dragon con sunday: bsg, firefly

[dianora2]

First up on Sunday was a panel called "Welcome to the Dollhouse" with Tahmoh. Yep, a panel for a show that hasn't aired yet, with no promotional footage to share and an actor committed to secrecy. It was about as productive as you might expect. So it was mostly Whedon fans asking "What's it like to work with Joss?" and "What's your favorite Joss episode?" and "What other Joss actors do you think will be on Dollhouse?" and "Does Joss wipe his ass front to back or back to front?" Okay, I made that last one up. Poor Tahmoh was hung over and apparently had food poisoning as well, so he looked and sounded like death on a stick but soldiered through for most of the panel before ending a little early to presumably go lie down. We've all been there, buddy.


Photo by em_meredith.

Before I get to Sunday's BSG panel, I forgot one of the best parts of Saturday's BSG panel! Michael Hogan told the story he'd told at New York Comic Con about EJO improvving the "So say we all" moment at the end of the miniseries, and then said that he would really like it if we could re-create that there and then. So Eddie says very seriously into the mike something along the lines of "Science fiction conventions are the greatest kept secret in America! So say we all!" And we all said it. And then he said, "SO SAY WE ALL!" And we said it. And then he said "SO...SAY...WE...ALL!!!!" and everyone screamed it and it was CRAZY. I felt like I was part of a cult for a minute, which I guess I kind of was. *g* Anyway, cool moment which will become relevant later as well....

The Sunday panel was a smaller panel b/c guests were only on one panel per day and that day EJO was on a Blade Runner panel and Tahmoh was on the Dollhouse panel. So it was Aaron, James, Colin, Hogan, and Hatch. Hogan did a funny thing where he popped up from behind the table when introduced, hee. We were farthest away for this panel so my pictures REALLY suck.



When asked about acting methods, James said, "Craft is very important. And on set, craft service is even more important." LOL. Aaron says that he and Katee have a similar technique which is to say they don't really have one, they just "say our lines to the other person." Hogan mentioned that being on BSG is a gift for an actor and there's nothing else like it. For Hatch I wrote down, "Says a lot of crap. Something about a journey. I dunno."

What part of the BSG universe do they wish we had in reality? Aaron: "Communal showers." Hogan mentioned that he likes the flashbacks "because I have two eyes." James said that he feels like he's in a spy thriller a lot of the time and he's glad real life isn't like that. Hatch said something about 9/11, then joked that he wished we had the whores from the original series. Sigh.

They live in constant fear of reading their scripts and finding out they've been airlocked.

The movie starts shooting September 8 (hey that's today) and takes place around the time of Lay Down Your Burdens. They talked about different shooting styles of directors, how Rymer shoots tons of footage, much more than they need, but Felix is the opposite and there's hardly anything left over. This was in relation to whether unused scenes from the series might be used in the movies. Depends on what they need and who shot the episode in question.

If you could go back to any time period, what would it be? Aaron says he'd go back to the time of Christ and say, "Really?" Hogan cracked that he'd like to go back to the party the night before, at about 2 AM....

Aaron joked about how Eddie always has two cell phones going on set and is texting on a third. And he'll talk on his phone in between takes. He imitated him talking into a Bluetooth, then taking it out and saying a line, then putting it back in and continuing his conversation. It was pretty funny.



James Callis is going to be starring in a Merlin movie shooting in Vancouver right now. He plays Merlin! Woot! He joked about having just left Vancouver to go back to the UK and then had to go right back again.

Hatch talked about the problems he's run into from sharing his name with Survivor Richard Hatch, then said he will be hosting a reality show about a real actor trying to make it in Hollywood that will be shown online.

Then our very own nicole_anell asked James Callis if he found it difficult to film the torture scenes etc. At first he answered very seriously about he felt a certain sense of responsibility because it's holding up a mirror to reality, and there really are people out there being tortured etc. But then he told a funny story about how EJO, who directed that episode, wanted to do such worse stuff to him than actually ended up on screen. He imitated Eddie coming up to him and saying, "How are you with sharks?" He wanted to get in the shark tank with James at the Vancouver Aquarium and shoot sharks chasing Gaius or something. James was like WTF? "You can't even SPIT in the water at the aquarium for fear of infecting the animals, they're not going to let you in the tank with me!" Eddie was all, "It'll be fine!" Needless to say it never came to pass, LOL. Then they tried to do something with those metal eyeclips that hold your eyelids open a al Clockwork Orange, and it was really painful and James as like, "I'm not getting paid enough for this" and Eddie said, "Yes you are." Hee. He then went on to explain how he had to shave after the show was over b/c it had gotten to the point that when he looked in the mirror he saw Gaius Baltar and felt that pain. Awww.



They talked about having input about their characters. James used the word "milieu," which was dear to my heart. Hogan said, "The writers love writing for Tigh, sometimes they love it too much." Said he occasionally has to pull them back from making Tigh TOO radical, too right-wing, and has them tone down some of the more incendiary/offensive language. He noted that Aaron and James have two different styles -- Aaron will say, "I'm not doing that." James will add to what is already there and make Hogan think, wow, what is he doing there?

Hatch compared Tom Zarek to Nelson Mandela. No, really. He did say that although Mandela emerged from prison relatively unscathed (to which I say, how the hell does he know?), Zarek was really damaged by his time in prison.

Aaron commented that he only gets a sense of how popular BSG is when he goes to cons. He then went off on SCI FI, saying they couldn't market water to a dying man in the desert, they have this award-winning show and don't know how to sell it and have no idea what they're doing. And ten episodes is not a season, 20 episodes is a season! Everyone cheered. He also warned that he was hearing that the new "season" wouldn't start until April. SCI FI has since denied that, I should point out, but who knows.



A woman in the audience told Hatch that his Apollo was the reason her brother went into the Air Force. He asked her to see him after to get the guy's info so he could get in touch.

James was asked whether it was harder to play cynical Gaius or God-loving Gaius, and he said for him personally God-loving Gaius was much more of a challenge. He then talked about how he'd read Sam Harris' The End of Faith, which was actually a gift to him from Aaron, and how a man from the 13th century knows as much about God as we do, and why do we call people fanatics when the only thing they're fanatical about this their faith, and basically went off on this thoughtful atheistic discourse that had me swooning. (Just one of many reasons neither James nor I will ever be allowed to run for president.)

Someone asked something about all their characters being both loved and hated, and Aaron was like, "When could you possibly have hated the Chief?" James noted that his goal was to not be likable, he didn't want to be all "Hey, look at my smile!" <-- said with American accent. "That's B.S. -- B.S.G." Heh.

They all extolled the praises of Bear McCreary and Aaron noted that the bagpipes at the end of "Flight of the Phoenix" really get to him.

Who do you look forward to working with most? Aaron said Mary, that he loved the scene he had with her in "Dirty Hands." Then he talked about Hogan and how he's the most unlike the character he plays, and how it's funny to see him go from being smoking and joking to "Gaius Frakkin' Baltar!" Hogan said Dean Stockwell ("he's 80 or something") and told a story about how Dean didn't really watch the show at first, but then before third season started he caught up, and when he showed up on set he was like, "Hey, this is a really good show we've got here!" And so it felt like he was reinvested in the show and it showed in his performance. And that guest stars now come on the show with great respect for the show itself.

em_meredith asked the final question, which was, "It seems like everyone has their own Eddie impression. Who's is the best?" (Note that she had tried to ask this question the day before when Eddie was THERE, but they didn't get to her in time.) Everybody laughed, but the answer was unanimous: Aaron. Aaron said that he'll often do Eddie's lines in table read if he's not there, and that it's especially odd if it's a Bill/Chief scene and he's talking to himself. "I feel like Callis."

Then Hogan asked if we could close the panel with another round of "So say we all," and he did the honors, and we obliged. So out of control. But awesome. And Hogan loved every minute of it. *g*

Here are some much better pictures by em_meredith. Please do not reproduce elsewhere.












Once the BSG panel ended we left the ballroom and got right in line for the Firefly panel, which was up next. We wound up waaaaay in the back, so I have no pictures. And I had to leave early. But what I saw was fun. Panelists were Jewel Staite, Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, and Alan Tudyk. A few notes:

Nathan is very dedicated to children's literacy programs, and reminded us that some kids WANT to read, but can't because they don't have books.

Morena's favorite book is The Great Gatsby and she even quoted the last line of the book, which made em_meredith flail with squee. Alan's favorite book is Watership Down, to the point that he'll still occasionally use made-up language from the book in conversation. Nathan's favorite is Of Mice and Men, because it shows that "you can have a funny guy in a story but he ought to be dead." And then he looked at Alan. *snerk*

What would you want your character to experience? Nathan looked at Morena and they shared a moment, then they were like, "Should we kiss?" and everybody squealed and then they did, they totally kissed, and I'm sure all you Firefly fans have seen it on YouTube already. I was impressed they did it.

Alan used to come up with all kinds of ideas for the show (in other words, he totally wrote fanfic and needs to hang out with Jamie Bamber and Bradley Whitford) and one of them involved Wash being allergic to a planet. So while everyone else is planetside Wash is on the ship blowing up like a balloon. He also came up with this backstory about Wash being in prison and entertaining the inmates with shadow puppets to avoid getting beaten up, which is why the shadow puppetry shows up in one episode.

They were asked what their favorite Joss moment was and Nathan said, "The moment where he said, 'You're hired,'" which I thought was the best answer possible to that question.

Nathan (I think) talked about how sometimes you just nail a scene and you know you did by the expression on Joss' face, and Alan said, "I've never seen that face." Nathan: "I know."

Alan tapes his lines all over the set, supposedly you can tell in some scenes, where he glances down to look at them.

Alan was on the speech team in high school, which means he and I have something in common. Jewel got a B in her drama class for lack of attendance -- because she missed so many days because she was out doing acting gigs. Ha.

And that's when I had to skedaddle to meet intopolitics at the Walk of Fame. :)

After that I decided to go to the Anne McCaffrey book signing. Now, I knew it would be a long line, but I had no idea HOW long a line. OMG. It was just as long as the line for, say, the BSG panels, except people had to get signatures etc. They started out saying Anne would only sign two items, but after a while they came back and said she'd only sign one. I was on line for about an hour and a half and by the end my back was KILLING me, but when I got into the room and saw Anne I got really emotional and choked up, so I guess it was worth it. The woman, bless her, 82 years old and in a wheelchair, said that she would stay until everyone got their book signed. It was a painful yet awesome experience -- for both of us, I'm sure. *g*

Here's Anne:


And that's it for Sunday!

Comments

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

*morbidly resigns self to another year*

[prophetkristy.livejournal.com]

Yay! more conreportage! \o/

YAY BEAR MCCREARY. *needs to go on a CD-shopping spree*

The "so say we all" thing sounds so awesome!

Re: Nathan and Morena: OMG THEY DID? *runs to YouTube*

Re: Anne McC: She was my very first SF/F, and that's special, but she's been so assy to her fans that I'm not sure I could ever meet her. hrm.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I've been rewatching Firefly this week and so, of course, had to run right off to YouTube to find the kiss. Totally awesome! ::runs to go tell friends::

[em-meredith.livejournal.com]

Again, your writeups are awesome! :)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[colorstoobright.livejournal.com]

I NEED TO FIND THE KISSING NATHAN/MORENA CLIP, STAT!!!!

[zinke.livejournal.com]

Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through your con experience. *g*

[writingpathways.livejournal.com]

Oh dear God, Callis in that blue shirt and the scruff.

[sillyg.livejournal.com]

I love that you got a book signed by Anne McCaffrey. She's just so awesome.

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I might have been a little bit farther up in the Anne line. I got in line around 4; it was rough. Thanks for the recaps of all the panels I didn't get to make it to Sun. :D

[chanel19.livejournal.com]

I was going to skip this post, but you sucked me in with Anne McCaffery and it was so worth it. Good for you for toughing it out. I love her.