My name is Penny and I live in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada, (although my address due to regional changes states North Hatley, this point will be useful later on). Johnny has been my inspiration for years as I have a bit of social anxiety and by seeing and learning about Johnny and his strength to believe in himself and make his decisions in life based on his beliefs has given me the strength to overcome some of my problems faced everyday in my work as well as in my social life. I have seen every movie he has made that is available in Canada, (missing – The Brave, Lost in La Mancha, The Source???), I have got them all in my collection and love the variety of his work. Now, do you believe in fate? For me, (and this sounds a bit physco), but Johhny kind of felt like a missing piece to my puzzle and every one of my friends, family, husband too, know of my deep admiration for Johnny. I was going to try to make this story short but I have been known to go on and on, you know those messages that say, after the beep, leave a short message, well I am there worst nightmare. A year ago I changed jobs after 7 years with a company, I am in customer service/sales, and my largest customers closed there doors (GM), and I went home. I had been traveling an hour to work west of my home town. Two months after I was off, I was offered this great job in a small town 20 minutes from my town but the opposite way where I by pass the intersection for the town of North Hatley. This job is great, the people are great and my red faced, scared to death of everyone seemed to open up a bit to these people and when I was asked to do a presentation at a seminar I freaked but then looked at a clipping of Johnny from a local paper posted on my bulletin board by a co-worker who had found an article of Johnny in a French paper and had pinned it to my board knowing he was my idol, and gained the strength to go on and believe in myself. (It went pretty well by the way). In the month of April I think, the newspaper released an article that Johnny Depp was coming to the Montreal and to North Hatley to film ‘Secret Window’, we never ever get big stars out our way and for it to turn out to be my missing puzzle piece, Johnny was just crazy. I must have got around eight e-mails and phone calls that day from people trying to be the first ones to surprise me with this news. From then on I just thought wow, what if I could see this guy? I have way too much respect for him to approach him (and then with my anxiety problem), but I would just love to see him and be in his presence. It kind of became a joke at work where how could Penny ever get to meet her special guy? I am going to try to speed this up, news came that they would be filming in North Hatley on Sept. 15, 16, 17. The news said that the set was completed and I stopped to get a look on my way home from work one night, but they said that they did not believe that Johnny Depp would physically need to be on this set for these scenes. Monday the 15th passed and on Tuesday in our paper it told the story of Johnny being in town and giving autographs and meeting the locals of North Hatley. (Pissed me off). Tuesday on managed to get into North Hatley on my way home from work but using my North Hatley address to tell security that I was going to my post office for my mail, and then another guard that yes, I would come right back after getting my mail (like right!!). I spent around an hour there but no Johnny yet I had a blast watching the filming of one of the scenes of Secret Window with many of the extras from town. I felt pretty good just knowing I was in the same town as Johnny. Then Wednesday, again after work, I took the road off of my way home back down into North Hatley as this was my last chance to see any of this filming. It went well getting into town and down to where the filming was going on this time, experience I guess, and the next thing I knew I met a lady who had been from the town and seen Johnny himself earlier that day. She gave me hope that a sighting was possible. There was this big screen, kind of like one at the theatre which blocked the actual filming and once we walked by the screen the girl said – look it is him. I said no way, and was right, it was his double. A minute later Johnny himself walked out of a fabricated post office and was filming a scene. My knees almost gave out but I collected myself. I watched him for around an hour and a half from approx. 10 feet away filming a couple different scenes. Then the director said it was a take and the movie was completed. Johnny went back into this building and I was sure that like most actors, he would be taken out the back and away but no, he walked back out a couple minutes later and into the street. I pulled his strength, and walked straight over to him along with the crowd of others. Even though I was standing right in front of him, I did not dare speak. He gave a few autographs and I told myself that at the next moment of silence, I was going to speak up even if it killed me because this was a chance of a life time. That moment came and I said – Johnny – He looked at me, (no turning back now). I told him that he has been my inspiration forever and a symbol of strength for me and told him I wanted to give him this bracelet that I had for around a year and had seen in at an artisan show and it reminded me of him. He looked at it and asked me if I was absolutely sure, and I said yes, that even if he did not keep it, I wanted him to have it. He looked right in my eyes and said – You know I would never do that – I agreed. I told him about my social anxiety and he was just the greatest, we spoke off our children, my son Ryley is the same age as Lily Rose, and he reached out and gave me this big hug. I thought that when he lets go I might hit the pavement but I managed to get my knees back and he wrote me a note that said, Penny, Bless you, Thank you so much, Good to you always, Johnny. I got a couple pictures and graciously left knowing that he had gave me more than my share of his attention. I was in a trance and hardly knew where I left my car. It would have been hard if after I had built this guy up to be this wonderful human being, to find out he wasn’t, but he did not disappoint me but turned out to be exactly if not more of what I had expected. My story brought tears to my friends and co-workers eyes and they said that it was I who they admired for believing in someone, and making a dream come true. Thanks Vicki for listening to this and I am still flying high in the clouds and will surely not be grounded for months. Dreams can come true. Johnny is quiet, patient, kind, loving, and generous on top of being so down to earth. That says a lot about us I guess for our choice of who we believe in, and that would be Johnny.
Penny
from johnnydeppfan
