I met Hollywood celebrity Gael García Bernal!

Last Monday I got a really surprising tweet. A local Mexican news account I follow mainly for traffic reports sent a tweet that the famous Hollywood actor Gael García was going to film a film titled "Museo" in a neighborhood that is near my home. I had to do some errands in the vicinity anyways so why not? Let's see if I'm lucky enough to at least catch a glimpse of him from afar. The only problem was that I wasn't certain if the place was going to be cornered by a horde of cops or not after recalling gossip that Daniel Craig was rather snobbish when he filmed in downtown Mexico City.

In fact, I asked a very dear friend of mine if he wanted to tag along and he staunchly told me that he saw on the 10 pm news that it would be a waste of time because they were going to close a ton of streets. He even urged me not to go.

Of course, I usually don't listen to people if I disagree with what they say and decided to go alone. Low and behold, after walking around the neighborhood in the nearby streets where the tweet claimed would be closed, I soon found a small side street and was pleasantly surprised there were no cops, no hordes of crazy fans, no paparazzi, nothing. I saw several crew members drinking coffee, walking around and some extras trying out clothes. I asked a crew member that was walking by if Gael was nearby and she kindly told me "Oh, yeah, he's out here somewhere. If you wander around, you might bump into him."

Around 15 minutes later Gael was walking across the street and I timidly asked him if he could sign an autograph. He was very polite and was surprised that I brought the 3rd book of "An Ominous Book" series titled "Exile" with me. He chuckled that the book already had someone's autograph and I told him I was the author. He became somewhat curious and I briefly mentioned it's a fantasy book series. He then kindly wrote a lovely message on my book and a crew member (I think the guy that took the picture is either the producer or director because he seemed sorta important) took two very lovely photos.

I briefly met Gael's family around 7 years ago during a piano concert and found his family to be very approachable and friendly. I'm very glad that Gael was equally approachable. He even told me that he was going to be filming in that area the rest of the week in case I wanted to stop by again to say hi. I told him about my insane job schedule would make it very difficult but I mentioned that I could try to come Thursday because it's a minor holiday.

I actually went back to the same street Thursday around 3 pm but the crew was sadly no longer there. They must have been shooting a scene in some other street in the area. What a bummer because I wanted to give him one of my books as a gift because he seemed rather interested. Anyhow, he told me that Museo will premiere next year and I'm definitely going to see it.

Anyhow, if you are interested in reading Exile, you can get a copy in ebook format HERE and a paperback copy HERE.