Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret in the first cast of The Crown, is carving a spot for herself in the action film community, having roles in both Mission Impossible – Fallout and currently co-starring in Hobbs & Shaw. Vanessa appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote the movie. During her segment, she told Jimmy a wild story about how she almost missed her appearance because the car she’d rented was stolen while she was in a meeting. Or so she thought.
Remember when you’re watching this clip that Vanessa is promoting a franchise that is famously about people who are experts with cars:
I will transcribe the story but do yourself a favor and listen to Vanessa telling it. Her delivery is what makes this both charming and laugh-out-loud funny. That and Vanessa has an incredible voice.
I heard you had some kind of car trouble. Was this in Los Angeles?
I was renting this really nice Audi car for the first time. I don’t drive much, I’m not good. I went into my meeting, and then I came out and I was like, “Oh my God, my car is gone.” There was like an empty space. So I thought, “if it’s been towed,” because I couldn’t remember if I’d paid the meter… So we were ringing every impound place, because my car nearly got towed the day before so it was already on the registrar. And then eventually, I had to go to the police, because it was officially a missing car, like a stolen car.
Wow. Did you ever find the car?
40 hours later, after a big search and, you know, we’d thought it was gone forever. Uhm, it was on… I’d come out a different entrance.
This story raises more questions than it answers. Why had her car almost been impounded the day before? Was it because she’s a terrible driver? How did no one circle the block in the 40 hours the car was missing? And where, in downtown LA, can you park a car for 40 hours without getting it towed? I can’t fault her for the meter thing, those things baffle me too. I generally buy enough time for the next seven cars to park in that space because I can’t ever figure out how to take away time so – you’re welcome, LA drivers. I can’t fault her for not recognizing where she’d parked her car, either. It wasn’t her car, she doesn’t live here, who knows if she’d ever been to that building before. I’ve lost the car I drive every day in parking lots I frequent weekly – cars hide from us! Although, I’ve never actually reported it stolen but I do have a friend that did. To the grocery store security guy, not the cops, but I still razz her about it to this day. CB said she had a date who had the same thing that happened to Vanessa happen to him and like Vanessa, found his car a week later. A week!
I once saw two officers escort an elderly lady to her car after she’d reported it stolen. She apologized with every step and one of the officers told her that he was so glad she’s called because it allowed all of them a happy ending for their day. They’d greeted her with, “we have fantastic news!” I don’t know why but that little scene always stayed with me. I hope Vanessa got this kind of reception, and not a tsking. Although she’s kind of on top of the world right now, I’m not sure a tsk would bother her much.
This is a party I want to be invited to
Photo credit: YouTube and WENN Photos
If you’re in a mall/office building type parking lot where there’s multiple floors/entrances, take a picture of the parking marker or area. You used to have to remember, now you just click your phone and while you might be on the wrong side when leaving, at least you know where you’re going. I’m surprised she didn’t go to security before calling LAPD.
I do this all the time, especially at long-term airport parking when going away for a few days. Really helps cut down on time and angst looking for my car. I’m so glad somebody thought to tell me this years ago.
I once got lost after a haircut in the town where I live! I walked around for hours with a dead phone battery trying to figure out which of the ten million identical parking garages I had left my car in. Now I take pictures lol.
I do this all the time, too. I’ve lost my car too many times.
Funny (true) story: Eons ago, I had bought my first “new” car. I took my sister to a Dodger game. We parked, went inside, had a great time. Now, it’s time to get back to the car. I have a great sense of direction; headed for the exit, and my sister was vehemently insistent that I was heading the wrong way, and we needed a different exit. We argued for a bit, but I acquiesced, and we went her way. Surprise!! NO CAR! Ok, so we backtracked and tried a different exit (anyone who knows stadiums knows there are multiple exits; all look the same at some point). Again, no car. I start to panic; this is a brand new car! After an hour of searching, we give up and call my parents and tell them the car seems to have been stolen! They told us they’re on the way, and to call Stadium Security.
Stadium Security was very nice (I’m sure they go through this multiple times a day lol). They said we have to wait till the parking lot empties out and they’ll drive us around to look. So….we wait another hour. By this time, my parents are there, and I’m hysterical (my car!!! lol). Lo and behold…we start to drive around with Security, and there’s my car… OUTSIDE THE EXIT *I* WANTED TO GO OUT OF! lolol. I NEVER listened to my sister regarding directions ever again lol
I was so shook up from this that my mom had to drive my car home for me. So I can totally relate to Vanessa! 😊
Yep, I’ve done that in very large malls, but I just wasted time in frantic searching before finally finding my car. But I want my brain to still work, so I make a point of standing at my car, really looking at the place where it is, what business/shop is nearest, what it looks like from the approach I’ll take when I return to it, & etc. I drive a lot of rentals because I travel a lot, so now I make a point to really look at the car before I get in it, memorize the color & so on (it’s amazing how sometimes we automatically just get in a rental & don’t bother to remember the color or make–or maybe that’s just me). I do start taking photos of my valet ticket at hotels, though; I lose those doggone things all the time.
My brother couldn’t find his car one morning. It wasn’t where he swore he left it. He was calling it in and walking to the T to get to work and, as he was describing it to the police on the phone, he walked by it. Oops! Never mind, officer!
I have had my new car for more than a year but I still spend time to locate it at a parking lot every single time haha
I have a very common car, and more than once have been at someone else’s, wondering why it wasn’t unlocking!
I forget who it was, but someone else just told a similar story on one of the late-night shows. I guess it’s pretty common!
My husband and I were at a baseball game and when it was over we went to the parking garage to get our car. He was walking in front of me and I wasn’t paying attention to him. I walked up to the passenger side of what I thought was our car and was standing there for several seconds when I looked up and saw him several cars down, looking at me and laughing. He said he was wondering how long it would take me to realize it wasn’t our car.
When I was about 12 my father had a Ford and we were parked in the street in Manhattan. We went to go get something from his trunk and the trunk was empty. After panicking for a few minutes we noticed an identical car parked right in front of the car we had unlocked. We tried his key in that car and there was our stuff.
The scary part, and the reason I still remember it, is that our key worked in 2 different cars.
I had a ’58 Belair for the longest time in the ’80s & once locked my keys in the car. The mechanic who came to open it for me told me that it was too bad there weren’t other Chevys of a similar vintage because the keys would fit!
There’s only so many patterns that they can cut keys into, but it’s definitely something I didn’t think about until recently. It’s a little sketchy, but I get why.
During a family trip to Disney my spanish uncle took us to a mall and when we were heading back we got into his rental car… only to realise it was someone else’s car! He was able to unlock it with his car key!
We went to see Hobbs and Shaw last Friday and of course, it’s hardly a cinematic masterpiece but it’s delightful dumb fun and she’s great in it.
I saw it on Sunday! Most of the audience was made up of women like me in their mid to late 50s and it was so much fun with all the hooting and hollering going on! and more than a couple of boos when The Rock and Vanessa’s character kissed 🙂 While it probably won’t win an Oscar, it certainly made for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon!!
Saw it yesterday and loved it. It was exactly how I hoped it would be, silly fun. She was great it in it.
I can’t fault her! I lost my car and could not find it for 16 hours following running in a half marathon earlier that day… In my defense, all of the parking garages in downtown Columbus, OH look the same. I also attribute it to arriving super early in the morning, not paying attention to where I’d parked due to pre-race jitters, and exhaustion/ low sodium after the race. It happens lol. 🤦🏼♀️😂
I could not find my car in a parking garage once and called security because I thought it had perhaps been stolen. Turns out I entered a different door than I exited, and it had like half levels, and it was very confusing, but I found it right before security arrived. I was very embarrassed
That’s happened to me, tbh. I don’t drive often, just enough to keep my hand in, and everytime I do, I lose the bloody thing for hours. As in, I called my partner crying, and he’s like, “Okay, go home, cook dinner, and we’ll do a once around before calling the police and insurance company.” Did as told — found it in the adjoining car park.
So, I feel her.
The last car I owned (I live in a big city and don’t drive now) was an orange Honda Fit. I bought it because it stuck out like crazy. I was always losing my silver small sedan I had before that, so I figured a garish car would be harder to lose track of. Worked pretty well.
I drove my daughter’s silver SUV and was careful to remember the row where I parked. Later I proudly found the row—with 7 silver SUVs lined up together. So there I am snooping in windows.
This totally sounds like something I would do. But now I do the take-a-picture thing.
I’ve lost my car multiple times. Just last week I had a mini panic because I just couldn’t see my car at the gym’s parking and actually thought “this time it’s been stolen” (coming into the gym I didn’t realise I had parked so far away! like 4 blocks away).
Thankfully I’ve never called the police on it, though. I’d die from embarrassment.
Google Maps has a very useful thing: it tracks where you’ve parked so you can walk back to your car LOL
I also have an embarrassing car story! When I was 16, I was waiting for my mother to come pick me up from some place. I remember it was raining and miserable, and she was running really late. When she finally arrived, I jumped in the car, slammed the door and went on a whole tirade, only to realise that I’d actually gotten in a stranger’s vehicle and was yelling at the guy (like the teenage brat I was, lol). We stared at each other for a few seconds, then I mumbled an apology and just… sprinted out.
I have a similar story! I was at the car registration office paying for my new car and called a car service to pick me up. 20 mins later a car stops next to me, I wave, driver waves, and I get in. Old man was picking up his wife from a doctor’s appointment. He was very charming about the whole thing lol
I did this just last summer. I’d gone in to use the gas station’s restroom and entered the passenger side of someone else’s car. As I got in, I thought, “who the hell bought Funions?” but sat down and shut the door before the guy said, “Uhm – hello?”
When I got back in to my car, my husband said, “still try to make a break for it, huh?”
Omg, thanks for the lol moment here to begin my day. That’s exactly where my mind would’ve gone, “who the hell bought Funions?” Hahahahaha.
One of my absent minded profs long ago drove to a conference, took the train back, then reported his car missing when he got home, because he’d forgotten he’d driven it to the conference. I still laugh thinking of that!
Google Maps has a neat feature of marking your parking spot. Any new place, parking garage, or parked in an open field along with hundreds of other cars, I always use the google map feature and save my parking spot.
Security had to help my mom find her car at the VA one time. Vets had to do it the second time. It’s a running joke with us.
Same thing happened to my friend while we were all drinking. Fate stepped in and we couldn’t find her car (yes I know she shouldn’t have even considered driving but I believe we were trying to grab something from it before heading to the next spot). She called the police and we all took a taxi home (before Uber). Next morning she texts all of us and tells us she found the car but it was just parked somewhere we hadn’t initially thought. Police were nice to her when she initially reported but she was so embarrassed and so were we.
I have parked at UCLA many times. They used to have numbered parking spots which made it easy to find your car. Then they decided to eliminate the numbers. Yes. They painted over them and installed parking machines into which you must now type in your license plate number. They did this so when one person leaves the garage, he/she couldn’t just hand the ticket to another person just entering the garage. First time I parked there after the stupid change, it took me fifteen minutes to find my car. There are multiple entrances on different levels and I couldn’t remember how I entered. Some garages have markers you can photograph like J-RED but not UCLA. Maybe they assume everyone who parks there is so bright that they can find his or her car with absolutely no row marker guides. 🙄
Vanessa is infamous here in London for enjoying certain… substances.
That is SO me. Good to see a kindred soul. I live a little in fear because I have a young daughter still traveling backwards in her car seat. Once I almost -almost- forgot to take her inside. I am afraid of my absent-mindedness sometimes and Alzheimer runs in my family, so I try to be extra careful in that regard, but in other areas I am a failure, I al always losing my eyeglasses. In big cities we have to really look for the names / codes in the car parks.
I have a recurring dream where I have my car parked in town and I can’t find it.
I was on vacation with my husband and in a strange town I could have sworn that our car had been stolen after I went out one morning on my own to take photos! We actually called the police, filed an insurance claim and picked up a rental car only to have the police call us and let us know that the car had been found a few block away. Turns out that I forgot that I had moved the car a few blocks to a different location and walked around to the original parking spot forgetting that I had moved it. Luckily it was a super nice
Police officer and my husband now has a story to bring up every time I’m sure I’m right 😉
My father did this once. He parked it in a weird place and forgot. The cops called. Few days later and we realized it was right where he left it
That is me too!! Like everyone else here!! LOL!!
“We have fantastic news!” I love that story!
I “lost” my car last week after work. I usually park on the same floor of the parking garage, but his time I found a parking space on the main level. I exit the elevator and start walking towards my car, then realize it’s not mine. I kept doing this (it’s amazing how many dark blue cars there are that all look alike, lol!) until I had walked the entire floor clicking my remote looking for it. Now I’m getting concerned that someone took it. It’s brand new and I only know the first three letters on the license plate. Eventually it dawned on me that I parked on the main floor that day. I went back down four floors and sure enough, there it was. So now if I park on a different floor, I make a note in my phone to remind me lol.