Captain America: The Winter Soldier UK Premiere

Around a month ago my cinema/premiere buddy Blair asked me, “so do you think you might want to go to the Captain America 2 premiere?” To which my reply was something along the lines of “err, why WOULDN’T I go?” Bearing in mind we did the Avengers Premiere together, and following Margaret Thatcher’s untimely demise which caused the Iron Man 3 premiere to be put back by a day, I did that - and the Thor The Dark World premiere - stag. Add to that the fact that Chris Evans was the only Avenger who wasn’t at the Avengers premiere, this was my chance to see him for the first time, along with Samuel L Jackson, who also was not in attendance at Avengers, and Anthony Mackie who is having his first outing as Falcon.

Yes I was bloody well going. But then I got a new job, and as luck would have it, the induction training was during the same week as the premiere. Thankfully my new boss is lovely and allowed me to take the day off. Good job too because I then found out that not one, but two of my tumblr friends were going to be there! Having had two previously great experiences meeting tumblr people in real life, it just made me even more excited for the premiere.

On the morning of the premiere I decided to go with my contingency Natasha costume, which ironically, I don’t have a picture of me in, but it was a take on this:

I set off for London on the first train that didn’t cost a fortune, and after some delays caused by overcrowding, Blair and I arrived at around 11am. I immediately panicked as the pens already looked busy. I spoke with a security guard to find out the situation with wristbands and he informed me that each pen had a different colour, and so once you were in, you were in! I told him that we were meeting people and weren’t sure which pen they were in, as we hadn’t thought to exchange numbers beforehand.

He said there was plenty of room and we could wander around until we found them, which thanks to one of the girls dressing up as Black Widow (complete with Red wig), did not take long at all.

Once the initial greetings were done, we then began our 6 hour wait for the stars to arrive. Thankfully as there was so many of us, it meant we could go for walkabouts in turn, go to the toilet, get food etc, without worry that our places would be taken.

Blair and I also bumped into a friend we made at the Star Trek premiere so it was lovely to see him too and have a bit of a catch up.

The girls convinced me I should put on my catsuit, which I brought in case I suddenly felt brave, and so I went to get changed. Then at 3.30 there was the cosplay contest to win tickets to see the movie. As I had the catsuit on, I figured what the hell and entered the contest, even though I didn’t think I stood a cat in hell’s chance next to the Widow I was with and her much more accurate costume.

 

Me in my Widow costume with little Steve

Sadly, none of our group won tickets so we took our places for the warm up guy to do his bit, and then before we knew it the stars were coming out of the stage door designed to look like Cap’s shield. First out was Anthony Mackie looking very *ahem* excited, or like he was smuggling in a gaggle of snakes maybe?

Next were the directors Joe and Anthony Russo, then came Samuel L Jackson, who took a selfie with the crowd behind him:

The Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan was up next, followed by Scarlett in a very pretty scarlet dress (good thing the carpet was blue)

and bringing up the rear was Cap Chris Evans…

There were other Avengers/Cap alumni also walking the red carpet, Hayley Atwell and Jenny Agutter, but they were not interviewed.

I actually had a mini conversation with Hayley after she signed my magazine and she came across as very gracious and down to earth whilst also being incredibly beautiful and much less buxom than she appears on screen. After so many premieres I really do believe the old adage that the camera adds 10lbs.

As if all that excitement wasn’t enough, after the premiere another tumblr friend came to see us! She travelled half way across London and probably for only 5 or 10 minutes with us. It was so nice to finally meet her after many misfired attempts, and she was just as lovely in person as she has always been via various message portals.

So to sum up…

I managed to get signatures from everyone mentioned above apart from Scarlett (although she did sign the item I was holding out for Blair - I just didn’t get her signature on anything of mine) and Samuel (although Blair did manage to get his signature on both something of mine and his magazine).

I must admit that I am thrilled with my signatures, not least Chris’ as it adds perfectly to my existing collection. If my nephews are reading this, you best not sell these when I die because it’s been a painstaking journey to collect them and I’m not done yet, I still have Scarlett, Jeremy and Mark to go (and Clark and Cobie would be nice but I shan’t quibble).

But it’s a collection I’m determined to complete. So here’s to the next premiere.

Before I sign off and tell you what I thought of Cap 2, here is me, in my contingency Widow outfit (leather jacket behind me) with my haul for the day

*additional pictures courtesy of Blair Holmes