Back before she was voicing Nala in what is now the highest grossing ‘animated’ film of all time, Beyoncé was making her feature film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Also with a role in that film was former child star Fred Savage, who got to work with the entertainment icon just prior to her solo career taking her into mega-stardom. Years later, Fred Savage had quite the awkward reunion with his Austin Powers in Goldmember co-star, as he recalled:
My kids and her daughter go to the same school in Los Angeles. It took me a while to go up to her. At one point I was like, ‘Hey, I’m Fred, we did this movie together.’ She goes, ‘I know who you are. I saw you at the beginning of the year, I just didn’t want to come up and say hi and bother you.'
Yikes, that’s pretty awkward and it just goes to show that even celebrities are in awe of and intimidated by Queen Bey. This situation is kind of like seeing someone from school you haven’t talked to in years out in public. There is that internal debate about whether you should go say hi and will they even remember you, only in this case, that person just happens to be Beyoncé.
Fred Savage, who has been gracing TV and movie screens since he was a kid, and apparently does well enough that his kids go to school with Blue Ivy, had to work up the courage to go say hi to his former co-star, who you would think had a visible aura around her given the awe and devotion she inspires.
When he worked up the courage to say ‘hi,’ Fred Savage presumed she wouldn’t remember him and actually introduced himself and reminded her that they were in a movie together. That is absolutely brutal and the kind of cringe-worthy scene that’s just as awkward to hear about as I imagine it was to be a part of.
To be fair though, Fred Savage’s role as Number 3 wasn’t a huge part in Goldmember and he wasn’t acting opposite Beyoncé’s Foxxy Cleopatra in a bunch of scenes. Also, this reunion was a decade-plus after that film, so it’s not unreasonable to assume she might not remember him.
The actor somehow survived that near lethal dose of awkwardness to tell PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing that Beyoncé did not need to be reminded who he was and the Beyhive did not whisk him away from her presence like a Secret Service force. Instead, the singer knew exactly who Fred Savage was and that they had worked together on Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Like Fred Savage, Beyoncé didn’t approach and say hi to her former co-star because she didn’t want to bother him. It just goes to show that no matter how famous, celebrities are just normal people. And as awkward as this reunion was, it’s still less awkward than when Foxxy Cleopatra and Number 3 first met in Austin Powers in Goldmember, which you can see in the video below.
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