Celebrities seem larger than life and most of the time, the mere thought of meeting one is nerve-wracking. I have yet to have a notable celebrity encounter in my lifetime—unless I were to count the time that I saw Carole Baskin riding her bike in the distance on a public trail by my house. Living in Florida is not ideal for running into famous people, but its reputation for being the theme park capital of the U.S. does help.
From 2014 to 2018, Universal Studios put on a Harry Potter fan expo called “A Celebration of Harry Potter.” Since my family used to have annual passes to Universal Studios, we naturally opted to go to this expo when I was in middle school.
I was definitely “one of those kids” growing up; I read every Harry Potter book, owned a Gryffindor robe and even tried to base my personality off of Hermione Granger. Admittedly, it can be fun to tease millennials for their love of Harry Potter, knowing their Hogwarts house and buying Slytherin coffee mugs. However, I can’t really say much when my childhood love for the series was pretty similar to theirs, so of course, when I had the opportunity to meet the Weasley twins at the aforementioned Harry Potter expo, I was very excited.
One of the major portions of this Harry Potter expo was the actual exhibit itself, where those attending could walk around and look at artifacts from the movies. As I waited in the long line forming with my family before the exhibit opened, James and Oliver Phelps—who portray Fred and George Weasley in the movies—were walking around to meet fans in the line. People ahead of me in line were having long and extensive conversations with the twins, and, watching from a distance, I could not help but be jealous of them.
At one point, I looked up and saw my brother talking to one of the twins in the distance. I was frustrated considering that I missed out on whatever opportunity had arisen that I hadn’t been aware of. According to my mom, while I wasn’t paying attention, my brother had found a way to cut around the perimeter of the line to get closer to them without being found by security. My mom kept encouraging me to try to do this too (if you’ve ever met my mom, you know that she is genuinely one of the coolest people alive).
I kept insisting that with my luck, I was bound to get caught, but I eventually caved in and tried to cut. Long story short, I was caught by security and told to get back to my spot in line. Still, the twins were getting closer, and middle school me was ready to “play it cool” for them; for context, I looked like this.
James Phelps had gone back inside at this point, but Oliver Phelps, who portrayed George Weasley, had still been meeting people. As he was approaching my spot in the line, I kept reciting what to say in my head. I was so sure that I, a seventh-grader with braces, just had to think of the right thing to say in order to get an actor from Harry Potter to think that I was cool. Soon enough, it was my turn to meet him after two hours of waiting in a long line. He seemed friendly, and we directly looked each other in the eyes when the security guard said, with great bravado I should add, “Okay, he’s going inside now.”
Definitely not a peak in my life. Have you ever been an awkward 13-year-old, dressed in full costume, having driven up to a Harry Potter expo with your family and waited two hours in a line to meet an actor right when a security guard decides that now, when you are about to meet him, is the time for him to go inside?
I luckily got a lot of out of the trip; I was able to see the actors do a live Q&A and see the exhibit of artifacts. Still, we have all been in that place in our formative years where our favorite books, TV shows and movies are our entire world. I was truly heartbroken at the time, but almost seven years later, I look back on the experience and all I can do is laugh about how awkward it was. Maybe it’s just my luck! Not all of us can meet a Weasley twin while actually wearing a Gryffindor robe.
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