When we pulled up, the press tried to rush the limo. We waited until the police pushed them back. Fritz and his team made me sit in the car until they were satisfied that I wouldn’t get crushed by the press. I mean seriously, I was no big deal.
The police had the limo moved so everyone could see me as I had my picture taken and answered questions about my movies. Frank had prepared me for ESPN. But he neglected to give me talking points about
Finally, I’d had enough of answering questions. Fritz and the state troopers about had a meltdown when I walked right through the press and hopped over the barrier to talk to my fans. It really wasn’t risky because I knew that fanboys and girls were harmless. They might act goofy and talk my arm off, but I wasn’t worried they would rush me. I knew my assessment was correct when they seemed to take a collective step back. They all took a deep breath when I smiled at them.
ESPN, several paparazzi, and other TV crews tried to follow me. But I pointed at ESPN and Jeff’s team to indicate only they could go into the crowd with me. Some of them weren’t happy when they were stopped. If anyone would end up causing problems, it was them.
What you must realize about most people who come to these types of events is that they are shy and, dare I say it, nerds at heart. The prospect of a horde of press would terrify them. I quickly discovered, however, that several office workers had taken advantage and skipped work. Some of these women weren’t as tentative about wanting to get to know me. I put Cassidy in charge of collecting phone numbers so I could spend my limited time taking pictures and signing autographs with fans.
After about twenty minutes, Fritz had reached his limit. He grabbed me by the back of my belt and began to walk me backward to the hotel. After I finished with the group I’d been signing autographs for, I turned, and we walked into the hotel.
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Phil ended up being my roommate again this year. He’d traveled with me this summer and knew the rules about the video surveillance. I saw he’d grabbed my bag and brought it up to the room.
“Jill and Brook are roommates,” Phil told me.
I just nodded; I didn’t want to talk about his girlfriend or the chance she might think Tracy was serious at lunch. Instead, I quickly unpacked and then turned my jersey right side out. We had to get back on the bus and go to the football stadium to do our interviews with ESPN. It would also give us a chance to get out on the field.
◊◊◊
The Dome at America’s Center had been home to the NFL’s Rams when they were in St. Louis. Designed as a multipurpose stadium, it was attached to a convention center. I figured out why so many people had a spontaneous block party: the convention center was hosting a Comic-Con-style event.
I firmly believed that the Washington fundraiser had attracted so many people because of the Star Wars tie-in. My dad and I’d shot a series of videos that showed us stealing the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s starship. At the time, I’d just auditioned to play the young Han Solo in an upcoming movie. I’d later turned it down because it would have been a full-time commitment.
Saul, my agent, had shared with Caryn that it looked like I’d made the right decision. The movie would be a standalone, meaning there were no sequels planned. Rumors had also been circulating in Hollywood that the film wasn’t very good. It was hard to imagine that anything related to the Star Wars franchise would be a flop. Competition for the lead role had been fierce. I suspected that some of the rumors were just sour grapes.
When the buses pulled up to the stadium, we could see that ESPN had a film crew set up. Stacy Clute, from my art class last year, had made us a sign to hang in the locker room. It said ‘Irrelevant!’ to remind us of what Percy Wilkes had said in his interview. The poster was sitting at the front of the bus, so I picked it up to take inside.
The driver opened the bus’s under-coach storage bays so we could grab our gear. I walked into the stadium carrying the sign and my bag.
“What’s the sign say?” asked the cameraman.
I looked down and saw it was facing me, so I turned it around for him to see and continued to the locker room.
ESPN had decided we would be the visiting team, so that meant we would wear our blue jerseys with orange numbers trimmed in white. For their team introduction sequence, they had us dressed in our football pants and jerseys with no shoulder pads.
