This Toronto Woman & Her 71-Year-Old Mom Have Been Celeb Sighting At TIFF For Over 20 Years

Sometimes family bonding time can be a round of Monopoly. Other times it can be taking a selfie with Hugh Jackman.

Rebecca Lester, a 47-year-old Toronto social worker, and her 71-year-old mother Nancy Lester both wanted to be movie stars, but settled on meeting them together instead.

The mother-daughter duo have been attending the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and celebrity sighting for almost 25 years and have racked up a list of impressive sightings from Hugh Jackman to Janelle Monáe and even Oprah Winfrey.

Rebecca told Narcity that she got her "entertainment obsession" from her mom growing up, from reading countless celebrity magazines to watching entertainment talk shows together.

How it started

The pair, who say they are more like sisters when they get going, started hunting for celebrities when Rebecca moved to Yorkville in her early 20s.

"The three of us [Rebecca, her mom and sister] would go up and down the elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel hoping that someone would get on it and it would be Orlando Bloom or Woody Harrelson," Rebecca told Narcity.

Their scouting in Yorkville turned into a family tradition in the late 90s when they attended TIFF together for the very first time.

Rebecca's sister used to join in on their celebrity sighting outings and even became an actress in Toronto for awhile, but now she cheers her family on from the sidelines.

'We look forward to it every year," said Rebecca. "It's like Christmas, birthday, New Year all together, and we're very aware that this is a unique thing that mom and I do together."

In the last 10 years, Nancy and Rebecca have switched their focus to trying to get selfies with their favourite celebrities, but that's not all that it's about.

"It's not just about getting a selfie, we know the struggle you would have to go through and even doing TIFF and everybody running at you and wanting a selfie," said Nancy.

"We really care about the art and what they do, and I think they can tell that we genuinely want to meet them as people," Rebecca added.

Battling MS fatigue

Nancy lives with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a condition that impacts the central nervous system that can cause pain, fatigue, numbness, paralysis and other symptoms, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

But that doesn't stop her from doing what she loves. This year at TIFF 2022, she and Rebecca pulled two 12-hour days despite her dealing with fatigue.

"It's probably not the best idea, but I want to do things, and I just push myself," said Nancy. "I limited myself to two days because I don't want to push it, and I just try to rest after it's over with. I don't like to give up and I like to be a part of things."

Rebecca gets her info on where to find celebrities from an underground group she calls "Tiffers."

This year, she said the community made a big effort to help her and her mom.

"They were really kind to me," she said. Nancy added that some of them would "even ask a celebrity, 'Would you make sure you get a picture of this lady with her daughter?'"

The pair also invested in collapsible stools to help them throughout their days at the festival and plan to return next year.

"I think we will continue to do it as long as we can – that's for sure," said Rebecca.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.