By Bills4me, Typeoneg and Karen

Saying that Stephen Moyer can be found in the woods north of Toronto is like saying he can be found in a yellow cab in New York City, a sidewalk café in Paris or on a double-decker bus in London. Really?

From the moment it was announced that Stephen was going to be in Toronto to shoot the feature film, “The Barrens,” the pressure was on. Since this is my hometown, I was told, OMG! You have to find him!

Ok, but Toronto is a BIG city and we don’t want to talk about how many clumps of trees surround it. Also, celebrity stalking is just not what I do – or least that’s what I thought. I needed a wingman at least. So I asked who was up to helping me in the search for Stephen. Two brave souls stepped forward, Karen from the suburbs of Toronto and Typeoneg from Michigan. Excellent. We decided we would have a Billsbabe gathering the week of October 17 and set out a plan to find the beloved alter ego of Vampire Bill.

Meanwhile, the global community of Billsbabes rallied. Tweets were posted, locations where cited. It was Krissyma in Germany who broke the news that they were filming in Rockwood, Ontario, about an hour from Toronto. Shadaliza was asking why we couldn’t just go out there and scout it out. Be damned the job and the family, we needed to get to Rockwood!

So, after the second week of filming, Karen and I took up the charge, left work early and found the set. We entered a forest being misted with fog. “Come on through, it’s only movie stuff”, we were told. (After later investigation, we learned that the direction was coming from the Director of the film, Darren Lynn Bousman.) We were allowed to stay and watch the filming provided we took no photographs. Awesome! With our hearts in our throats, we scanned the set for Steve. He was nowhere to be found. I finally asked the script consultant if he was on set. No, he had left work early for the long weekend just as we had done. Major disappointment number one. You may have read about this one already on AllStephenMoyer.com.

Our next hope was to wait for Typeoneg to cross the border and bring us some luck. We agreed that we would spend Tuesday evening together scouring the downtown neighborhood where Steve was regularly spotted. Then on Wednesday we would head back to Rockwood. But once Typeoneg arrived, we were too excited to wait and the weather forecast for Wednesday was dreadful. (We could write a whole chapter about how horrible the weather has been on this production and how the sun shone brightly only when Stephen had left town, but I regress).

Karen and I arrange to take the afternoon off work on Tuesday to lunch with Typeoneg and put our plan into action. We decided that since it’s not raining, we should go to Rockwood. Ahhh, but Lynnpd had posted a tweet from one of the co-stars that said they have changed location and will be in the haunted forest. There we go with the trees again. Where the heck could that be?

As part of my own sleuthing, I had found a production roster for The Barrens that listed the production company name, address and telephone number. Hummm. Telephone number. I worked up the courage to call. A gruff voice answered the phone, “Production.” I said, “Hey, are you guys still shooting in Rockwood today?” He says, “No, we’ve wrapped in Rockwood and we’re in location X”. Jackpot! We are golden. We jump in the car and headed up the highway to a large conservation area north of the city, where, of course, there are a lot of trees.

The excitement was palatable in the car. Adding to it was the encouraging words being sent our way from Billsbabes the world over.

We reached our destination and found the tell-tale orange pylons that mark filming locations. There were a couple of different set areas marked set 1, set 2. Where to go? There seems to be more action in set 2, so the three of us strike out with backpacks, cameras, and stuff for Steve to autograph. After about a ten minute walk, we are deep in the woods. Then we hear voices and spot an old dude. Schneider is a craggy character with a braided grey beard. He is directing traffic, camera equipment, etc. We say hello and ask straight away if Stephen is on the set. “Who’s asking?” he says. “We’re just fans and want to say, “Hello.” We don’t want to be in the way or cause any fuss, we’d just like to say hi to Stephen.” He is clearly not happy. He mutters into his microphone that he has “a situation”. Really? After being told that there was no way, no how to go any further down the path, Schneider suggests we find Danielle (whose name was actually Diane). She is the person in charge of the talent. Go back to Base Camp and ask for Danielle. That we did.

Danielle aka Diane is a friendly young twenty-something who clearly doesn’t know what to make of the three mature women looking for Stephen Moyer. She warns that the production companies don’t take kindly to fans interfering with the cast, but says she’ll leave us be. She also shares the fact that they are only doing day scenes and will wrap with the sunset. That means we only need to sit and wait for the sun to go down and we can greet Steve when he returns to his trailer. We go and sit in the car and mind our own business – which includes updating Billsbabes on the board. Diane then brings along Christy who is the Assistant to the Director. She is a bubbly young woman who is also an actress. We take her picture because we know she’ll be famous someday. She says she’ll tell Steve that we’re here. Then, we sit in the car and wait some more.

Along comes Keith. He approaches the car and I open the door. He hands me his business card and explains that as the production company that has rented the park, the space is no longer public and they must guarantee the cast the security of knowing that they will not be accosted by fans when they return to their trailer. Keith delivers the news as sweetly as possible. He says we have to get off the property, but tells us that all the cars will be leaving through a specific gate that leads to the highway and if we want to try and catch Steve’s attention offsite, that’s the place to be. He ended with what sounded like a sincere, “I’m sorry ladies.”

Off to the gate we go. It’s starting to get dark. We park the car parallel with the gate so we can see cars approach and get a view of who is inside. Our American Babe decides we need to write a sign in order to get Steve’s attention. She finds a piece of cardboard that’s not large, but it will do. After much deliberation, we decide a simply message is best. She grabs the sharpie and writes “Steve”. Typeoneg then proceeds to exit the car and sit atop the gate to the park holding her Steve sign and lighting it with a flashlight.

Many cars and trucks go by and we got a mixture of amused smiles and stares – plus a glare from Schneider. A particularly friendly fellow stopped to see what we were doing and assured us that Stephen is a really nice guy and he will stop if he can see your sign clearly. He says Steve should be along in about 15 minutes. In the meantime we learned that Shadaliza had sent an email to Stephen telling him that we were out there waiting for him. The excitement mounts.

A lady in a car goes by slowly, smiles and taps on her horn. Many more cars and trucks go by including a white van that we can’t see into. After another hour and a half the traffic out of the park dwindles and then stops completely. That sinking feeling hits and we have to admit that we’ve missed him again; another mission failure. We are sad and hungry and we have to pee really badly.

The car is decidedly quieter on the way home. We have some discussion of what could have been or what we should have done differently and who might have ratted us out. (Definitely someone under 30!) Then the car starts to vibrate and we hear a disturbing thudding sound. Oh my word, it can’t be. We have a flat tire. We are on a busy highway and pull to the shoulder. The car is brand new and came with roadside assistance. We call. The tow truck people call us back. It will be forty minutes for the truck to arrive. Yeah, let’s sit in the car and wait some more!

We finally get the tire changed. We go to a restaurant for much needed dinner and drinks. We decide that our hunt is over. We can’t take the disappointment any more. The only way we’d ever do anything is if we got an email from Stephen saying he’d meet us somewhere. Yeah, like that’s going to happen.

I get home. Tell the hubby about the flat tire. Confess that I’ve been stalking Stephen Moyer all day and check back on the board. What do I find but the note from Lynn saying that Steve feels horrible about missing us and wants to meet us at the gate to the park when he arrives for work in the morning.

Just goes to prove that it’s who you know, not what you know.

The next morning we drive up without incident. The rain has held off. We get to the gate. We wait for a brief time. A van pulls up and who is peaking out the window but Stephen Moyer himself.

He climbs out of the vehicle announcing, “Hi, I’m Steve”; a master of the obvious. He hugged each one of us. Yes, ladies, he HUGGED each one of us! Yes, Parise, he smells good.

He apologizes for missing us the day before. He knew about the troubles we’d encountered. “Heard you had a puncture”, he says. Yep, the flat tire. He said they were very close to finishing the film. Today they were doing press; we’d seen the Global/E.T. Canada van drive by a few minutes before Steve showed up.

He is the most gracious and warm and huggable and delicious man we’ve ever stalked. Oops, did we say that out loud? He missed us at Rockwood and we forgive him because he spent the weekend in London with his son, Billy.

We tried to fulfill all of our fellow Billbabes requests – including smelling the man – and had Steve says hello to you all in the video below. We made sure he knew that all of you around the world were with us during our stakeout, our ups and downs, and in spirit, during the meeting itself. He still is amazed by our global community of Billsbabes and is especially grateful for the financial support we have given his dear mate Bertie and James.

Thank you to all who supported us with words of encouragement, crossing all body parts, and sending positive vibes our way in our darkest hours – and it was literally pitch black. But from our darkest hours came the new dawn and a wonderful visit with the man himself.

We love you all – and Steve does, too.

In the video below, which were taken on an Iphone, hence the orientation, Stephen gives a special “thank you and Hello” to all the Billsbabes. He also shares that he’s a bit worried about his mate, Bertie.

In the next video, we continue the visit with Stephen Moyer where he signs art work by Anima Eterna (which was auctioned off for Billsbabes Day) and hears how all over the world his fans were following this adventure. After signing, he comments how young he looks in the portrait.

view more images from this album