My week as a celebrity stalker

It's been a crazy, fun week for me. Some incredible news hit a while back and I have been eager with anticipation: Johnny Depp was filming a movie in Wisconsin, and part of it was being filmed in the town where I work! It's a 30s gangster flick and Johnny is portraying the bank robber John Dillinger. How cool is that? Wait, it gets better. The parts that will be filmed in our town will be in the downtown area, only 2 blocks away from where I work!!

Now all of this would probably be exciting to anyone, but for me it was AMAZING because Johnny Depp is one of my all time favorite stars, one who was plastered all over my room as a teen. As I got older the pin-ups come down but I have always held a special place in my heart for Johnny so this was so incredibly exciting! Then I find out that some of the scenes are being shot at a building that is directly across from where I work, in clear view of my window! I couldn't believe my luck. I charged up the batteries in my digital camera, dug out some binoculars, and got ready for the week of filming. So begins the story of how I went from a mild mannered occasional celebrity gossip follower to a full-on celebristalker. (I don’t think that’s really a word but I like it.)

Here is how the week played out…

Monday, April 14: This is the morning when filming for the movie began downtown. As I mentioned before, the window in my cubicle at work directly faces the building they were going to shoot for one of the bank robberies. I was psyched thinking I would have awesome viewing for this event. Armed with binoculars and my camera I head upstairs to me desk ready to spy, but lo and behold I find this scene out my window:
Please take note of the GIANT green screen in front of the building, blocking our view of all the action. We are guessing this was used so they can insert a better background into the shots than the skuzzy parking lot, but come on Universal Studios, throw us a bone here! Hmpf.

About 9am or so they did drop the screen (woo-hoo!) and the girls in my department and I were able to catch a glimpse of what appears to be rehearsal of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) leaving the bank holding a gun and a hostage through the binoculars. We think we have officially spotted Johnny and there is much excitement. (I didn’t know that many women could fit into one cubicle!) A little while later one of the women on our floor whose son is working as an extra in the bank scene texted to say that it was NOT Johnny we saw, it was one of his doubles. We are bummed and have convinced ourselves that we saw the real thing, we don’t care what anyone says!

Having had just a small taste of the action, a group of us head out at lunchtime on the hunt to see what we can see. We want to get a closer look at the set, and we can see crowds of people forming by the barricades so there must be something exciting down there. Of course you cannot get anywhere near anything, and there are obstructions EVERYWHERE. This is as close as we can get from the front.


We walked the full perimeter of the set as close as we can get behind the roadblocks and see nothing but some extras going into a building for lunch break. Drat. Here's a picture of our group, I am the one sporting the giant binoculars. (Not obvious or dorky at all.)

That afternoon the green screen was back up again, but there is a chase scene being filmed in front of the building so we can hear gunfire and then see cars racing through the openings between the buildings. There is a definite Johnny sighting through the binoculars, he is hanging off the side of the car as they fly by! Very exciting stuff! We are all cursing the fact that we have a deadline this week and cannot take the afternoon off to go outside and watch, but at the same time we know we have a better view from the window. (In reality nobody got anything done all afternoon because we were all watching out the window anyway…) They ran the scene several more times but there was always a good half hour or so between takes. I’m amazed at how long and slow this movie making process is. At the end of the workday I wanted nothing more than to be able to stay after and go down to watch the filming, but alas I know I need to go home to my son and husband and I have choir rehearsal. Day one of celebristalking is kind of a bust.

Tuesday, April 15th: I arrive at work and of course the morning coffee talk revolves around the filming. I found out that Johnny went out and shook hands and talked to fans after filming wrapped the night before and I’m cursing the fact that I went to choir practice instead of staying. I really need to rethink my priorities I guess!

It’s now day two of filming. We’ve been told by a reliable source that filming will continue outside of town today, which turns out to be true. They shot a few scenes in the morning outside our building again but there is no Johnny, and by noon they are all packed up and gone. I got a lot more work done on Tuesday, go figure!

Before leaving work my friend Lindsay and I make a pact that we will spend as much of the day as possible stalking Johnny on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 16th: The morning begins with my coworker friend sharing her exciting story of how she got to meet Johnny Depp last night at her friend’s church! Apparently the production crew had rented out her church to be "base camp" for the crew because it was close to the site they were filming a car chase out in the country. Apparently her friend had called to let her know he was going to do another “meet and greet” at that site when they were done filming that night and she should get her butt over there. She did and she got to say hello and shake his hand! She has a cute picture of Johnny talking to her 13 year old son. We were all excited and happy for her, but also insanely jealous. Lindsay and I have vowed we will not rest until we too have had our own face to face encounter.

Today filming is back in town, this time they are in the middle of downtown filming at a different bank. These scenes are a lot more involved and much the downtown area has been spiffed up and decked out 30s style. It was really cool to see the transformation. We can no longer see anything from our building so Lindsay and I take a walk at lunch to see what’s happening. Today things are blocked off even farther away from the action so they don’t accidentally get people or cars in the shots. We do a walk around the full filming perimeter, but even through binoculars you can’t really see much. It’s still exciting because we know SOMETHING is happening down there and there were tons of extras in 30s attire wandering around which at least gave us something to look at.

Unfortunately we had to head back to work but as we were, but as we were crossing the street on the back side of main, kind of near where all the actors trailers are parked, we suddenly the crowd of gawkers ahead of us starting to wave and yell. We whip around to see what’s happening and here comes Johnny Depp’s SUV driving around the corner straight for us! Literally, we had to move out of the way in order for it to get by us! And there was Johnny in the back seat on the side towards us. He had the window open and was waving at the crowd, then he waved and smiled at us…less than 5 feet away! We were so excited that we finally got a glimpse of the man, and it was just dumb luck! Of course I didn’t have my camera ready since we were walking back to work so as I'm gawking and moving out of the way of his moving vehicle I'm also trying to get my camera out and turned on. In all the frenzied excitement I managed to only get this awesome picture of my head. Ugh! I did get a picture of his vehicle AFTER he was way out of eyesight. So I missed my perfect photo opportunity...but we had a great story to get us through the afternoon!

After work Lindsay and I decided to go find a spot near the trailers and stay there as long as we had to in order to see Johnny again. Rumor was that he would do another “meet and greet” after filming and we were not going to miss it this time! We checked out the street near the trailers and there was an area that seemed to be set up for this. (It kind of looked like a cattle corral actually) The very front by the barriers was already filled up with people but we found a good spot which was very close to the front, definitely close enough to reach for a handshake, so we were psyched. As we were standing there the crowd starts yelling and waving again, it's another drive-by! This time I have my camera on and ready to go...but I'm so excited that I accidentally clicked the picture way too soon and by the time my camera reset itself for another picture he was long gone. I did get this stellar shot...

I'm feeling that a future career as a paparazzi photographer is NOT a good idea!

We waited some more and were chit-chatting with the people in front of us, sharing our sighting stories, and even held their spots for them while they went to use the bathroom. It’s always good to make friends with your neighbors in these situations I think. Then one of them tells us she has to leave so to take her spot. We thought she meant temporarily leave again, but no she means she has to leave altogether and she is giving us her place! She had been up at the very front and pretty spread out so we were both able to squeeze in that spot and suddenly, there we were at the very front of the barrier, waiting to meet Johnny Depp!

We waited and waited again, for what seemed like an eternity, but we were in a good spot near a lot of the security guards so we could hear them talking about what was going on. There were a LOT of people out that night and they kept cautioning everyone to be quiet and stay calm or he would not come out. Apparently there was concern over the large crowd getting unruly and that we would maul the poor guy or grab him and run. But everyone was calm and shushing each other, we did NOT want to ruin this perfect opportunity! Finally the word is that JD is out and working his way down the line. We weren’t sure we believed it because it was SO quiet, but people were behaving just as they were told. Apparently at these meet and greets he doesn’t sign autographs but he shakes hands and chats with the crowds. By now we were so nervous and excited and were trying to come up with something cool to say to him! Everyone was craning their necks trying to see how close he was, but it’s now past 8pm and it’s dark outside so we can’t see anything. He finally got close enough so I could take some pictures of him with the zoom all the way up so I’m trying shoot but the stupid auto focus on my camera always freaks out and can’t seem to adjust when it’s dark! Thankfully I did get a couple good pictures of the side of him as he made his way towards us.

He got up to Lindsay and I tried to snap a picture of him talking to her, but it was so dark and couldn't tell what I was aiming at, plus I forgot my stupid zoom was still all the way up so all I managed to get a picture of half of his face! (But you can see how close we were to him!)

Then he walks in front of me and I put my camera down because I was NOT going to ruin this moment by futzing around trying to take a picture. He grabbed my one hand while he was shaking hands with other people off to the sides of me but then turned and looked at me and I was so star struck all I could think to say was “It’s so great to meet you” and he said “Thanks for coming out tonight” or something (I honestly don’t even remember) and then he grabbed my other hand and he’s still looking at me (I think because Lindsay was taking our picture) and of course I can’t think of anything else to say so I just stare with a big dumb grin on my face. Then he squeezed my hand and let go and moved on. It was short and sweet but a moment I will treasure forever!

Here's the picture Lindsay took while he was talking to me. You can't see me, but he's holding my hands!

I was surprised at how short he is, only a few inches taller than me. He was very soft spoken but seemed genuinely nice and happy to come out and greet his fans. Thankfully he got through the line without incident and then was whisked away again by security.

Day three of amateur celebristalking turns out to be a total success, mission accomplished!

Thursday, April 17th: Lindsay and I spend most of the morning at work retelling the story of our adventures from the previous evening and sharing pictures. My boss has been a good sport about all of this because she likes Johnny Depp too and knows this is a once in lifetime experience, but I know she cannot WAIT for this week to be over so we can all get back to regular business!

At noon Lindsay and I took a short walk over by the set to see what’s happening. Nothing could top our experience from the day before so at this point it’s mainly just to get some fresh air. While we were standing there the big black SUV drives by again heading towards the set, but I couldn’t see if anyone was inside and neither could Lindsay. The girls nearby were super excited and said they saw Johnny wave. We are not convinced but we let them have their moment.

Thursday night was back to normal and I went home to the family. This stalking business is very exhausting and hard on the body so I was tired. Plus the entire week Cameron hasn’t been sleeping well so it’s been a double whammy. I showed Cameron my pictures from the night before and tell him its Captain Jack Sparrow (we watched Pirates of the Caribbean together the weekend before). He’s unimpressed and wants to watch Elmo. Life is slowing getting back to normal.

Friday, April 18th: It’s a quiet day. They are still filming downtown but again we can’t see anything from work. We didn’t go walking at lunch because we had a prior engagement to meet a friend, and besides it’s getting old at this point. I was a little sad knowing this was probably the last day of filming, and come Monday things would be back to normal, but I’m relieved as well. Celebristalking is very tiring work.

About 3:30pm things start happening outside my window again. Police are starting to gather and a few old cars are being parked on the street in front of the “bank” building. It seems as though they are going to film something there again! The binoculars come out again and sure enough, here comes Johnny to that spot again! We’re excited to see him again, but at the same time once you have touched and spoken to someone you really can’t top that by looking at him through binoculars from so far away. They must be shooting some really close-up’s of him because he’s leaning on top of the car with a giant gun shooting and the camera is almost in his face. It will be interesting to see how they edit that scene knowing that the close up shots were filmed 4 days after the original bank heist shots were filmed. Movie making is definitely an interesting process.

Anyway, I stayed at work a little late just to watch then about 5pm they finish up and Johnny’s SUV whisks him away. I said good-bye to him and headed home to my family. Now we just have to wait a year until the movie comes out so we can see Johnny and relive the memories all over again!

Next week I’m in New York for a few days for work so I won’t have much free time, but when I get back I’ll try to get back to writing about Cameron again because he’s way cuter and more important than Johnny Depp any day! (Sorry Johnny, it’s true.) Check out this future pin-up boy, matching socks and all!