Former WWE star turned actor Dave Bautista is apparently a big Steve Urkel fan.
Everybody knows Jaleel White from his days as the lovable nerd on ABC's popular TGIF sitcom "Family Matters," well ... almost everyone. During an interview with TooFab about his new partnership with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the now-40-year-old former child star revealed how one actor's snub turned into an epic fan encounter with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star.
"This is actually really funny. I'm not going to name the other person, but I was on a flight from Atlanta and was actually sitting next to another celebrity, like side by side, who didn't even speak to me or acknowledge my human existence while we were on the plane," White told TooFab.
"It's kind of a thing, to be quite honest, if I sit down on a plane and I'm sitting next to somebody I say, 'Good morning or Hello' ... but there might have well been a plexiglass wall between us, this guy wouldn't even look at me."
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View Story"Then when the flight ends, behind me, Dave Bautista stands up and the other guy becomes the biggest kiss ass all of a sudden," White said. "And then Dave goes, 'Hey man, you're Jaleel White, do you mind if I take a picture with you?' [laughs] The egg on this other actor's face, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't have scripted this!"
Bautista told White he attempted to chased him down in Venice Beach for a photo once but couldn't get his camera in time. "[He] was like, 'I saw you in Venice one time and I really watched your show a lot in my youth ... I hope it's not creepy, but I'd love to take that picture.' I was like, 'Hell yeah, are you kidding me man?'"
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View StoryHe went on to call Dave a "nice" and "remarkably humble" guy, adding that "your fans in this business are going to be people you just never would have thought were your fans!"
And, speaking of all those "Family Matters" fans out there, White has no idea what's going on with a potential reboot of the show, especially after Hulu acquired the streaming rights to the original show.
"I'm super flattered that the property still continues to live in pretty prestigious places. That was just a deal Warner Bros. made, I didn't have much to do with it, it'll be reflected business wise on statements I received," he said of the deal. "I'm happy it went to Hulu and people can stop asking me about reboot stuff because obviously, whatever deal they were trying to hook up at Netflix, they got a better one at Hulu."
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View StoryWhen asked if he thought the Hulu deal could lead to renewed interest in the show, he told TooFab that only Warner Bros. knows what's going on for sure.
"I'm telling you, you got to find a Warner Bros. exec and ask that question. When people ask me that question, I almost be like, 'I got bosses too man,' they haven't talked to me about that," he joked. "I feel like the head of the Family Matters customer service department. I just refer people to [President and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Television] Peter Roth's office."
Read more about Jaleel's connection to Enterprise, his new CBS series "Me, Myself and I" and what his daughter thinks of his TGIF past.
How did this Enterprise partnership come about and what's the goal of the campaign?
The goal of the campaign is to get people to call their insurance agents and make sure that they're covered for rental car reimbursement. I think we've all been there with these checked and unchecked boxes, so when they approached me, it was really organic to my age and the things that I do.
The main talking point of the campaign is " adulting ." What was the hardest part of "adulting" in the public eye?
The worst part of adulting in the pubic eye for us is that if we make mistakes, it becomes fodder for the entire country. That kind of sucks.
I'm a dad to an 8-year-old daughter and that's probably the scariest moment in your life, when you're holding a kid and it hits you, all the things you cannot do. I remember walking into her closet, somewhere around 2, and the nanny and her mother were away and I realized I don't know how to dress her. Holy shit, I don't know how to dress a two-year-old girl. There were all these clothes hanging in her closet and I had purchased none of them. I paid for them, but I had purchased none of them. It's been a learning process. Now I know what outfits look good on a little girl, what's appropriate, brushing of the teeth, feeding, the games we play to get vegetables in the mouth. I have had my fair share of adulting!
Your daughter is 8 now, does she know what dad does for a living?
She understands it and she only really cares about it when it gets her past the line at Disneyland. Other than that, I could not be dealing with somebody who is more disinterested in my career. I am Daddy and that's something pretty much all public figures or actors deal with with their kids. They just see us as mommy and daddy, they don't make the connection.
When she was 4 or 5, she'd do this thing when people would ask for an autographs and she'd just interject and butt in, wanting to reassure herself that she would be heard first above everyone. At age 8, we've moved beyond that to photobombing.
Have you showed her Family Matters yet?
My mother made sure to do that quickly. She watched it and she laughed. I speak in a different voice and to a young person, that's immediate comedy. I'm still not as cool as YouTube, I'm just not in her eyes. Guys in bathtubs with Legos, I can't compete with that.
You have "Me, Myself and I" coming this fall. Can you talk a little about that and how different it is being on a sitcom in 2017?
I'm really excited about this and more for its topical subject matter. It's 50 years in one guy's life and pretty much, the way the episodes are played out, it constantly feels like he's experiencing some form of the worst day of his life but from 3 different perspectives in his life. Anytime you get a very talented showrunner, what a blessing that is. Bobby Moynihan has been so great and so gracious, that's the kind of guy you really want to see win.