P&P Fan Encounter: Silvia Basile's Meet & Greet with Matthew Macfadyen at Roma Fiction Fest 2012

Here's another wonderful P&P fan encounter from an ardent Pride & Prejudice/Matthew Macfadyen fan, Silvia Basile. She kindly shared here in this blog, her thrilling and exciting experience of meeting Matthew at the Roma Fiction Fest 2012 with a story of how she met him. She included a video of MM from the event and a few pictures of hers, including an autograph photo of her P&P DVD copy that MM had personally signed for her.


Read Silvia's MM fan story, watch her MM video, and see her pictures and MM screen captures below...

Matthew Macfadyen in Rome...
between a dream and reality!

by Silvia Basile

For several months I tried to write a review of Matt's coming in Rome for the Roma Fiction Fest 2012, but it's not easy to sum up so many emotions in a report. I hope to share with you all here what I've written below, the excitement I had felt and experienced in those unforgettable moments of that day.

Thanks to the promotional tour for the series Ripper Street, the last Fiction Fest in Rome has seen, amongst its guests, even the actor Matthew Macfadyen. How could I miss it or Matthew?! ;) Let's get to that fateful day, October 1st, 2012, when I was thrilled and excited to witness seeing Matthew (up close and in person) coming to Rome.

The day already promised to be full of trepidation, at least for me. In this occasion of BBC's worldwide promotional tour, two special guests were invited: Gillian Anderson (who co-starred with Matt and Tom Hollander in the BBC mini-series Any Human Heart) and Matthew MacFadyen. I was really happy for both. Gillian, because I had followed and admired her since her unforgettable performance as Agent Scully in The X-Files, and Matthew, who won me over in 2005 with his performance as Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

The emotions that day were so many. I will try to summarized them here. The thrill to find oneself in front of Matthew suddenly, he was tall and elegant in his blue suit. While all the attention of the cameras were on Gillian, he dedicated himself to the audience of the pink carpet. And like in a dream, I turned and found myself in front of two huge blue eyes that left me breathless. The first thing I did was, a shrill scream with his name, and he stopped right in front of me, as if to say “Wow, somebody recognized me.”

Okay, this was the first gaffe of the day, but I was taken by surprise. Some moments to catch myself and finally I succeeded with a trembling hand, to show him my DVD copy of Pride and Prejudice with a marker pen to get an autograph. Still not satisfied and with a totally dry mouth, I succeeded to mumble something about getting a picture with him. And was surprised that he was happy to oblige (not sure about happy to get in a photo with me, seeing that day I looked terrible, due to abdominal pains cured with a huge dose of painkillers, so I looked more like a slowpoke zombie than an human being).

He descend from his 6'3” (190cm) and try to put his face as near as possible to mine for a decent picture. Well decent... the results are horrible (well...my face at least, but I got a breathtaking closeup of Matthew which can be seen at the beginning of the video, which I am sharing here with you all to see below). Even today, looking at that picture I am amazed by his courage to approach me, instead of fleeing as fast as possible!! :D:D:D

After this breathless moment, some other meter catwalk, still autographs and photos and then running into the room for the interview and the screening of the first episode of the (Ripper Street) series. Obviously, I was on the front lines and watching a relaxed and playful Matt with his wonderful British accent. I would have liked a longer interview (his voice is so sexy that one could listen him to infinity), but seeing it was not me to organize the event, I had to be satisfied with what I got. ;) For the grand finale, finally with my mind a bit more polished (the effects of the painkillers was finally fading), I got near the stage and asked to shake his hand.

This had been, maybe, the most emotional moment, at least for me. I hope he understood, with that handshake, as his way of acting and his coming to Italy, have meant for me. What more can I say? It was a wonderful experience, and I did met many new friends, fans of Matthew, people I've met on the net and had shared that day with me. I hope to have other opportunities to see Matt, not just to have him back in Italy, but also to continue sharing special moments with friends I have known or rather have come to know because of him.

A big hello to all the friends of Matthew Italian Fan Club.:)

Silvia "Italia" Basile

Watch Silvia's Matthew Macfadyen - RFF 2012 video below...


(source: Silvia B)    Matthew Macfadyen - RFF 2012 Screen Captures

 Silvia's Roma Fiction Fest 2012 Photos

Silvia's P&P DVD - MM Signed Autograph Photo

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All Matthew Macfadyen photos and video courtesy of Silvia Basile. THANK YOU so much to lovely and wonderful Silvia for sharing her MM fan story here on the P&P Blog. Visit Silvia's blog here.

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NOTE: Were you lucky enough to have met Matthew, Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone and other  and crew (ie. Joe Wright, Dario Marianelli) or got a letter reply (with a signed autograph photo) from any or one of them? Contact and email me your fan story so we can all be jealous of you! See more fan stories archived here: P&P Fan Encounters.