I recently attended the New Jersey Horror Con and Festival in Atlantic City, NJ. It was a great mix of vendors, cosplayers, panels, and of course, celebrity guests.
I personally had a great experience with every guest that I met, whether it was me conducting an interview as "The Horror Nerd" or me simply meeting them as a fan, and getting an autograph or photo op. They were all very nice, and spent a good amount of time interacting with me, chatting about their work, and some of them asking me about myself and my family. There were none where I said to myself, "Well, that person wasn't very nice."
However, I did hear from a few people that some of the guests that they met were not nice to them. I will not mention the specific guests because that's not the point of this post. In my nearly 20 years of going to cons, I have only had a handful of what I would call "negative" experiences with conventions guests. Of course, I have heard many stories about guests being rude or unfriendly or some other complaint about a celebrity.
Now, obviously, I have no way of knowing exactly what happened in each of those encounters because I was not there. What I will say though is that over the years, I have seen far more bad fan behavior than bad celebrity guest behavior. Fans can be rude and demanding and sometimes ask very inappropriate questions. But, fortunately, they are in the minority.
I think that in most cases where a fan feels they had a negative experience with the guest it's because they have a somewhat unrealistic expectation of what the encounter is going to be like. Trust me, I am a fan like anyone else, and I love meeting my favorite stars, but I think some people build up the meeting so much in their heads that when they finally meet the person, if they don't feel that the guest is EXACTLY how they pictured them, they become disappointed. They don't seem to understand that they are only going to have a couple of minutes with the guest, and they are not going to have time to have lengthy discussions with them.
Also, not everyone has an outgoing, gregarious personality, and movie/TV/music stars are no exception. Someone could be the nicest person in the world, but simply not be extremely talkative. Like anyone else, some celebrities are just a little quiet and reserved by nature, and sometimes fans perceive this as being rude.
We also need to remember that these celebrity guests are just people. They happen to be in a profession where people want to meet them and take pics and get autographs, but they are still just human. Sometimes, they've had a bad day, or got some bad news or had a bad encounter with another fan. Anything could have happened to affect their mood.
Having said that, I do also feel strongly that, as someone who lives in the public eye, the celebrity guests need to try to manage that, and try not to let it affect their fan interactions. I know it sucks and it's an unreasonable expectation, BUT, they are there to meet and greet fans and they are making money while doing it, so I do sincerely believe that they need to "put on a happy face" when meeting their fans.
To wrap things up, I don't want to come across like I am picking on fans. I'm not. I've just been going to cons for a very long time and I have observed a lot, and in my personal experience, when someone tells me that a celebrity guest was "a jerk", I always try to filter that, and usually it turns out that the guest wasn't really mean or nasty, it's just that the meeting didn't fulfill the person's expectations, which is not fair.
That's not to say that there are not some celebrity convention guests who have a reputation for being shitty. There definitely are! To be honest, I don't know why some of them keep getting invited to cons. I guess the demand is still high enough despite their reputations.
In closing, my advice is, if you want to meet a celebrity at a convention, go for it, no matter what you may have heard about them. You are more likely to have a positive experience than not. Just keep in mind that the person on the other side of the table is human, just like to. Be cool and respectful towards them, and you'll find that they will treat you the same way in return.
I personally had a great experience with every guest that I met, whether it was me conducting an interview as "The Horror Nerd" or me simply meeting them as a fan, and getting an autograph or photo op. They were all very nice, and spent a good amount of time interacting with me, chatting about their work, and some of them asking me about myself and my family. There were none where I said to myself, "Well, that person wasn't very nice."
However, I did hear from a few people that some of the guests that they met were not nice to them. I will not mention the specific guests because that's not the point of this post. In my nearly 20 years of going to cons, I have only had a handful of what I would call "negative" experiences with conventions guests. Of course, I have heard many stories about guests being rude or unfriendly or some other complaint about a celebrity.
Now, obviously, I have no way of knowing exactly what happened in each of those encounters because I was not there. What I will say though is that over the years, I have seen far more bad fan behavior than bad celebrity guest behavior. Fans can be rude and demanding and sometimes ask very inappropriate questions. But, fortunately, they are in the minority.
I think that in most cases where a fan feels they had a negative experience with the guest it's because they have a somewhat unrealistic expectation of what the encounter is going to be like. Trust me, I am a fan like anyone else, and I love meeting my favorite stars, but I think some people build up the meeting so much in their heads that when they finally meet the person, if they don't feel that the guest is EXACTLY how they pictured them, they become disappointed. They don't seem to understand that they are only going to have a couple of minutes with the guest, and they are not going to have time to have lengthy discussions with them.
Also, not everyone has an outgoing, gregarious personality, and movie/TV/music stars are no exception. Someone could be the nicest person in the world, but simply not be extremely talkative. Like anyone else, some celebrities are just a little quiet and reserved by nature, and sometimes fans perceive this as being rude.
We also need to remember that these celebrity guests are just people. They happen to be in a profession where people want to meet them and take pics and get autographs, but they are still just human. Sometimes, they've had a bad day, or got some bad news or had a bad encounter with another fan. Anything could have happened to affect their mood.
Having said that, I do also feel strongly that, as someone who lives in the public eye, the celebrity guests need to try to manage that, and try not to let it affect their fan interactions. I know it sucks and it's an unreasonable expectation, BUT, they are there to meet and greet fans and they are making money while doing it, so I do sincerely believe that they need to "put on a happy face" when meeting their fans.
To wrap things up, I don't want to come across like I am picking on fans. I'm not. I've just been going to cons for a very long time and I have observed a lot, and in my personal experience, when someone tells me that a celebrity guest was "a jerk", I always try to filter that, and usually it turns out that the guest wasn't really mean or nasty, it's just that the meeting didn't fulfill the person's expectations, which is not fair.
That's not to say that there are not some celebrity convention guests who have a reputation for being shitty. There definitely are! To be honest, I don't know why some of them keep getting invited to cons. I guess the demand is still high enough despite their reputations.
In closing, my advice is, if you want to meet a celebrity at a convention, go for it, no matter what you may have heard about them. You are more likely to have a positive experience than not. Just keep in mind that the person on the other side of the table is human, just like to. Be cool and respectful towards them, and you'll find that they will treat you the same way in return.
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