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Photo: Christopher Walken Hitchhiking In NYC
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 22, 2013
Modified Nov 22, 2013
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Courtesy Sergio P.
By
Ben Yakas
Published Nov 22, 2013
Modified Nov 22, 2013
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We know John Waters loves hitchhiking—Dave Matthews, Bono and Larry David have all hitched (or picked up a hitchhiker) as well. And now we can add Christopher Walken to the list: a New Yorker tells us he picked up the iconic actor earlier this week when he saw him struggling to hail a cab on the Upper West Side.
Here's his full tale of the encounter, which you can see preserved for the ages in the photo above (which the driver's friend had posted on Reddit, but without any details of what exactly had occurred):
I was driving down Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side with my friend Ash on Tuesday. Ash yelled, "yo man, that was the king of New York." I pulled over and backed up all the way down the block. Christopher Walken was hailing a cab. We told him we are huge fans and offered him a lift.
He responded politely, "I don't want you guys to go out of your way. I am going straight downtown and you can leave me anywhere." We told him we would be more than happy to drive him downtown and to hop in. He got in the car and we went on talking about stories from growing up in the city. He is an incredibly nice person, the conversation was great and Mr. Walken thanked us again for the ride. He even let us take a picture together.
Walken is no stranger to doing wacky things around NYC: back in 2010, he randomly introduced himself to the new tenants living in his childhood home in Astoria. We've asked the driver to give us a little more information about the ride, and will update if and when he does. But this is either authentic, or the start of a new NYC urban legend. Unless they confused him for Kevin Pollak, which would be understandable.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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