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When I found out that Ewan would be making a Tim Burton movie in Alabama. I knew that finally a chance had come for me to try and meet the wonderful Mr. McGregor.

On Monday January 13th 2003, my boyfriend and I made the long trek from my small hometown in Tennessee, stopping over in Georgia to see my family and eventually we ended up in Wetumpka, Alabama where they were going to be filming Big Fish. (With a hour delay from having to deal with a flat tire!) The drive was exhausting but sooo worth it!I got to meet Sam, another Ewan sister, and we spent the evening together talking and sharing things about our favourite boy. She's the first sister I've gotten to meet in person and it was just a great time!

Thenext morning we got up early and traveled the rest of the distance to Wetumpka. There was a pretty bad accident in Atlanta which hampered our driving time and I cannot forget the stop we made just outside of the city. We ended up in a gas station that had barred windows and a clerk who sat behind more bars and the bathroom was just horrible! It was nasty and it stunk. I'm a small town girl and I may have visited Atlanta and seen things like this before but it's something I can never get use to you know? You would think I would have waited till another stop but sometimes that can't be helped. I was so nervous at the idea of possibly meeting Ewan that my stomach was just in knots!! So waiting was out of the question. I can't tell you how quick I got out of there!

When we arrived in Wetumpka we began to search for the place we thought the filming would be. We didn't know exactly where the downtown was, but luckily Wetumpka was fairly small and it was easy to find it. (ummm see sign that says "Downtown Wetumpka this way") They also had a small sign at the intersection that had "Fish" on it! We actually ended up going the wrong way at the intersection and went over the gorgeous bridge that is part of this town and is seen as Older Edward and son are speeding over it at the end of the movie.(it's not as long as the movie portrays it).

Instead of getting turned around again Sam went over and asked for help from a policeman we passed sitting on along the side of the road. By the time my boyfriend and I followed her over there and got out of our car she was knee deep in detective work! I must say she did a great job because he was telling us all kinds of things! Everyone in this area seemed really nice. (You can see almost exactly where we stood when Matthew Corey, the giant, is picking up the car in the end sequence. It was right behind him at that house where we were).

I'm not sure if I remember all this correctly or not but the guy mainly talked about how great it was seeing the actors walking around the area just like normal people. We asked about Ewan and the man replied yes that he was there! But that he thought the crew were all breaking for lunch as it was around 11am or so by now. We desperately wanted to see Ewan so the policeman was kind enough to get on his radio to find out that we were still in time to watch some of the filming and pointed in the direction back over the bridge. Duh-oh! we were only a few feet from it and had missed it! So we thanked him and got back into our cars and flew over there. I must say the area they are filming in is just adorable and reminds me of my own downtown area. Very small and rather intimate setting with little shops lining the streets. The crew were doing a lot of work in the area, changing and doing repair work on some of the buildings they were going to use. I expected a large crowd but rhere actually weren't that many people there. (More came as the day progressed and about 3-5pm was the busiest times since people had gotten off work and out of school.) Mostly it was crewmen and police officers.

The big trucks with the props and stuff were around everywhere. We really weren't able to see any of the filming because they weren't doing any of the street work at that point in time. They were actually filming inside of the house. It's a lovely house! The film crew told us that they had actually added the top too it. They said that it would be removed after filming because it's weight would eventually be to much for the house! We got our cars parked (I was quite surprised to see that traffic was still flowing easily through the area) and we walked up to where the end of the driveway was to the house they were filming in. They had it blocked off to the public though. We were allowed to stand at the very end of the driveway and watch.

There really wasn't much to see. You could see alot of the lights they were using and could hear them yell 'Action!' or 'Rolling' here and there. Albert Finney was spotted at some point cause everyone started clicking away with their camera's but other than that you couldn't really see anything, but I wasn't there to see him! I wanted to see Ewan! We did find the crew to be very nice and friendly. Sam again used her Feminie Wiles trying to find out where our boy was. Through the crew, we discovered that he wasn't on the call sheet for the next couple of days and then the guy told us that he would not even be filming in any of the scenes they were doing there because he was only doing the flashbacks in the movie and that those would be filmed on a inside set ?? (This guy really had his information wrong as Ewan did quite a bit of work for Big Fish on that very street! This street was the area where they had the house, the parade, the bank robbery, and the courthouse scenes.)

He did tell us that Ewan had been there visiting earlier that day for a short time. We had apparently missed him by an hour or so! We were very disappointed! It was around lunch by this time so we piled into our cars and Sam took us over to Cloverdale where their headquarters were and we ended up eating in one of the restaurants that Ewan had been spotted in before. I couldn't help but think the entire time I was down in Alabama about how close I could be to our boy. Was I sitting in the very seat he had just recently sat down in? It was making all of us nuts I think to know he was nearby but to not know exactly where he was or how to find him! We traveled back to Wetumpka and hung around the set a bit longer, but we never saw anything after that. No one could ever tell us for sure when Ewan would be there because he wasn't doing any of the scenes that were currently being shot there and because he wasn't on the call schedule. Yada yada same thing again! *Sigh* It appeared to be a dead end with Ewan no where in sight! Unfortunately Sam had to leave and couldn't come back with us again the next day so we had to say our farewell's. My boyfriend and I stayed around a short time longer hoping for a glimpse of Ewan but he never appeared. I did end up with a Big Fish t-shirt one of the shops was already selling them ! We decided after that to call it a day, though by this time I really had little hope of Ewan possibly just "stopping by" the set the next day But we planned to return first thing the next morning and give it a shot. After all we had driven all that way....right???

The next morning my boyfriend and I woke up around 6:30 am. I had little to no hope that I would get to see Ewan. But I had driven such a long way... I was certainly going to go stand down there until at least lunchtime! We got going shortly before 8am. I realized before we left that I had forgotten to bring a card to put my website addy on to give it to Ewan if I ever got lucky enough to see him. So, I quickly grabbed one, scribbling the url and the name of my site on the back of the card and shoving it into my pocket. It was another gorgeous sunny day, but it was so cold! We parked at the Wetumpka courthouse and bundled up before setting out. I forgot my hat and scarf in the car and ended up freezing my cheeks and ears off! It was much warmer in Alabama then it was in Tennessee this time of year but it was still pretty chilly. About 8am we walked over to stand in front of the pharmacy to see what was happening. We found we were the only ones there! The house on the hill was quiet with nobody moving around outside and only various crew members were wandering around in the street. I thought everyone was supposed to arrive on film sets early! Where were they all???

Of course the police were sitting near the house keeping an eye out for crazy fans like…..well like me. :-) I stopped one of the crewmen as he walked by me and asked if he had seen Ewan. He said no but that he had been there yesterday (duh!) and you never knew when he might show up. I said "That's why we are here." and he said that's what being a fan is all about. (I wondered about that a hour later when my back began to kill me and my body was turning into a popsicle!). As the hour progressed more and more crew members began to show up, flitering about here and there doing their assigned jobs and such. We figured heck if we didn't get to see Ewan maybe we would get to see some of the other stars and decided to make our way over to the area just at the end of the driveway where the public could stand and watch all that was going on. My boyfriend and I were both hopping up and down from the cold.

It wasn't long after that lady left that a crewman came over to the other guy who was still standing around with us and announced really loudly that Ewan was there and that he was on his way! I sucked in a huge breath of air and my heart began to pound madly as my eyes scanned the streets. Ewan was here??? He was actually there??? Could it be that we hadn't come all that way for nothing?? I was so excited I thought I was going to pass out. My boyfriend laughed at me and said "Don't do anything crazy"…Yeah right who was gonna stop me??? Ummmm but about 15 minutes or so passed and still no Ewan! My heart finally stopped racing and I leaned back against the railing trying to relieve my aching back. I then heard the same guy who announced that Ewan was coming say to the two teens that were with us " Hey, over there he is, Ewan McGregor! That's him." And pointed to a guy behind us just inside the driveway. My eyes immediately flew to this person and I was thinking that somehow Ewan had gotten by me! It took me about two seconds to realize that this was not Ewan! Argghh! The guy didn't even look a bit like him! These crew members seemed to think they were funny and I was completely ready to throttle the guy! Did this mean Ewan was there or not??? I immediately set out hounding them all again. "Is Ewan here, is he really here??" I kept being told yes that he was so I sighed and just gave up with them and decided to just keep my eyes open. A short time later the one crew member who recognized me earlier came walking up from behind us (from where the trailers were) and said that Ewan was here, that he was in his trailer, and said that he was on his way!! He also told me he'd been sure to let me know if he saw Ewan.

It was about 10:30am now and as I said I was starving, my back was killing me, and I had a bladder full of hot chocolate. I groaned and looked back up the street to see that the man coming down it was taking his sweet time. I silently prayed that he would hurry because I wanted to go to the bathroom quick so I didn't miss Ewan. Since I was suppose to be searching for Ewan and not worrying about my crazy stomach or my bladder, I took another look at the guy. He was really far off but I could tell he had on a dark shirt and jeans. He was also wearing some kind of cap and drinking what I assumed to be coffee. I was like…..'he's sure skinny enough to be Ewan but he's not walking like Ewan.' My boyfriend said. "Hey, I think that's him." I replied that I didn't think so that the guy wasn't "walking" like Ewan. (You will love this, my boyfriend later said that he knew it was Ewan because he was walking bowlegged! aka with his knees out! ) I told my boyfriend that wasn't Ewan and I looked quickly away…… but something drew my eyes back again. The next time I glanced back I noticed that the guy was smoking and it seemed everything in my world stopped. This guy was skinny like Ewan, He was walking from the area of the trailers like the crew said Ewan would be, and he was smoking. I knew then. I knew it was Ewan!

I immediately looked away again so as not to be caught staring cause I didn't want to run him off! I waited until he got right upon me to look back again. Now how to describe this so you all get the comedic aspect of the first few seconds of my encounter? What I did not know until after the fact was that my boyfriend behind me never stopped looking at Ewan as he was coming toward us. In fact he was staring outright with a crazy grin plastered on his face so when Ewan finally walked up to where we were and I finally looked up at him, Ewan already had a huge smile on his face and was grinning at both of us and he had come to a complete halt!!! Of course when I looked up at him you know how big my smile got! (I do believe that we were possibly the first people he met there that actually recognized him. Why do I say that? just because of his reaction to us.) What was so funny was that we were all standing there for seconds or so just grinning at each other. Ewan knew he had been recognized and I was transfixed as I know some of you other ladies have been by that magnificent gaze of his. Plus, Ewan had his glasses on and you could tell he really needs them is all I saw were those big beautiful eyes coming straight at me! Ewan swung his glance from my boyfriend back to me then he literally cheesed (put his teeth together and grinned big, sticking his chin into the air) as though he were saying 'Yes!, it's me' Absolutely hysterical after I think back on it.

I can't tell you what it's like to have Ewan staring directly at you. I finally managed to cry out delightedly "Ewan!" He said hello with his lovely scottish accent and then it was another few seconds before I got my mouth to work to say the words "Will you please sign my shirt?" I had brought along my sisterhood shirt for him to sign. He smiled and placed the coffee mug he was carrying under his arm and replied "Sure." and stepped up beside me. OMG Ewan was standing beside me?? I couldn't believe how calm I was. I was calm???? My boyfriend told him that he had driven me eight hours just to see him and Ewan asked where we were from. I told him Tennessee as I quickly dug out my marker (I forgot my sharpie!) and handed him my shirt. Ewan said "Where would you like me to sign it?" I told him anywhere was fine. Then he pointed at the shirt at the "Doing it for the Sisters." and he asked me "Yeah, what is that, sisters? A website?"

He still didn't know what the Sisters where??? I was more than happy to tell him. I said "Umm, no It's what we call ourselves (meaning you ladies on the Ewanspotting board) because of you know.....what you said the ahh "doing it for the sisters." I actually saw the understanding in his eyes when what I was saying hit him and he laughed. If I thought it were possible I would almost say he seemed a tad embarrassed!! I then told him that those were the shirts that were made for Rachel House and that we had gotten permission from his mother to make them. I can't remember exactly what he said here but it was something like that's just great. He began to sign my shirt and I asked him if he really got a tattoo. He seemed a bit surprised and replied that yes, he had. For those of you that were not sure ladies we got it from the horses' mouth.

The tattoo is real. He finished signing my shirt and handed it and my marker (which is now in bubble tape ) back to me. As he did so he noticed the pin I was wearing on my jacket (Sam had brought me a CHAS pin back from her trip to Scotland!) His eyes got real big and he pointed at it and said delightedly "CHAS!.. Brilliant!" Then, he turned towards my boyfriend who had been taking pictures all this time and reached an arm out toward me (thud). The next thing I knew I was in Ewan's arms and I can't believe I put my arm was around his hip. Mostly I did so because of my my height (I'm 4'9) and also it just felt natural to me. Because of our heights I seemed to fit perfectly into the crook of his arm. I even leaned the back of my head on his shoulder!! I immediately noticed how soft his sweater was and ladies OMG how can I tell you that this man smelled sooooo good!!! I didn't recognize the cologne he had on but it was a very very nice spicy kind of scent. I thought I was going to die right there and believe me I wouldn't have minded!!! (I didn't think about it till I got my pictures developed later, but my nose is practically in his arm pit! Too funny!)I would like to point out that I didn't even ask Ewan if I could have a picture of him and me together he just really sort of reached out to me and posed for it! Anyway my boyfriend started snapping away with the camera and all to soon it was over and done with.

My boyfriend's hands had shaken so badly that I feared the pictures would not come out well at all but as you can see it all worked out just fine! Ewan shook hands with me saying nice to meet you and was once again dazzled by that beautiful face and smile. He grabbed my boyfriends hand and shook it even though my boyfriend hadn't really said more than two words to him other than how far we had driven and asked him if it was ok if he took a lot of pictures. Then Ewan was moving away from us and the two goofy teenage girls who didn't' even know who he was were having their picture taken with him! They got my boyfriend to take the pic. I realized as this was going on that I had completely forgotten to give Ewan the card with my website addy on it. I waited until he had finished with those girls and had started walking around the rail to go up into the house. I quickly yelled 'Ewan!' He turned back around and grinned at me spreading his arms out wide (like he does ontop of the Elephant in Moulin Rouge!) and I was once again paralyzed. This man is awfully flirtatious! He's going to cause heart failure to one of his fans doing that one day!

Ileaned through everyone and handed him the card and said "I'm sorry, I forgot this is my website." (I forgot to say This is my website for you!!! Argghhh!! ) He smiled at me and said thanks. I watched him glance at it quickly. I had given it to him with the sites addy and name that side up but he turned it over to the side that had that hotel's name on it and I saw a puzzled look on his face. I sure hope he didn't think I wanted him to come back to my hotel room LOL!!

He put it in his pocket and I don't' know if he ever looked at it again but hopefully he will and see the side with the site's name on it before he throws it away. He spoke to one of the crewmen on his way up and walked on up the site and into the house! My Ewan adventure had come to a close…or had it??? After he went into the house I was in such a state that I begged my boyfriend to give me a cigarette (I had quit a long time ago) and I sat down to relieve my aching back. I was almost finished with my cigarette when all of a sudden Ewan was walking back out again! He walked right by us and waved at us, flashing a peace sign and said "Nice to meet you guys." My boyfriend told him thank you for taking the time with us and Ewan replied in his lovely Scottish accent "Oh, not at all." and smiled as he walked back up the street and out of sight (completely unaccosted!) leaving me with a lifetime of memories and an even greater love for this wonderful actor named Ewan McGregor.

Thank you Ewan!

(You can see the area the encounter happend most clearly during the bank robbery scenes in Big Fish. Notice that across the street in my pictures is where those scenes took place. You can see the sidewalk I was on that Ewan walked down entirely when Ewan and Steve Buscemi peal out from the bank making their escape.