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Post by Intergirl on Sept 17, 2014 13:03:42 GMT -5
Hi everybody, My name is Silvia and I'm from Zurich, Switzerland. A year ago, I fell in love with Hugh and everything he does. I somehow liked him for a long time but never got really into his films and stuff. Until then, I only saw Australia in the cinema and in a very weird setting, so I wasn't really convinced. Then I had the extreme luck to experience him last year at the Zurich Film Festival. First I thought, why was a guy who only did action movies given a life time achievement award, but a working colleague asked me to come along to the red carpet event, when he presented Prisoners. My working colleague managed to get a picture with him, but I was unfortunately too much at the back to reach him or take a good picture. At one point though, he was taking a picture with two boys who were standing next to me and I was able to touch his arm briefly. I was amazed by how much time he spent with all the fans, the enthusiasm he displayed and the dashing smile he had for everyone. After that, I was completely intrigued to learn more about him. And I discovered that he isn't just an action film star, but has done so much more. I bought all the DVDs and got to love even the X-Men films and I saw Prisoners and X-Men DOFP several times in the cinema. I never can decide which of his films is my favourite, it depends on the day and mood. But Australia is definitely one of them. Also Les Misérables and Prisoners are up there. I think the only one I really don't like much is Van Helsing. I absolutely love the DVD of Oklahoma and would have loved to see him on stage in a musical.
I swore to myself that if he returned to Broadway I would try to be there and I'm completely excited as this week I booked my trip to NY for next January. I have tickets for 2 of his shows. Can't wait for that and also to visit New York for the first time.
A bit more about me apart from my interest in Hugh: I work as a PA in a consulting company and also do IT support. My other interests are music (favourite band is Keane, a British indie pop band which I saw many times live) and sports. Of course, being Swiss, my big sports passion is for Roger Federer, whom I met several times after his matches here in Switzerland. I'm also a member of his official fan club. I was so excited when I saw Hugh and Deb in Federer's box at the US Open 2 weeks ago. What a thrill to see Hugh supporting my favourite sports star. I love reading (Harry Potter books, historical novels, historic crime novels) and love travelling. My mother tongue is German, I am fluent in English and I speak fairly well French and a bit of Italian.
Can't wait to make your acquaintances.
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Post by Kristin on Sept 17, 2014 13:11:17 GMT -5
Welcome, Silvia! I hope you enjoy getting to know us!
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Post by SueFB on Sept 17, 2014 13:18:14 GMT -5
Welcome, Silvia! Thanks for sharing your Hugh story. There are many people here who have been fans for a long time, but I think a fairly common theme is that most of his fans knew ABOUT him for some time before suddenly realizing at some point ... wow, there is so much more to this guy than I knew before. Although at least a few have been fans right off away, from the first X-Men or wherever they first saw him. My big eye-opener occurred when I first saw Les Mis, so I've been his fan a bit more than a year and a half now. Very cool that you got so close to touch him, and yes, as you know by now, he is famous for his enthusiastic interaction with fans. I haven't met him in person, but maybe at The River, we'll see. VERY COOL that you are going to be able to travel to NY and see it.
Please feel free to join in the discussions. There are several other European fans who post here, too, although I'm not aware of anyone from Switzerland.
BTW, "intergirl" .... does it mean you are a fan of Inter, the Italian soccer team? Or something else entirely.
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Post by eve on Sept 17, 2014 13:43:44 GMT -5
Hello Silvia! *waves* So glad to welcome another European fan. I live in Belgium, but have been to Switserland on holidays 3 times. You have such a great country! I really love going there. I'm fairly new on this board myself, but I'm really enjoying it here so far. Thanks for sharing your awesome Hugh story! It's so great you'll get to see him live. I hope I get the chance to see him live on stage as well one day. And I'm a massive Roger Federer fan as well by the way, he's awesome. Anyway welcome to the forum, I hope you'll enjoy it here!
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Post by Intergirl on Sept 17, 2014 13:55:22 GMT -5
Hi Sue, Ha, so funny that you would get my username so quickly. Yes, I chose Intergirl because I'm a fan of Inter. For some years, I used to take the train down to Milan on Sundays to watch their games. I lost a bit of interest during the last few years, but I still follow their results and sometimes watch a game if it's on the telly. I kept the username for many other forums, as it's usually not taken and easy to remember. Not a lot of people make the connection though.
My first memory of ever seeing Hugh was when he was a guest in Michael Parkinson's show, I think in 2003, with the long Van Helsing hair. He sang a bit of 'Oh what a beautiful morning' and I was blown away by his voice. At that time, I had no idea who he was, but my first thought was 'he would be my ideal Sirius Black for the Harry Potter 3 movie'. That was being cast around that time and I thought he would look great. But of course, they wanted a Brit. I was looking for films with him, but at that time the options weren't that much. I think I saw Kate & Leopold on tv once and thought it was nice, but when I saw pictures of him with that weird beard in X-Men I just dismissed it as an action movie, which isn't usually my favourite genre. Then he disappeared from my radar until Australia came out. He and Nicole Kidman were guests in a German tv show and he was absolutely amazing how he charmed the whole audience and in particular one German female politician he carried on his arms. I think the whole of Germany fell in love with him that evening. And I was impressed too. Still, I missed out on Australia when it was in the cinema here in Zurich. I finally saw it in London, in a tiny cinema in Leicester Square, but that was a weird experience. I was the only one in the audience really paying attention to the movie as everyone around me was busy snogging and making out. I felt a bit weird and distracted the whole time... I only realised afterwards when I went for a drink in a pub, that I was on my own on a Saturday night in London.. and it was Valentines Day! Anyway, the next thing that got my attention was his Oscar hosting and that was amazing. Still, I wished he would do more romantic movies instead of these action flicks... and it took that personal experience last year to finally open my eyes and make me discover how truly amazing he was and is in most everything he does, be it film, stage or charity work.
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Post by Intergirl on Sept 17, 2014 14:06:35 GMT -5
Hi Eve, I've been to Belgium too! I had a friend from near Antwerp and I visited her 3 times, twice to go to concerts together and once when I was in Brussels for business and I extended it to a long weekend with her in Antwerp. Then I had a friend from Brussels who I met through my favourite band Keane. We twice went to the Werchter Festival to see them play and I stayed a few days with her in Brussels. Sadly, I lost contact with both of them now. Where in Switzerland have you been?
Roger Federer is an amazing guy. Like Hugh, he takes so much time when fans are waiting outside. Every time I met him was rather late in the evening after he played at his hometown tournament in Basel and he never left before every single fan had an autograph and a picture. And when you ask him something, he looks you directly in the eyes, listens and then answers. Not just walking past and waving... and that's how I experienced Hugh last year in Zurich. It took him a good 30 minutes before he even made it on the red carpet.. he jogged across the wide street several times to also take pictures with people on the other side of the street and they even had to held up public tramways in order for him to cross. He even posed before the tramway so that people from the inside could take pictures of him. Then he spent another 30 minutes going up and down the red carpet and then, before he went in, he went to the end of the line and high-fived every single one in the front row... I have a picture from a daily newspaper where he is posing with the two boys next to me and you see the top of my head and my hand while trying to take a picture of him. Sadly, with the big crowd around, all my pictures ended up completely blurry. The picture in my avatar is him on a bike at the lake shore in Zurich, where he went for a bike ride in the afternoon and had a beer with some friends in a bar on the lake.
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Post by SueFB on Sept 17, 2014 14:12:09 GMT -5
Nice, yes, I followed Italian soccer closely for quite a long time (although, sorry, as a Juve fan. I know Inter fans hate Milan the most, but everybody hates Juve. ). But I also haven't been so much into it for the past few years. Your story about seeing Australia is hilarious. Poor you, stuck seeing it alone on Valentine's Day with a lot of hot and heavy couples. LOL. Have you ever gained an appreciation for Wolverine? I had never seen any X-Men movies until becoming a Hugh fan, but I've come to appreciate them since it's his signature role, and he seems to still love doing it. And we get all kinds of magazine covers and promotional appearances whenever another one comes out. But .... I would also like it if he had more time for some more diverse roles. The River will be a nice challenge for him, but sadly only a small percentage of his fans will have the chance to see it. Chappie and Pan will be interesting and different next year, although I doubt I would go to either one if he weren't in them. I'm assuming he will film another X-Men movie (or two) next year, but I'm anxious to hear what's next besides that. Meantime, he's always popping up here and there.
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Post by Intergirl on Sept 17, 2014 15:07:25 GMT -5
Well, the first DVDs I bought were the X-men films. They were the only ones I found in a local store the next day. Most of the others I had to order online. And once I watched them, I fell in love with Logan. I'm not much into mindless action flicks, but I realised there is more to the X-men films than just stupid action shot after action shot. And Wolverine is such a conflicted character brilliantly played by Hugh. I was very impatient until The Wolverine finally was out on DVD. Sometimes you learn that you shouldn't dismiss something before really having seen it. I even really love Wolverine Origins, which is slammed so often by critics. I don't know what's so bad about that. Maybe the hardcore comic fans don't appreciate it, but as a Hugh fan, I think it's a good movie.
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Post by SueFB on Sept 17, 2014 15:18:39 GMT -5
I didn't mind Wolverine Origins the first time I watched it, but I can understand in hindsight why it bugged people. I thought it was really good until it suddenly took a wrong turn when the kindly old couple were casually killed off, and then after that it became too cliche. But I do love Wolvie and have even gotten into the comic books. A bit too much, my husband would say.
My favorite X-Men film is still the very first one, mostly because it was Hugh's and Wolverine's introduction to the big wide world. I've been finding myself anxiously awaiting the home release of Days of Future Past in recent days.
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Post by Jamie on Sept 17, 2014 16:56:08 GMT -5
Welcome Sylvia, This is a great group and I'm sure you will have a fun time sharing our admiration of Hugh and his family.
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Post by eve on Sept 17, 2014 17:24:41 GMT -5
Hi Eve, I've been to Belgium too! I had a friend from near Antwerp and I visited her 3 times, twice to go to concerts together and once when I was in Brussels for business and I extended it to a long weekend with her in Antwerp. Then I had a friend from Brussels who I met through my favourite band Keane. We twice went to the Werchter Festival to see them play and I stayed a few days with her in Brussels. Sadly, I lost contact with both of them now. Where in Switzerland have you been? Roger Federer is an amazing guy. Like Hugh, he takes so much time when fans are waiting outside. Every time I met him was rather late in the evening after he played at his hometown tournament in Basel and he never left before every single fan had an autograph and a picture. And when you ask him something, he looks you directly in the eyes, listens and then answers. Not just walking past and waving... and that's how I experienced Hugh last year in Zurich. It took him a good 30 minutes before he even made it on the red carpet.. he jogged across the wide street several times to also take pictures with people on the other side of the street and they even had to held up public tramways in order for him to cross. He even posed before the tramway so that people from the inside could take pictures of him. Then he spent another 30 minutes going up and down the red carpet and then, before he went in, he went to the end of the line and high-fived every single one in the front row... I have a picture from a daily newspaper where he is posing with the two boys next to me and you see the top of my head and my hand while trying to take a picture of him. Sadly, with the big crowd around, all my pictures ended up completely blurry. The picture in my avatar is him on a bike at the lake shore in Zurich, where he went for a bike ride in the afternoon and had a beer with some friends in a bar on the lake. I live near Antwerp as well! And we mostly went to the Swiss Alps, have been in Geneva as well, but only briefly and don't remember much of it as I was very young. haha But I really love the Swiss Alps. Never been to Zurich I think, although I should check that with my dad, as I'm not entirely sure, I could have been really young. I'm 21 years old now and the last time I was in Switserland I was 15, so it's been a while since I last visited your beautiful country. Oh that' fantastic! That's a great story. I really love these two guys, they're so kind and generous towards their fans. Such loving men. Would love to meet both of them one day. Pity your pictures ended up blurry though! Hopefully you'll get better pictures of him when you're in New York!
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Post by jean on Sept 24, 2014 6:04:24 GMT -5
Hi Silvia, always nice to have another European fan here and thanks for sharing your story! I'm a German fan since 14 years, since the first X-Men movie came out. I live not so far away from Zurich and also thought of driving to Zurich last year to see him at that film festival, but then decided not to do it. I didn't buy a €70 ticket for the gala and I certainly don't belong to those who drive for more than one hour to stand and wait at an over-crowded red carpet to maybe get a glimpse of him (It's something different, if you live in the same city like you and go there, of course). I've never seen him on stage or met him somewhere, but how great for you to fly to NY and to get the chance to see the show! And NY for the first time, wow, that's really cool! Enjoy it! Btw, I also love Roger. I used to follow his matches years ago on Swiss TV, but since we don't get SF1 and SF2 here anymore and tennis is hardly shown anymore on German TV, I've lost contact and a bit of interest, but I still try to inform myself from time to time about him. He always reminded me of Hugh with his humbleness, graciousness and kindness and I love his elegant style of play (not like most of the others players nowaydays with their two-handed power tennis).
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Post by Intergirl on Sept 24, 2014 7:05:11 GMT -5
Hi Jean, how nice to 'meet' someone from so near. Where in Germany do you live? I quite often travel to Germany. Honestly, I wouldn't have gone to that red carpet event last year if it wasn't in my city. But it's only 15 min train ride from where I live, so I thought 'why not?'... and wow, was it worth it! The festival is just about to start again tomorrow and I can't help but thinking 'wow, already a year gone!'... it's exactly a year ago next Sunday. I doubt he will come again in the future, but who knows. If he has another movie to promote around the same time... if then, you come and we can meet up and I show you around Zurich for a weekend or so.
Yes, Roger and Hugh really are very similar in how humble and gracious they come across. That's why I was so excited when I spotted Hugh in Federer's box at the US Open. I think they would certainly match in many things, for example also Roger's involvement with his own foundation in charity work in Africa.
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