25 years is a long time to care about a
person you have yet to meet.
In November of 1993 I was 13 and Walt
Disney Studios released their version of The Three Musketeers. I was already a
fan of sword fights, Charlie Sheen and Tim Curry and they were the reasons I
wanted to see the movie. Then I saw the last few minutes of a behind-the-scenes
look at the movie on the Disney channel and being that he was the one who
hosted the sneak peek I got my first glance at Chris O’Donnell.
I watched The Three Musketeers in a
theater located inside a mall. Sitting next to me was my cousin, as some of my
other family members went shopping. By the time the movie was over I had a new
celebrity crush. For the rest of the school year I carried a photo cut out of a magazine of Chris O’Donnell in my pocket and by the time I was a senior his picture was
hanging in my locker and in my senior yearbook I wrote his name under the crush category..
It was the 1990s so Netflix was way off
and you had to wait a year before a movie was released on something called VSH
tape. So from that day forward I made it a point to see every movie he was in
on the big screen. Although before I could do that I had to catch up on his previous
work and rented or watched on TV what I could.
Scent of a Woman was released the year before. I was too young to watch it then but eventually caught it on TV and yes I enjoyed the famous tango scene (side note: Al Pacino’s dance partner in that scene is Gabrielle Anwar who played Queen Anne in The Three Musketeers). Next I watched his first film Men Don’t Leave a family drama where Chris played Jessica Lange’s eldest son. Then there was Fried Green Tomatoes a film that I have only watched, all the way through, once because (spoiler alert) once his character is killed by a train, what is the point to seeing the rest.
Being the young and good looking boy-next-door type that he was at the time Chris O’Donnell made a handful of romances. My favorite is In Love and War directed by Sir Richard Attenborough and co-starring Sandra Bullock. He portrayed a young Ernest Hemingway. The film took place during WWI when “Ernie” fell in love with an older woman, a nurse named Agnes. A historical drama starring my new favorite actor, hell yeah I am going to see and love every minute.
Truth be told I am not much of a reader so when The Three Musketeers opened I decided to read the classic story and that became something I continued to do with every book to film starring Chris. I didn’t read all of the Harry Potter books but I did read Maeve Binchy Circle of Friends before seeing the film adaptation with him and newcomer Minnie Driver. There was also The Chamber which to this day is the only John Grisham book I’ve read.
I can’t write about Chris O’Donnell without bringing up the Batman franchise. He was one of the first actors in which I went to a movie just because said actor was in it. That being said I was not a fan of the caped crusader until he signed up as Robin. NO I am not going to apologize for actually liking Val Kilmer as Batman and the rest of the cast of Batman Forever. I even have the movie poster hanging in my childhood bedroom and (like with most of the movies Chris is in) I can quote it word for word. Also George Clooney is not as bad as he and everyone says he is in Batman and Robin.
It wasn’t easy to get my parents to drive me to every single Chris O’Donnell movie and that is why for the past 9 years I have enjoyed watching him on NCIS:Los Angeles. Callen, Sam, Kensi, Deeks, Eric, Nell and the wonderful Hetty make each week worth tuning in for (Sundays at 9 on CBS). Chris has also played one of Meredith Grey’s love interest on an early season of Grey’s Anatomy, guest starred on episodes of The Practice and a Two and a Half Men and even had a short lived series on Fox.
I could go on and on about all the films and TV appearances Chris has done. I could even talk about how I make it a point to see and read every interview he gives. And how with each one I learn something new about him. which is amazing for knowing someone for 25 years, it seems in any relationship after the first 10 years you should know everything about each other. Each interview makes me smile and makes a bad day good. I could go on and on but then I would not know where to stop,
Chris O’Donnell is my heart. I know that doesn’t make sense because he doesn’t even know I exist but he has gotten me through a lot. High school wasn’t easy, like when my crush was dating another new girl who wasn’t me, but I had him on the cover of magazines to cry on when I had no one to lean on.
Thank you Chris O’Donnell for being there for me for the past 25 years. I hope to actually get to meet you in the next 25 years.
