How’s that for hyperbole?
So Han, Sue and I went to catch the U.S. premiere of Hot Fuzz over at the Arclight Cinemas Hollywood. I bought the tickets earlier this week and only found out Edgar Wright, the director of the movie, was to do a Q&A after the movie. That sounded cool, but it also meant it was going to be pretty crowded at the theater, and I wasn’t too confident about getting a table at the restaurant inside to chill and relax until it was time to go in.
So Han and I are standing there trying to get the attention of the hostess, whose attention unfortunately is concentrated on her partner, who is dealing with Quentin Tarantino. He’s apparently got a party of nine and HE hasn’t been seated yet. Our chances got real slim at that point, so we walked out and hit the TOGO’s over on Sunset and Gower. Sue joined us there.
The movie was great. And right after it this guy goes up to the front, says hello, then announces with great pleasure… Eli Roth, director of Cabin Fever. Okaay. He says hello, then announces with great pleasure… Jack Black. Jack Black admits sardonically that we were probably wondering why the fuck Jack Black’s up there, and he explains it is because he is to introduce, with great pleasure… and at this point I should know from earlier, Quentin Tarantino. It’s getting a little ridiculous at this point, but thankfully after Quentin repeats Jack Black’s admission, he then introduces not just the director of Hot Fuzz, but also the stars, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Awesome.
The Q&A was fun. This being the very last public event of the American PR tour for Hot Fuzz, they wanted totally random questions. Stuff like who’s the bigger badass, Simon Pegg or Will Smith (Simon defers to Will), and who has the worst fart among the three (Edgar), are rather funny and kept everything high energy. Thankfully, crap questions coming from Hollywood wannabes (“As an aspiring actor”, “Looking at your body of work”, “What comedic influences”) were dismissed pretty quickly (“No, I meant the other fellow”). People who asked a good one were given a DVD or a t-shirt or perhaps both.
And so it came to an end and as Edgar thanks the audience and we clapped, Quentin pops up and yells, “I’ve still got three DVDs, no one is leaving until these are given out!” or something. Fifteen minutes pass as Quentin lays a siege (Pegg’s words), dismissing question after question as crap. Two finally get passed out but he still has the one. There’s TEN minutes left before the 11 o’clock showing and that audience is outside in the hallway, probably getting a bit ticked off. Pegg mutters that this is probably the first Q&A that would end in a riot and Edgar again proclaims an end to the session, telling Quentin that he gets to go home with the last copy of a Michael Bey masterpiece.
And that was the evening. Thank you. Good night.
