You Never Know Who You May Be Standing Next To

I will never forget the day I walked past Actress Octavia Spencer leaving work one evening...
I remember everything very clearly. In 2014, I used to work *10 hour days (no one caught this error until 2019) and on one particular evening as left I walked past a very familiar face. The only other persons in the building were the Sheriff’s (and possibly management level staff) so I knew it wasn’t funny business.
I had just walked out of our office and started down the hallway, I turned the corner then there she was walking next to another person, Ms. Octavia Spencer in the flesh. It was a bit of a shock, as 1) like I mentioned we were closed for business and 2) I couldn’t believe I just walked past a multi-award winning actress.
She was preparing to shoot a scene for what I later learned was a tv show she starred in, Red Band Society. It wasn’t a shock to see someone of her caliber walking down those hall, as the halls of my previous employer have seen a lot of people over the years for many different reasons. The area I worked was in the public on a county government level in Atlanta, which is currently a city known as a hub for filming a lot of different movies and television shows. You could walk out of your office building at any given moment and find film crews setting up to film scenes after business hours.
I, personally, have witnessed the set up of portions of Fast and Furious 7 right outside the doors of the building I worked. I’ve also witnessed props being towed in the area for the movie Ride Along 2, which had scenes filmed at the State Capital (*reported by the local paper) and drove past filming for the movie Ant Man, up the street in the Archive Building.
To be honest, you could frequent any hot spot around the Atlanta area and spot a celebrity, athlete or music artist at any given moment. I’m not the type to get star struck but this moment I wish I had captured. It’s not every day you walk out of your office and see an actress of her caliber. Right there in your face. Standing a couple of feet away.
How did I respond? I just nodded and smiled, and kept walking. Then, once I was situated in my car, I called one of our managers to let her know of my sighting.
Celebrities are normal people just like you and I. They go to work, they have families and they like to be able to walk down the street, or in my case the hallway just like us. Which is why I didn’t interrupt her. It also would not have been very professional of me to have asked for a picture.
It’s just proof that you never know who you may be standing next to, whether at work, a restaurant or just out in the mall shopping. You have to always be aware of your surroundings. Which leads me to this point, not all actresses are in the spotlight. Some companies actually utilize actors and actresses to test the character of their employees. Pay attention.
Hope this helps someone!
CH
