When Tanner Grover started The Cinema Clubhouse, he expected friends, family, and community members to come to Harbor Theater for movie screenings. In an unexpected twist of fate, an actor from this month’s film joined in.    

John Michael Higgins and wife Margaret Welsh were guests of honor at the Nov. 16 screening of "Best in Show," a 2000 comedy about a dog show and its colorful competitors. Higgins happened to be in the Boothbay area on vacation in the Midcoast and came to Pier 1 Pizza, where bartender Winter Page was working.    

"I recognized him right away. I fangirled pretty hard. He had a very recognizable face to me,” Page said, adding she is familiar with many of his roles. "He's an actor that everybody knows, but you wouldn't necessarily bring his name up in your brain right away.”

With an IMDB filmography spanning 165 roles, Higgins is known for his work in the "Pitch Perfect" movies and several "mockumentaries" from director Christopher Guest, including "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind" and 2025’s "Spinal Tap 2."

Page said the interaction was a blur for her, but she remembered clearly how kind the couple was.   

“It was a beautiful coincidence, very bizarre,” Page said. “I told him about our movie club, and without hesitation, he was like, ‘Maybe I'll be able to make it down.’”   

When Grover got word of the sighting, he quickly reached out. Without a number to contact, Grover found Higgins on Instagram. “I was like ‘All right. I'm just going to slide into his DMs,'" he said, referring to the app's direct messaging. By the time Grover woke up the next morning, Higgins had agreed to join.

“I think anything that I can do to get people to put their phones down and get out of the house and interact with other people is something that I'm interested in doing,” Higgins told the Register. “I make great speeches about all that all the time ... But, you know, my wife's like, ‘I don't see you doing it so much, but they’re great speeches’ ... And I just said, ‘Well, here it is!’” 

Grover said Higgins was completely gracious and just as funny through text as in person. "I shared an updated poster (with his photo) that announced that he would be in attendance for Q&A. And he said, ‘I think it was great, but my wife, she says it's going to scare people away.’”

But around 50 people came to watch the movie and hear from the actor. Higgins said it reminded him of his first 20-something years on stage, where a performance was a conversation with the audience. As he arrived, the movie was playing, and he heard laughter through the door.  

“And there is something incredibly gratifying about it. A whole room of real people, just citizens, people. They're not fancy people, showbiz people who I need to impress. They're just people trying to have a nice evening,” he said. “And when I made that movie, that's what I was thinking. I was like, ‘I hope someone's amused by this. Just a person, anybody. I hope it passes the time so that they don't have to think about their troubles and worries as much, honestly. And there it was.” 

After the movie, people asked questions about Higgins’ career, acting, and even dog grooming. Higgins said they were excellent, better than questions from the entertainment press asking about what it’s like to work with “celebrity X.”  

"In Boothbay, the questions were really penetrating and very interesting,” he said. “People asked me questions, very deep cut questions about some of the things that I've done, which really only nerds ask about. And I was really happy to be in a room of my own.” 

Grover said the actor also shared a little gem of wisdom: Embrace yourself and try to do the best with whatever talent you've been given. According to Grover, Higgins said early on he determined he wasn't a leading man, but a character actor; he accepted and embraced it. In a clip from the event and posted on Cinema Clubhouse's Facebook page Higgins said, “If I were relying on my looks, it just goes away. Poof! But I was never that type of talent. That helped a lot. That and whatever dog I had at home.”   

For Grover, the lesson was a little more direct: Take the risk and send the DM. “I think that it's proof that you never can tell what the cosmos has in store for you. Coincidence is a crazy thing, and we just happened to be the recipients of some good fortune,” he said.