One year in the recent past - 2019, maybe - I was invited, along with Chris O’Dowd, the co-star of the show, to present State Of The Union at the Sundance Film Festival. It wasn’t my first visit to Sundance, but the festival had changed in the intervening years. It seemed a little more corporate, less funky and haphazard.
I was put up in a very lovely hotel a short drive from Park City, the ski-resort town where the festival takes place, but when I let myself into my room, it seemed to me that something weird had happened: someone already appeared to have moved in. There was a bag on the king-sized bed, and a coat, and a ton of other stuff. I remember thinking that our studio, the lovely people at AMC/Sundance, were asking Chris and I to share a room, and a bed. I was panicking a little. It was true that State Of The Union, ten episodes of ten minutes each, was not one of the major releases of the year, but…really? We don’t get our own rooms?
I was about to call the reception desk when I noticed that the bag hadn’t been opened. Like, ever. It still had the plastic security tag on the zip. And the other stuff was in boxes. And it very slowly dawned on me that this stuff did not belong to Chris O’Dowd or anyone else. It belonged to me. They were gifts. A bag, a coat, two cameras, wine, chocolates, some other things. They were all freebies. I had never seen anything like it. I have, of course, been the recipient of gifts and goodie bags before, but this haul must have been worth four figures. (The coat, a Canada Goose, was so expensive that my son, to whom I gave it, was mugged for it at knifepoint not long after I got home.)I have been to the Oscars, but in order to stuff your suitcase there, you have to go to the “gifting suites”, and it always seemed a little desperate, especially when I was told that the gifts were mostly junky. I have a little pride. It’s the A-list stars who get the jewellery and the clothes and, I don’t know, a small island or two.
I didn’t take everything that had been left for me in the hotel - I left some for the hotel staff. And a few other things I gave away to the children of friends I saw later on in that trip. I should have given one of them the Canada Goose coat, so he or she could get mugged instead of my son. But really…I hadn’t asked for any of it, hadn’t sought it out, and I got it anyway.
(I am sorry for the paywall. My hands are tied. The worth of this piece has been valued by independent assessors at over £100,000 , and Substack rules state that I cannot give it away. )