Person of Interest screening
Our trip to New York for the Person of Interest screening was great!
mamahub arrived at my house around 9:30. I wasn't quite ready and we got a late start heading to the Megabus stop. I thought it was going to be easy to find; after all, it was at White Marsh Mall by the IKEA, or so I thought. Turns out it was in a separate Park and Ride parking lot. We got there late due to circling around for it, but got tickets for the next bus and were on our way. We talked the whole way to NYC. We arrived around 4 p.m. and got a cab from the bus stop to 92Y Tribeca. We'd read that the Cafe there was closed after 3 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays so we walked a few blocks to find something to eat. We heard from blacktop50 that she was at the Cafe, so I suppose they kept it open later due to the people coming to the event. When we got back, we met her and had a great time talking about the show and writing. Kevin Chapman came in while we were waiting and he stopped to smile and shake a few hands.
They finally let us in and we took our seats in the room. There were only about 200 attendees. We were asked not to take pictures or tell anyone about the episode. A big screen was lowered and "Contingency" began.
It was fabulous. Everything we could have wanted. It was great fun watching it, cheering when Reese was badass (hey, that's not a spoiler. Would you expect he wouldn't be?) or when other events happened. We laughed, we sighed, we loved it. I can't wait to be able to talk about it tomorrow night after everyone else has seen it.
blacktop50 and mamahub have described a lot of the questions and answers from the cast, but I'll fill in with a few things I remember too.
Here's a pic from the CBS website of them sitting on the stage.
Look at Jim Caviezel. Check out those long legs. Those thighs. Guh. He was drop dead gorgeous. And Michael Emerson was totally handsome and adorable. The suit he had on was the most beautiful shade of royal blue. His personality was delightful and he was always responding to what the others said.
(sigh... my stupid internet connect slipped as I was about to upload and of course LJ "auto save" only saved the above, not the rest of my brilliant post. Ugh. Now to try to re-create it.)
Going on... Michael Emerson was very attentive to everything being said, reacting with smiles and nods. I loved his answers about Finch's limp. First, the audience memeber who asked that mentioned that she'd heard that on House, other actors had been affected by Hugh Laurie's limping, starting to limp themselves. (like picking up an accent you hear, I guess) Michael really chuckled at that. He said, "I've worked with limping actors but never felt the need to limp myself!" He went on to say that he designed the limp so as not to hurt himself by doing it, especially if the series continued for many years. It wasn't hard to keep doing it, except when he had to run up stairs, he told us. He said the hard part was remembering not to do it in flashback scenes. Twisting and turning his head from side to side and back and forth, he quipped, "It's 2004! I can turn my head!"
I loved what Jim had to say about his acting process. "Everything comes from down here," he said about Reese, motioning to his chest. He said he used a low voice because he thought he'd sound like "Mickey Mouse" otherwise. Michael talked about Finch and Reese's "odd couple" relationship, how they were two different men who had to work together and achived a bond. Michael said he got recognized as Finch now, besides being recognized on the street from playing Ben Linus. He said, trying to be diplomatic, obviously, that the audience for POI was "perhaps a skosh older" than Lost fans were. "Maybe because it's on CBS." That evoked laughter.
There was a lot of teasing and joking toward Kevin Chapman. Jim pretended to put down his acting, but it was with a smile and he went on to say he was good. They did a film together, "Unknown" -- Kevin said it was "unknown to the viewing public." Jim said they didn't have any scenes together. When Kevin opined he could be Taylor's father, he threw his arm around Taraji and started singing "Ebony and Ivory." She made a comment about his "curly 'fro." There was a lot of joking on her part about not knowing things about her character. She didn't know her first name until the ninth episode and doesn't know who Taylor's father is. Someone asked if she had invented a back story for Carter and she said she would have, but then Jonathan would write something that would ruin it all so she didn't really do that.
After the Q and A, they all stood to lots of applause and they were whisked away back stage. Michael seemingly tried to stay to talk to a few people, but he was summoned. Only Kevin stayed, signing autographs. I mentioned I had come up from Baltimore and he mentioned being there when filming "Ladder 57" referring to it as "Bawlamer" as the natives call my town. I saw several women being ushered backstage and assume they might be reporters and that that was why the actors had been pulled off stage. I wish they'd allowed us to take pics or shake hands, but everyone got the same with nobody being singled out for "extra."
We got to speak with Greg a bit and he also signed my picture, thanking us for things we said about the show and how intelligent it is. He said the network kept wanting them to repeat things or dumb it down but he insisted that the POI audience was intelligent and "would remember" things they'd already learned about the plot.
grey_bard arrived, having had to miss the screening due to a class. We waited around hoping that we'd catch another glimpse of the actors, but when we learned they'd left the building, we headed back to Gray Bard's place via subway. I smiled when the first one we took had the familiar orange and yellow seats we saw Reese in on the subway in the pilot. We went out for some New York wood fired pizza and watched the gag reel and "Wolf and Cub" with Gray Bard and her roommate. We did tell her about "Contingency" since she had tickets and would have gotten to see it, and we were anxious to talk about it. I conked out and soon after everyone else went to be too. The next morning we got up and Gray Bard saw us to the subway to catch our bus back home.
On the return bus, Mamahub and I watched "Number Cruch" on the little DVD player I'd bought for the trip. It seemed to break after that one ep so I am going to exchange it. We shared story ideas and talked about all the little things we each like to notice watching the eps.
I also made some remarks (in the first version of this post that got eaten) but I think I'll do that in a separate post so anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled won't be. Not that I said anything beyond the clips we've all seen in the promos but my opinion could be considered spoilerish.
All in all, a great day in New York and it was wonderful to see our terrific cast in person. You're going to love "Contingency" -- I did.
mamahub arrived at my house around 9:30. I wasn't quite ready and we got a late start heading to the Megabus stop. I thought it was going to be easy to find; after all, it was at White Marsh Mall by the IKEA, or so I thought. Turns out it was in a separate Park and Ride parking lot. We got there late due to circling around for it, but got tickets for the next bus and were on our way. We talked the whole way to NYC. We arrived around 4 p.m. and got a cab from the bus stop to 92Y Tribeca. We'd read that the Cafe there was closed after 3 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays so we walked a few blocks to find something to eat. We heard from blacktop50 that she was at the Cafe, so I suppose they kept it open later due to the people coming to the event. When we got back, we met her and had a great time talking about the show and writing. Kevin Chapman came in while we were waiting and he stopped to smile and shake a few hands.
They finally let us in and we took our seats in the room. There were only about 200 attendees. We were asked not to take pictures or tell anyone about the episode. A big screen was lowered and "Contingency" began.
It was fabulous. Everything we could have wanted. It was great fun watching it, cheering when Reese was badass (hey, that's not a spoiler. Would you expect he wouldn't be?) or when other events happened. We laughed, we sighed, we loved it. I can't wait to be able to talk about it tomorrow night after everyone else has seen it.
blacktop50 and mamahub have described a lot of the questions and answers from the cast, but I'll fill in with a few things I remember too.
Here's a pic from the CBS website of them sitting on the stage.
Look at Jim Caviezel. Check out those long legs. Those thighs. Guh. He was drop dead gorgeous. And Michael Emerson was totally handsome and adorable. The suit he had on was the most beautiful shade of royal blue. His personality was delightful and he was always responding to what the others said.
(sigh... my stupid internet connect slipped as I was about to upload and of course LJ "auto save" only saved the above, not the rest of my brilliant post. Ugh. Now to try to re-create it.)
Going on... Michael Emerson was very attentive to everything being said, reacting with smiles and nods. I loved his answers about Finch's limp. First, the audience memeber who asked that mentioned that she'd heard that on House, other actors had been affected by Hugh Laurie's limping, starting to limp themselves. (like picking up an accent you hear, I guess) Michael really chuckled at that. He said, "I've worked with limping actors but never felt the need to limp myself!" He went on to say that he designed the limp so as not to hurt himself by doing it, especially if the series continued for many years. It wasn't hard to keep doing it, except when he had to run up stairs, he told us. He said the hard part was remembering not to do it in flashback scenes. Twisting and turning his head from side to side and back and forth, he quipped, "It's 2004! I can turn my head!"
I loved what Jim had to say about his acting process. "Everything comes from down here," he said about Reese, motioning to his chest. He said he used a low voice because he thought he'd sound like "Mickey Mouse" otherwise. Michael talked about Finch and Reese's "odd couple" relationship, how they were two different men who had to work together and achived a bond. Michael said he got recognized as Finch now, besides being recognized on the street from playing Ben Linus. He said, trying to be diplomatic, obviously, that the audience for POI was "perhaps a skosh older" than Lost fans were. "Maybe because it's on CBS." That evoked laughter.
There was a lot of teasing and joking toward Kevin Chapman. Jim pretended to put down his acting, but it was with a smile and he went on to say he was good. They did a film together, "Unknown" -- Kevin said it was "unknown to the viewing public." Jim said they didn't have any scenes together. When Kevin opined he could be Taylor's father, he threw his arm around Taraji and started singing "Ebony and Ivory." She made a comment about his "curly 'fro." There was a lot of joking on her part about not knowing things about her character. She didn't know her first name until the ninth episode and doesn't know who Taylor's father is. Someone asked if she had invented a back story for Carter and she said she would have, but then Jonathan would write something that would ruin it all so she didn't really do that.
After the Q and A, they all stood to lots of applause and they were whisked away back stage. Michael seemingly tried to stay to talk to a few people, but he was summoned. Only Kevin stayed, signing autographs. I mentioned I had come up from Baltimore and he mentioned being there when filming "Ladder 57" referring to it as "Bawlamer" as the natives call my town. I saw several women being ushered backstage and assume they might be reporters and that that was why the actors had been pulled off stage. I wish they'd allowed us to take pics or shake hands, but everyone got the same with nobody being singled out for "extra."
We got to speak with Greg a bit and he also signed my picture, thanking us for things we said about the show and how intelligent it is. He said the network kept wanting them to repeat things or dumb it down but he insisted that the POI audience was intelligent and "would remember" things they'd already learned about the plot.
grey_bard arrived, having had to miss the screening due to a class. We waited around hoping that we'd catch another glimpse of the actors, but when we learned they'd left the building, we headed back to Gray Bard's place via subway. I smiled when the first one we took had the familiar orange and yellow seats we saw Reese in on the subway in the pilot. We went out for some New York wood fired pizza and watched the gag reel and "Wolf and Cub" with Gray Bard and her roommate. We did tell her about "Contingency" since she had tickets and would have gotten to see it, and we were anxious to talk about it. I conked out and soon after everyone else went to be too. The next morning we got up and Gray Bard saw us to the subway to catch our bus back home.
On the return bus, Mamahub and I watched "Number Cruch" on the little DVD player I'd bought for the trip. It seemed to break after that one ep so I am going to exchange it. We shared story ideas and talked about all the little things we each like to notice watching the eps.
I also made some remarks (in the first version of this post that got eaten) but I think I'll do that in a separate post so anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled won't be. Not that I said anything beyond the clips we've all seen in the promos but my opinion could be considered spoilerish.
All in all, a great day in New York and it was wonderful to see our terrific cast in person. You're going to love "Contingency" -- I did.