The Venue
5:45 Arrived at AMC Metreon SF downtown. Fortunately the red carpet was set up in the theater’s large indoor lobby, because it started raining just as the event began.
6:00 Gained entry to the elite press area. Luckily my early-arrival neurosis nabbed me a plum spot right at the velvet rope. The organizers thoughtfully furnished us with a Ryan Gosling impersonator to check us in and amuse us during our wait, which was considerable
I think he’s researching for his next role as a “third lackey from the right”
As I walked up to the press area, the Ryan Gosling-alike looked at me and said:
Please note: This was only said inside my brain
Outside my brain he actually said: “Do you have a purple wristband? Yeah, okay, come on in.” (Note to self: inside my brain is a way better place) I began early on Ninja-snapping photos of this guy, but as time wore on he became our little celebrity, and all the ladies had their pictures taken with him.
The Fans
7:00 Scheduled star arrival time. The crowd started to buzz with excitement. Little did we know how very far away their arrival was. Oh, how young and silly our 7pm selves were. 7:30 Still no show. Decided to get a read on the crowd, and by crowd I mean the folks most directly sharing my airspace, as I did not want to move and lose my spot. Two of my neighbor-fans were Valerie and Chelscie, who hail from Lodi which is HELL AND GONE from San Francisco. Valerie won the tix by proving her Divergent super-fan status via written essay. Chelscie was Valerie’s +1 and knew nothing about Divergent. As for other fandoms, at first Chelscie would only admit to being into sports, however, she squee’d out a little when she found out Nikita was going to be there. BUSTED!
Shelley from Fremont started reading Divergent this past summer, and is also a big Harry Potter fan. She was there with her friend Haelin (from Berkeley), who is also very into Nikita, so a double win for her tonight. Everyone was REALLY excited about seeing the movie, regardless of whether or not they had read the books.
Tragically, due to the fact that none of the fans around me would admit to having any strong notions about the movie casting before it was announced, I was unable to bait anyone into fight over who actually should have been cast as Four. Will try harder to incite brawl at future events.
The Red Carpet
8:00 The red carpet was red. And hot. Due to the delays, we spent the better part of 2 and a half hours roasting under video lighting. I found myself slowly rotating in order to insure I achieved an even brown on all sides. If we had to wait any longer, I would’ve suggested they hose us down Woodstock-style, or at the very least had the Ryan Gosling-alike pour bottled water over us.
8:15 Still standing here. Secretly cursing myself for forgetting my water bottle: I’m parched. Secretly high-fiveing myself for forgetting my water bottle: I don’t have to pee. By this point, I seriously considered interviewing the Ryan Gosling-alike about his work in Crazy Stupid Love, the release date for Drive 2, and what character he plays in Divergent.
The Stars
8:30 They’re here!!! Let the games begin! I’m gonna get great pictures! I’m gonna ask stupid questions! Imma watch them sprint from one end of the carpet to the other like Lolo Jones and Usain Bolt! (Note to TN readers: Those are sports people who run real fast) Seriously, it was a total sprint. They were very gracious, but were being herded agressively down the line in order to get to the local press (either that or they hated us, I’m choosing to believe the former). Maggie Q looked beautiful, even when in the midst of a facial expression that can only be pulled off by .0001% of the worlds population without looking like Mr. Ed.
How does she do that?
Mekhi Phifer agreed to have his photo taken from me, but never stopped walking as I tried to take my selfie. P.S. A moving selfie is straight-up level 10 difficulty. Let’s take a look at the results:
That is the worst.
I changed strategies and decided to try to reverse photobomb him while he took photos with other fans:
This proved to be a slightly more successful strategy. Will remember to bring handcuffs and a much better quality camera phone next time.
The movie
8:45 After Maggie and Mekhi began talking to the local media, we were herded into the theater after being relieved of all technology (query: if you watch a movie premiere, and you have no way to live text it did it really happen? ) I was feeling a little robbed due to the brevity of the ‘star part’ of the red carpet (the ‘waiting for crap to start’ portion of the red carpet experience was plennnnnnnnty long), but then Mekhi and Maggie came in to introduce the movie, and were very apologetic about not getting to spend more time with us (they don’t hate us – I knew it! Hooray!)
9:15 Divergent began. Wanna know what I thought? Well, I’m not gonna tell you just yet.
Tune in soon to for thoughts from the That’s Normal team so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not to shell out your hard-earned cash on tickets for Divergent movie. (Oh, you are TOTALLY going to see it! We know you.) (PS It was awesome)
