Steve Buscemi was in town to promote his film, Interview, during SIFF. We were at a reception on Capitol Hill for the SIFF gala event for The Evening and saw Steve Buscemi mingling around. My sister Bridget and her friend Lisa saw Steve and they ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes. During this time they introduced me and I was able to shake his hand and Bridget (wife) gave him her crappy pen. I am not that celebrity crazy, but since Steve is in so many movies I enjoy, it was an honor just to shake his hand. That is when I texted many of my friends to let them know. However, at that point I did not realize the night had only just begun.
When it was time for Steve to leave, he told my sister and her friend that if there was anything interesting to do in that he wanted to hang out and told him to call him at the W (where he was staying).
So about a half an hour later we drove down to the W, half thinking that Steve might change his mind, but sure enough the Front Desk person called up his room and Steve said he was expecting the call. Within minutes he was in the lobby. The hard part of the night was trying to figure out a good place to suggest take him (briefly my mind raced to figure out which bar nearby most resembled Tree’s Lounge). We suggested we go to Capitol Hill or to the Alabi Room/Triple Door, but he wanted something very close to the hotel. We ended up going to Sazerac (right across the street) around 11:00 for a round of drinks. It was last call, so the place was empty – but the 5 of us grabbed a booth and each ordered a drink. Steve ordered a single malt Macallan 12 yr.
After Sazerac, we all went to the W – which thankfully we were able to find another booth and order another round of drinks before last call. We stayed at the W until they turned on the lights and kicked us out. Afterwards, he even came outside with us for a bit and walked my sister and her friend to their car.
Steve was the nicest person. He listened to our dumb conversations (cats, parents, etc) offered to buy us drinks, and hugged us all as we left for the night. He was also very funny (quick with the sarcasm) and handsome in person (more than you would expect).
We watched his film the next day, and it was funny how there were some parallels to the night we spent with Steve and the plot of the movie. In the movie Steve’s character is hired to interview a tabloid famous movie star (played by Sienna Miller) at a restaurant, but he was unprepared (because he normally covers politics). In the film there were also people in the restaurant, who would notice the Sienna Millers character and approach her and ask for her autograph or talk about how much they loved her in every movie. That is what it was like hanging out with Steve. Some of our questions about his film work were funny. At one point Steve was talking about Reservoir Dogs and my sister asked, “oh you were in Reservoir Dogs?” or when he started talking about Sopranos, I had to tell him not to give anything away because I has only watched up to Season 3. Also Bridget (wife) was describing to Steve a film that we saw that week during SIFF, Paris, je t'aime. She had forgotten he was in it, until he responded with a confused look, “Did you know I was in that?”. Also similar with Interview were the people throughout the night that would approach him throughout the night asking for autographs or singing his praises.
Anyway, it was a fun experience.
