21 People Share Their Most Low-Key Celebrity Encounters

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Eric Lund
Mar 21, 2019 11:00 AM EDT

Actors, athletes and artists get a buttload of attention, but some of the best stories about them are when they don't. Sometimes these people didn't even know they were talking to a celebrity. Did you know Ben Affleck is into StarCraft? For some stranger celebrity encounters, check these out.

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  • 01
    Text - Jim_And__Tonic 32.1k points 6 hours ago My dad and I bumped into Michael Jordan at Walgreen's near Chicago. This was back in 2006 or so. We were picking out birthday cards for my mom, and MJ and his son came in the same aisle browsing some cards. My dad kept his cool and continued to look through different cards, giving him his personal space. I, on the other hand, was 9 years old and in awe, sort of staring at him. After MJ picked out his card, he winked at me and gave me a walk-by fist
    via AskReddit
  • 02
    Text - zeromig 27.8k points 5 hours ago I worked at a Barnes & Noble in NY as a clerk, but once or twice I'd be called over to the in-store Starbucks cafe to help out whenever they were understaffed. One time, Alan Rickman came up and ordered something, I can't recall what. I wrote "Hans Gruber" on his cup though. He smiled at me when he noticed it
    via AskReddit
  • 03
    Text - 5 hours ago Anonjohn123456 13.3k points Samuel L. Jackson was on my flight. I was second to last to board the flight and there was all this commotion with the flight attendants and gate crew. Once I approached the door of the plane I realized they were all looking at Samuel L. Jackson. He was standing by the cockpit making himself available to passengers/fans. I played it cool. Didn't say a word. Turns out, I'm shy around celebrities. I'm just glad I didn't make a snakes on the plane joke
    via AskReddit
  • 04
    Text - bonkette 12.0k points 6 hours ago Conan O'Brien. My college friend's dad owned an Irish restaurant in Manhattan and she waitressed there back in the 1990s. She said he was super rude to the staff and was a bad tipper. One day a bunch of us were walking in the city and we saw him at a sidewalk cafe. We stopped and stared and he noticed we were talking about him. My other friend went up to his table and asked him to take a picture of us and handed him her camera. His friends at the table ha
    via AskReddit
  • 05
    Text - EatATaco 21.9k points 5 hours ago 4 I was in a book store in RI and was in the horror section. Picked up a book by Stephen King, and flipped it over and saw his picture on the back (or inside the cover, I don't really remember) I look up, and in the next aisle over, right across the book shelf from me, is a guy that looks exactly like Stephen King. So I hold up the book and say "is this you?" "Yeah." "Good books" "Thanks" And that was that
    via AskReddit
  • 06
    Text - SchrodingersNutsack 11.1k points 8 hours ago Before I realized who he was, Shaun Alexander asked me if I liked football. I told him I liked the Steelers. He said, "Yeah, I lost to them in the Super Bowl." I felt pretty stupid, but he thought it was funny. Super nice guy.
    via AskReddit
  • 07
    Text - Solid_Snark 6.3k points 5 hours ago Robin Williams used to walk around my lone childhood country town near SF. I saw him once (after hearing many rumors about his sightings, not entirely unlike Bigfoot or Nessy sightings) My brain didn't fully comprehend what it was seeing. But I could tell he was trying his very best to remain incognito and not draw any unwanted attention We locked eyes. He smiled, I smiled and nodded back, and we both went ur separate ways.
    via AskReddit
  • 08
    Text - diskebbin 20.3k points 5 hours ago My husband was vacationing in Arizona, killing time in a bar over a burger and a beer. A guy sits next to him and my husband has a nice chat with him. The guy leaves and my husband goes to close his tab and the bartender tells him it's been covered by the guy edited 1 minute ago he was talking to. The bartender asks if he knows who he was talking to. My husband has no idea. Chuck Norris, it was his bar. Edit: How embarrassing. It wasn't Arizona, it is Wo
    via AskReddit
  • 09
    Text - CausedAlarm 5.8k points 6 hours ago edited 3 hours ago I didn't meet him but a friend did. In our town Brendan Fraser was shooting a film, he went out to a local beach to (I assume) take some pictures abd just generally relax. Well, out of the blue my friend, his brother and and another guy rolled up in their shitty beat up nissan micra. They got to talking, and somehow convinced him to hop into the car handed him a can of beer and went diffing. Best part was they didn't know his actual n
    via AskReddit
  • 10
    Text - throwaway4the1sttime 10.4k points 6 hours ago Not sure if this counts as a celebrity, but last fall I was flying from LA to Dallas and the person sitting next to me was a real housewife from Bravo. I didn't recognize her since I don't watch her show, but she did mention it to me multiple times during the flight. She wanted to apologize in advance in case there were fans hounding her at the baggage claim. Spoiler alert there weren't. Hours later when I was checking into my hotel, she was t
    via AskReddit
  • 11
    Text - UnencumberedPavlova 16.2k points 8 hours ago Worked at a hotel and Russell Crowe came in the lobby. He went to the house phones and called front desk. Where I was working. I could see him pretty easily. I answered the phone and he asked to be connected to a room so I put him through This wasn't long after he threw a phone at a hotel clerk so I didn't want to take a chance at pissing him off.
    via AskReddit
  • 12
    Text - gregorykay 9.0k points 6 hours ago 2 Not sure if this counts but when I was 15 I was really into playing Starcraft (being a 3 month old game at the time) on battle.net. I did mostly 3v3 games. After finishing this one particularly epic match (close game, we won), we all got into a chat room to talk about how fun that was. Iirc, one of them says something to the effect of "not sure if you all care but you just beat Ben Affleck." Of course we all ask him to prove it, so he told us to wait a
    via AskReddit
  • 13
    Text - Poisonmonkey 14.8k points 5 hours ago Was walking out of a gas station over on Crescent Heights and Sunset and heard a "hey!...hey!" coming from a cracked window on tinted out range rover that was parked at one of the pumps. I walk over to the car to see Jeff Goldblum, who had somehow seen my gold ring I was wearing on my right hand from 20 feet away. He proceeds to tell me how he loves my ring and has been looking for one just like it and asks me where I got it. I tell him it was my gran
    via AskReddit
  • 14
    Text - edited 1 hour ago Ken_the_Andal 8.3k points 5 hours ago I met Justin Timberlake and had no idea it was him until someone told me afterwards. Went to a basketball game with my dad and we stopped by the bar area in the arena first. The game had just started so it was pretty empty except for the bar itself. My dad goes to the restroom and I walk up to the bar to order a beer. There's only one seat at the bar next to a guy in a baseball cap and sunglasses. I politely ask if the seat is taken
    via AskReddit
  • 15
    Text - eDgAR- 6.1k points 8 hours ago I met Simon Pegg when I was working as a cashier at Borders. It was like a Tuesday in the afternoon and the place was empty. He came up to my with some stationery and I started ringing him up. The entire time I was thinking he looked so much like him, but I didn't think it was him since I wasn't in the UK and as far as I knew he wasn't filming a movie in Chicago, so it was a pretty quiet transaction. After it was done and I was handing him his bag with his s
    via AskReddit
  • 16
    Text - inspire_provoke 5.3k points 8 hours ago edited 1 hour ago Wolf Blitzer was a monumental douche in 2004. I was working in Atlanta and staying at the Omni Hotel, which also hosts CNN HQ. Drinking in the hotel bar one night after an exhausting day of work. Just wanted a drink and some socializing, but not too much. So I sit next to this dude and get drink. Keep in mind, we're sitting close together at a bar, so I never really turn to look at him. Small talk ensues and he talks about his work
    via AskReddit
  • 17
    Text - quarkspbt 8.7k points 5 hours ago In the Mid 90's I was a cab driver. Our service was like a cross between a limo and a taxi, and we serviced some fancy resorts. As I dropped off my passenger at a resort, another guy asks if I'm a taxi, and I say yes, so he tells his friend their cab is here. His friend got in the car and said "this ain't no cab, smells too good to be a cab" in that unmistakable Chris Rock voice. He and his friend just bullshitted with each other for the 15 minute drive t
    via AskReddit
  • 18
    Text - AdamHR 4.2k points 3 hours ago I helped Steven Spielberg move his daughter's bags into her college dorm. I was working a shift helping first-years move in and I see a guy in a hat and sunglasses who is unmistakably Spielberg. I strike up a conversation, ask if he needs help with the bags, etc. First names only- "We're from CA. My wife, Kate, and I sent all our kids to East Coast schools though." Stuff like that Later, when his daughter opened the door for the first time, he whipped out a
    via AskReddit
  • 19
    Text - irishamerican 13.9k points 7 hours ago Was at a convenience store in LA when me and a very nicely-dressed black gentleman walked up to the cashier at the same time to pay. It was night time and he had his dark shades on and was talking on his phone. I gave him the "after you" gesture and he nodded and said "thanks buddy", paid and left. It wasn't until he was out of the store that I realized he was Jamie Foxx.
    via AskReddit
  • 20
    Text - ccrawsh 13.8k points 7 hours ago About 40 years ago my father was sitting next to Telly Savalas at some Vegas blackjack table. For about an hour they talked and bet some large amounts of money and my father never let on that he knew the guy was famous. Telly finally says, "its pretty cool that you haven't asked for my autograph". My father responds, "well, you didn't ask for mine". Telly laughs and writes on a cocktail napkin."Hey Jeff, can I have your autograph?" He carried that damn nap
    via AskReddit
  • 21
    Text - saxman2324 7.1k points 6 hours ago Stood in front of Miranda Cosgrove in line for Space Mountain at Disneyland. Weirdest part of it was we were in the same car on the ride and nobody screamed or did anything during the ride. It was completely silent. Me and my sister just looked at each other like "wtf is going on?"
    via AskReddit

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