On Jan. 15th, 1996 I by chance got into the sold out world premier of Quentin Tarantino's newest movie (From Dusk Till Dawn). It rocked! But even better, Quentin sat five rows ahead of me, and after the movie, I got to talk to him for a second, shake his hand, say hi, etc.
Lots of y'all have asked me for the story, so here it is. It's the longwinded version of how it all happened, so skim through it if it gets too dull or too in-depth. My friends Corey and Will dragged me with them to go attempt to see Quentin Tarantino because they had heard that morning that he was in town for a world premier of his movie with George Clooney. I didn't want to go. I had no desire to stand around for a few hours, in a big crowd of people, just for the chance of maybe seeing him if he went in through the front doors. Wasn't even guaranteed he'd do that much. I've met lots of famous people, by either by accident or for some reason, but regardless I didn't really want to go try to maybe catch a glimpse of Quentin. But they dragged me, so I went.
The show was to start at 7:30 and by 7:29 we still hadn't seen Quentin at the front doors. I did see a guy, Ray, who used to work at the same radio station I used to work at. Well, I asked him if he knew if Quentin was here yet, or if he was going to do the front or back door. Ray didn't know. Then he asked what I was doing outside. "don't you have a ticket?" he said. I told him we'd only heard about it that morning, and since ticket were way sold out, I didn't get one. He said "wait here" and left and was back within one minute's time. He had with a friend (a guy, maybe 30-ish), who took my arm and led me inside the theater, giving the worker a ticket for me. They began to bring me inside, but told them I needed to talk to my friends and I asked what I owed him. He was all "oh, you're going to give me money? Okay..." So I gave him a few bucks, and ran back outside. It was just about 7:31.
Corey gave me some cash, so I could pay the guy for the tic and gave me more cash so I could get a cab home. You see, my purse, money, ID, car and apartment keys, etc. were all in Will's car. My car wasn't even there if I could get my keys. So I went into the World Premier with a jacket and a ticket stub to my name, that's it. I was completely alone, so I took a solo seat smack in the middle of the theater. Talk about timing, less than a minute later, the lights went down and the speeches began.
The first man that spoke was editor of the Austin Chronicle, my favorite Austin paper. He talked about how this event came to be. He was cool.
Next Richard Linklater spoke. Rick, for those who don't know, is artistic director for the Austin Film Society, and he's also a writer, director, producer from Austin. He did Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and Before Sunrise. (He rocks!)
Well, Rick is friends with fellow Austinite Robert Rodriguez (writer, director, producer also from Austin who did el Mariachi and it's sequel Desperado w/ Antonio Banderas). Well, Rick and Robert are friends and the two of them are also friends with Quentin Tarantino (who wrote and co-stared in Robert's latest film From Dawn Till Dusk). So, when Robert and Quentin were figuring out where to do the WORLD PREMIER of FDTD, Rick suggested Austin's Paramount Theater, and so it was decided.
Anyway, Rick spoke for a bit, then he introduced Quentin. The crowd went wild. (go figure!). Quentin, as many of y'all know, seems very goofy, kinda wacky in all of his movies, well in real life he's the same way. It's like he's been smokin' crack, only he's clean and sober, and hasn't touched the stuff. Anyway, he was funny as hell. At the end, he told us to pretend we weren't in such a beautiful theater like the Paramount, instead pretend we were at a drive in. He told us, if we like it, clap and scream. If we thought it sucked, boo and yell. He told us to go wild and let him know what we thought of it. He told us to scream and throw things and annoy our neighbors and to neck with our dates. And so we did. It was audience participation times 10 (even better than Rocky Horror Picture Show).
So, he eventually finished his speech, and he took his seat, just five rows in front of me, two seats over. AHHH!!!! After the movie was over, since I was right by him, I got to meet him, shake his hand, tell him cool movie, etc. He was all "Hey... cool. Thanks. Okay... yeah..." Very trippy.
Many of you ask how was the movie itself? It thought it to be pretty cool. Very trippy. I'm a fan of Rodriguez's fast paced, action and violence. And I'm a fan of Tarantino's trippy, whacked out stories and random dialogue. So, the movie, which had a little of everything in it, was pretty fun in my opinion. Go rent it.
I caught a ride to the after show part with a guy who I saw from my h.s. then went to stand in the huge line to get into the exclusive party. I ended up standing in line behind a guy who was in the movie Dig and who does lots of acting around Austin and UT. He was not only good looking, but nice as well. I ended up standing next to the man who used to run the Armadillo Headquarters. Those that don't know or aren't familiar, Armadillo Headquarters was one of the largest, most awesome music venues in the 60's and 70's that featured many, many big name artists and legends. The guys I was standing in front of just finished filming a new movie in NY and it'll be premiering at Sundance later this year. One of them included Wiley Wiggins (from Dazed and Confused) who played the cute freshman that they tormented. He's definitely grown older and even better looking. All of these famous people were in one spot just waiting in line to get into the exclusive party, and I just happened to end up in the middle of them.
Talk about random night... I didn't even want to go. Then I actually got in. Then I got to meet Quentin twice, get an autograph, and even meet and smooze with other famous, big people. Way cool if I may say so without sounding arrogant.
At the party after the premier, Quentin did a Q&A session. As to Pulp Fiction, no, he won't do a Sequel or Prequel unless he's old, broke, and has absolutely nowhere else to turn to. He did say that since he owns the rights to all of the characters, he might someday do an entire movie about "Pumpkin and Honeybunny." And he said he'd like to do another movie with Rodriguez in a few years, so maybe they'd do the prequel to FDTD. Make it entirely about the Gecko Brothers (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino) and the adventures leading to where FDTD takes place. Or maybe use the two different Vics in his past movies. Vincent (from Pulp Fiction) and the Vic who was Mr. Somebody (I forget which one) in Reservoir Dogs. Then, after the Q&A Quentin agreed to sign a few autographs, and I was one of the lucky ones who got his autograph. I got to meet him again, and this time I got his autograph on the program from the event. I also got Richard Linklater's autograph at the same time. It rocked!
And after it was all over, after I'd said goodbye to the guys I was hanging with, I went back to Kinko's to get the rest of my stuff and Turtle (you're beautiful!) was nice enough to give me a ride home rather than making me catch a cab. So, over all, it really was an awesome night.
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