dragon con monday: ejo, bsg
Monday started off with Mr. Edward James Olmos having a panel all to himself. I left a bit early in order to get on line for the BSG panel (I needn't have bothered, but that's for later), but what I did see was very entertaining. He's a trip.
I wrote this quote down: "I have a tendency to tell people what to do."
He talked about how amazing it is that "So say we all" has become such a touchstone and how much he loved hearing everyone yell it in response at Saturday's panel.
He talked about all the wild costumes he'd seen around the con and referred to a woman whose costume consisted entirely of duct tape -- his 9 year old stepdaughter was like, "She just has tape." And wondered what would happen if it came off. "You'd see a nipple," he said with a shrug. LOL.
Bill Adama is an alcoholic according to EJO.
Here's the part that depressed the hell out of me: someone asked about what the future holds for Bill and Lee, and he said, "There is no hope for the Adama family. What has happened before will happen again." My interpretation: son died before, son will die again. Of course, I'm also totally paranoid about Lee dying. "There's no hope for the Adamas because there's no hope for humanity." Sounded like backpedaling to me...
He praised the younger actors, especially the ones who hadn't done much work before, like Katee, Aaron, Tahmoh, Grace. Mentioned that James and Jamie had been through RADA so they were "classically trained artists," but the others didn't have that foundation. He also really liked that despite their inexperience, the older people weren't "tent poles," everyone really had a role to play. And now they're all doing so well, he's the one asking them for work!
"Katee is a blessing in my life."
Stand and Deliver is the most important film in his life, not least because it's apparently the most viewed movie in America b/c of school showings.
He referred to fans who are so nervous when they meet him that they're shaking and can't speak -- "it's so cute."
nnaylime asked him what he thought Adama's fatal flaw was, and he said, "He's human. He's not a Cylon." Pause. "Or so you think!" Hee. The real answer is that it's the responsibility that he bears for the lives of the fleet, etc. He talked about how he once met a Marine Corps captain who wanted an autographed picture of him for her general, and since there aren't that many generals, it was a huge deal. He said he thinks BSG gives a good sense of the kind of pressure that the military deals with all the time.
Talked about how BSG is the future -- "There's no Buck Rogers in this." ("More's the pity!" I muttered.) He actually said he thought The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk owed something to BSG, which...okay.
His reaction to finding out Tigh is a Cylon -- "What else was he supposed to do? Remember, they eliminated the entire human species."
He was asked who he would bring along to Dragon Con next year if he came again -- he said he'd like to bring Mary and Katee. "If I come next year, I'll have at least one of them with me." Mentioned that he had to drag Hogan there, that he and his wife are these gifted Canadian theater actors and this world was completely unknown to him, but he got him to come and he's so glad he did.
He talked about the infamous scene where he destroyed the model ship, and he said the crew members' jaws all hit the ground -- he had no idea it was a rental and was so expensive. When he found out, he called RDM and said, "Do you really like me? Am I your favorite? Because I just bought you a ship." Hee.
In talking about his career he said he's always embraced the Latino part of his culture, then talked about Blade Runner and said, "I blew everyone out of the water." As long as you're modest about it, Eddie!" "The Latinos in the world love me."
He raved about Mary McDonnell, saying she's so pure that what she does doesn't seem like acting; it's just being. She's a fantastic woman with a great sense of humor. Roslin is the best president we've ever had. (WTF?) Mentioned again about how when Mary starts laughing, production gets shut down for three hours. "That's a long time. And no one's laughing except Mary."
Aaron is "ridiculous" -- he's always drinking -- "But he doesn't have a problem. Ask him." (Should note this was all said humorously. *g*) He loves Michael Hogan's laugh. Alessandro Juliani is very funny -- he was the biggest surprise to EJO -- the way he handles all the tech info effortlessly is amazing to him. Alessandro's parents started a Shakespeare company in Vancouver, so that's where he gets it from. Loves working with him.
"I'm gonna miss this show." Me too, Eddie! But now it's on to the BSG panel itself....
Monday's panel was disappointingly sparse -- only Tahmoh and Hatch. Everyone else was apparently fleeing in case of repercussions from Hanna. So there aren't many notes:
Tahmoh cried twice while reading the series finale script. "It's so good, man." He got so upset while reading it that he had to remind himself, "There's still three weeks of shooting to go, don't break down yet." Very emotional.
There was some stuff about Helo being the moral compass of the show, I wrote down "blah blah blah." Sorry.
Tahmoh said Jamie used to rib him about being a Cylon lover (Tahmoh said at the time he thought it was really stupid that Helo killed the Cylons etc.). Tahmoh would respond, "Take it easy, little man, you're just afraid I'll take your job and Daddy loves me more." Heeeee. Aaron used to tease him about being a Cylon lover too and then when he found out he WAS a Cylon the tables were turned. "He was grumpy on set for days."
An audience member referred to Zarek as being "one of the most moral and one of the least moral characters" on the show, and how did Hatch feel about that. Hatch started off with, "First of all, frak you." Heh. Then he actually made some good points about how Zarek can't believe this shit, he was in jail for years for breaking laws and then he gets on Galactica and they're breaking laws right and left, WTF. I wrote down, "Hatch is making me agree with him. Dammit."
They were asked about the Galactica set and Tahmoh said, "It's big, man." When he finally showed up to film on set in the second season, he got lost a lot. "I was tapping on pipes." He said he and Grace have added their own personal touches to Helo and Sharon's quarters.
Hatch -- and this will surprise no one -- likes to climb into the Vipers when nobody is around.
Tahmoh talked about being a voice in a video game (don't remember the name) and mentioned that he has a PS3 but never has time to play it.
Tahmoh and Grace became friends very quickly on set. "I love her so much." They always try to bring extra layers to their scenes, in an effort to make the writers write for those layers.
When asked about favorite scenes, Hatch said, "All the scenes where Adama makes love to Roslin." He's so weird. He mentioned that he and RDM got lost on the set together once. He also talked about how when he started the show, he was on line at the security checkpoint at the airport and he was really flustered and afraid he was going to miss his flight and this really nice woman let him cut in front of her. Turned out to be Katee. When he got on set, she introduced him to everyone. He mentioned Katee and Jamie specifically as being very kind and welcoming to him. He also mentioned that he just kept staring at Grace. "My gods, she was so hot." Errr, thanks for that, Hatch.
Then Tahmoh had to leave to catch his flight and Hatch stayed behind and showed us a music video Bear McCreary made to "All Along the Watchtower" and the season 3 gag reel that everyone's seen on YouTube a million times. It was cool seeing it on a big screen, though.
Pictures from both panels by em_meredith:
And that was that! Afterward we went to Dean Haglund's panel, but all he really did was shill his merchandise, nothing much to report there. I do remember he was asked if anyone played pranks on set and he said no, because they filmed such long hours that anything that held up production was not funny. He also mentioned that for the first few seasons he had slightly different glasses every time he was on screen because they would just pick them randomly out of a prop box. That's about all I can remember though.
And then it was time to get our bags and leave. Another Dragon Con comes to an end, sigh. We'll see what happens next year -- whether I go or not will really depend on the guest list.
Thanks for reading!
In other news, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL = HILARIOUS GENIUS. The rest of the ep, not so much. Turned it off at midnight.