some of you might’ve seen that i was at ace comic con seattle with aanal @hasan-minhaj and jen @sergeant-barnes this weekend! i struggled for weeks thinking about what i’d do for this op, until jen & brooke @steverogers showed me a photo of another fan who had used mickey ears in hers. i already had my cap mickey ears, and, since we know chris is a huge disney fan, i decided i wanted him to have mickey ears in the photo & then i wanted to gift them to him, so i had these custom winnie the pooh ears made for him mid-may. (the winnie ears were customised by the same seller who made my cap ears — show julie of boutiquejulesoh some love if you can!)
when i walked in, he was wearing a red sox cap, so after i said good morning & he said how are you, i asked him, “could we exchange your red sox cap for this one?” and i held up the winne ears. you could see his face transform into the :D emoji and he said “sure, let’s do it!” and he switched caps. i pulled up the statue of walt disney & mickey mouse holding hands in front of cinderella’s castle as a reference, and he went “YES. ...am i walt or am i mickey?” and when i told him he was walt, he held his hand out to me while i put my phone away. (he has the SOFTEST hands!!) i asked him to gaze and point longingly in one direction while i look up at him and he chuckled a little dlfjdkfdkdk. ANYWAY. they took the photo, he gave me the winnie cap back & said thank you, and then i was done! aanal and jen both promptly yelled at me as i got out lmao.
i attached a small notecard before we got in line for autographs, and i was planning to ask him to write you always stand up on my catws funko, but since they were running late, they were only having him write names. once we were in the autographs booth, i gave him the winnie the pooh cap and he said “aw, thank you!”
as he was signing, i got to say thank you to him for bringing one of my favourite characters to life in the mcu. then he looked up at me and i was like, “also, i just wanted to say thank you for normalising & de-stigmatising the conversation around mental health. as someone who struggles with it, i really appreciate it,” and he leaned back in his seat & his face did that thing where it got really soft, so as he gave me back my funko, he said “thank you, sweetie” & reached for my hand, then he winked at me and then blew me a kiss before i turned to leave OOF!!!
this weekend was amazing beyond all my expectations for many many reasons, but i truly have to say that getting to thank this man in person for how much his openness & honesty about his mental health has helped me with my own is probably the biggest highlight of all. ❤️
