Americans will probably not know who
John Hannah is. He is a
Scottish actor who mainly takes roles in
British films. He is, however, pretty well known over in
these parts. He has been in
Sliding Doors (with
Gwyneth Paltrow),
Four Weddings and a Funeral and has had
Hollywood forays with his roles in
The Mummy and
The Mummy Returns. Anyways, on with the encounter...
I work in Soho. This is London's celeb centre if one is into that sort of thing. I was walking back from a job interview (another long story), and I turned the corner to see this guy coming down the steps of this apartment block. I couldn't really make out his face yet as he was quite far away still and was wearing a long, flowing trench coat, however, he looked vaguely familiar to me.
He was walking with a friend, and talking rather animatedly to him, like he was trying to explain a scene in a movie or something. They stopped at a crosswalk to let traffic by and I had by now caught up with them. As a approached from behind, John turned around and I immediately knew who he was, although I didn't know his name. It was an awkward moment really, as he was standing there, looking directly at me, I had just recognised him as someone famous and was probably staring like a deer in headlights trying to remember his name. Anyway, on cue, the traffic halted and he and his friend crossed the road and were off to wherever film stars go for lunch. While he was up ahead of me, a teenager walked past him, stopped, turned around to face him, thought for a few seconds and turned around to carry on walking. I walked past her and said to her "Yes, it was him." and she said "God, I thought so. Whats his name again?"