'Most incredible experience': Winnipeg woman spends night among celebrities as Emmys seat filler

Amanda Buhse was selected from thousands of applicants to be a seat filler at last month's Primetime Emmy Awards. (Source: Amanda Buhse)

A Winnipeg woman got the chance to mingle with Hollywood’s A-list after getting selected to be a seat filler at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday in Los Angeles.

Amanda Buhse, who is the founder of Coal and Canary, said she had the time of her life at the award show, which honours television’s top shows and stars.

“It was the most incredible experience I think of my life so far. It was so fun,” she said.

In an interview on Thursday, Buhse said she got the opportunity to be a seat filler through an online group called ‘Seat Fillers and More.’

She said the call for Emmys seat fillers went out on Friday – just days before the big show – and that more than 6,000 people applied.

Then on Sunday around 5 p.m., she found out that she was one of the 50 selected and had to rush to make arrangements to get to Los Angeles.

“I was the only Canadian, so that was pretty exciting and exhilarating,” she said.

“I had to be there at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, so it was a whirlwind.”

From there, Buhse booked a flight to California that included an overnight in Toronto, packed up her stuff in under 10 minutes and headed to the airport.

“I flew to L.A. and I got to my hotel room about an hour before I actually had to be at the event,” she said. “So I had about half an hour to get ready.”

During her time at the Emmys, Buhse’s role was to sit in various seats in the audience during the show in order to ensure the room looked full. She said when one celebrity would get up from their chair, the seat fillers would be moved around to fill the gap.

Buhse added that the seat fillers had to follow certain rules, including not having their phones and not talking to the celebrities unless the celebrity spoke to them first, except to offer congratulations.

“Luckily, I had a lot of people initiate conversation and then it was really fun,” she said.

Buhse got lucky and had the chance to sit in the first and second rows.

She said she got to see many of her favourite stars, including Christina Applegate, Ali Wong, Harrison Ford and Jessica Chastain, and had the chance to interact with some others, including Steve Martin and Martin Short.

“[Martin and Short] are just so humble and funny and hysterical, so that was a really memorable moment too,” she said.

Buhse said she had an incredible experience and hopes it’s something she gets the chance to do again in the future.

“It was just very cool,” she said. “I was very proud to represent Winnipeg at this event as the only Canadian.”