The Johnny Depp Experience

Yes, on April 16, 2008, I MET Johnny Depp. The famous one! And here's the low-down on my beyond amazing experience (to put it mildly).

10.30am - I arrive in town where filming for "Public Enemies" is taking place.
10.30am-2.45pm - I wander around the different angles of the set, watching filming, and even managed to film a scene from a rooftop!
2.45/3.00pm - I go to a camera store to buy film! (and thank god I did!)

After I bought film at the camera store, I headed past the set trailers to see what was happening where a large crowd had gathered near the library. I walked a little farther to near where the "grassy knoll" was, just in time to see many of the extras leaving the filming area. All of a sudden, the crowd started to scream, and taking me completely by surprise, a black Expedition drove by with its windows rolled down. Inside was Johnny Depp, and he was sticking his arm out the window and waving to the crowd. I was so frazzled and uprepared, I barely had time to lift the SLR camera up and try to get some shots. I sprinted down the street that the library was on, trying to take a few more pitures, until the car pulled too far ahead and pulled into the area by the trailers, where Johnny got out. ((note: I hope that I got some good shots then, but I don't know yet because it was on a film camera and I have yet to develop the film))

After Johnny drove by, already a huge crowd was forming near the library, where Mr. Depp had met fans on Monday night. I realized that I had left most of my stuff on my friend's porch (where I had watched filming from the roof), so I sprinted back to get it before I missed anything. Then I sprinted back to the crowd, and by this time I was fairly far back, so if Johnny came out, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to meet him.

As the crowd gradually grew, we watied. Eventually, I made my way to the front, near the barricades. I started talking with and getting to know some other girls in the crowd, and everyone was joking and laughing and having fun. Around 4.15pm (maybe?), my friends Shawna and Lauren came and found me, and we all waited some more. After about two hours of waiting, (around 5pm) we finally saw Johnny get back in his black Expedition, but this time he was on the side of the car away from the crowd, so I just saw his waving arm as he pulled out of the trailer parking lot to go back to the set to do more filming.

It was now about 5pm, and I had to leave to go to my brother's birthday dinner. Lauren and Shawna promised to save my spot in the crowd, so I left.

After eating a quick meal of soup and salad bar, I made my way back to where Shawna and Lauren were. It was now close to 6/6.15pm. LOTS more waiting followed, getting to know the "regular" security guards, waving at/cheering for the extras and other crew, making jokes, taking random pictures; in general, having fun. Eventually, we saw Johnny drive by again, back to the trailers, waving and smiling. We waited even more. Maybe around 7/7.15pm, more and more security guards came out, and began telling the crowd that Johnny was coming out, but we all had to be calm - no screaming, NO PUSHING, no fighting, ect. - Johnny didn't want anyone to get hurt (aww!). If we disobeyed any of these 'rules', Johnny wouldn't come out, or if he was already out, he would leave. So now we were getting excited, but we had to stay calm, because we didn't want to break the rules! ((note: our little "section" of the crowd was passing the rules throughout everyone else because we didn't want people to screw it up for us. the security guards admired our good listening skills. lol. and then we made the paper the next day - just not by name)) Close to 8pm, just as the sun was setting, we could finally see what looked like Johnny Depp and a crowd of security guards, moving down the street, shaking hands. People began leaning far out over the barricades, or sticking their arms up in the air, trying to see and take photos (including myself). As he got closer and closer, and I got better and better pictures, we all got more and more excited. Finally, maybe 20 or 30 minutes after he started meeting people, Johnny Depp was coming up to us!

Shawna was the first to meet him, shaking his hand, saying hello, and looking starstruck :) Then there was a little boy behind and between Shawna and I, so I said to Mr. Depp, "Excuse me, there's a little boy here who would really like to meet you." Shawna and I squeezed to make room for the little boy. Then Johnny bent down to the little boy's eye level, and said, "Why hello! What's your name?" and the very shy little boy, in a small voice, said, "Jack." Then Johnny said (in his very sexy French/American accent!!), "Well, it's very nice to meet you Jack!" and shook his hand. He was so sweet and gentle with him!

And, finally, FINALLY, it was my turn! He came and shook my hand, as I kept repeating, "thank you! thank you!" (like an idiot - lol). And he smiled at me, made eye contact, and thanked me as well. Then I pulled out my manilla folder with a drawing and a collage I had made for him, and handing it to him, I said, "I made this for you," - very breathlessly. Johnny looked at me, and looked at the folder, with a very surprised and grateful expression, and then looked at me again and asked, "Are you sure?" Like he didn't want to take it from me if I had worked really hard on it! And (very breathlessly), I said, "Yes!", and so he smiled at me, handing the folder to his personal security guard (who was glued to his side at ALL times), and with very sincere gratitude, he said, "Thank you very much," as he took my OTHER hand in both of his and held it, shook it, stroked it - I'm not quite sure what he did, but all I know was that my hands were very cold, but his were so warm, quite small, and VERY soft! All this time, even as he was moving on, everyone was repeating, "Thank you! Thank you so much for coming to meet us!" and he was thanking us back! He was so real and genuine!

As Mr. Depp kept moving on, the crowd who had already seen him continued to follow him, so there was this huge, unbreakable mass of people ahead of us. However, Shawna, Lauren, and I didn't follow because we knew that there wasn't room to even try to walk, and we could barely even see him any more because of the crowd. So we stood there, talking and freaking out with each other, and I called my best friend Kelsey to recount the whole story again. I decided that it was the best moment of my life, and Shawna and Lauren laughed at my extreme happiness. But they knew how big of a fan I am, and they told me how how happy they wre for me as we made our way back to our cars and headed home.

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More pictures coming soon!