11. Aaron Paul
Aaron Paul comes into the restaurant I work at whenever he’s in town. I work in the kitchen so I don’t interact with him directly, but the servers tell me that he’s very humble and low-key, doesn’t attract attention when he comes in, sits with a small entourage and is genuinely pleasant to be around. He tips well and tries to take a picture with every fan who asks. He looked to the kitchen and kinda thank you-waved to us last time he was in. I was kind of awestruck at how handsome he is. I know he’s a hollywood actor, but I didn’t expect him to look like he just rolled off a shoot where he didn’t get beaten up/put into slavery.
12. Shakira
Not my own experience but my accidental bodyguard’s:
Shakira is beyond self-absorbed. She got driven around a golf cart and made him run alongside it the entire time
The Coldplay guys are fantastic and down to earth
Justin Bieber was… well, exactly how you’d expect him to be. Bodyguard eventually got so fed up with him that he ended up screwing around with him a couple times to get payback
13. India Arie
I had a chance to sit in on a recording session with India Arie. 4 time Grammy winner, so much beauty and talent, and she is as down to earth, kind, and gracious as any person I’ve ever met.
An angel on Earth.
14. Ozzy And Sharon Osbourne
My dad runs a company that does security and production for concerts. If there’s been a band or a famous person that needs a stage in our town, he’s met them. Zoe Deschanel doesn’t. allow stage hands to make eye contact with her. Reba McIntyre travels around backstage in one of those typical looking stages cases, so she doesn’t get stopped by fans. That kinda bluegrassy band that plays Timshel but who’s name escapes me are apparently some of the biggest douchebags he’s met. On the other hand, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne chose to ate dinner with all the stage hands, apparently they’re super nice. Def Leppard was bored one day and invited a bunch of the guys to play softball with em. The list goes on.
Mumford and Sons is the name of the “kinda bluegrassy” band.
15. Jeff Goldblum
So I’ve done a fair bit of work as an extra, occasionally getting to be on set with a few famous people. We’re not allowed to just go up and chat to the talent, but from the interactions I’ve had:
Jeff Goldblum, cool as f**k in person.
Kevin Kline, kind of a d**k.
Morena Baccarin, seemed nice enough.
16. Nicolas Cage
I was a stand-in for a Nicolas Cage film. He mostly kept to himself and would walk around with a cigar being all Nic Cage-like. During one fight scene there was a small amount of fire involved and something went wrong. He got super angry and started yelling at everyone. It was awesome.
17. John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo is just a really nice guy.
I worked at a post production facility that was doing a sound mix for him last year and he was just all around really nice.
18. Peter Frampton
I was backstage manager for Peter Frampton at one of his shows when he first moved to Nashville. He is shorter than you expect, but larger than life on stage. One of his guitars, a black triple-humbucker Gibson Les Paul, survived a plane crash and has the burns to prove it. Frampton is a humble, genuine and talented guy.
19. Richard Carne
I was in a commercial with Richard Carne (Al from Home Improvement). Super super nice guy. We got to meet a mountain lion in that shoot.
20. Neil Gaiman
I used to read scripts for the Austin Film Festival, which would earn me a pass for the writing panels and film screenings for the festival itself. I didn’t work with the guests directly but they were pretty approachable, especially after panels and screening Q&A’s.
Ernie Hudson, Harry Anderson (of Night Court fame) and Neil Gaiman stand out particularly as being very gracious and friendly. I chatted with Hudson after a screening of a small indie movie he was in and he couldn’t have been friendlier. He signed my Ghostbusters II DVD.
Neil Gaiman stayed to sign autographs after a late screening of the film Princess Mononoke, which he wrote the English-language script for. He was also very gracious to every single fan. Got him to sign one of my Sandman trade paperbacks
