“Fran, have you seen Iron Man?”
“I don’t think so?”
“What!? It’s a great film, you’ll love it.”
I had this conversation with my boyfriend almost five years ago now. This feels incredibly strange now that I’m heavily engrossed in the biggest movie-tv universe phenomenon of my generation, in which this one movie has branched out into several movies, television shows and even some of their own comic book series off the back of those. The Avengers (titled Avengers Assemble in the UK) was, and still is, one of my favourite films of all time. The charm, the comedy, the having these wonderful characters I grew to love individually all gathered on one screen was honestly a magical moment that hasn’t died for me.
So of course, once the credits rolled, I was thrilled for the thought of them all rejoining and coming back. It was what I was excited for, all through the amazing movies Phase 2 had to offer.
And then they announced Age of Ultron – and it was all downhill from there.
My poor, poor friend had to deal with my relentless questions forever and a day on; Are we going to the premiere? Please can we go? Oh my god it’ll be great. Shall we get there early? Like really early? Should we try overnight? How shall we do this? (PS; Extra sorry to my friend. I love you for dealing with me at my grotesque.)
Finally, the details worked out; we would drive to the venue, stay overnight, use the car as a supply point and wait all day, then at the end down some caffeine and go home.
And so it began.
After a brief stint of accidentally booking a parking spot in Leicester Square (I assumed and we all know what that does.) and then finding out five seconds later (LITERALLY. Came off the parking website and the announcement was on facebook.) that the premiere was being held in the Vue at Westfield shopping centre, my friend and I began to plan. We worked out that parking in Westfield is £6.50 for 24 hours, so driving was a pretty obvious maneuver; the parking was cheaper than traveling, my car is amazing for petrol and it also meant if worst came to worst we could sleep in my car.
We discussed what items to bring that would help pass the time, what food would be best, and then on the afternoon of Monday the 20th of April, we met.
Now, I want to clarify something before we begin here; that monday morning, I worked from 8am til 1pm, came home and then got ready and left right away. I woke up at 6am monday morning. So it makes this lack of sleep thing a hell of a lot more impressive on my part.
Our journey there, was filled with unbelievable luck. For the first time ever, I drove somewhere barely using the maps function and just the street signs to guide me, and didn’t get lost or have to turn back once. Then when we neared Shepherds Bush, there was a split in the road; neither told me which one led to the car park. I took a very lucky guess, and literally just went straight to the car park. Where with the biggest stroke of luck I ever did see, a man pulled out the perfect parking spot near the doors to the Vue Cinema, and allowed me to pull in.
Like, this doesn’t sound all that impressive to you; person who’s been driving for years navigates themselves along a 40 minute drive into a shopping centre car park and gets a decent parking space, but I have zero sense of direction, especially when I’m driving. I am constantly getting lost, taking wrong turns or going long ways to places. So this, was like the shining achievement.
To cut a long and fairly stressful rest of the night down; we ate Burger King, I got into contact with someone in the line on facebook, we found the line, we got into order and we stayed in a pen behind the center car park all night.
In that night, I had three hours sleep total, I found out that concrete floors suck and that I really can sleep anywhere when I put my mind to it.
Morning came, we found a spider crushed into the towel my friend slept on (she flung into the nearest bin.) and we got to chat to a really nice woman who managed to catch some sleep elsewhere – she was also a huge Backstreet Boys fan and showed us all the photos – she was a super cool person and she actually ended up winning tickets to the movie! I was so very pleased for her!
7am rolled around, and security guards rolled us all in in little groups of about thirty or so at a time; I got to be in the second batch! Yay! And in doing so, wound up back at the very same spot I’d been pressed up in for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. To give some perspective on how huge this was; for Captain America: TWS, I turned up at 9am and got that exact spot. To get that spot again, I had to sleep overnight. That really nailed it in for me that I was part of something huge, and I was really excited.
I just want to dedicate a paragraph to how awesome the people around myself and my friend were – some people at premieres can get possessive over space, or come across as hostile in an “every one for themselves.” way – things can get really tense, especially when people have been waiting for hours and hours, and I have experienced some genuinely angry, aggressive fans. However this was totally different; in the line, we were surrounded by a sweet guy who, if memory serves, was French, and a huge Joss Whedon fan; two lovely dudes who knew how to have a real laugh and keep the mood up when everyone was tired and cranky; and a wonderful group of Chinese girls who were just, beyond nice. They were sharing food, they brought bins with them so we could clean up mess, offering out external chargers. Then when we got in, one of them stayed with us, and we also sat with a lovely family! Everyone was very nice, sharing and just really chill. It made the very long, very exhausting wait for 5pm to come much, much better.
So around half four, the “hype up” act comes out; usually the DJ and a host, who comes out to rile the crowd, show off some more trailers, maybe a sneaky exclusive clip of the movie – and hand out prizes.
One of the prizes this guy was handing out, was the jacket that Black Widow had for one of her roles – I can’t remember if it was The Winter Soldier or The Avengers – but it was one of them! I’ll use the excuse that I had slept all of 3 hours across almost 35 hours. But what I did know, was the answer to the question he asked to win the jacket;
Which country does Black Panther originate from?
Well, shit. All those years of my friends and I screaming T’CHALLAAAAA at each other and watching every bit of animated Avengers movies or television shows ever just paid off big time. I nearly lost my mind.
All I can be thankful for is that no footage exists of the moment where after a metric TONNE of screaming “I KNOW, I KNOW THE ANSWER, I KNOW, I SWEAR TO GOD I KNOW MAN.”, the camera panned on me, and my exhausted face was screened across Westfield Shopping Centre. But at the time I didn’t care; Wakanda was about to win me a damn jacket.
The host seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being and I couldn’t blame him – I was severely sleep deprived, I put on my make up in a compact that was smeared with the powder foundation it held, and shaking like a leaf because why couldn’t you spare me the thousands of staring eyes? Regardless, I pulled through. I answered.
I WON THE DAMN JACKET.
And then clutched it tight to me for the rest of the day because like hell was it going on the floor; it was staying with me. Permanently.
So I’m going to cut the part where I meet people fairly short; because of course, it’s the biggest part of the day. It’s what honestly we all waited for the most – but I feel like I’d ramble on way too long.
The only people I didn’t get to meet were Joss Whedon, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. – Though Robert did chat to my friend and Scarlett came close! But they just about missed me. However this didn’t bother me because I was lucky enough to meet Chris and Scarlett at CA: TWS and Robert at the Iron Man 3 premiere in Leicester Square way back when! The only mild disappointment was Joss but honestly? It didn’t ruin my day.
Below are an assortment of photos I took, including a few photos of Elizabeth Olsen (“WE MET AN OLSEN OH MY GOD!!!!!” – My friend and I at the same time.), Scarlett signing for fans, Robert running to his fans, and then ugly selfies with Jeremy and Mark. Scarlett looked absolutely awesome; the short hair is working for her, and then with the piercings, the tattoos and that gorgeous playsuit (Is it a playsuit? I don’t know anymore.) worked well with her, and Elizabeth looked pretty as hell in her black cape dress and her hair blonde and bunned.
The one thing I have to say is that this cast are 100%, genuine, lovely people who really really care about their fans. They made the effort to respond to every question shot at them, laughing and thanking everyone who spoke to them. They stopped for as many photos as they possibly could in the short time they had to get around the thousands of fans, and were endlessly sweet. Mark himself could not stop thanking the fans, and every single time someone thanked him for an autograph or photo he smiled and nodded at them and said “It was my pleasure, really.”
I’ll finish this post up with this; Marvel fans are extremely lucky. And the Marvel cast are lucky to have these fans too. There’s this wonderful two way relationship in which the fans are so enthusiastic, supportive and engaged with this medium in a way that I haven’t seen with anything else since Harry Potter – and even then, social media wasn’t as supremely huge in the era of Harry Potter as it is now, so this is reaching a lot more people.
And on the other side, the cast are so blatantly grateful and loving to their fans; they host competitions, they have pet-names for them, they interact and thank and engage with across social media left right and center. Their passion for this fandom and the fans in it is so obvious – and it honestly shows.
On top of that, the sheer amount of time and effort that goes into these premieres – the lights, the music, the detail, the hosts and special effects (we had fire.) is just honestly amazing.
I also want to take a moment to say the staff at Westfield, and the security guards who stayed to monitor everyone during the night, were absolutely lovely people. They were all incredibly helpful, kind, and good people who just wanted to ensure everyone’s safety, and without them this sort of thing would not be possible. So thank you, night-shift guards and wonderful day staff!
I am extremely proud to be part of all this, and I am equal parts nervous and incredibly excited to see where it all leads.
Fare thee well,
Fran
PS: The jacket fit.
Fran's Mind Fell Over 