your mind as the perfect person, immune to greed, arrogance, and other flaws so many of us carry around within ourselves.

The ultimate test is bumping into them in real life.

A recent r/AskReddit thread has its users sharing their best and worst celebrity encounters, and the responses ranged from heartwarming to disillusioning.

While some stars appeared to be humble and kind even to random strangers, others didn’t live up to their reputation and showed a side of themselves that shattered the admiration fans once had.

• Read More: 30 People Share Their Encounters With The Kindest And Rudest Celebrities They’ve Ever Met

#1

I met Weird Al and got starstruck and didn’t know what to say to him. I finally blurted out, “I know you probably hear this a lot, but I’m a huge fan.” He smiled and responded “I do hear that a lot, but I’ve never heard it from you.” Made my day.

Image credits: NOLAComicsFan

#2

When I was in Junior High, I wrote a paper on Thor Heyerdahl and Easter Island.

In High School I wrote another about his reed boat Atlantic crossing attempt.

I went to college to study anthropology, both because of him and Indiana Jones (I was 15, give me a break).

Through a series of familial misadventures, my money for grad school vanished, and I joined the military to get the cash to finish.

While stationed in Charleston, SC. I was with a buddy walking along the pier when I see this gorgeous three master sitting up ahead. I want to go look at it, and see it’s flying a Norwegian flag. I get closer and start taking with one of the girls on the ship. She says they’re college students and this is sort of an foreign study credit, sailing the ship. From Bergen all the way around to South America. That sounds amazing.

As I’m looking around, I notice that the ship is called the Heyerdahl. I comment that I wrote papers on Thor and got my degrees based on my admiration. She asked if I ever met him, and I just laughed…I was a poor kid from Western South Dakota… What were the chances I’d ever get to meet him?

She said he was right over at a cafe less than a block away.

I remember with unbelievable clarity. He was sitting on a little white bench outside the place with a disposable cup of something, with a book in his hand. There was a small table and chair not far away, and I could only just sit and look.

He looks up about a minute or two later, sees me and says, “I’m sorry, but are you alright?” I didn’t even realize I was crying.

Over the next hour and a half I talked and listened to him, watched him smile and talk about how adventure still existed, you just had to find them, and live them whenever you could.

He invited me to visit him if I was ever in Norway, and we both laughed at that.

When he died in ’02, I bawled my eyes out.

I live in Atlanta now, and a little over a year ago my wife and I went to Charleston for a few days. After dinner one evening we were walking along the pier and I saw where the ship had been tied up. Nothing there at that moment. Then I turned to where the cafe was, and saw the bench.

I sat where he sat for a while.

Image credits: wjescott

#3

Not sure this is a “Never Meet Your Heroes” story, but it’s a great example of why you shouldn’t always listen to that advice.

I met Terry Farrell, the actress who played Jadzia Dax on Star: Trek Deep Space Nine, at a convention QnA session when I was 15. She and another DS9 actress (Nana Vistor for the Trekkies out there) were up on stage answering questions, and there were two lines leading to a microphone on either side of the stage. Well suddenly on Terry’s side, the mic went out, and without skipping a beat, Terry got off the stage and started holding out her own microphone to people so they could keep asking questions. Terry even gave a hug to a 4-5 year old girl ahead of me in line. I got to the front, and there I am, an extremely shy 15 year old, arm’s length away from my childhood hero, in front of several hundred people. I manage to tremblingly squeak out that she is my favorite character in all of Star Trek, and before I can say another word, she gives me a big hug. I ended up asking her about her favorite episode (her answer was Blood Oath, for those curious), and went back to my seat.

My dad had also bought me a photo op with her later that day, and when I got there, she exclaimed something to the effect of “Oh, I remember you!” and immediately pulled me into another big hug for the photo. I still have that photo, as well as an autographed photo of her character. Words cannot describe how much that encounter impacted me, I never expected someone who probably met thousands of fans that day to show so much care to one awkward teenager who just wanted to meet her hero like everyone else. Jadzia Dax is everything I wanted to be growing up. She is kind, confident, smart, funny, and adventurous. I still want to be all those things, but more than anything, I hope I can learn to exude even half the kindness that Terry Farrel does.

So yeah, sometimes your heroes really are heroes. :).

Image credits: ConstantlyNerdingOut

#4

I met Tim Curry a few years ago and it was a different kind of bad. He was so frail it broke my heart.

Image credits: LadyCoru

#5

Went to see Penn & Teller in Vegas…and one of their magic tricks during the show involved the audience. The trick worked for everyone in my family, but not for me.

Now they’re well known for meeting people after their show…so we stayed, got autographs and photos with them…even Teller was talking – they couldn’t have been nicer. Penn asked me what’d you’d think of the show….so my stupid mouth just fired back, “your audience trick didn’t work.”

He then asked my family, “did it work for you?”

They all nodded and with an enthusiastic – YES

Without missing a beat, he turns to me, “Well, there’s the problem, you’re an idiot.”

Getting personally insulted by Penn was the high point of that Vegas trip :-).

Image credits: agbishop

#6

Met Fellowship members Viggo Mortensen and Ian McKellen on separate occasions while I was working as a camera operator for an entertainment channel.

Viggo was a delight, could tell I was really star struck, so he asked me for a selfie before we got rolling. When I told him my friends and I used to pretend to be Aragorn at playtime in our youth he laughed and told me it was “incredibly sweet”.

McKellen saw me accidentally smash a mirror to smithereens while I was setting up my shot, and couldn’t have been kinder delayed him by cleaning up, on what must have been a very busy day for him.

Image credits: fireplaceandchair

#7

I saw Nick Offerman do a show at a theater with his wife Megan followed by a book signing afterward. So the show ended fairly late and it was a theater full of people waiting in line to get a book signed so it was obviously going to take a long while.

Nick was the best. He chatted with everyone, didn’t rush anyone along, stayed until after midnight to make sure he talked to everybody and got them a book. About halfway through the line he recognized a couple ladies and brought them out. He announced something like “sorry everyone I just need to stop for a moment because these two are royalty. This is so and so, they did the wardrobe for me on Parks & Rec and I haven’t seen them since.” and shared some brief memories of them working together. The ladies were so excited he remembered them and made them feel extra special. I’m glad Nick lived up to and exceed my expectations.

Image credits: jesterguy

#8

My then teenage daughter met Alice Cooper at a convention. She waited for the line to clear and shyly approached him for a signature, then asked for tips as she intended to have a career in music. He was very kind and took the time to talk to her about it and tell her about his own experience.

#9

My wife and I went to a David Byrne concert (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today tour). I was parked across the street from the lot where there were two tour identical buses parked. We were early, so we were just hanging out in our car.

From (evidently) a stage door, David Byrne comes out and walks over to one of the buses, puts a key in the lock and nothing happens. It wouldn’t turn. He pulled it out and put it back in and tried to turn several more times to no avail. He was standing there staring at the key with a look of frustrated confusion on his face, and I hollered, “This is not my beautiful bus!”

He laughed.

Then he had the good sense to walk over to the *other* bus and try the key there.

It worked.

#10

I met Terry Pratchett while battling very aggressive ovarian cancer.
He told me that my hat was ‘really neat’.
I carry that in my heart today.

Image credits: turingthecat

#11

Met Martin Short in an alley in LA on his way in to shoot that Jersey shore spoof he did on some late night talk show. Nicest guy in the world, told security to back off and that he had all the time in the world to talk to the people who put him where he was that day. Took pictures, signed stuff, just chatted like a normal human being. A family friend of mine kept calling him Marty, and he never corrected him. Seemed to get a kick out of it hahaha. Bid the most respectful thank you and goodbye when time really did run out and he was at risk of missing his call time or whatever.

Image credits: Annoying-donut

#12

Julia Child winked at me. She was just a genuinely fun person.

Image credits: AlanMercer

#13

The nicest I have met was Sir Michael Palin – a truly lovely man. He felt like an Uncle I’d known my whole life, and I was the one who had to end the conversation with him as I had to get to university. If I hadn’t had to go I think I’d still be talking to him 20 odd years later!

#14

I worked as a cashier in a Stateline, Nevada casino in the early 80s. Part of our training included a warning that Bruce Dern often gambled in the early morning and he did not like to be recognized. I’ve been a huge Bruce Dern fan since Silent Running and it was enough for me to spot him from across the room.

One day, I’m training a new hire and Mr Dern came to our window. I had forgotten to warn my trainee about him. After the trainee cashed out his chips, he says, “Has anyone ever told you that you look just like Bruce Dern?” Mr Dern grins and says, “I get that a lot” and walks away. Made my day.

Image credits: cherismail

#15

Greenwich Village. NYC. ‘77. At my car w. a girlfriend when Lou Reed comes (literally) bopping round the corner. Big fan so I say, “ Hey Lou, need a ride ?” He replies, “No man, I’m cool !” And ya know what ?
He was, and forever will be, in my book. RIP, baby !
AND for all the die-hards, YouTube The Velvet Underground on Lawrence Welk where his orchestra plays Sister Ray.

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Image credits: Trieditwonce

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