It's impossible to know what a celebrity is really like unless you meet them in the wild. While every encounter is just one person's experience, the internet is teeming with stories from fans who walked away either pleasantly surprised or seriously disappointed after meeting their idols. So, we scoured the web for the wildest celebrity encounter stories and rounded up both positive ones and not-so-positive ones. Here are the 20 celebs who made the biggest impressions, for better and for worse.
Note: We sourced these stories from this post on Threads and this Reddit thread. All the anecdotes below are firsthand accounts from individual users, so take them with a grain of salt.
1. "I have a doozy. Summer 1980, I’m on the freeway in Seattle. Traffic dead stopped (accident probably). It’s hot, window down, no AC. Limo next to me. The window goes down, and Freddie Mercury is inside. I tried to be cool. We chatted for like 10 minutes. Great talk, great thrill."
2. "I met Bo Burnham after a show once in like 2010 or 2011. I was super excited to meet him. He tried to play it cool, smoking a cig. He made a snide comment along the lines of, 'What are you, like, 12 years old?" Bro is literally two years older than me. I lost all respect for him. Either pretend to be nice or don't make yourself so approachable."
3. "I went to see Bastille open for Duran Duran, but got the start time wrong and MISSED them. As D2 played, I realized my error and started to leave. (Sorry, D2! Tween me would never!) As I wandered toward the exit, Dan Smith walked out in front of me. He was in the food court to get dinner for his bandmates. I told him we were there to see him, but missed his set. He hugged me, and we chatted. He invited us to join him on his quest for food. He’s so great with fans and it was the best night ever!"
4. "I was walking to my car after seeing The Foo Fighters' first show after COVID. I happen to notice three people standing around just talking and laughing. It took me 0.2 seconds to realize that one of the people talking was Jackson Browne. I told my companion, 'Oh my god, that’s Jackson Browne,' and they all heard me. They shouted to me, 'Yes, it is, c’mon over and talk to us.' What followed was the most surreal 30 minutes of my life. Jackson treated us like we were dear old friends."
5. "Not me, but an old friend of mine used to work at a nice restaurant in New Orleans, and she waited on Emma Roberts and Evan Peters when they were still together. She said that Emma was so incredibly rude the entire time, and Evan was super nice and borderline apologetic for Emma’s behavior."
6. "I met Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard a few times through friends — prior to that, I was obsessed with Veronica Mars...loved that show and her so much. So I have never gotten over how stuck up and into themselves Kristen and Dax were. It was unreal. They very much had that vibe that so many in Hollywood do — 'If you can’t help me progress in my career, then you mean nothing to me.' It was such a huge bummer, and now seeing how endearing everyone finds them…it’s such an act."
7. "January 27, 1989. Michael Jackson’s last night on the Bad Tour. Against my mother’s wishes, my uncle kept me out afterward, determined to find him. Somehow, we did. As Michael was leaving, my uncle lifted me up so I could get close enough to say hello. He was so gracious about it. I’ve never forgotten that."
8. "Owen Wilson was very rude to staff at a museum I once worked at and was all 'Do you know who I am'...and this was an outing with his mom."
9. "My friend’s dad found Aaron Rodgers' wallet at a bar/restaurant when he was visiting our hometown during the offseason, while he was still pretty new-ish in the NFL. This guy’s kids had grown up around Aaron and played youth sports together, but when he met up to give him his wallet, Aaron made him stand there as he counted every dollar bill and made comments about how you can’t trust anyone and kept grilling him, asking if he’d sold photos of his stuff to any outlets."
10. "My sister and I were getting an elevator at the Venetian in Vegas, and as we’re going up, Art Alexakis from Everclear gets into the elevator with us. I tried to whisper to my sister that the guy we’re in the elevator with is famous. My sister (whom I should’ve expected this from) immediately looked at him and said, 'Hey! Are you famous?!' I was completely embarrassed, but he laughed so hard. He said, 'It depends on who you ask. If you ask my kids, they’d say no.'"
11. "Dave Matthews was a regular at the coffee shop I managed in Seattle. We chatted a lot, and he always had some kind of strange but hilarious comment or compliment to dish out during the interaction. He's really nice and kinda weird, and honestly, pretty handsome. I never acknowledged who he was, but I’m sure he knew that I knew."
12. "Thomas Rhett brings his wife and kids to Disney all of the time. Met them twice at Princess Fairytale Hall. Thomas made sure to make conversation with us cast members (I was an attendant, not a performer), ask how our day was, and thank us profusely both times. Kindest interaction with a celebrity I ever had my entire time at Disney. Usually, they know we are supposed to ignore them, so they treat us as such."
13. "A favorite was I was very pregnant with my daughter (she’s 19 now), and the radio station I worked at had a Josh Groban concert, so we got to hang out with him backstage. It was the same day that Josh found out the wife of his tour manager was also pregnant, and he was SO EXCITED, told me all about it, and asked if it was OK to rub my belly. I said yes because it was so ridiculously adorable how excited he was, and he had a whole conversation with my stomach. It was seriously the cutest, and I’ll never forget it!"
14. "Kevin Spacey. Years and years ago, I saw him in a play and did stage door, and he was just a straight-up asshole to EVERYONE. I don’t know why he bothered doing stage door at all."
15. "Diana Ross cut in front of me at the airport check-in counter once. LAX doesn’t lack in celebs, but I was a kid and flabbergasted by this big-haired lady who had the guts to sweep in front of us AND touch the gate agent’s computer. It’s been 20 years, and I still have beef with her."
16. "Patricia Arquette came to a spa where I was the front desk person. She kept asking why it was so expensive... meanwhile, she was pre-booked, and all the prices were clearly listed in the itinerary. I was in my early 20s and scared shitless when she just kept staring at me like I was supposed to give her a discount. She didn’t tip."
17. "I was sat directly next to Cameron Diaz in a restaurant right after she did The Mask. She was with her agent or manager, and was being told she didn't get a part. She was absolutely trash-talking another actress that had gotten the role instead of her in a movie with Harrison Ford. Loudly. I didn't acknowledge any of it, but many could hear her. At one point, she said to the waiter, 'Don't look at me.' I don't think he was looking at her because she was famous. I think he was looking at her because she was almost hysterical and spewing vulgarities about a very famous actress that nearly everyone likes."
18. "I stayed at the same hotel as the Jonas Brothers a few months ago to attend their concert in Santiago. They were having lunch the day after the concert, and I was taking a walk with my husband…when Joe Jonas smiled widely and pointed in my direction, saying, 'I saw you guys at the concert last night!' Then, we proceeded to have a chat. Really nice guy."
19. "I work in the industry and have met plenty of celebrities. About 95% of them are very nice and normal. But the one whom I absolutely dislike because of how much of a c*nt she was is JLo. She was super rude and dismissive…and had this attitude that she was better than you. I’m not the only one who’s had a bad experience with her. I have another friend who works at a high-end luxury jewelry store, and she, too, met JLo a few times, and each time had a bad experience with her."
And finally:
20. "I was an ad agency associate creative director in charge of directing a recording session for a radio spot featuring Dolly Parton. She was exactly like you'd expect — funny, kind, and down to earth. As we recorded some lines, she paused for about 10 seconds. I asked her if everything was okay. She said, 'Sorry, 'bout that — I just burped up some of my coffee. Want me to do it louder?'"
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