Michelle Zajac

Quoting my initial post here for context... I woke up this morning to the news that the digital downloads from LFCC were live (yay!). I went in and immediately went into Saturday to start poking around...when I happened to notice the number underneath Benedict's name. 2,009 photographs. In one day. I had obviously known that he was going to be 'top dog,' so to speak, but I don't think I had quite realized the extent to which that would be true... From a cursory glance at the other photo counts, John Cleese looks like he was the only one to even come close to taking that many photographs in a day. And when I added in Sunday's photo counts? That lovely, lovely man had his photograph taken with us 3,283 times. I've done a bit of addition, and I can't find a single other person whose counts were that insane, no matter if I counted for two days or even three! As you can see above, I originally said that 'I hope he knows how much we all appreciated him taking his ENTIRE weekend just to meet us all'... But somehow I suddenly feel like that sentence is utterly, wholly inadequate. And yes, I can just imagine the internet trolls saying, 'Oh, but I'm sure he got paid buckets and buckets to do that,' and yes, that's probably true. But I'm sorry - I really couldn't care less. I literally can't even imagine having my picture taken over three thousand times in two days. My brain just cannot picture it. And based on comments here, and others I've seen on Facebook and Twitter, it wasn't just that he had his picture taken 3,283 times...it was also that he really tried to make each and every one a genuine and unique interaction - one that felt like it was real, like he was genuinely happy to meet you. And none of this even counts the amount of autographs, and the interactions that occurred there at the table... I find myself completely humbled by his patience, generosity, and love for his fans - for us. Nothing else could possibly explain or describe those numbers - or those efforts. 'THANK YOU!' just doesn't seem to cover it anymore. I genuinely can't think of anything that does. <3

I just wanted to drop in quickly to mention how phenomenal I thought Benedict was this past weekend. Knowing how many people he was going to be seeing, I really tried to go in with low expectations, but I was completely blown away. He was so extremely kind and gracious during his photo shoots and autograph sessions and really seemed interested in each individual interaction even though each one was only a couple seconds in length. With me, he actually initiated conversation - and follow-up questions - a few times (even though his assigned crew ended up interrupting him mid-sentence to keep him moving ), which was really lovely and confirmed to me how much he respects his fans. I never once felt like I was just a number to him, which isn't always the case in fleeting moments like these, so that was very much noticed and appreciated! He was also incredibly goofy and just seemed to be having a great, relaxed time throughout the whole weekend (except when he got REALLY confused about why I was telling him to feel better on Sunday morning after the crew miscommunication about touching him LOL -- though even that ended up resulting in a fun bonus conversation with him, so hey!). My heart photo with him is one of my new favorite things of all time (I've now made it my phone lock screen and can't stop laughing every time I look at it now) and it alone was worth every second of insanity that was my 30-hour whirlwind trip to London from DC, and that's not even counting the other pictures, my brief chat with him during autographs, or his absolutely wonderful talk! I hope he knows how much we all appreciated him taking his ENTIRE weekend just to meet us all! And THANK YOU, SM, for doing whatever it took behind the scenes to get this deal done. Although there were definitely glitches to the weekend here and there, as others have covered in the feedback threads, this was one place where you really succeeded, way more than I could have ever hoped for. THANK YOU!