Solo: A Star Wars Story – My Red Carpet Experience
Do you ever have something so incredible happen to you that you can’t stop thinking about it even many days later? Well, that’s what it’s been like for me ever since I attended the red carpet premiere for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Even now, 4 days later, I am so incredibly grateful to Disney and Star Wars for the amazing opportunity. I’m sure when I look back, this will definitely go down as one of the most memorable things I have ever done. I know people have been asking a lot of questions, so I’ll start from the beginning.
It all started a couple weeks ago when I received a mysterious message on Instagram from someone inviting me to a Solo premiere event. I was skeptical at first (I get some weird messages sometimes), but after seeing the email address, I knew I had to find out what this was about. It turned out that this really was an invitation to the red carpet premiere for the Solo: A Star Wars Story! Yes, the actual Hollywood red carpet that you see on TV with all the glitz and glamour! For a split second, I actually thought it might be a pain to skip work on a Thursday and have to pay for flight/hotel, but then I quickly snapped out of it and realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I would probably never get to go to something like this ever again! A few hours later, I had booked my flight down to Hollywood and was counting down the days until May 10th.
Thursday arrived and it was literally a 24 hour whirlwind of events – from flying down to LA, getting a personal tour of Walt Disney Imagineering Studios through a friend, yelling and screaming on the red carpet while the stars walked by, and finally watching the actual movie! I had so many questions prior to going such as – where would we be standing? Would we be able to get any selfies with stars? What if we had bad theater seats? Would we get to go to any after parties? And what if the whole thing ended up being a big let down!? But as it turned out, luck was definitely on my side as my friends and I somehow got a great spot in the fan area, were able to get selfies with nearly everyone we had hoped to see, and even some bonus autographs. I have to say that I was most excited to see Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke and Han Solo himself, Alden Ehrenreich, and they were all even more beautiful in person. Of course there were some celebs that just walked by (ahem Mario Lopez and Ewan McGregor) and didn’t bother greeting the fans, but I won’t hold it against them. ;)
Look at these handsome Landos in red! <3
On top of that, we even got a selfie with Ron Howard! I’m still in awe that as big as he is, he was nice enough to stop and take a selfie with us!
I love Joonas Suotamo as Chewy – he was so tall that he volunteered to take the selfie for us!
After all the stars walked the red carpet, they began to escort all the fans into the theater while we ooh’ed and ahh’ed over the giant Millennium Falcon that they had assembled on the red carpet and the cool cockpit backdrops in the press areas. I was so overwhelmed by all the stars we had just seen that I actually forgot we still had yet to watch the actual movie!! We shuffled into the TCL Chinese Theater and nervously ate our popcorn while waiting for the movie to start. Like a bad habit, I kept wanting to pause and take photos of the beautiful theater, but kept forgetting that the staff had locked up our phones for security reasons. :P Finally the movie started.
I won’t go into detail (no spoilers here) since there’s still 2 more weeks until it’s officially out in theaters, but any doubts that I had about Alden Ehrenreich playing Han Solo are now gone. I know some people were concerned about the tone of the movie with the change in directors and such, but that honestly didn’t even cross my mind. All I can say is that for any Star Wars fan, this is definitely a Star Wars movie and I can’t wait to see it again on May 25th.
Needless to say, we had a blast. And even though there was no afterparty for us, we partied it out over ramen while discussing our thoughts on the movie. On top of that, we even got to go back on the red carpet to take in all of the scenery and take a few of our own celebrity-like photos! An amazing ending to an amazing night.
8 Comments
Phu
That’s so incredible you were able to atendt the red carpet premier!
emilyo
I know!! i’m still in awe of everything that happened!!
Jenmarie
Thanks for sharing about your experience! What a dream! Imagine if you hadn’t gone through with it? You got some fantastic photos and your outfit is perfect. <3
emilyo
Thanks Jenmarie! I’m surprised I didn’t see you there with Savannah!
Jefe
Is that a Rubies costume? Or made from scratch? It looks so custom and fitted to you. I was thinking of doing something like this for the new SW parks this year but i don’t want it to look baggy and like a cheap $29 halloween costume. But I don’t want to get in trouble with Disney and may have to bound it down a tiny bit too. Thank you for any advice.
emilyo
I made this costume from scratch. Thanks for asking. I also sell a custom made top and vest in my Etsy store if you’re interested.
emilyo
In case you’re interested – https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheStylishGeek?ref=search_shop_redirect
Jefe
Is it moderated here? I never saw my post. Wanted to know about Solo outfit. It looks so custom. Did you make it, or buy it, or buy it and do alterations? If you bought it what brand?