It was bucketing down on the day of the UK premiere of Judy, Rupert Goold’s Judy Garland biopic. But the people I’d come to meet were used to it. They’re a dedicated set of autograph collectors and unlikely to let some drizzle wreck their chances of getting a celebrity to scribble their signature on a piece of paper.
And I’m not talking about people you’d define as ‘fans’. Instead, 90 percent of people at celebrity events are autograph hobbyists, or professionals that sell autographs. They might admire some of the celebs they get autographs from, but mostly, getting a signature is an exercise in box-ticking. Get the name, try and get it again, then post the pic on eBay or send it on to an autograph dealer, ready to be sold.
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Though these events can lead to shared bonding experiences, collectors often jostle one another competitively, and intensely. I’ve watched aggression at premieres ramp up over the last decade. This is largely due to an influx of teenagers, known as ‘runners’, who descend on film premieres now that football players have grown so fed up with autographing that they’ve practically become non-signers. These lads – who run their signatures back to dealers to sell on – make the experience tough for everyone.
“It’s barbaric,” said Steve*, 28, before going on to tell me a horror story about a group of teenage runners who frequently mock collectors they don’t perceive to be a threat. “One pulled down the pants of some guy the other week,” he said, noting the immature and testosterone-soaked environment of collecting. “It’s like being back in primary school.”
It’s not simply the runners, either. While some collectors look after each other and build friendships, others are purposefully mean, piling onto vulnerable collectors with abusive language to make themselves feel better. At the Judy premiere, people frequently tell one another how much they’ve fucked up, or fucked things up for everyone else scrambling to get in on the action.
I’m told stories about signed photos being stolen in plain daylight by rival runners, and collectors being kicked for allegedly “getting in the way”. The atmosphere isn’t great for the celebs, either. As the Judy premiere winds down, furious collectors and dealers call Renée Zellweger a “cunt” because she hadn’t “racked” – the term used by runners and collectors when a celebrity signs multiple photos for everyone. Meanwhile others blamed their rivals for allegedly “ruining” the moment – basically autograph speak for being too aggressive and putting the star off signing.
“You have to remember it’s big money,” explains Ian*, 42. “Younger workers are wanting to perform well for the major dealers.”
To put things into context, the big money Ian mentions isn’t that big, considering. The average price for a half decent celebrity might be £10 or £15 per signed photo, with prices raising to shy of around £30 to £40 for seriously impressive names. That said, if a celebrity racks, you can easily earn a few hundred pounds from a decent premiere. Not bad when you’ve barely left school.
“Autograph dealing is no different to any other business,” Ian lamented: “It is, at the end of the day, a business. And as everyone knows, the business world can be cut-throat. There will always be collateral damage at a premiere when it comes to fans/non-dealers missing out on getting their photos signed by their favourite actors, but this is just the way it is; in the same way that every other business has its own pitfalls.”
It’s not surprising that Zellweger was triggered by the pushiness at the Judy premiere – she’s part of a wider trend of stars refusing to put up with aggressive behaviour from autographing communities. Spiderman actor Tom Holland recently lost his shit with aggressive autograph collectors pushing and shoving in Los Angeles. Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston now refuses to sign memorabilia because of them ending up on eBay. Meanwhile, those on the red carpet tell me Gillian Anderson stopped signing X Files memorabilia because of its value, while the likes of Jack Nicholson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Cera have been known to beg dealers to calm down and stop pushing when throwing photos at them.
As Steve tells me: “There definitely seems to be a shift in some of the new younger stars coming up that don’t like to sign. Rami Malik is basically impossible to get. So is Brie Larson. It’s unusual for rising stars not to sign, but in their cases, both were hard from the get-go. They follow the likes of Bryan Cranston who has stopped signing in the last few years due to people selling them.”
But there is good news among the torrid: premieres have begun regulating the amount of fans allowed to wait at barriers. This was in practice at the Judy premiere and translated into less pushing and shoving, if only because fewer people crowded into the pens. I asked Steve for his thoughts on whether this was a good idea, and if it can combat the teenage runners.
“It’s good in a way,” he said, “but then again, people just arrive the night before now, register their name on a piece of paper and go home to sleep before returning in the morning. The security company don’t regulate that, so it still isn’t fair.” And so, as it goes, you shouldn’t expect to see runners disappear anytime soon.
*Some names have been changed.
