The Hand of God Premier: a night to remember

We arrived at One Marylebone in London to a closed door, a few Sons of Anarchy fans waited outside hopeful that they would catch a glimpse of Ron Perlman rocking up in a fancy car.

Waiting outside the door for 6.30 to roll around felt like ten hours rather than ten minutes until finally they opened into a vast and very beautifully decorated old building complete with red carpet and more free Champaign than you could care to imagine. The weird canapes were far too fancy for a commoner like me and I felt totally out of place being referred to as ‘the media’ but the atmosphere was incredible.

After what felt like an eternity the cast and crew arrived and in walked Ron Perlman. Although much shorter than I’d ever imagined he just exudes this charisma and that gravelly voice is enough to send a shiver down your spine. Having been a big fan of Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy for a long time I was immediately star struck. I’m new to big events like that and really didn’t feel like I belonged. I don’t think I’ll ever graduate to the indifferent and snotty attitude of seasoned journalists who look down their nose at anyone without a press badge and barge past others with that irritating air of self importance, and being a normal, down to earth person in a place like that felt weird. Luckily I met some like minded people and had some great conversations.

After debating whether to pluck up the courage and ask Ron for a photo for what seemed like an eternity, i finally did. He has been standing inches away for ages mingling with people he seemed to know already, so I thought I’d take my chance as he began to walk away. He looked me right in the eye, about to agree to a quick picture, before being dragged away by someone far more important than little old me. I was bummed, but maybe one day.

The screening and q&a followed, the screening was of course brilliant, Hand of God is a masterpiece. Read my review of it if you’re keen to know my thoughts. The q&a was insightful and surprisingly really quite funny, with Perlman proving that he’s a perfectly nice, funny guy and surprisingly for such a big star, incredibly humble.

My transcript of the q&a will be up tonight, so keep your eyes peeled for that.