Like most of my posts, this one is overdue as well. With the end of my TIFF journey comes catching up on my posts. After Gerard Butler though, TIFF somewhat slowed down. Well lets face it, when your at it for days, you can get really really tired. I even took Monday off to just get back energy to move around. Yes, I missed Madonna; hey, truth be told, her peak music period wasn’t even during my time. Nonetheless, the day after that wasn’t one I was going to miss.

Im going to mark Tuesday, September 13th 2011, as a very important day in my best moments list. Well lets put it this way, this was the day I planned on hopefully seeing the largest selection of artists on one night. Sure, this is not going to beat  Brad Pitt + George Clooney premiers in one night but I was going to meet an individual I have wanted to meet for the longest time ever: Jennifer Garner. She is one of my all time favourite actresses having been in the most amazing roles, from Sydney in Alias to Vanessa in Juno. I have been in the TIFF scene for a very long time and every time she has been in Toronto I have missed her, for one reason or another; missed her premier, didn’t get to meet her, got sick – there was always a reason. This year however, rain or snow, broken leg or arm, I was going to wait and take the moment in seeing an actress I deeply respect. I never got a chance to admire her Theatre work, especially her show on Broadway in 2007, Cyrano de Bergerac, that I genuinely wanted to see. However, I received a memento from the play that I have kept till this day: an opening night playbill which is a part of my large Theatre collection, one that I think is of great importance when it comes to the world of art. Acting began in Theatres and if you can act out your character to a live audience, you can consider yourself to be a great actor (my opinion!).

So Tuesday the 13th did come and I was all prepped. I have said for the past few posts that coming early doesn’t really matter and I was just being stupid coming early. This time I purposely came early. I wasn’t going to let any detail be overturned. Have you ever been in a position where something important was on a day and public transit wasn’t being good? yeah, these are the kind of problems I am talking about. I was going to make sure that the day went well. There were going to be two red carpet premiers tonight, one for Peace, Love & Misunderstanding starring the brilliant Jane Fonda, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, Chace Crawford & Elizabeth Olsen. This was going to be a big one too because it had a cast that hasn’t been much to Toronto, especially the sister of the Olsen twins, Elizabeth Olsen. It would be very awesome to see Elizabeth Olsen as Peace, Love & Misunderstanding was her debut feature film role and seeing her come up would definitely be a fantastic moment. Alas, Elizabeth was not going to be in attendance. Even more disappointing was to hear that Jane Fonda would not be in attendance as well as she wasn’t feeling too well. I hope she is alright. The premier was definitely not the same without her. In attendance were Chace Crawford, up-coming stars Nat Wolff & Marissa O’Donnell, and Kyle MacLachlan. Yes ladies, the one from Desperate Housewives! These are individuals that would be awesome to meet and hence myself and crew waited.

5:30 came about faster than usual. Thats probably because when you have an awesome crew to hang out with, the chatter just passes the time. Like the previous days, we set up in front of the barricade and the camera crew their equipment. Moments later, we saw the oh so familiar sign of the black Cadillac SUV with the white colour TIFF logo. Immediately, we knew its screaming time. Quite frankly, this is always the scene before the big scream and this was going to happen much of the night. The premier brought the awesome stars to mingle with the fans and there were definitely moments of screaming and yelling, especially when Chace and Kyle showed up. The ladies went nuts. Then again, they were handsome gentleman, so I didn’t come in between them and the ladies. I definitely loved chatting with them for a bit and getting photos taken. However, the moment of the premier that I shall forever remember is the entrance of director Bruce Beresford. A legend in his own right. A man who has directed actors from Morgan Freeman to Sharon Stone. I was glad to see that some in the audience recognized him. Frankly, he was the one man I wanted to meet the most, so I continued to yell his name. The PR agent was just telling him there was no time and once the press photos were done I thought that was it. However, I continued to yell out. He turned around, saw me, and walked right for me. We shared a joke while chatting and then turned around and went in. He just came around to chat with me. The man is 71 years old. The fact he took a moment to address a fan of his really was fantastic. God bless the man!

After such a meeting with such a legend, it was a mere 1 1/2 hours till the next arrivals. This was not a joking matter because at the end of this time, the women of showbiz were about to land: Olivia Wilde, Alicia Silverstone, Ashley Greene & the beautiful Jennifer Garner. All of them for the Gala Red Carpet premier for the movie “Butter” directed by Jim Field Smith. Its like a man’s dream to be honest, and the men in the crowd were definitely excited as hell. This 1 1/2 hours felt like 5 minutes because everything just went by so fast we were wandering what the hell was happening. Cars already started to pull in and we were surprised to see activity happen. However, the night did not go as planned at all. In fact, It went as bad as the Ides of March premier where we missed quite alot of stars. Cars started to pull up and the stars, one by one, would come over and sign for one area for a few moments and be dragged in. The PR individuals just didn’t understand that the PR the stars needed was from the crowd who were there to meet them. No matter how you put it, I missed a chance to see Alicia, Ashley and Olivia. Even the director had gone in. It was not going so well. Frankly, I had come to meet the one star that I had spent hours for and that was Jennifer Garner, and not meeting her would be very disappointing (and Im putting this nicely here!). Her SUV pulled up last and with grace stepped out of her vehicle and went to the fans immediately. In fact, she actually spent time interacting with the fans and taking photos. This woman was pregnant and it was both late and cold. This is what you call a devotee to the fans. However, I did not want to get optimistic. What if she doesn’t come over? What if she misses us? What if I miss her 4th year in a row? Luckily, my questions were put out when she finally approached our area. I was surprised to see that she would not sign for a couple of people, being very selective. I had my playbill out and she looked at it and smiled. A moment I won’t forget. I did request for a picture which she obliged. Of course, didn’t come out too well both because of the weather and the utter chaos but just an image that shows me with her truly made my moment. There will hopefully be a time for better pictures but this moment is one I shall never forget. I have finally met an awesome actress, a talent in her own right. I hope another venture brings her back to Toronto because in our heart she is truly, absolutely, fantastic! ❤

My Day 4 ended with a blast. Ups and downs do occur in situations like this, but thats the fun of it. If you are truly a fan, show it. It makes all the difference in the world! It makes the Festival experience one that you will truly not forget. Trust me on that one!

Cheers!