I have been a fan of Ryan's since the Pretender days, back in 1999 (I know, I only caught The Pretender at the 2nd-3rd seasons). I had been amazed by Ryan's performance a young Jarod and I had searched for information about him on internet and had ended up on his official website.

Then, in 2005, I learned that I was one of the 13 lucky winners of a personal phone call from Ryan, thanks to the contest I had entered. And I was listed as the 1st winner, so the 1st one to get the phone call ! Oh my God, I couldn't believe it !

It was a regular saturday evening which was about to turn everything but regular. It was about 7 PM for me, in France, and I wasn't expecting Ryan's call until the following monday. I had just finished washing my hair when the phone rings. Obviously, I couldn't answer right away, so my younger brother picked up the phone. He heard a man's voice asking "Nathalie ?", and hearing the English accent, kind of panicked and shouted : "Nathalie ! It's an Englisman for you !". My hair still wet, I was like : "An Englishman ?! It can't be Ryan already ..." and I started to freak out anyway. I picked up the phone and asked "Allo ? ..." and heard " Nathalie ?". Me :" Yeah .... Ryan ?" and he answered "Yes." Oh my God, I had a sudden rush of adrenaline through all my body, I couldn't believe that I was actually talking to Ryan Merriman, the only actor I was a total fan of !!!!

He had such a sweet voice, it was so lovely to just listen to him !! I must have sounded strange, though, as I had been taken of guard in a way, I hadn't been expecting it so soon, ........... but who is ever prepared for such things, anyway ?

Source de l'image : image courtesy of Ryan Merriman's official website

He started asking basic things, like "How are you doing ?" (just imagine how I was doing ?! Totally excited ! lol), he asked me about the weather, what time it was (he was amazed that it was already 7 PM in France - it was morning for him, in Oklahoma).

We talked about several stuff, but I don't remember everything, especially from the beginning, as I apparently still had some water in my ears which made me miss the point of some things Ryan said (with the level of excitement I was in, plus the water, plus the fact that he was speaking in English which is not my mother tongue, plus the fact that I was taken aback, un prepared, it wasn't easy at first to focus on what he was saying !). But here are some things I remember.

source : unknown

I think he said something about going very soon to the set of his new movie, "Final Destination 3", or was he already calling from there ? I didn't get this part (silly water in my ears .. lol) ...

He then told me a few stuff he had learnt in French, which was just so adorable (did I tell you that I love foreign accents ? If he had had a British accent, I would have instantly melted ..). He said things like "Bonjour chérie" ("Hello, darling"), "Qu'est-ce que tu en penses ? ("What do you think of that?") and a few other things. I congratulated him on the fact that he said all that very well, and that he didn't have a strong American accent. He answered that, "Well, it's my job as an actor to do good accents." or something like that. He was happy that I understood very well what he was saying in French. It was so sweet !

He told me he had been in Montreal for "Veritas", and that it was more european there and that he had liked it. I think that maybe he told me he had learnt all these French sentences there, but I'm not sure.

He asked me if I had already seen "The Ring 2" and if it was already released there, and I answered that I unfortunately hadn't seen it because it was to be released the following wednesday. He told me "Oh, you gotta see it !" and I was like "Yeah, sure ! It's so great to see you back on the big screen". I told him I had seen "Rings", though, and he asked me what I had thought of it. I told him that it was awesome, really intense, that the editing was really intense and that it was a great performance. He said he had really liked this experience, that it was new for him.

"He then told me a few stuff he had learnt in French, which was just so adorable (did I tell you that I love foreign accents ? If he had had a British accent, I would have instantly melted ..). He said things like "Bonjour chérie" ("Hello, darling"), "Qu'est-ce que tu en penses ? ("What do you think of that?") and a few other things."

source : photo courtesy of Ryan Merriman's official website

I told him I had discovered him in "The Pretender", and that this series was a huge hit in France. I added that there are still many many fans, it's true, and he was amazed. I told him that when I showed my fan-site about him to my friends or French people, they would often tell me "Oh, yeah, that's the little boy from The Pretender !". And that was why I decided to do a website about him, so that French people would get to know him better. He said he really appreciated everything I was doing for him on my website and all.

Then I must have talked about dubbing or something like that, as he asked me at some point if his Disney Channel movies were in English or dubbed in French here. I told him they were dubbed, and that it was kind of weird sometimes because the kids who dubbed him didn't have a voice like Ryan at all !! He said it would definitively be funny to hear himself dubbed in French.

He asked if I had watched "Rings" in French too, and I said no, because it was on a DVD, and what I loved about DVD was that I can choose to watch them in English and hear Ryan's real voice for example, and that it was much better and he definitively agreed with that (still, he would really find it funny to hear his "French voice")!

I asked him about the dolphin's research project, and he said that it was for his sister, who was in New Zealand to do this research, and that the money we gave in the contest was going to be really useful.

I asked him if he missed to study, as I love learning stuff, and I think I would miss studies in a way. He said "You mean, school ?", like he was shocked or something, you know "How can you miss school ?" lol, that was funny. He said he didn't miss studies, that anyway, if he couldn't be an actor, he would build houses, and as his father taught him stuff about it, he really wouldn't miss studies. And, as he made money as actor, it's alright not to keep up with studies (I remember that he didn't use to say that before, in his older newsletters, so I guess he changed his mind with time).

I told him a few stuff about my studies (multimedia then film studies at University) and that it was cool because I could tell people, you know : "I go to the movies, but that's for my studies ! " because I study cinema, so it's great, and he said "yeah, that's nice homework !" and things like that.

I told him "Hi" from all of his fans on his official message board, and that we were all excited and happy about his new projects. I told him some of his fans had already seen "The Ring 2" and had found it awesome, and said that his mom may have already told him that as I knew she checked the message board sometimes, and he said yes, she had told him. I told him "Hi" from Jaclyn, from Florida, and he asked me from where she was (Naples, Florida).

I told him to hug Micol from me, and that I was really happy they were together, that we were all really happy actually. I also told him I was glad he had enjoyed the scrapbook we had sent him for his wedding, and he said it was really sweet from us (how lovely !).

I asked him about the movie "Beyond the gates of Splendor", that he had helped produced through Bearing Fruit Communications, with the money he got from his T-shirt line. Ryan told me it hadn't been released yet, like "The Colt", but that he would tell us when he would know. [I now have found out that it has been released : it's a documentary and now they did a movie based on the documentary, called "End of Spear", due to be released in january 2006. The documentary can be found in churches in the USA - that's where I found this information - and should now be available on DVD !]

He said that "Spin" would be on DVD soon, and I said "Yes, in May I think. I'll definitively buy it, as I can watch US DVDs on my computer".

I don't know who was with him and told him that he had other calls to do, but there definitively was someone with him, maybe his mom.
He said he had other calls to make, and "Bye sweety" (awww, how lovely ), "Take care". I told him to keep up the good work and the great movie projects.

Well, there were a few more stuff, but that basically what we talked about for about 15 minutes !!! I wanted to tell him that I would travel to the USA in the summer of 2005, but I didn't have time too :(

Ryan really sounded so sweet, he is such a great guy, really :) OMG, I still can't realize that I had Ryan on the phone !!!!!!!!!!!!!

source : poster courtesy of Beyond the Gates of Splendor's official website