Famke Janssen?

[Spookie]

I met her today, only went for an autograph rather than a photoshoot. Having read about people's experiences yesterday I'm glad I hadn't bought a photoshoot.

 

I'm very glad I met her though - she was polite, returned my greeting and exchanges pleasantries, asking how I was, and smiled and said "aw that's sweet!" when I told her Goldeneye is still my favourite Bond film all these years on :) Nice signature too, and she personalised and used silver like I asked. So I was happy. I'm sorry to read about others' experiences though.

 

I very much appreciate her not cancelling entirely, but I do feel the photoshoots should have probably been cancelled as it sounds like she really wasn't up to them - which she can't be blamed for, with a broken rib(s) - but with the diamond passes would she have been allowed to just sign, or was her appearance all or nothing?

 

By the way, whilst queuing for quite a while for Laurie Holden I noticed some ladies giving some sort of gift to Famke (a packet of special sweets or something maybe?) and she was chatting to them for a while and after they left another time I glanced over and she was showing other people behind the desk the little gift. So whoever you ladies were, it looked like she did appreciate it!

[loveamyadams]

photoshoot was awful, i get the no touching thing no problem, but she looks like she'd rather be anywhere else than there with a stoney unsmiling face.Final photo was so embarressing that i won't show it to anyone as they'll gasp at thats what you get for paying out all that money. Compared to photoshoots with Rutger, Jack Gleeson and Jeremy Renner who were all lovely and seemed to be enjoying it this was a major let down. If this was an off day possibly caused by a health issue then so be it but i was warned previously that she wasn't too keen on fan contact.

[loveamyadams]

I met her today (Sunday) she smiled and said hi while signing and also did so at the photo session too.

 

That's more than good enough for me so I'm happy with how it went.

 

I'm happy to respect people's personal space and any conditions that come with that.

 

Also huge respect to the chap running photo area A (I'll learn his name one day) for making sure all went smoothly. Clear instructions and seemingly eternal patience. A real credit to Showmasters.

The guy running photoshoot A was Stuart, he's allways a top fella.

Edited August 1, 2016 by loveamyadams

[fastandloud]

I just got her autograph on Sat and even though her queue was very busy and fast she still smiled and said hi to me.

[Starkers]

Just wanted to add my own voice to the chorus of disappointment. I wasn't at the talk and didn't get an autograph so the photo shoot was my one experience with her. I Really wish I'd spent my money elsewhere, or that maybe I'd just gone for an autograph instead as it does seem there was more interaction with her if you did that. Looking at my photos and everyone else's it does seem like in 99% of them her facial expression is identical. I can appreciate that she didn't want to be touched/hug/shake hands but more of a hello/acknowledgment I was there would have been nice, and she could have easily varied her facial expression a little between photos or done something to make each photo a little different.

 

People have made excuses for her but it she wasn't well she should have cancelled, and if she is overawed by crowds etc. maybe she shouldn't have signed up for this in the first place? At the end of the day she's still working so she can't need the money that desperately can she?

 

Makes it worse when you see all the cool pics people were getting with Mads and Jeremy Renner (and it seems most every other guest!) Oh well a fool and his money are soon parted, and I still had a great day- just glad I got Aaron Stanford's autograph, which was a bit of a spur of the moment decision but given he cost less than half of Famke yet I got an autograph, my pic taken with him, two handshakes and to actually chat with him for a minute or two about 12 Monkeys, I'm really glad I did!

[RomeroSavini]

Many of these bigger people do not do it for money, they do it for curiosity, a bit of fun, self promotion, see what fans think of them etc...

 

If you get paid millions for a film, what you get for a con is pennies in comparison, so I would say Famke never did it for a pay day in any way.

 

For example Jerremy Renner now gets easily 10 million a film at times, you dont do a con if you dont like anything about them in his shoes. You have to like somethimg about it all.

[Starkers]

Many of these bigger people do not do it for money, they do it for curiosity, a bit of fun, self promotion, see what fans think of them etc...

 

If you get paid millions for a film, what you get for a con is pennies in comparison, so I would say Famke never did it for a pay day in any way.

 

For example Jerremy Renner now gets easily 10 million a film at times, you dont do a con if you dont like anything about them in his shoes. You have to like somethimg about it all.

 

Yeah which makes it all the stranger given she didn't seem to want to be there (from my perspective at least) I can see that for a lot of the bigger names it is for fun, or because they genuinely like meeting the fans. Obviously for some of the smaller guests I imagine it is about making money, which I have no problem with at all, but they were still friendly/interacted with people to a greater or lesser degree.

[RomeroSavini]

Yup the lesser stars it is their lifes bread, major income for them. You can see many give their all to keep the bills paid, as a good reputation brings in more customers and admirers :-)

 

Fans! We are an odd thing :-)

[Straker94]

If I were working for showmasters I would invite her back personally. It seems to me as if we caught her on a bad weekend maybe? I didn't meet her myself but everything seems too mixed for her not to want to be there. It would be interesting to see how differently it panned out a second time.

[Wrong Name]

Personally, I didn't have much of a problem meeting Famke as most others seemed to. Was it the best guest experience I've had, not by a long shot. Was it the worst, definitely not.

 

I got her auto on Friday, she said hi with a smile and asked me how my day was going. I even got a thanks from her as I walked off. I enjoyed her talk and it was great to here about a broad range of her work as I expected it mainly to be about Bond and X-Men (although I do love X-Men!). My photo was on Sunday and although her shoot times were changed, it was't an issue. I had heard the stories about here shoot on Sunday and it did prepare me for the shoot but for me, it wasn't as bad as other people seemed to have found it. We only had one crew member calmly tell us no touching or hugs as we walked in. It was still up to the line etc, but again she said hi as I went up and asked how I was, with a thanks as I walked away. It was a rushed picture but they had quite a few people to get though and some shoots are like that so I was ok with it. She even seems to be half smiling in my pic!

 

I honestly don't think in the talk she was trying to use the broken rib and lack of sleep as any kind of excuse to the experience people had with her. Both were more throw away comments on things that have happened to her recently. She did however, state that this was only the second convention she had attended and I just don't think she properly understands them yet. If she weren't an actress then I doubt she would attend them as a fan. It can be a bit daunting for a guest to deal with what they go through and some people handle better than others. I'm not trying to justify her behaviour towards some people, of course as a guest she should have been as polite and friendly to as possible to everyone that wanted to meet her. But some people aren't built like that.

 

I'm still glad I met her.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Wrong Name

[mariluz513]

im sorry but if she was in pain then why did she hug Jeremy Renner so hard during her Q&A? It all sounds a bit fishy to me.

[homerj]

What a wonderful woman. Polite, smiled, asked if everything was okay.

 

Very glad I bought a Diamond Pass to meet her.

[Queen_Sindel]

im sorry but if she was in pain then why did she hug Jeremy Renner so hard during her Q&A? It all sounds a bit fishy to me.

 

When you are excited you sometimes forget pain, even if it's very bad or even chronic.

[ieeerr]

 

im sorry but if she was in pain then why did she hug Jeremy Renner so hard during her Q&A? It all sounds a bit fishy to me.

When you are excited you sometimes forget pain, even if it's very bad or even chronic.

Meeting her fans should be something that could make her forget about the pain, too.

[hunter13]

I'm sorry but I'm not buying the injury excuse. John Ashton was taken ill on Friday and was still signing and talking all weekend. I had a good talk with him yesterday (Sunday) and he was tired but he still made the effort. I'm really glad I didn't waste my money on Famke, she's not worth the effort.

[AllRedDan]

As I have already mentioned, my autograph was thrown at me after I had been ignored trying to say a few words to Famke.

 

Being in pain does not excuse being rude. Forget the money paid. People should not treat others like that way. No matter who you are.

 

I will now being throwing the autographs myself.... In the bin. Along with the horrendous photo and Diamond pass.

[Bing250]

As I have already mentioned, my autograph was thrown at me after I had been ignored trying to say a few words to Famke.

 

Being in pain does not excuse being rude. Forget the money paid. People should not treat others like that way. No matter who you are.

 

I will now being throwing the autographs myself.... In the bin. Along with the horrendous photo and Diamond pass.

Yeah my Famke photo will not be getting displayed. I decided not to bother with auto after the awful photo experience.

[casbyness]

Famke didn't arrive until after 10:30am on Saturday which caused a bottleneck of Diamond Pass holders for the first half hour. After that point things went smoothly so long as you had a low-ish VQ number.

 

For the vast number of attendees who arrived at Famke's queuing area at 10:30-11:30am: please try to research ahead and adopt a more serious approach to seeing high profile guests like Famke in future. I saw people appearing at 11:30am expecting to be able to join the queue, then acting out at the crew when they were handed ticket #500+ and turned away. Seriously, to get my low VQ number I arrived at 5am, practically ran to the VQ ticket holder upon entry and then waited nearby to ensure I was right at the front when my number range was called. There's a lot of competition for seeing the big names within a decent timeframe - if you really want that auto then you should either be buying a Diamond Pass or making a far more serious effort to get an early VQ number, not shouting at the poor staff when you don't get what you want.

 

For my part, Famke was very nice to me but then I did present her with a Boston Terrier plushie (her favourite dog breed and the breed of her current dog too!) plus a copy of her movie to sign so I think I had set myself up for a positive reaction beforehand.

 

I think between the end of the morning auto session and start of the photo shoot something bad must have happened. Perhaps something as simple as Famke not realising until it was too late that she wouldn't be afforded a respite between the two activities, but for all most of us know it could have been something more dramatic.

 

It was clear from her talk that Famke is inexperienced with the whole convention phenomena.

 

I think things would have been improved by the on-stage facilitator doing a better job of starting off with some Famke-promotion and official-sounding questions before the talk was opened up to the entire audience. Famke was obviously nervous and isn't the sort of person to break into long entertaining stories, she's also easily thrown off-guard by odd, repeating or difficult-to-hear questions. Also, being roundabout insulted by the facilitator during the final question didn't help matters either!

 

I think before criticising a guest people should remember to approach the event with a mind to make life as easy as possible for said guest. If you're a big fan, shouldn't you care a lot about the guest's feelings and try to give during your interaction as well as take? A lot of the negative feedback I've seen seems to come from those who came with the intention of just paying to get something from Famke, as if she's just a soda dispenser and not a person. People who ask her to sign Goldeneye photos with "For 'XXXXX'" just so they can take those home like a war trophy and brag to friends over, never again paying any thought for Famke beyond what they could get from her.

 

Anyhow, Since I didn't attend a photoshoot I don't share the uncomfortable memories of what went on there; but I think that the autograph sessions would have been far better (for her and attendees) if Famke had been set up with a proper booth alongside Jeremy Renner and Dolph Lundgren. Even if just for the sake of her concerned security and openly nervous agent who repositioned the floorplan standee to block photos and random staring from across where Ron Perlman's area would have been.

 

Demand was clearly high enough to warrant a booth, and Famke (plus her staff) were in a very dangerous position during auto signing - the end of a long bank of tables with the only secure exit very far away, plus Ron's empty tables nearby for random attendees to congregate around in the hope of a photo or curious glance.

[Murph]

She isn't even in the top 2 worst guest experiences I've had.

[jamez24789]

Was thinking of getting her on Sunday but saw her signing and she seemed very disengaged and uninterested. Very wrong to those paying £170 for a D pass.

 

I'm sorry but I don't accept the old 'they are human and having an off day' excuse.

Think of this in another situation: if you called up an electrician to come round to fix a fault and they did a sloppy job, would you pay him and accept that it's ok because he was just having an 'off day'? Similarly, if I turned up for work and was rude or disengaged with customers, my boss would not dismiss this behaviour simply because I too was having an off day.

 

Famke was paid to be there, just like any other job, and should have made the effort. If she was unwell or simply not up to the event (fair enough they can be overwhelming) then she should have cancelled and saved fans the money.

[Inga]

 

im sorry but if she was in pain then why did she hug Jeremy Renner so hard during her Q&A? It all sounds a bit fishy to me.

 

When you are excited you sometimes forget pain, even if it's very bad or even chronic.

Also he was probably warned in advance about her broken rib, and she KNOWS him, so she probably trusts him to be careful and not hurt her more! And that was ONE hug, not hundreds in a row.

[Bingo Boy]

Well after spending my hard earned money on a photo and auto with Famke I must say it was a complete waste of cash !

My photo looks like I am stood next to her in Madam Tussards at Blackpool ..... totally blank expression and zero smile.

 

In over 200 showmasters photo's this is the worst in my entire collection and I am ashamed to show it to people !

 

A disgrace and a total waste of cash.

[Stenun]

I'm now hearing from a reliable source that she had three broken ribs, not just one, and hadn't told Showmasters as she didn't want to disappoint anyone.

 

Foolish or thoughtful or maybe both? Up to you to decide but I think some people are being overly harsh on her.

[Queen_Sindel]

I'm now hearing from a reliable source that she had three broken ribs, not just one, and hadn't told Showmasters as she didn't want to disappoint anyone.

 

Foolish or thoughtful or maybe both? Up to you to decide but I think some people are being overly harsh on her.

 

*puts mod cap off* I was actually thinking she probably wished she had cancelled meanwhile. *puts mod cap back on* I mean I edited the Name calling, but there's way too many off experiences described still.

[TrinityKiller24]

Overly harsh is an understatement. People are acting like she killed their pet. I get that people are upset that they didn't get exactly what they wanted but unfortunately, that's the risk you run when you meet anybody you admire or enjoy. Ever heard the phrase 'don't meet your heroes'? I'm just incredibly thankful that I got a very positive interaction at the table and at the photo session. If I didn't, oh well, what can be done?

 

 

I will now being throwing the autographs myself.... In the bin. Along with the horrendous photo and Diamond pass.

 

So you're annoyed over not getting EXACTLY what you wanted, but are now choosing to throw those things in the bin? If you're ok with that then go for it but isn't that a little bit of an overreaction?

 

Imagine if she cancelled not even a day before? Could you imagine what people would be saying then? She wouldn't be able to win no matter what.

Edited August 1, 2016 by TrinityKiller24