Hacks‘ third season premiere highlights the awkwardness of elevator encounters between long-lost friends with a legend in the mix. Those moments are surely more awkward between celebrities who have never met, but there’s an idol present. Such was the case when (as described around the 2:30 mark above) Amy Poehler happened to find herself in an elevator with Prince when he appeared on SNL. The subject came up after Poehler exchanged some memories with Slash while visiting Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Naturally, the host wanted to know of Prince, “Was he friendly?” Via HuffPo, Poehler revealed how she dropped the conversational ball by asking a generic question to an extraordinary person dressed in purple:
“Well, I’ll never know because I really blew my chance. He came offstage during the soundcheck and walked past me, and … he just kind of gave me a little eye contact and said hello. And I said, ‘How was your summer?’ That was my question to Prince.”
Apparently, Prince did not answer? Or perhaps Poehler was blinded by how “[h]e just floated away into the elevator in a lavender haze of talent.” Oh well. These situations could always be worse, like, say, if Poehler had asked this question in the dead of winter. Actually, that’s what happened, according to HuffPo deducing that this must have occurred in February 2006. Yikes.
