So after a crazy six days of exhausting work in three
different locations Monday was my much-needed day off. The day began with
sleeping in. Yessss. I’ve had to get up at 6am for the last four days and work
nine to ten hours on top of that so sleep has been necessary. After catching up
on Mad Men (this week’s episode was
really really good – watch it) Sarah, Sandra and I caught the bus to Surrey
Quays to see X-Men: Days of Future Past.
I have
an Odeon Film Fan card so I got 25% off today, because they have Film Fan
Mondays. It’s pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the movie kind of sucked. I love the
X-Men film franchise. I have seen every
single one of them, including those terrible Wolverine movies. X-Men:
First Class was brilliant and I am a diehard Michael Fassbender fan. I have
voiced my concerns over the newest film combining the new and old casts but I
still held out hope that it would be good. It’s just…blah. They try so hard to
bring in as many cast members as possible that there’s no focus in the story
and the entire thing seems disjointed. They should have kept to the new cast.
They also lose track of the canon, majorly. One of my favorite things in the
film series – that isn’t in the comics – is the relationship between Magneto
and Mystique. I love it. The actors old and new have this intense chemistry and
it’s so great to watch. In this movie they just throw that all away. The best
part was Evan Peters as Quicksilver. And he wasn’t even in it that much. Side Note: Props to the filmmakers for that
little inside insinuation about Magneto being Quicksilver’s dad. I hope he
has a bigger part in the third one. Michael Fassbender is a better actor than
this movie deserves. He elevated the first one to a really high level but
couldn’t save this one. I know you’re probably thinking this is just me being
hard to please but Sarah and Sandra didn’t like it very much either. In fact,
Sarah’s exact words after the movie ended were “Evan Peters was the only good
thing about that movie.”
After
the film we bid adieu to Sandra and headed to Waterloo. We had both put our
names in to a draw to win tickets to Graham
Norton and Sarah had won. We had found out last week that the guests for
our episode were insane: Tom Cruise,
Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Seth MacFarlane, and Coldplay. Wow. They said someone
would meet you at 5:15pm and we showed up an hour early and there was already a
huge line. We stood in the rain for an hour before they gave us wristbands with
numbers and warned us that they didn’t guarantee entry. We had numbers 110 and
111 so we figured we would be pretty safe. They told us to come back at 6:00pm,
for when they would let people in. At that time we realized exactly how many
people were hoping to get into the audience. Seemingly all the employees had
brought friends and family and there were 180 people with priority tickets.
Then they started calling our wristbands ten at a time. It did not look good. A
guy started sending everyone with numbers over 250 home. Fortunately, Sarah and
I got some of the last spots. Phew.
I’ve
only ever been to one other talk show taping, The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon, and the audience here is much
bigger, as is the stage. Before the host comes out a warm-up comedian comes on.
His job is to get the audience laughing and clapping. Then Graham Norton came
on and continued to warm us up. His first guests were Tom Cruise and Emily
Blunt, who are starring in The Edge of
Tomorrow. Everyone went nuts for Tom Cruise, obviously. He is a funny one.
On the one hand, he’s insane. On the other hand, he is actually a very
mild-mannered person. In fact, I would go so far as to call him boring. He
answers questions very simply and directly. He doesn’t tell any funny stories
or anything. But he seems like a genuinely nice person. He knows he’s lucky and
he doesn’t take it for granted. He interacted with the other guests who came
out and was really excited to see Coldplay. Like, leaning forward in his seat
for a better view excited. He also was the only guest who stopped and shook the
hand of every single person sitting in a floor seat before thanking the entire
audience for coming. I was impressed. Emily Blunt was surprisingly funny. She
does a spot on impression of an African American woman (she was talking about
her daughter she gave birth to not too long ago).
Then
came out Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron. I love Seth. Everyone knows this.
I was so excited to see him and he did not disappoint. They were promoting A Million Days to Die in the West, which
I really want to see. For someone known for his crude humor, Seth is one of the
most charming people I’ve ever seen. He just oozes charisma. You can’t help but
want to pay attention to him. He also can whip out his impressions without hesitation.
He did everyone from Brian and Stewie Griffin to Kermit the Frog. The best one,
though? He sang the ‘Thunder Buddies’ song from Ted! As for Charlize Theron…she was there. I don’t really know what
to say about her.
The
musical guest was Coldplay. I don’t like them but it was enjoyable enough.
Their set was beautiful. Chris Martin is actually really cool. I thought he was
going to be a bit more hipster douchebagey but he was interacting with the
audience before and after the song and really put all his energy into
performing. He was also interviewed briefly with a band member and they were
pretty funny.
All and
all not a bad day and just another reason why living in London is so cool.
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