So there I was, sitting around one Sunday afternoon after forcing myself to go down to the local shops get the paper, when I spotted this competition. The winner got to meet Alyson Hannigan in Sydney and take a tour of the Fox studios and whatnot; runners-up won the first two seasons of Buffy on video.
I sat there for a few minutes looking at the page and thinking, "Wouldn't this be cool, but who ever wins these things?" and then kept on reading the paper. A few hours later I thought, "What the hell, god, even if I win the videos I would be a happy chappy," so I rang the phone number the ad provided and left my details twice on Sunday night and twice on Monday night.
During that time, I also entered another competition to win exactly the same prize with our cable company Foxtel. In that competition, though, you had to ring up and say in twenty-five words or less "why Willow makes you scream." Just for a matter of interest, this is what I said: "She's a Wacky Witch with an Implusive Imagination. She has Lethal Logic, making her an Original Oddball. But mostly because she's Witty, Wicked, Wonderful, Willow." No wonder I didn't win that competition.
And basically I didn't give either competition another thought until the Thursday of that week, when my mobile rang.
"Hello, is that Bronwyn Cook?" said a strange voice. "Yes, it is," I replied. "Hi Bronwyn, it's so-and-so from 20th Century Fox here. I'm just ringing to tell you that you are the Queensland winner of our Meet & Greet Alyson Hannigan Competition..
Dead silence from me.
"Excuse me???" I eventually managed to reply. "Yes, Bronwyn, you entered the competition through the Sunday Mail and you are the winner."
I won't bore you with the five minutes because basically they consist of "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, are you serious, oh my god, I don't believe it, OH MY GOD!!"
So after I got off the phone from the poor lady from Fox, I ran around my office, bouncing off the walls and telling anybody that I knew what had happened. Most of them looked at me like I was crazy or something (most of them couldn't believe I was a Buffy fan), but the people who really knew me joined me in my jumping up and down.
Willow-ween Adventure
The twelve hours consisted of me frantically trying to track down my best friend, who I wanted to take with me. She had gone AWOL with her new boyfriend, and I can't tell you how many times I rang her mobile, home, work, mobile, home, work, just hoping she had checked in somewhere. To make a long story short, I eventually found her the day, and we made our plans to fly to Sydney on the thirty-first of October to meet Alyson.
I'm telling you, that stretch of days from Thursday lunchtime to Tuesday morning couldn't have gone any SLOWER. I had to keep on reading the confirmation fax from 20th Century Fox just so I could convince myself that, yes I had actually WON it.
I passed the time by jumping on the Willow board at MBTV and ranting and raving to everyone about my win, and compiling a list of questions and stuff to give to Alyson. I also watched some of my Buffy tapes, and every time Alyson appeared, I chanted to myself, "I'm going to meet her, I'm going to meet her, I'm going to meet her."
Okay, let's cut to the chase.
We got to Fox Studios (which is our poor Australian attempt at Universal Studios -- absolutely NO comparison -- they don't even have a ride) just after one in the afternoon, where we met the people from 20th Century Fox and the studios. They gave us our entry passes, details on where to meet later, and set us loose in a restaurant with $50 to spend on lunch.
After a fairly average afternoon wandering around the couple of only good things to see at the studios, we had to come up with a way to kill an hour in between when the studios closed and when we were supposed to meet back up with the studio people to go meet Alyson. So we strolled down to where they film one of the cable TV channels -- Channel V, which is the music channel. And what do we see but a mass of people all clutching Buffy merchandise, and two compadres sitting on a couch blabbing on about the release of Buffy on DVD, and how Alyson is going to be on the show. My friend and I looked at each other and said, "Okay, sure, fine, these people get to meet her first, but I bet they didn't win something to get here, and I bet they don't get as much time with her as we will."
We stayed around until Alyson appeared. First impressions: SHE IS TINY. We listened to what she was saying and her response to how Willow has changed: "Well, she started off as a shy wallflower and now she is a lesbian witch!" Before we knew it, it was time to trot on off to our official meeting point.
Willow-ween Adventure
As we met up with all the official people and the other competition winners (a grand total of six of us) and walked up to the "Star's Dressing Room" (a real lame attempt at a dressing room to show how movie make-up is done), the nerves really started to build. And it didn't help sitting there for ten minutes talking about what we were going to say and how cool it was that we were all there.
thing you know, in comes Alyson. We six winners were sitting in director's chairs in a semi-circle, and Alyson came in surrounded by more "official" people then there were winners, and she comes up to each and every single one of us and asks our names and shakes our hands. From that moment, I knew that she would be one of the nicest, friendliest, kindest person I would ever meet, celebrity or not.
Again, she is so tiny in real life; I felt so tall to her when we were getting our photos taken later on. She was wearing a grey wool skirt, a red woolen sleeveless jumper, a black leather jacket, and fantastic suede and leather high-heeled boots that came up to her knees. She is soooo beautiful, her smile just lit up the room.
After she got herself settled in a chair, Alyson and all us winners just started chatting. There was no "official" questions and answers, we just started talking and the conversation rolled on from there.
Please don't take anything I am about to repeat as law, I will only repeat what I know she definitely said in quotation marks. I really wish I had recorded the conversation so I could have had it word-for-word, but we'll just have to rely on my memory.
One of the first things she commented on: "Umm, what is this room supposed to be?" After we told her it was a star's dressing room, she said that they really didn't look like that; they are more trailer-like, and if anyone moves in the wrong direction too quickly, the whole things rocks.
Then she was asked what the other people on the show were like to work with; below are her various responses. Again, please don't take these as gospel.
"Nicky" (yep, she called him Nicky, and then clarified for the stupid in the room that she meant Nicholas Brendon, who plays Xander): just so "sarcastic."
"We all have a potty mouth on set, aside from Michelle, who you don't know yet." ["Just to clarify: she means Michelle Trachtenberg, who viewers in North America already know as Dawn." -- Sars]