farpoint, day one

[dianora2]

This is pretty long, so I think I'm going to do a post for each day. Especially since I don't even know how many people are actually going to read this. *g*

If you're just interested in reading about my meeting him on Saturday/seeing the photo with him, scroll on down a bit. (I met him again on Sunday, so that will be in the second post.) Everyone else, read on.... first up I talk briefly about Erin Gray and Marina Sirtis, if there's any interest there. Erin talks about the BSG cast a bit.



We got to the con in time to register, take a spin around the dealers' room, and go see Erin Gray. I can't believe I have now seen Erin Gray twice in six months, LOL. Anyway, she was her usual sweet and overly gracious self. She went on at length about tai chi and acupuncture (she's a tai chi master) and actually talked very little about Buck Rogers -- no one asked. She did mention that she'd done a play recently with Joel Higgins, in Pennsylvania, and damn am I sorry I missed that, that would have been hilarious. Of interest to BSG fans: she actually runs a company that books actors for these cons, and most of the BSG cast are clients of hers (pretty much everyone except Katee). When asked who her favorite star was to work with she said Aaron Douglas, without hesitation, which will not surprise anyone who has met him. :) He's just very friendly and responsive, always gets back to her immediately, and loves doing cons, as we know. But she said everyone is really great -- she especially gets fangirly around Mary McDonnell, who she thinks is amazing. When asked who gets requested for cons the most, she said Tricia Helfer and Jamie Bamber -- shocker. *g*

Next up was Marina Sirtis, and even though none of us were fans, we didn't want to lose our seats in the ballroom, so we stuck around. And were really glad we did. That chick is CRAZY, and I mean that in the best way. At first we couldn't figure out if she was drunk -- the jury is still out on that one -- but damn was she entertaining, albeit poorly dressed (we really didn't need to see her cameltoe). She's just a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners, blunt kind of woman, which makes for a great con guest. She frequently yelled at the crowd for not supporting her enough ("You're all liars! You say you're going to support my career, but then you don't see anything I'm in! All you really care about is Star Trek!") and told a funny story about guesting on Stargate SG-1: she and Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks were filming for long hours in a confined space, which was hot and uncomfortable. Michael Shanks was getting more and more peevish until finally he yelled out, "Who do I have to fuck to get off of this show?" Marina looked at him and said, "That's easy, Michael. The same person you fucked to get on this show." Heeeeeeeee. I could have sat there and listened to her bitch about people all day.

But, on to James Callis! I had previously seen James twice before, but it was at San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con, respectively, where he was part of a panel and participated but was not overly effusive. So it was a wonderful surprise to discover that he's extremely warm and friendly and an incredible gentleman. During the two Q&As he was funny and entertaining and charming, and on the autograph lines he was so sweet and generous. We first spotted him before any of his events, standing behind the registration desk. I wasn't even sure it was him at first because his hair was cut so short. Shock was quickly replaced by delight as he looked damn good. It not only made him look even sexier, in my opinion, but very young and, shall we say, virile? *g*

At the first Q&A he bounded out wearing a coat, which he quickly discarded as it was hot as hell in there, and opened himself up to questions. I think he was a bit nervous about having to follow Marina Sirtis, who really is a force of nature. He needed haven't worried as he quickly had us in the palm of his hand. It helped that he was hot.

Here are a couple of pictures by em_meredith, please do not reproduce elsewhere:





If you want to see more good pictures, please go check out nnaylime's picture gallery here.

Most of this Q&A seemed to revolve around BSG stuff (the next Q&A had a bigger mix of personal questions), so here we go. Spoilers through the end of season three!


He spoke about how he chose to portray Baltar as someone who doesn't have all the answers all the time -- he said he'd noticed that in SF shows, the acting is often very direct; the hero strides forward, back straight, knowing what he needs to do. And Baltar is not that guy. So he added that "lightness", the element of -- and here he was demonstrating for us some classic Baltar dithering -- being unsure on his feet, to show that he doesn't know what to do most of the time. It's a way to show that Baltar wasn't in control of something monstrous, i.e. genocide -- he used the physical unsurety to underscore the fact that Baltar didn't really know what he was doing. And that is also related to how different BSG 2003 is from the original, where everything was more black and white -- Gaius is "a microcsom of the macrocosm of the new show."

In speaking about Baltar's guilt, he mentioned that he actually had a big hand in Baltar receiving a not guilty verdict in "Crossroads Part 2." The showrunners weren't sure what they wanted to do and were leaning toward having a mistrial or a hung jury, something that would null the trial and stick Baltar back in prison -- and James couldn't bear the thought of spending the next who knew how many episodes sitting in that jail cell. So he pointed out that he thought Baltar is a much more interesting character if he's out and about and able to cause trouble, rather than rotting in jail, and ultimately the writers agreed. Somewhere around here he referenced Jamie's speech in the courtroom in that episode -- oh, to say that it was Lee's speech that really helped set the tone for Baltar's acquittal -- and he mentioned that although it's common to do take after take in television, and it can often get wearying, he could have watched Jamie give that speech over and over again. Awww. :)

He talked about shaving and cutting his hair -- he said that as the last season was going on, he was having more and more trouble looking at himself in the mirror. And he finally realized that looking in the mirror, at the unkempt hair and beard, was a reminder to him of all the heavy emotional spaces he was inhabiting as Gaius, not to mention the torture, etc. And he just couldn't bear to be that person anymore. So as soon as he could, he got rid of all of it.

He mentioned that there was a scene that wound up on the cutting room floor where Baltar tries to "blend in" on the basestar by being naked, but was extremely self-conscious about it. Marina had mentioned earlier that when you do nude scenes you have a closed set, but he said that in his experience, it was more like people sold tickets!

He was asked if there was any scene/episode he would change, and he said not really, maybe that he would have "slept with more women." He did note that he thinks sometimes there are too many issues happening in one script -- he'd love to see a concentration on fewer issues so that each one can be given its due respect, rather than rushing through a bunch of different things. He also noted that sometimes on the show plot seemed to dictate character, and he feels strongly that it should always be the other way around (me too, James!). In other words a character shouldn't suddenly shoot someone because that character needs to die; there should be a reason he is shooting someone (I felt like he was maybe referring to "Fragged" here).

Someone asked about playing pranks and he said that he and Tricia Helfer played a "shenanigan" on Lucy Lawless, and em_meredith and I instantly fell in love with his use of shenangian in the singular. In the scene where Lucy was naked getting out of bed, it was originally supposed to be a body double, but he and Tricia kept telling her that they thought they spotted a big pimple on the body double's butt, and did Lucy really want people thinking that was HER butt? They were totally lying, but Lucy eventually believed them and decided to do the scene herself. Hee. He lamented that that scene was far too short and didn't involve any actual making out. In order to illustrate for us he actually sat down on the ground "I'm lying down" and demonstrated for us. It was very cute.

Another instance which wasn't really a prank was -- omg, this is hilarious -- during the filming of "Pegasus." It was the scene where the Pegasus lands in the hangar deck and Cain comes out, and the whole ship is there to greet her. Adama is supposed to greet her, but EJO was AWOL -- had gone to make a call or something. The way the scene was being shot during that take, the camera only saw Cain, not Adama. So in order to help out Michelle Forbes, James started speaking Adama's lines -- in his best EJO impression, which he then performed for us. (I love that all the actors on this show have to contribute EJO impressions.) And he kept waiting for someone to yell "Cut!" or "What the hell is he doing?" but no one did, so they got through the scene and when it was over the director said, "Can somebody get Eddie a glass of water?" Heeee! And then when they found out it was James, he got in trouble! Which seems very unfair to me. *g*

He also tried to play a prank himself once which backfired. On the basestar, there was a lot of maintenance going on to keep everything shiny, so it was mopped etc. every day. James took the cleaning supplies -- mop, bucket, etc. -- and propped them up in a hallway they were supposed to walk down in a scene. He thought it would be funny to be like "Oh, look, maintenance crew!" And then they filmed the scene and the director saw the cleaning supplies and was like "What the hell is that!" and James started to explain his joke and the director reamed him out, saying this was their job, and people were trying to work here, etc. James said the moral of the story is to always do a prank that involves someone else in some way -- don't go it alone!

Another funny story he told, this one had me rolling for some reason: Jamie was getting ready to do a very intense scene with EJO, and he wanted to go over some of his choices with James to see what he thought. So he goes through his riffs, or whatever, very intense, and James says, seriously, "Look, the important thing you have to remember, is that Lee spelled backwards, is eel." To which Jamie shot back, "Yeah, well -- you're ratlab!" This apparently led to James being called Ratlab around set for days. *g*

He namechecked the following things although I am having trouble remembering the context: Dadaism; Waterland by Graham Swift; and A Christmas Story, specifically Ralphie's decoder ring. Oh, Dadaism referred to someone's art. Someone in the cast or on set is an artist but I can't remember who. Grr. Maybe it will come to me. (ETA: em_meredith remembers it as being Dean Stockwell, and I think she is right. He was asked about working with Dean and was very complimentary about him, and mentioned that he is an artist as well.)

When asked about the relationship between Gaius and Six, specifically the head! stuff, he reiterated that he and Tricia have no idea what the answer is. He said that they sometimes treat it as Gaius and Six being able to co-exist on a different dimension; he mentioned he'd been reading a book on physics that spoke of 24 dimensions, even though we only inhabit three, and maybe the two of them are able to be together in a dimension that is just out of reach. They consciously play it that way sometimes, apparently. He also joked that to get the answer, "Why don't I just get Ronald Moore on the phone...no, I think that would be an unforgivable act." Heh.

nnaylime asked him if Baltar was truly meant to represent Christ, or if he was a red herring. There was a long pause, but then he said that he had actually been thinking about that question himself, as he is currently reading a book called Cults and Fantasies -- which I can't find on Amazon, so maybe he was misremembering the title. He doesn't think Baltar represents Christ, is the short answer. He did mention how everyone (at least in modern times) who thinks he is a messiah, genuinely believes that he is one, whether from psychosis or what have you. (He also defined Mashiach, mentioned that's where Christos came from, etc., sounding very erudite and making nnaylime very happy.) He mentioned to Ron Moore at one point that in playing Gaius, he now truly understands the meaning of the Lord's Prayer, specifically the part about forgiving our trespasses, and that it would destroy Gaius if he ever had to say that and really think about it. RDM was into that and that's where Gaius praying came from. But he said that when filming that scene, the director told him he was playing it too genuine -- "Would Gaius really be able to do that?" -- which changed the direction of the scene.

I wrote down that he said we are all "searching for cohesion," because I liked that line. :)

In filming the scene in "Dirty Hands" where Baltar's "true" accent comes out, they wanted him to do a Michael Caine accent. And James was like, "Um, Michael Caine is from the East End of London, there are no sheep farms there" and the producers were like "But it would be awesome!" and James was like "It's a city accent, WTF is the matter with you?" So he tried to give them some other options instead and they eventually compromised on Yorkshire, which isn't entirely accurate either, but better than Michael Caine. He did his Michael Caine impression while telling this story, by the way. :) He was nervous about the scene at first but thought the way it was edited made it successful.

When he was in Bridget Jones' Diary he was nervous about being able to seem gay enough, but it apparently worked too well, because everyone on set thought he was gay, especially Hugh Grant, who would run away every time James tried to talk to him. (He illustrated this for us. *g*) And when James' wife came to visit him on set, Hugh was like, "Your wife? Really???" He also mentioned that his wife gets upset when he kisses other women on screen, so he has this running joke with her where whenever they're watching a love scene he's like, "Oh, look at that snogging. What great acting. That is an Oscar-worthy snog, right there."

At the end of the Q&A a stuffed bull was auctioned off for charity. It was called "Gaius Bulltar" and James autographed the tag. He also got cozy with it to up the bidding:

(Photo by em_meredith.)

And that was about it for the Q&A. Next up was the autograph session!

He was greeting everyone with "Hi hi," which was pretty funny. I said hello and asked him how he was and gave him the photo. I said, "Can I be a real cheeseball and ask you to write 'No More Mr. Nice Gaius' on it?" "Of course," he said, giving a little laugh. "Thank you," I said. "That would make me very happy." Then as he was writing I said, "You look fabulous, by the way. The short hair really works for you." He said "Oh, thank you, that's very nice of you to say," and then he paused. He stared at the photo. He had forgotten what he was going to write. Which was, you know, his NAME. Hee!! I totally flustered him. I am choosing to interpret this as James Callis thinking I am cute, and there is nothing you can do to dissuade me. He finally remembered how to write his name and I asked him for a picture which em_meredith snapped, and thanked him and I was on my way. He put two exclamation points after "No More Mr. Nice Gaius", which I found very amusing.


James signing my photo. This may have been where he paused, hee. (Photo by em_meredith.)


Me and James. The setup was very annoying, the table was against the wall so you had to lean over awkwardly to get a picture.(Photo by em_meredith.)


And now some spoiler space for very, very, very vague spoilers that I'm not sure even really count as such.....

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He spoke of the different stages of grief and said that Baltar had never been able to get out of denial, but that now his non-guilty verdict has freed him of that denial, he feels very free. Hmmm. And that Baltar's cult would involve sleeping with a lot of people. *g* And it sounds like he shaves pretty early in the season, YAY. He also said that in the fourth season we'd be seeing the characters grapple with whether society needs to be led in a different way, whether things need to change on a fundamental level, and gave the cryptic warning of "If you can't beat them, join them."

That's it for Saturday....will post later about Sunday, in which I had an incredibly squeeful moment thanks to Mr. Callis. :)