The Premiere of “Precious”
I think that the best premiere I’ve ever been to my entire life has got to be the premiere of “Precious.” It was just on a whole other level and I felt like I was dreaming while I was experiencing it all. Let me start by saying that I want to thank the legendary Eric Mejia for inviting me to the premiere because the only person that could possibly pull off getting tickets to the hottest premiere in town is him.
Met up in Hollywood then waited in a long line to get our tickets. The premiere was the opening night gala for the AFI Film Festival so there was still a lot of kinks in their system. When we got to the Will Call table, I saw person after person being turned away from the screening because of one reason or another. I saw Eric talking to the woman and there was some confusion and it looked as if there was not a name on the list. I kept closing my hands, hoping that when I opened them I’d see him with two tickets but each time I opened my eyes there was just another AFI representative confused at the situation. My heart was beating so fast and I was excessively sweating for some reason because this premiere had meant so much to me. I closed my eyes, counted to 10 then when I opened them I saw Eric holding two tickets right in front of me. I flipped out. It was too surreal, I couldn’t believe we were actually going to be going inside to the most star-studded premiere of the year. It was just too ridiculous.
We headed into the theater where we had amazing seats in the back center of the theater and they were right on the side of the row which is perfect me because of my new-found claustrophobic OCD needs. We waited in the theater and were a good 2 hours early. The first hour when by painstakingly slow, we were dying just staying in our seats. I kept nervously calling my mom giving her updates. The rumor around the theater was that Oprah might be making a special appearance, I didn’t believe it because it was just too good to be true. I constantly refreshed my twitter search, “Oprah. Precious. Premiere” and the search constantly reflected how skeptical everyone was in Los Angeles. Eric and I were getting sick waiting in our seats, so we got up to go get some popcorn and something to drink. We ran into Star Jones in the lobby. We went back to our seats. Waited anxiously then decided to go back into the lobby.
This time when we walked in, we saw a beautiful glowing red angel that goes by the stage name of PRECIOUS. Gabourey Sidibe was hanging in the lobby with her various representatives, we slowly approached her and I felt like I was walking on a cloud. I have creepily obsessed over meeting Precious for more than 8 months. I’ll never forget when I first saw the trailer before Madea Goes to Jail back in February, I instantly fell in love with the film’s lead star and knew that I had to meet her one day. I never thought that the little movie trailer before Madea Goes to Jail would become my favorite film of the year and the most hotly buzzed film of the year thanks to a strong push by Oprah Winfrey. I went straight up to Gabby and flat-out told her, “I am so in love with you that it’s kinda scary.” With a bubbly voice she responded quickly with “No, I’m so in love with you!!!” I told her how much I was looking forward to seeing the film and how her performance makes me cry just from the trailer. She was beyond humble and gave me a huge hug. Eric and her did a ghetto booty dance together which involved a lot of “Heyyyy!!!’s.”
Just as we said goodbye to Gabby and continously praised how fantastic and fabulous she was, we ran into Will Smith. I talked to him for a bit about being apart of the Giffoni Film Festival. He’s was unbelievably nice and so genuine as usual.
As we waited in the lobby pretending we were going to buy more food from the concession stand. All of a sudden the entire lobby went eerily silent. A few men in black suits clears a lot of the area in the lobby and assumed they just didn’t want there to be a fire hazard. The silence became even more silent because though the lobby was quiet, there was blood curdling screams outside. I began to get concerned, there was a storm brewing and Eric and I were standing in the eye of it. I peaked outside and saw a huge entourage of 20+ security guards coming straight at me like a tsunami. I yelled for Eric to run towards me. He asked what was going on, “I pointed and said in slow motion, “LOOOOK.” I’ll never forget the moment when the wall of security guards began to clear up only to reveal GOD standing in between all of them. It was none other than Earth’s most prize possession, OPRAH WINFREY. Everyone that the sea of body guards and Oprah walked by, crumbled at the knees. The whole lobby was left speechless. Literally silence. Oprah scanned the room, stopped at me and scanned me up and down then smirked directly at me. We maintained eye contact and as I stood 2 feet away from the most powerful person in the world, tears in my eyes, hands and legs trembling, I uttered, “Oprah, I love you….thanks for changing my life!” She looked directly into my eyes and mouthed, “thank you….I love you too” as she motioned to her heart. Instantly I blacked out. I was standing up right but I could no longer see. The nerves, the words and the overall experience had gotten to me and I was getting ready to faint. As my vision began coming back, I was shaking as I repeatedly kept saying, “What just happened?” “What just happened?” “What the f*ck just happened?”
As we took our seats for the movie to begin, various crew and cast members were welcomed to speak at the front of the theater. Mo’nique was welcomed. Gabby came down. Sheri Shepard. Mariah Carey. Lee Daniels, the director of the film gave such an emotional speech then he welcomed, Oprah Winfrey to come and speak. The entire theater erupted into cheers, screams and immediately gave her a standing ovation. She promised the crowd that the movie would “split you in two.” Boy was she right. As if things couldn’t get any better, Lee Daniels than surprised the crowd by telling them that one of my other heroes, Tyler Perry was in the house. As Tyler Perry and Oprah spoke about how brilliant the film was, I couldn’t take the anticipation any longer, I HAD TO SEE THE FILM ALREADY.
As the lights dimmed, I quickly realized that it was going to be IMPOSSIBLE for me to enjoy the film, I had just met Oprah AND Precious AND Tyler Perry AND MARIAH CAREY were in the theater with us. My mind was going a million miles a minute. Luckily I would see the film 3 more times after the premiere to get a much more balanced viewing of the film. Precious is my favorite film of of 2009. 
After the movie ended, Eric and I sat in our seats and were sickened, disturbed and inspired by what we just saw. As everyone was leaving the theater we ran into Mo’nique. Now up until this point, the press that Mo’nique was getting was all about how she was such a terrible person, how she refused to promote the film if she wasn’t getting paid, how she didn’t care for the film at all, how she was a total b*tch. Well when you see her performance in the film, it’s not that hard to believe. Eric went up to her first and right away we knew that all those rumors were untrue when Mo’nique hugged Eric after he told her how amazing she was and said “Thank you so much baby, I truly truly appreciate all of that. Thank you so much.” I went up to her next and spilled my heart out to her telling her, “Your gonna win the Oscar, there’s no doubt about it.” She held me and said, “Thank you so much.” As I stood next to her posing for a picture, she turned to me and said “Baby, why you shaking?” I told her “It’s because I’m in the presence of such an amazing talent.” She gave me one last hugged and thanked me yet again.
We met a few other familiar faces on the way out and got attacked by Mariah Carrey’s entourage. Anyone that even almost tried to say hi to the DIVA was pushed, punched and thrown to the side. She was in her only little loony world so I guess they didn’t want anyone to pop her bubble. Thankfully she is fantastic in the film, just not very bright outside of the film and in real life.
Ended the night by talking to Forrest Whittaker.
Overall the night was one which I will always cherish for the rest of my life. I feel blessed to have been able to be in the company of Oprah. Thank you so much Eric yet again for the invite. A truly life changing night!
GO…SEE….PRECIOUS!!!!!