25 Surprising Celeb Personality Traits People Observed During In-Person Meets

We see our favourite stars so frequently on TV and social media that they almost feel like friends. Just as we want to learn more about our real friends, we’re drawn to details of celebrities’ lives. Recently, a popular online Reddit thread invited people to share heretofore unknown stories about celebrities they’ve encountered. The responses vary from heartwarming to unflattering, so be prepared—these tales might just shift how you view some beloved superstars.

#1

Image source: DaOsoMan, 20th Century Studios

I went to a con and met Linda Hamilton in an elevator. I had ordered a pizza and went down to the lobby to pick it up. She rode up with me and the pizza.

I didn’t recognize her and she looked ad 6 foot 4 inch me and the pizza and said “I’m gonna beat you up and steal your pizza.”

We both laughed and she got off and wished me a good con. I then recognized her and saw her the next day and offered her the leftovers, she remembered and we both had a good laugh!

#2

Image source: boopbaboop, Paramount Pictures

Not me, but my mom has students that have gone on to work in Hollywood (she teaches film) and they tell her all sorts of [things].

Apparently the reason Tom Cruise keeps getting jobs despite his utter insanity and Scientology connections is that he’s one of the most professional actors out there. He doesn’t [mess around], he doesn’t waste time: if you tell him to do something, he’ll do it. He’s apparently a pleasure to work with.

Dr. Phil, on the other hand, forbids anyone from making eye contact with him.

rondell_jones:

I also heard Tom Cruise is great with the support staff during filming, taking time to talk to everyone and even remembering people from previous films he’s worked with. Even though he might be crazy, when it comes the job of making movies, he’s a total professional.

#3

Image source: Spyduck37, John Cairns – The Bodleian Libraries

Not me and not met, but a close friend was working on an animal welfare documentary in the UK years ago and wrote to David Attenborough’s management asking if he would be involved. She received a many page long handwritten letter from David where he politely declined because he had too many other projects at the time, and then told her all about the family of hedgehogs living in his garden.

#4

Image source: mattinlosangeles, Columbia Pictures

Tom Hanks comes to the restaurant I bartend at fairly regularly with his writing company. Everyone who waits on him says he’s insanely nice, and if he pays, he always tips at least a bill.

#5

Image source: ___Under_Score___, P.B. Rage from USA

Not me but my dad. He filmed a Nirvana gig, and Kurt Cobain spat on dad’s camera lens and gave the camera finger. My dad was annoyed as he didn’t really care for their music and owned the camera, but he was pleasantly surprised when Kurt came back over when the Kurt was no longer being filmed, he apologised to my dad, used some tissue to help wipe down the lens and explained how it was part of his act.

#6

Image source: halfhalfnhalf, Super Festivals

I was local crew for a Weird Al concert several years ago. Al walked up to me and asked if I was from the area. I said yes and tried not to fall to my knees and start worshiping him Wayne’s World style. He asked what’s some good places to take his kids. I recommend the local zoo because they just opened a new sloth exhibit. We talked about sloths for a while and he shook my hand and thanked me for the advice. He was incredibly normal and nice.

#7

Image source: tgc17, Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

I met and chatted with Michelle Obama briefly. What a queen. She’s as beautiful and amazing as you would expect.

#8

Image source: Cincyme333, Marco Tambara / Lightversus

BB King was a sincerely nice man. Not pretentious at all. BB shook my hand, said thanks, and let me touch Lucille!

He asked if I needed anything and if he could get me anything, and I told him no, but I told him that I didn’t want to hold Lucille, but I’d like to just touch it. He kind of laughed and walked over with it, and let me touch it briefly.

At the time, I had no idea how rare that was, and when I learned that he rarely allowed anyone to touch Lucille, I kind of felt bad for asking, but I’m glad I got to do it.

#9

Image source: anon, CBS Television Studios

I escorted Gary Sinise around for a day. He was the nicest guy, he stopped and talked to every Soldier and would actively listen to them and get to know their stories. We chatted for a while in the vehicles as we were transported from training site to training site.

I first saw him getting off his private plane and he was carrying his own bags which shocked me. You could run into him and never know he was a celebrity.

There isn’t another Celebrity I respect more than Gary.

#10

Image source: ComboBreakerrr, Raph_PH

Paul McCartney is an incredibly nice guy. Great tipper, jokes around as if he wasn’t in the most famous band of all time. Total class act, every time I’ve seen him.

#11

Image source: rosegamm, Happy Madison Productions

I worked at a pretty popular restaurant in Napa Valley through high school and college. Since celebrities are a normal occurrence, staff were never allowed to acknowledge them as celebrities, ask for autographs, etc. Well, Adam Sandler came in, and our 15 year-old host boy was just beaming with excitement. He couldn’t make it obvious or ask for an autograph or anything, or else he’d be fired. Adam, being the awesome guy he is, goes up to the boy as he was leaving our restaurant for the night. He looked at him, pointed in his face, and while handing him a $100 bill, yelled “You remember me for the rest of your life, kid!” with that HUGE Adam Sandler smile. It was epic.

#12

Image source: attentiveaardvark, RKO publicity still from Suspicion (1941)

Cary and Barbara Grant, I spent a few days with them. I flew them around in my plane, went diving and for a drive and we had dinner with my family one evening.
A few days after they had headed back home, I got a phone call from the local paper and they wanted some follow up information (they had requested an interview with him while he was here). I found out he had acquiesced to their request if they would also include how much enjoyed flying with me in my lovely plane. AND to top this off a week later I received a letter from them which had photos Barbara took of him with each person I had hired to help cook and serve the dinner. They wanted to be sure I would get them to them. He was such an easy going fellow and had a warm and kind sense of humor and they were such a joy to share a few days with.

#13

Image source: mineowntelemachus, Warner Bros. Television

Worked with Misha Collins when I was working for a campaign in Iowa. It was a get out the vote event, and he was just as nice as people say he is. Very clearly aware of who his fanbase is and who was going to be there, and very conscious of making sure that they had a good time. Very genuine and kind with everyone.

#14

Image source: oh_boisterous, HBO Sports

My stepfather helped build Andre the Giant’s house.

Said he was the sweetest guy in the world, and when the job was done he brought the whole crew out for steaks. He ate two steaks on his own and drank like six beers without even getting drunk. I don’t know how much this applies because I think most people know Andre was a sweetheart who was good at eating and drinking, but there you go.

#15

Image source: NOT_a_famous_person_, 20th Century-Fox Television

Prince was very funny. Meeting him was one of the strangest experiences of my life.
He was the sort of person whose very presence completely changed the atmosphere of any room he was in. It’s simply indescribable.
When you meet Prince, you don’t just walk up to him and say “hi, Prince, I’m NOT_a_famous_person_”
You are summoned. He addresses you by your full name, and you are allowed to speak to him.
Not because you couldn’t say something to him or because it’s forbidden, you just don’t feel *right* about speaking to him before you’re spoken to.
The man had a level of charisma that I’ve only seen in one other person I’ve met, that person being Bill Clinton.
When I met him he was wearing clothes made of a fabric I’d never seen before and I felt compelled to, but I didn’t dare touch because, you know, it’s Prince. And touching Prince is a faux pas in the highest degree.
He was wearing sunglasses, which is good because I think that if I had made eye contact with him I would have gone completely blind.
One thing that surprising was that he is not tall. He was shorter than me even though he was wearing very tall heels.

Everything you’ve ever heard about Prince is true. There was something different about that man. Some people have an aura. They have an energy that radiates around them which engulfs everything in the room. Unless you’ve been around somebody like Prince, you don’t understand what I’m talking about. You just don’t.

#16

Image source: anon, Sony Pictures Television

Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul) used to live in a town a little ways away from my hometown growing up. The people who owned his house before he did used to host a Bernese Mountain Dog meetup/parade thing, which my family would go to because we had a Berner at the time (this was circa 2003-2005). When Giancarlo bought the house, he kept it up and even had the event catered and would hang out with all these random people and their dogs. We knew he was an actor who was on a bunch of TV shows, but he wasn’t very well known at the time (again, about 5 years before Breaking Bad); we just knew him as a really nice dude who was way more OK with metric tons of dog [feces] on his lawn than most human beings. Years later, my mom and I binge-watched Breaking Bad and she flipped out when she realized that Gus Fring had given her children cupcakes and complimented her dog.

#17

Image source: jyar1811, Virtualsand

Lil Jon – beyond nice. So chill and kind to everyone.
Penn & Teller – super professional and hassle free.
Julianne Moore – kind, always smiling, friendly, easygoing
Michael Douglas – down to earth, bummed cigarettes off the crew and hung out with extras instead of his trailer
Ray Liotta – certifiably insane
Anna Gunn – friendly, sweet, outgoing and professional
JLo- I hope that [jerk] gets hit by a bus someday. She had two CREW fired for LOOKING AT HER.

#18

Image source: captbasil, The White House

I ended up singing backup for Gladys Knight one time. She was super nice, called us all her children even though we were a bunch of nerdy white choir people who weren’t all that great at singing gospel style.

#19

Image source: anon, Gage Skidmore

My own story…

I played hockey with Michael Buble. I expected a stuck up rich dude who thought he was better than everyone. He wasn’t. He was so genuinely kind. And it’s not like he was putting on a show. It was just a bunch of people who mostly knew each other getting together to play hockey so he had no reason to be anyone but himself.

I ended up on his team for the game. We chatted on the bench after each shift. Super cool dude. Down to earth. We talked about his Christmas special and that year Bieber was on and I asked about Bieber low riding his pants and Michael just said “young kid, what can ya do?” But generally had good things to say about Bieber.

Most memorable moment was when my buddy and him talked, my buddy is really good at hockey, Michael says “here’s the deal, I’ll give you all the women you want and you give me your hockey skills.”

Michael sucks at hockey but is super cool.

#20

Image source: CarFullOfRadios, Lucasfilm

Sisters best friend used to be a butler at a hotel in Sydney. My favourite story is when she met Jack Black. He got into the room, pointed at the dining table and went “wow that’s a big table, I’m gonna have to hire some friends” and then while she was unpacking his clothes she started folding a pair of his jeans and he went “those are my fancy pants” apparently super nice dude, tipped her like $1,000 by slipping it to her in a handshake. She was never allowed to tell anyone about the celebrity guests until they had well and truly left the hotel.

#21

Image source: sarahawild94, Nutopia

Taught Chris Hemsworth’s oldest child on a pony a couple of times. He came with us on a walk one time and tried to crack a few jokes that neither his wife or I got. It was very awkward for about 5 minutes as he explained the joke.

#22

Image source: DirtyChito, Warner Bros.

When I was a kid I met Jason Momoa while in Hawaii. They were filming the first season of Baywatch Hawaii and some of the cast was staying at the resort we were in. Him and a couple of other guys came down and chilled in the jacuzzi in their red swim trunks (presumably to show off). I did know who he was then but he was a super cool dude and not nearly as big as he is now. I was a teenager and was a little bit bigger and more built than he was. They obviously make them look a little better on camera. Now I’m fat and he’s solid muscle so…

I remember asking if Pamela Anderson was there and he gave me her room number and told me to go knock and say hi. I did not do that.

#23

Image source: NotReady2Adult, Focus Features

Met with Bill Murray once. He said something hilarious, gave me incorrect directions, and then walked off looking like everybody’s favorite crazy uncle.

#24

Image source: anon, Sony Pictures Television

I didn’t work with celebrities, but Heather Locklear lived in my neighborhood in the early 90’s.

She herself wasn’t *bad*. It was her and her group of friends. They were the cattiest group of “frenemies” I have ever seen. The worst possible thing you could do was leave the room, lest they all start talking about how fat you looked in those pants or how badly you need Accutane.

The worst was my father. My father was not celebrity-shy. We lived in an area where you could see a famous person shopping at the supermarket. He went to Heather Locklear in the middle of Gelson’s one time. “Do I know you? You look *so* familiar.” She laughs. “I mean maybe we dated or something?” She keeps laughing. “You *sure*? What’s your name, Hannah? Helen? It’ll come to me…”

My father has no shame.

#25

Image source: anon, U.S. Department of State from United States

I met Garth Brooks at a Red Robbins in Owasso, Oklahoma. He was having lunch with his family and I really did not want to bother him. However, being a huge fan since the 90s , I couldn’t help but keep looking over at him.

Towards the end of my meal with my family (I was home from college) the waitress said Mr. Brooks had picked up our bill. So, naturaly, we went over to thank him.

For the world’s highest selling artist, he is the nicest man on the planet. He signed my hat for me and even invited us back to his place for a tour of his studio when he learned that I was a fan. It was a great experience and I will cherish that memory my entire life.