TORONTO – As the Toronto International Film Festival is set to get under way, Canadian stars are nervously awaiting their chance to finally meet real-life American celebrities.
“I play poker every week with Wendy Crewson, Gordon Pinsent and Arsinee Khanjian. All of us agree that we just can’t wait to meet Robert Downey Jr.,” said Don McKellar, star of many classic Canadian films. “I mean, who doesn’t love Iron Man, am I right?”
“I heard Tom [McCamus] is so pumped he even made his own Iron Man costume out of tin foil and tupperware.”
Even Canada’s more established icons are excited to finally meet the performers they’ve followed for years.
“Keira Knightley is just so beautiful! I have pictures of her all over my bedroom wall,” gushed Sarah Polley. “I mean, Canadian actors usually just wear Roots sweats to our premieres, but I hear Keira might be wearing Chanel!”
When asked for comment, TIFF’s artistic director, Cameron Bailey, said he is aware of the excitement within the Canadian acting community.
“I always tell them to keep cool and not act so star-struck,” said Bailey at a recent TIFF press conference. “But they say they can’t help themselves because here in Canada film and television actors never get to meet famous people.”
To counteract this nervous anticipation, TIFF has issued a 35-page handbook geared toward helping Canadian film stars naturally interact with the truly famous. Many Canadian performers report they learned a lot from chapters titled “Make Eye-Contact”, “Don’t Freak Out (Be Cool)”, and “Remember, Christian Bale isn’t Actually Batman”.
TIFF has publicly stated that it would like to avoid the unfortunate events of past years, such as a 2007 incident involving an obsessive Canadian performer who tried to chop off all of Jennifer Aniston’s hair to make a wig.
“A few years ago we caught Megan Follows stalking Halle Berry after the Cloud Atlas presser,” explained Cameron Bailey. “Megan was all dressed up like Anne of Green Gables and everything, but poor Halle still had no idea who the hell she was.”
