Stockholm: Celebrity Story

I actually have a memorable celebrity story from my time living and working in Stockholm, Sweden. I was working at a café on a particularly busy day during rush hour, so I was focused on making coffees and didn't pay much attention to the customers. The coffee machine was right next to the counter where my colleague was taking orders, so I could see the customers as they approached.

As I was preparing the coffees, I noticed a man coming to the counter. I was ready to listen to his order to speed things up, but he only asked for some bread. I watched as my colleague calmly bagged the bread, handed it to him, and took his payment, all while I was busy with the other customers. Luckily, he was the last in line, giving her a moment to react.

I distinctly saw her lean in front of the coffee machine to hide her excitement from the café patrons. She leaned towards me to silently express her thrill, clearly having been holding in her emotions while taking the man's order. I asked her, "What happened? What's wrong?" because I hadn’t realized who he was; to me, he was just another customer. My colleague jumped back, and with a few spare moments, our other coworkers were curious about what was going on. She exclaimed, "Do you know who just came in? The man who ordered bread?" We were all eager to know, and she revealed that it was the actor Skarsgård.

While I didn’t catch his first name, I knew he played the clown in IT and appeared in other films as well. I must admit I'm not well-versed in celebrity culture, but my colleague was clearly a fan, and it turns out this actor is Swedish and lives in Stockholm, so he popped in one day to buy some bread. Being a true Swede, she managed to keep her composure and didn’t outwardly express her excitement upon seeing him, even though she recognized him. I suppose the Swedish mentality is generally more reserved, which is why she didn’t react more openly.

Although I missed the chance to recognize him in the moment, it's a funny celebrity story I now have. If I had realized who he was, I could proudly say I made a coffee for Mr. Skarsgård, but he only ordered bread. Unfortunately, I no longer work at that café, so I won’t have that chance again, but the fact remains that he did come in and order bread while he was right in front of me, which is pretty cool.