Toronto International Film Festival Day 7 to 10 Featuring - Anna Kendrick, Ryan Reynolds, Sarah Silverman, Joshua Jackson, Keith Richards, Norman Reedus and more

Day 7 started with an unexpected bonus when I headed to Pearson Airport to meet up with my buddy before he headed home. While I was there, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds arrived for his premiere later that evening of Mississippi Grind. I was lucky enough to nab 3 autographs from the star before he left.
A little while later, I was back downtown after getting a ride from 1 of the Toronto hounds. I made my way over to the premiere for Mississippi Grind. I was sadly shut out at that premiere. I suspect Mr. Reynolds was purposely not signing for me as he probably remembered me from the airport earlier. It was funny hearing the mixture of bellows from the crowd, several people saying how he was "so nice" while multiple people called him "fake nice", a term I have heard a lot used for the Vancouver born actor, and that I myself have even felt in the past. I myself have never had a terrible interaction with him, but almost everyone else I know has.... but when it comes to being at a red carpet, he puts that side of him in check and "acts nice" for the cameras. Despite the fact I know how he really is, I will still end up going to see Deadpool when it comes out.

A short while later, I headed across the street for the premiere of "I Smile Back" featuring Sarah Silverman. The comedienne did not disappoint her fas. Stopping to sign and take photos with everyone. She even took the effort to cross the now open and quite busy King street to meet fans across the street.

From there I made my way over to the Elgin Theatre. I was hoping to see Joshua Jackson at the premiere that him and his girlfriend Diane Kruger had. Sadly it was not to be. I did however managed a couple autographs from the solo Mrs. Kruger. A nice bonus at the premiere was The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus arriving for the premiere. I managed a few quite breif autographs before he left.

Total autographs - 11
Total autographs thru TIFF - 119

A+ Sarah Silverman
B+ Norman Reedus
B. Diane Kruger
B- Ryan Reynolds

Day 8 saw very little luck for me.

It started with a press conference for Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. No shock, the iconic rocker didn't meet the fans or sign anything, just giving a half assed smile & wave as he was rushed into his waiting vehicle.

Later on was a premiere that included The Newsroom star Dev Patel. When Patel arrived, he came over to the area where I was and signed a handful of autographs. He then made a very sincere promise to the fans lined up out there that he would come back out and meet them all after he did press and introduced the film. A fact that was repeated a few minutes later by the red carpet MC Shannon. Sure enough about 20 minutes later the Slumdog Millionaire star did come back out and spent well over 20 minutes out with the crowd taking photos and signing more autographs. THAT is how you develop new fans and keep the ones you already have.

I had hopes of autographs from Matthias Schoenaerts at his premiere, but learned he was not there from someone who heard elsewhere. I waited around in hopes his info was wrong, sadly it was not. More disappointing for me was seeing Joshua Jackson at the premiere of his girlfriend Diane Kruger with her second movie in 2 days. I foolishly pulled a rookie move and didn't bring him with me based on the assumption he didn't show up for the premiere of a movie movie he was in, so he surely wasn't going to come to one he wasn't even in the next day.... Oops. because of the no show, and the failure to not bring Josh items, I got shutout at that premiere.

Total autographs - 2
Total autographs for TIFF - 121

A+ Dev Patel
B+ Joshua Jackson
B. Diane Kruger
F  Keith Richards

 Day 9 for me was actually day 10. I skipped day 9 after 1 of the two premieres scheduled for that day was canceled.

Day 10 started for me with going to a press conference for Mr. Right. When I got there I was given the bad news that the movies star Anna Kendrick was not coming to it as she had travel issues, but she tweeted she would absolutely be at the premiere later that evening.

With the press conference being a waste for me (I had a photo for Sam Rockwell, but he only signed a couple autographs, and after seeing the lethargic attempt at scribbling on stuff he did, I am thankful he didn't "sign" mine) as I only really had photos for Anna, I got shut out. I watched as another 1 of the movies stars Michael Eklund signed for everyone who asked him, I went for lunch early and didn't wait around for the departures of the conference. After lunch I wandered by 1 of the local hotels and hung out for a bit. There I saw Joshua Jackson come out in a shirt that said "Province Of Canada" (psst - to my geographically challenged readers... Canada is not a province.) apparently this is a brand name I had never heard of prior to that moment. Having corrected my prior mistake, and put him back in my binder, I was able to get an autograph from the star of Fringe before he left with his girlfriend Diane Kruger when she came out moments later.

A short while later Anna Kendrick came out, and left in a vehicle & I hurried to the venue of the 1st of two premieres the movie was having that night to find out she didnt come immediately there.

A little while later she eventually showed up, and signed for the handful of us that were there. I managed 1 very rushed, very abbreviated version of her autograph. At least it was something. 

A bit later, the "official" premiere for the movie, across the street at Roy Thompson Hall saw me get 1 more autograph from her there on the red carpet. Once she went into the media tent, I went and positioned myself at this little area of faint hope that has in the past nabbed me 1 person here, 1 there, but 97% of the time is futile. As they finished their media and head into the venue theres a little 4 ft wide opening that you can desperately try and call them from with the hopes they will walk 75 ft out of their way and meet fans. Rarely does anyone too notable do it, and you need to be quick to react in time as they cross the space usually in less than a second. There was a larger than usual crowd there, and luckily We got the attention of the Pitch Perfect star, and she didn't even hesitate when she saw people waiting and came right over. She signed a couple more photos for me there, much better autographs that the scrawls I got on the departure and arrivals earlier. She met fans for about 5-8 minutes out the back end of the tent, and her cast mates, including Michael Eklund and   came over and met fans too. Funny side story, I was standing there with Michael in front of me, and was waiting for a moment to chime in and say "hey Michael, how are you?" when he noticed me standing there and got a big grin and reached out to shake my hand. I sort of assumed he would recognize me a bit..wasn't sure he would pick me out of a crowd of a 100 people though. Always love when I run into locals at TIFF, they really seem appreciative of people there supporting them usually.

After that premiere, I headed over to Ryerson for the last premiere of TIFF. The final Girls. The cast and venue had me dreaming big. I had the idea there would be a small crowd and with the set up there, there was no reason I couldn't get the 13 photos I had done for the 3 actresses in attendance. I was sorely mistaken. While Children's Hospital and Watchmen star Malin Akerman was spectacular with the fans and made sure everyone got everything they needed, her co-stars were less giving. Taissa Farmiga arrived and went to sign for us, before her publicist literally pulled her away from us. If Taissa ever reads this. Fire her. Shes not helping your image. That's how you alienate fans. On the red carpet, I saw Taissa for less than 45 seconds. Perhaps she came over at some other time as well? But she certainly was not around long and was the 1st to leave the carpet. She seemed nice enough, but it really seemed like her publicist wanted her there JUST to talk with the media and go into the theatre. Someone needs to remember that it is TAISSA who has to promote herself to fans... and you are preventing her from doing so. I see a LOT of terrible publicists (to be honest, more than half of them are quite incompetent) but the one Taissa Farmiga had that night is 1 of the worst I can recall. Luckily for her, the final Final Girl of the night, Toronto raised Nina Dobrev left such a sour impression on most that she made the brief time Taissa spent seem "not that bad". While Nina stopped to do quite a few selfies, she skipped large chunks of people, opted to sign as little as humanly possible and was not shy about saying she had to go....despite Malin Akerman still being out on the carpet doing interviews and meeting fans. No Nina, you didn't have to go. You just were sick of interacting with "the little people". Far cry from the actress that once brought 1 of the autograph guys here in Vancouver cupcakes when they wrapped The Vampire Diaries pilot.

Total autographs - 9
Total autographs for TIFF - 130 (a new TIFF record for me)

A+ Malin Akerman
A  Anna Kendrick
A  Michael Eklund
C+ Taissa Farmiga
C- Sam Rockwell
D- Nina Dobrev