13 Celebrity Friends And Family Share Exactly What They’re Like When They Come Home To Visit
By Lisa Woods
1. Keanu Reeves
Related to Keanu Reeves. We have a Reeve’s ohana gathering every year in Hawai’i and he never comes. Which I don’t blame him at all, his dad was not a good father so I assume, besides being a busy actor, he doesn’t come because that burned the bridges with our family. My dad sometimes mentions Keanu when the reunions happen, about how he doesn’t visit. It’s not in a bitter way or anything, just sometimes the little cousins ask. I haven’t met all my family in Hawai’i yet cause I live on the mainland, but I do know at least a few people are salty about it. Other than that, my cousins look up to him and get excited when he’s in a movie. Even if the kids aren’t allowed to watch cause of violence they see a movie poster and look all awe-struck. So cute.
2. Dr. Demento
My uncle is Dr. Demento. He’s a really cool guy. Insanely knowledgeable about music and music history. He is totally cool at family gatherings.
3. Megan Fox
Megan Fox is my first cousin once removed (her mother and my grandfather are brother and sister).
She’s six years older than me, so there are plenty of pictures of us playing together while growing up, but once she got to the point of puberty, she quickly shifted into modeling and moved from Tennessee to Florida to pursue it. She then got into movies and as you know, made it rather big.
The last time she was in town to visit was about twelve years ago. She came for Christmas and everything seemed normal until she whipped out the stack of headshots she had brought to sign for us to take to back to our friends and such.
She did make it a point to call my grandfather when he had his heart attack back in 2014, so not all is lost in fame. The headshots thing was just a tad comical.
4. Zac Efron
Cousins with Zac Efron here. Most of my family is just stoked about it for the most part. I know that his grandparents recently visited him in LA and he was so busy he could only spend an hour or so with them.
No one believed he was my cousin until I showed them my dad’s high school senior photo where he looks identical to Zac.
5. Lucy Lawless
My aunt is Xena the Warrior Princess and absolutely nothing at family gatherings. She is just our aunt. We got stopped a couple times in New Orleans by people who recognized her. Back in NZ when her show was going on some little girls would come up and want to take pics.
She’s one of the nicest people to talk to and never acts like a celebrity. I have gotten to do some very cool stuff in my life which I’ll never take for granted because of her kindness!
Hey Lucy! I’ll let you guess which one of us it is if you’re out there!
6. Sinbad
My uncle is Sinbad (the comedian/actor). He is married to my biological aunt on my dad’s side, so I am not his blood relation, but his kids and wife are blood-related to me.
It actually hasn’t. We go on vacations with them every summer and have for the past 6 or so years. We didn’t for a while when he and my aunt were separated, but after they got back together we see that family at least once a year. Just got back from a vacation with them on Sunday actually, we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
At first it was a little annoying having to stop every couple minutes because someone asked for a picture, but eventually, he stopped posing for pictures while with us. He just says “sorry, I’m with my family” now.
Nothing terribly exciting, but he has been famous since I was born, so I didn’t get a before and after experience.
The coolest thing was definitely going to Disney/Universal with him. We got the VIP treatment and skipped every line. We rode dueling dragons probably 5-7 times back to back. 3 of us barfed, it was great.
7. Willem DeFoe
While I was growing up my family was close to Willem Dafoe and his family. They are really wonderful people, but very private, which is completely understandable. My dad got pretty uncomfortable at family events because our family members were always asking him if he could introduce them to Willem, or worse – borrow money from him. It got to the point where my family avoided most family events because they valued their working and personal relationship with Willem & Liz more.
8. Walt Disney
Walt Disney. My grandpa is Walt Disney’s first cousin. We would visit with Walt’s daughter Diane often before she passed away. It usually consisted of going to the Disney museum in San Francisco, getting treated like royalty, and eating amazing food. Oh, and Disneyland gold passes (get into Disneyland/California adventure for free).
9. Viggo Mortensen
My wife is childhood friends with the family of Viggo Mortensen. She got to hang out with him after he shot Lord of the Rings but before it was released. Said he was a very cool guy, extremely laid back, and fun to have a beer with. Her friend spent her childhood hanging out with him on summer vacations and has yet to have a bad thing to say about him.
10. Cage The Elephant
My cousins are in the band Cage The Elephant. My cousins are so down to earth that their fame doesn’t really affect our family. We are all so close (even though we live so far away) and they invite us to their concerts when they’re in town. I will say when we plan family reunions, everyone’s first question is “Will the boys be on tour then?” Of course, this is because everyone wants all the family there and my cousins are usually the busiest out of everyone with schedules that are pretty finite. Overall, it has brought us all closer having such successful people who worked hard in our family.
11. David Tennant
Spouse is related to David Tennant. I did not know this until after we were married (spouse born in America). Not impacted life at all except I got to meet him during my first trip to London. Their family scored us tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and we saw David Tennant and Cathrine Tate after the show. Nothing bad to say about either of them; they were both lovely and effusive and Tennant gave us both a hug even though neither of us had ever met him before. Spouse had a brief chat about mutual acquaintances in the family and then we left.
12. Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker
My ex-wife is related to Richard Ramirez, yes, The Night Stalker. He came up at EVERY single family gathering big or small. They would talk about him for hours. Same stories same reactions. As the years went by he slowly started to disappear from the conversations. Then he goes and makes national news when he died.
We were already divorced when it happened but that did not stop her family from reaching out to me and telling me, in detail, all about his life and death. It still comes up every time I come across any of them. Can’t tell if its pride or sorrow.
13. Ryan Reynolds
My sisters best friend is Ryan Reynolds niece. She went to the wedding with Blake Lively. Ryan came to our school one time, A+ guy and he is still close to his family.