meeting Charlize...

A few years back just before she won her Oscar for MONSTER, I went to a screening of the film and a Q&A with her. I had been obsessed with running into Charlize since I first got to LA on a 90 day tourist visa. Anyway, 88 days into my (first) 90 day stay I not only saw her, but spoke to her, shook her hand, hugged her, asked her stuff, told her stuff - she is a very, very accessible movie star.

As always, after 5 questions in the Q&A the dumb interviewer starts on the "well, we have to wrap this up - last question"-theme. Charlize says: "Oh, why? I'm having such a good time. Do we have to go??" To which the audience howls: "Noooooooo" - so the questions continued. However, after about another 20 minutes the management of the Laemmle Theatre was adamant that we stop, so Charlize took the session into the lobby. Just like that. She was like:" Wait, let me come down to you guys " (she was on a stage) and walked to the lobby with the audience in tow, stopped there and continued to answer people's questions and chat to people individually. The crowd thinned out, but I had rented the spot next to her left elbow and for the next 45 minutes, I was not moving from there. I guess I was being a real hog, but I did let other people ask questions too and about 3 people wanted autographs. In between, I kept firing off questions and I told her that I had been waiting to run into her during my time here and now it had happened. We eventually got kicked out of the lobby, so we carried on on the pavement. She told me she also came to Hollywood on a 90 day tourist visa and asked how long I had been here and what I was going to do and I told her... and she listened. She wanted to know where I was from in Jo'burg and when I said Randburg she was all: "Oh, I went to De Kruin art school there!" Anyway, I won't give you every question and every answer..blah, blah, but I am absolutely amazed at how available she is to her public.

There was a guy filming her with his handycam, so I know I'm all over that home movie - I just did not want to leave! I know it probably looked a little excessive, me glued to her elbow like that, but I had hatched this plan to ask her in Afrikaans (so that no-one else would get it), if she had time to have tea with me...I chose tea, because "koffie" in Afrikaans still sounds like coffee in English! Well, at the last moment I thought I may be pushing my luck and then I thought a guy near her was probably a bodyguard, so I dropped my plan. As it happens, this guy walked her to her car, but then she got in and he walked the other way. I could SOOOOO be having tea with her right now! I considered racing up to the car window with my proposal....but, luckily, I realized just in time that that would have been a very dumb move. Maybe. Actually, maybe it wouldn't have been such a dumb move after all - ? oh, W H A T E V E R. Now that my little fantasy about running into her in Hollywood has actually come true, I have a new obsession - how to invite her to the screening of my short film ... never fear, I have a little plan already (and yes, it does involve the use of Afrikaans).