Jameson Empire Awards 2011 [Report]

Thanks to HeyUGuys and Ben Montimer, I was lucky enough to attend red carpet event and press room for the Jameson Empire Awards 2011. It was a stunning exciting night with some great results voted by the Empire readers. If you want to read in detail all the interviews, awards and coverage, head over to HeyUGuys' dedicated page. It includes Ben's interviews on the red carpet, and my scramble to film, the results from the night, my interviews with the stars after they'd won and a recap of everything written by Jon Lyus.  

Here's my experience:

Ben and I arrived at the London Grosvenor House Hotel, Mayfair about half an hour early. After tensions started to arise when trying to find out where we were supposed to check it, we received our green wrist bands and got the makeshift camera with extra strong tape holding it together set up. 

The event was decked out in Empire and Jameson related backdrops. The red carpet was ultra bright, but not so much after someone broke a glass and spilt their drink on it. You saw the panic in the PR's faces as this happened, but as quickly as it happened, it was cleaned up.

Soon the attendees started to arrive. We saw the likes of Keira Knightley, Lily Cole, Dara O'Briain and Edgar Wright casually slip past all the press. It is ridiculously manic on the red carpet, and seeing as we were right next to the paps as well, the noise was unbelievable. We did, however, manage to speak to Tom Felton from Harry Potter, who is one of the nicest men alive. He seemed to appreciative bring the representative for Harry Potter, and later told us he saw himself as a minor role in the film.

We caught a few words from Chris O'Dowd who told us he was extremely hungover, and was in no way interested in directing, unlike his co-star Richard Ayoade, who has recently directed Submarine. It seemed everyone was hanging as Dermot O'Leary also stated he was feeling a little fragile. 

Jane Goldman told us that she absolutely loves HeyUGuys, and Jonathan Ross seemed to be lapping up the press, and making the little girls in the crowd scream with excitement. We were next to Heat World who didn't seem to get a very happy result from the stars, especially Sarah Harding who made it clear what she thought. 

When we thought it had all finished on the red carpet, Gary Oldman arrived, who was the man of the night by the looks of things. He was surrounded by staff from Empire, snatched away by as many press people as he could be and really gave it his all. He's one of the quietest men in showbiz, fact.

When everything did finally settle down, we headed back to the press room which had lots of sandwiches and alcohol for us all to enjoy. Ben and I found our very good spot on the red carpet inside, and waited for the winners to present themselves. 

Eli Roth was the first to arrive with his award for Best Horror with The Last Exorcism. He seemed to want to really go and party. The cast and crew from Four Lions seemed so happy with their award for Best Comedy. After this I spoke to Tom Felton again, Mark Strong and Jane Goldman. Noel Clarke was telling us about some recent work he's been doing. Tom Hiddleston, now my favourite man ever, was telling us how awesome he thought the script for Captain America was as well. We then briefly saw The Inbetweeners with Dexter Fletcher, and then Colin Firth with Gary Oldman - Of course! 

It was such a fun night, and I have now gotten over my fear of interviewing. Ben said he wants me to go in front of camera which, funnily enough, probably isn't going to happen anytime soon!