Talladega Nights Movie Premiere

On Tuesday the 12th of September 2006 at the Empire, Leicester Square in London was the premiere for 'Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby' which stars the ever funny Will Ferrell.I turned up to the premiere after work and got there just after 4pm. All the front rows of the barrier had been taken, so I had to settle on a 2nd row standing position for the next few hours, which I imagined would become the norm, now that I'm turning up there later after work. Two months ago I wasn't working, and a spot in the front row was very easy to get.

Just before Will arrived there were some dancers that came out and did some cool moves and danced individually on these podiums. They even incorporated car tyres at one point (the movie is about American NASCAR racing). When Will finally arrived he got out of the car and was wearing a white England Football (soccer) jersey, with blue shorts, knee high sock and footy boots. He gets out of the car, spreads his arms as if to say 'Yes, I am here'. He got quite a few laughs when the people saw him, which I'm sure is what he was aiming for. He spent about 40 minutes on the red carpet doing interviews, posing and signing a little bit. His PR was limiting his time, so he didn't sign as many autographs as I thought he would. I thought he would sign all the way around the barriers, but he didn't.

Where I was standing there were a bunch of us calling out to him - 'Will... WILL.. WILL!'. He looked at us a couple of times and then back at the photographers where he was heading. It looked like his PR was ready to take him to do an interview when the screaming got a little louder, he looked over at us and then pulled away from his PR person, jogged over to us, did a little jump and signed some autographs. It was in the second that he turned towards us and jogged that I was thrust from the second row to the first, with all the barrier space I needed. It was actually pretty bad, as the barrier started to move forward and I was waiting for it to topple. I hadn't been in anything that bad before. I did however manage to get his autograph on a photo that I printed out (he's in his Ricky Bobby NASCAR uniform) and it looks pretty good.

After he signed he went and did an interview on the stage at the end of the red carpet, then went to pose for the photographers, where he proceeded to side step up the red carpet, doing a little jog infront of them and the photographers could all be heard scream 'Will... Will.. could you keep still please!'. It was quite funny. I didn't worry about waiting for him to come out (the actors are usually only in there 30 minutes introducing the movie - they don't usually sit through and watch it). I got some good photos of him when he was signing - one he looks like a stunned mullet as my camera flash has gone off.