Pegasus 4 write up
So, this year I has no notes but I'm actually getting the post up instead of notes being lost in the depths of my house. In which the tidbits of the con, random things remembered. Photos will come a little later.
Chris Heyerdahl
He's 6ft 4 inches - man he towers over everyone! He has a Scottish mum and a Norwegian dad - he speaks English, Norwegian and a third language, could have been French possibly because he replies to someone's question in what sounded like pretty fluent French but I can't be sure or remember.
Apparently he's a method actor, according to one of the other guests comments. Certainly he likes to think of the baddies he plays as being more complicated, not evil but having real motivations that make sense, especially for Druitt where he felt there was a real conflict between trying for redemption, wanting to overcome his compulsions and giving in to it.
Also, alot of how he plays Todd comes from the physicality of wearing the Wraith getup - it takes around 4 hours to put it on, so he had to go in at 4am for SGA makeup and even said for one of the days shooting, I think it was S5's "The Lost Tribe", he had such a long day on Sanctuary that it ended at 3am and they left the Druitt scar makeup on and just went in to the Atlantis set and got Todd makeup over the top.
Overall Chris was really sweet, a big softie and terrible fun as a speaker too. It was his first convention and he really seemed so happy to be there, to meet the fans and he definitely warmed up, got more into the flow with Sunday, when he was doing little accents - British, Mexican, camping it up - and a couple of impressions even I think, with a dirty nun joke.
He seemed pretty amused to learn there's a Todd/Sheppard ship/slash and when asked to describe each cast member in one word Sheppard was "delicious!" lol and he really loved the platonic relationship SGA had with Halling and Teyla, Rachel being someone everyone at the convention said only nice things about working with - described as a sweetheart by them all.
He obviously gets on with Amanda Tapping pretty well too, loved working with her back on SG-1 and now on Sanctuary. As someone pointed out, all his characters he'd played on SG are probably still alive, which is interesting for someone who's had several parts and of course the main reason he could come back is it works out well with the mask of being a Wraith. I think it was Kavan who didn't recognise him on set though, when he came across out of makeup one day to speak to Amanda and was looking at him like who are you?
Chris also seemed to really like all the Wraith costumes because there were 6 Wraith's and 1 Wraith worshipper this year in the costume competition and called us his Wraith hero's and signed fuskyb's P4 poster "To" [name] "The Best Wraith". I may have accidentally kissed him on the cheek when we went to get the prizes on Sunday, because I didn't know what to do and it looked like the others before me did this strange sort of hug/two cheek continental kiss thing. Ah well, oops, hopefully he didn't mind... He was such a lovely guy, so passionate and it was wonderful to see him at the convention. He was much like Chuck, out there in the bar area on Sunday night, giving out hugs, chatting and posing for photos for some people. I was too polite to go ask for one but it's nice he cares so much, hope he didn't get overwhelmed by it all. *fingers crossed for him at the Sanctuary convention*
There was more stuff for Chris that I can't remember and more I didn't repeat because fififolle covered plenty in her report here that is worth checking out for sure.
EDIT: Oh and he mentioned he'd just finished filming for a Supernatural two parter that should be on in March in the US - reprising the role of Alastair previously playd by Mark Rolston.
James "BamBam" Bamford
He was a really interesting guest - plenty of tales of what it's like working as a stuntman and on Sunday he did a very cool stunt demo with 3 stunt guys - James Henry, Anthony (one of the convention securities guys who is training in the UK) and Adam something, who is in some upcoming British gangster movies - and teknikal off Gateworld (don't know her LJ name if she has one) playing the hero. It looked seriously hard to remember all the moves, and it was just a 3 acts choreographed fight too, and then there's the fact footing needs to be right so you move into the punches etc in the right direction. Teknikal was really ace at it, especially since she came into it cold, all of it was being made up by BamBam on the day, all of them learning it from scratch. Apparently usually he goes over it with the stunt people for hours before the actors even get involved, to make sure he knows exactly how it goes down and that the stunt people have got it down to a tee and that the actors will be okay - then they practice for a few more hours with the actors I think he said, but apparently both Jason and Rachel pick the routines up real quick.
He limps a bit now as he had a nasty fall from an explosion stunt? down a hill 17 feet (I presume feet because 17 metres sounds crazy!) onto frozen ground during Scary Movie 4 and so has arthritus in his hip.
BamBam has more lovely things to say about Rachel. Apparently he got to see some sort of casting tapes or the like for Teyla hopefuls and got asked his opinion - though he was quick to say he doubted it meant much as regard to her actual casting - and she was one of his favourites with her physical background in dance. He also said that influenced her martial arts training as she's very open, when of course generally fighting you want to be closed and a hard target, where as she's almost daring people to hit her, so it makes for a very graceful dance inspired style of the Aikido? her taught her - she really made it her own.
Jason too is very good and into the fight scenes, picks the moves up like that. BamBam did tell the tale which some may have heard about on the special features of one stuntman, who wasn't on the show for very long after this, who kept not giving enough space for the "Michael" stunt where he's got Ronon against the wall and is smacking round into his face. They're meant to give several inches at least, which works out fine due to camera angles, but the guy kept doing it right up so close that BamBam got rather irritated and then Jason when he saw him was so sure the guy'd end up doing it wrong that he bet with Joe the guy'd break his nose. And sure enough the guy accidentally whacked Jason in the nose, only then when it was Jason's turn he "accidentally" knocked the guy out cold, with maybe getting less sympathy than usual as he'd just hit an actor - something you really should not do at all, they're trusted not to, BamBam saying he has a core team he trusts to be good with actors, not endanger them - but then BamBam got the poor guy up, a bit wobbly perhaps but they did it perfectly next take.
There was also a question about David Hewlett's "Runner" stunt, I think under "what thing did you do to torture the actors". They kept bringing him down so he'd not pass out upside down and then yanking him back up for the takes and then there was serious discussion about how they did the actual yanking him up stunt, shooting David skipping down and then another stunt person yoinked up, with the thing pulling them up not on the ankle, the ankle bit just for show. BamBam said he'd seen the same sort of stunt go awfully wrong on either American Ninja or Power Rangers? and it'd ripped the persons knee, ouch, and if you didn't yank them up fast enough you'd get the stunt person hitting their head nastily against the ground - obviously takes some serious calculations and planning to get these things right and working in a safe manner.
It sounds like it slightly easier to become a stunt person in North America. By BamBam's description over there you need to be top of your field in a particular sport, martial art or riding etc and you get hired for that talent and then maybe you diversify with more training. Over in the UK it's more formal and to get on the registry for stunt people you need to train pretty hard in a lot of different areas and get tested in them before you make the cut and can work over here.
Chuck Campbell
Just aawwwww. Lovely to see Chuck back. I think most cute thing of the weekend was his impression of Rachel "She's off camera, all puppies and rainbows la la la la and then they yell action and she's" *argh, bam bam bam, firing the gun intently*. LOL!
He said a bit about how they filmed Sanctuary Two-Faced guy, with tracking dots on the back of his head prosthetic - him forgetting, sitting down to lunch with the thing on and wondering what was bothering the people around him - and then the same for the guy who does the back of the head, but having them on his front.
Bless Chuck, he doesn't seem to think he can dance well, which he mentioned when "Superstar" came up and how at stage/drama school his dance teach just said "But you're funny" intended as a nice let down to the implied but you suck at dance. Related to that he told us about how there was Tom Green (where is he now?) being escorted round on set with bodyguards as the big enchilda and yet not Will Farrell, who on set he was chilling hanging out with, is the big star thesedays, which was kind of amusing to look back on.
In "Midway" the idea for him running a betting pool on the Ronon vs. Teal'c fight was something he was allowed to slip in in the background, unscripted, since Andy Mikita was open to that. chuck went to the props guy and said do you have any currency, and got told, "do I have currency?!" bringing out a stack of it they'd had saved in case it was needed, dollars, yen, all sorts from around the world. And then with filming it Joe F had told Chuck he'd do something on the cue, didn't say what, no clue whatsoever, so then Joe had as Sheppard just confiscated all the betting pool money at the end of the fight, Chuck completely not expecting that saying "What the hell are you doing?" or whatever it was as his natural reaction forgetting for a moment it was being filmed and it made the cut into the episode!
There was a question of Chuck's (the character's) military background and he was saying how he'd got chatting to a fan, a guy at another conventions I presume, who really knew his stuff and each idea he had for what type of military he could be in the guy shot down for some reason, so Chuck resigned to the idea his character is part of the Canadian Ninja Corps, which goes down well. ;D
Also he joked about Chuck finally getting out of the gateroom briefly in Season 4! Because he's always been stuck at the consolein the gateroom and sometimes had the main cast trying to put him off, playing jokes like putting pics on the computer so when he does his pulling stuff up on the screen...well, let's just say, as Chuck described, it was not appropriate for the show. As well as the sfx? guys attaching fishing wire to the console draw, which won't show up on camera, opening it during his takes once, he shuts it, they open it etc lol. I can't be sure but I think he said there was bum pinching to distract him too! Unless I'm imagining that one. ;D
I know there was a tonne more fun, cool, interesting stuff Chuck said and it's sadly slipped my mind...
Oh yeah, he did a completely random impression with sunglasses as Jack Nicholson being a traffic cop stopping Joe Flanigan doing a red light. Hilarious.
Chuck also had an ear wig, Atlantis earpiece, with him and put it in the auction, which gwene won. Some of the other guests had put in scripts/sides and the auction made a load of money for the charity Bliss. He'd tried to snaffle one of the console constellation buttons as a souvenir but got caught and told to put it back, but had the ear piece since he always kept it in his pocket.
EDIT: Chuck also told the tale of his Sanctuary elevator stunt from 1x07. They warned him he'd get yanked up hard, but he wasn't prepared for how hard and shouted out "Oh Jesus!" or something similar that couldn't be included. So, 2nd take, better prepared but he accidentally made "Eeeeee" noise with the yank because it's so hard and they just gave up, got the footage and decided to ADR it later.
Neil Roberts
He totally knew half attendees might have no clue who he was, and played that up at the meet and greet, because the first question at the table was have you seen me in anything or do you have no clue who I am and he pretty much introduced himself to the whole room the same way when he came in. He's been in so much but he's maybe not an actor many people know by name - I probably saw him in Charmed and Babylon 5 possibly too, but I'd not heard of him. Relevancy to SGA was his recording a Big Finish audiobook with Paul recently, him in London and then Paul doing his lines across the globe not at the same time - there being the writer trying to read Paul's lines in a fake scottish accent and it not working and then James Swallow having a go too, Neil recording each thing at 3 different voice levels so they could edit it right against Paul's recording. Sadly the particular audiobook was not on sale yet, but I now have all the other 5 SG audiobooks (already had the Weir one) due to the special offer of £5 each at the con - just got to wait for Neils to be released.
He was a hoot as a guest, crazy rambling jokes about his haemmoroids and vasectomy and all sorts. I don't think many people got their questions to him directly answered but he was an entertainer for sure and fun to have at the con. fififolle even got a little hug and kiss on the cheek from him as congrats for the costume competition win! ;)
I'm also not sure if I'll be able to take his B5 scene seriously now I know he's naked under the monks robe and the dramatic pauses = him forgetting his lines for the incredibly long take - he swore it was the long scene in tv. Should be fun to watch though. ;P
Paul McGillion
Aww, he told a heartbreaking/warming story about when he went across to Belfast and a little boy who couldn't afford an autograph came up just to say thank you, that Beckett was his favourite character and so give him a slice of his birthday cake. Of course Paul insisted the kid should have a free signed photo, bless em both!
There was again Paul in a kilt, his dusting it off once a year - they did an extra photoshoot with him in it too. Him giving away plenty of free kisses, from himself and the other guys, to get the auction bids to go up!
There was tonnes more, but again I can't remember right now! Was amused when he came out to take a pic of our costume comp groups, we went to put the drinks down and he's like, "No, no, keep the drinks" and took a snap of us drinking through straws with the freaky teeth in, rofl. Iolanda on Gateworld also took the same pic (thank you so much for it!) and hence you can see it uploaded here.
Kavan Smith
The poor guy was ill for a good part of Friday and Saturday, but was a trooper and still came to the convention, still did the Meet and Greet. He'd brought his son along to Europe again, only he's older now and more active, needs more minding - Kavan didn't remember saying last year how he'd not do that again, and looking back he realised how last time was a whole lot easier.
Never again, or so he claims once more. ;P In fact, he said this trip was a sort of honeymoon for him and his wife, who just recently got married - not sure if it turned out so romantic considering they all got the flu or whatever it was, but he looked like he was having fun by Sunday at least when he felt tons better after not eating much all Saturday.
Ah Kavan, he seems to have done plenty of cons by now so he couldn't remember what he'd said the year before. Most bizarre con experience was DragonCon, where he kept taking toilet breaks from his little booth so he could escape the chaos for a while and then he had a strange Robin costumed woman come up to talk to him - in a robotic voice - who he thought seemed to think she could really fly and was wizzing about with her arms out, flapping cape. Odd. sort of almost puts me off the idea of going there. Doesn't sounds like Kavan is keen to revisit it, with the sheer number of people and the fact he thought UK cons = more normal people and US cons = higher level of crazy.
He also told the story about audition for a sex scene and having to make orgasm noises and then screaming at the end because his character was getting eaten by an alien, finding it hard. He found it really hard to comitt to doing it well, kept having to try again and then walking out of the trailer after the embarrasment of it all and seeing all the perplexed guys waiting to do the same. Then getting a call back and being asked to be more manly about it - and he did some noises to demonstrate! - and got the part, only to discover the actress was happy to do it nude, if he also did it nude. His agent assured him they'd demand so much for it they directors would give up on the idea only to get a call back shortly after saying, nah, they'll pay, so he had to do the sex scene. Then found out they had to do the same scene again in green/blue screen, with a "skeleton" crew that wasn't so small because everyone would be peeping wanting to see her naked. So they're reenacting it carefully watching the camera to get it right, making the noises again. Went off for lunch in his robe after, thank god it's over, with the actress doing the scene again by herself and then when she was done he got called up for his turn alone, not having known he'd need to do that and felt ridiculous standing them having sex with himself practically. It's funnier when Kavan tells it I swear, noises and all - con reports can not do the tales justice really. ;D
And alas, I can't remember much more apart from he didn't think he could sing - had done a musical and each night people came to see how he stuffed it up because he couldn't sing high enough - and the extra details to the jetski story from last year, where he wanted to go in the rapids filming on location and insurance wouldn't cover him, so he dropped the oar, fell out and then had quite a ride along them, almost dying practically until he got rescued by the guys on jetskis once they realised he'd survived.
But you know, how much of what Kavan says is true is hard to judge because he's a joker and he said himself at the beginning of one talk that he lies, makes shit up (as well as swearing like a sailor lol). I don't think anyone has yet got a straight answer about his age/birth date because he told fififolle 1984 and someone else 1963 or something!
EDIT: Kavan also expressed the hope he'd back in Sanctuary S2.
Other things
- Conwise the next SG wolf event is next Jan, combined for SG-1, SGA and SG:U and with BamBam already going to come to that as he's doing stunts on SG:U (and poor guy, he was really surprised at people booing etc when he mentioned the show. He's obviously enthused about working on it.). Brian seemed to be under the impression they've had pretty much everyone to the SGA cons, though a few of us did point out "hey, you've yet to get Ben Cotton" but I don' think he was convinced anyone wanted the guy there, even though they've had Wraith actors there and they're playing proper baddies! Obviously Rachel is another main actor they've yet to have at a Wolf event - they did invite her but she was unable to attend due to moving house, in LA?
- Also, instead of the usual SG con in the autumn, there will a Sanctuary con (as yet unnamed and that may be why it's not up on the Wolf site yet) which is pretty likely to have Chuck and Chris attending. I think it was said it would be October 2nd-4th (aww, not a good date for me!) but I imagine it's not yet set in stone, and whilst it's likely to be at the Radison Hotel, I guess we'll all have to wait and see for more definite details and the ability to book tickets.
- At the meet and greet our rooms occupants were sharing a table with doylefan22 and friends and amusingly when one of the guests asked for where we're all from we found out there was another person from the same city across the table, who lives probably less than 30 minutes walk away! Hows that for strange fortune.
- Costume competion was awesome as always. There was a Wraith queen from Rising (who had the most intricate fimo nail/finger attachments), another Waith queen (who had contacts and very nice latex makeup that actually moved with her face, plus cool outfit), alipeeps pregnant Teyla (going the extra mile there lol), a Puddlejumper (their "cloaking" was so fun), a Todd!, a very lovely Sora, a singing Teyla from "Critical Mass", "A Dog's Breakfast" Patrick pulling a dead Ryan in a lifeboat (such a cool idea, very fun), a very fun Teal'c costume too, plus our group of Wraith queen, Vegas disguised Wraith, half-Wraith Aurora spy and a Wraith worshipper. THere might be more I'm forgetting but all the entrants were fantastic and the guests judging it where snapping away taking pics, enjoying it I presume.
Chris Heyerdahl
He's 6ft 4 inches - man he towers over everyone! He has a Scottish mum and a Norwegian dad - he speaks English, Norwegian and a third language, could have been French possibly because he replies to someone's question in what sounded like pretty fluent French but I can't be sure or remember.
Apparently he's a method actor, according to one of the other guests comments. Certainly he likes to think of the baddies he plays as being more complicated, not evil but having real motivations that make sense, especially for Druitt where he felt there was a real conflict between trying for redemption, wanting to overcome his compulsions and giving in to it.
Also, alot of how he plays Todd comes from the physicality of wearing the Wraith getup - it takes around 4 hours to put it on, so he had to go in at 4am for SGA makeup and even said for one of the days shooting, I think it was S5's "The Lost Tribe", he had such a long day on Sanctuary that it ended at 3am and they left the Druitt scar makeup on and just went in to the Atlantis set and got Todd makeup over the top.
Overall Chris was really sweet, a big softie and terrible fun as a speaker too. It was his first convention and he really seemed so happy to be there, to meet the fans and he definitely warmed up, got more into the flow with Sunday, when he was doing little accents - British, Mexican, camping it up - and a couple of impressions even I think, with a dirty nun joke.
He seemed pretty amused to learn there's a Todd/Sheppard ship/slash and when asked to describe each cast member in one word Sheppard was "delicious!" lol and he really loved the platonic relationship SGA had with Halling and Teyla, Rachel being someone everyone at the convention said only nice things about working with - described as a sweetheart by them all.
He obviously gets on with Amanda Tapping pretty well too, loved working with her back on SG-1 and now on Sanctuary. As someone pointed out, all his characters he'd played on SG are probably still alive, which is interesting for someone who's had several parts and of course the main reason he could come back is it works out well with the mask of being a Wraith. I think it was Kavan who didn't recognise him on set though, when he came across out of makeup one day to speak to Amanda and was looking at him like who are you?
Chris also seemed to really like all the Wraith costumes because there were 6 Wraith's and 1 Wraith worshipper this year in the costume competition and called us his Wraith hero's and signed fuskyb's P4 poster "To" [name] "The Best Wraith". I may have accidentally kissed him on the cheek when we went to get the prizes on Sunday, because I didn't know what to do and it looked like the others before me did this strange sort of hug/two cheek continental kiss thing. Ah well, oops, hopefully he didn't mind... He was such a lovely guy, so passionate and it was wonderful to see him at the convention. He was much like Chuck, out there in the bar area on Sunday night, giving out hugs, chatting and posing for photos for some people. I was too polite to go ask for one but it's nice he cares so much, hope he didn't get overwhelmed by it all. *fingers crossed for him at the Sanctuary convention*
There was more stuff for Chris that I can't remember and more I didn't repeat because fififolle covered plenty in her report here that is worth checking out for sure.
EDIT: Oh and he mentioned he'd just finished filming for a Supernatural two parter that should be on in March in the US - reprising the role of Alastair previously playd by Mark Rolston.
James "BamBam" Bamford
He was a really interesting guest - plenty of tales of what it's like working as a stuntman and on Sunday he did a very cool stunt demo with 3 stunt guys - James Henry, Anthony (one of the convention securities guys who is training in the UK) and Adam something, who is in some upcoming British gangster movies - and teknikal off Gateworld (don't know her LJ name if she has one) playing the hero. It looked seriously hard to remember all the moves, and it was just a 3 acts choreographed fight too, and then there's the fact footing needs to be right so you move into the punches etc in the right direction. Teknikal was really ace at it, especially since she came into it cold, all of it was being made up by BamBam on the day, all of them learning it from scratch. Apparently usually he goes over it with the stunt people for hours before the actors even get involved, to make sure he knows exactly how it goes down and that the stunt people have got it down to a tee and that the actors will be okay - then they practice for a few more hours with the actors I think he said, but apparently both Jason and Rachel pick the routines up real quick.
He limps a bit now as he had a nasty fall from an explosion stunt? down a hill 17 feet (I presume feet because 17 metres sounds crazy!) onto frozen ground during Scary Movie 4 and so has arthritus in his hip.
BamBam has more lovely things to say about Rachel. Apparently he got to see some sort of casting tapes or the like for Teyla hopefuls and got asked his opinion - though he was quick to say he doubted it meant much as regard to her actual casting - and she was one of his favourites with her physical background in dance. He also said that influenced her martial arts training as she's very open, when of course generally fighting you want to be closed and a hard target, where as she's almost daring people to hit her, so it makes for a very graceful dance inspired style of the Aikido? her taught her - she really made it her own.
Jason too is very good and into the fight scenes, picks the moves up like that. BamBam did tell the tale which some may have heard about on the special features of one stuntman, who wasn't on the show for very long after this, who kept not giving enough space for the "Michael" stunt where he's got Ronon against the wall and is smacking round into his face. They're meant to give several inches at least, which works out fine due to camera angles, but the guy kept doing it right up so close that BamBam got rather irritated and then Jason when he saw him was so sure the guy'd end up doing it wrong that he bet with Joe the guy'd break his nose. And sure enough the guy accidentally whacked Jason in the nose, only then when it was Jason's turn he "accidentally" knocked the guy out cold, with maybe getting less sympathy than usual as he'd just hit an actor - something you really should not do at all, they're trusted not to, BamBam saying he has a core team he trusts to be good with actors, not endanger them - but then BamBam got the poor guy up, a bit wobbly perhaps but they did it perfectly next take.
There was also a question about David Hewlett's "Runner" stunt, I think under "what thing did you do to torture the actors". They kept bringing him down so he'd not pass out upside down and then yanking him back up for the takes and then there was serious discussion about how they did the actual yanking him up stunt, shooting David skipping down and then another stunt person yoinked up, with the thing pulling them up not on the ankle, the ankle bit just for show. BamBam said he'd seen the same sort of stunt go awfully wrong on either American Ninja or Power Rangers? and it'd ripped the persons knee, ouch, and if you didn't yank them up fast enough you'd get the stunt person hitting their head nastily against the ground - obviously takes some serious calculations and planning to get these things right and working in a safe manner.
It sounds like it slightly easier to become a stunt person in North America. By BamBam's description over there you need to be top of your field in a particular sport, martial art or riding etc and you get hired for that talent and then maybe you diversify with more training. Over in the UK it's more formal and to get on the registry for stunt people you need to train pretty hard in a lot of different areas and get tested in them before you make the cut and can work over here.
Chuck Campbell
Just aawwwww. Lovely to see Chuck back. I think most cute thing of the weekend was his impression of Rachel "She's off camera, all puppies and rainbows la la la la and then they yell action and she's" *argh, bam bam bam, firing the gun intently*. LOL!
He said a bit about how they filmed Sanctuary Two-Faced guy, with tracking dots on the back of his head prosthetic - him forgetting, sitting down to lunch with the thing on and wondering what was bothering the people around him - and then the same for the guy who does the back of the head, but having them on his front.
Bless Chuck, he doesn't seem to think he can dance well, which he mentioned when "Superstar" came up and how at stage/drama school his dance teach just said "But you're funny" intended as a nice let down to the implied but you suck at dance. Related to that he told us about how there was Tom Green (where is he now?) being escorted round on set with bodyguards as the big enchilda and yet not Will Farrell, who on set he was chilling hanging out with, is the big star thesedays, which was kind of amusing to look back on.
In "Midway" the idea for him running a betting pool on the Ronon vs. Teal'c fight was something he was allowed to slip in in the background, unscripted, since Andy Mikita was open to that. chuck went to the props guy and said do you have any currency, and got told, "do I have currency?!" bringing out a stack of it they'd had saved in case it was needed, dollars, yen, all sorts from around the world. And then with filming it Joe F had told Chuck he'd do something on the cue, didn't say what, no clue whatsoever, so then Joe had as Sheppard just confiscated all the betting pool money at the end of the fight, Chuck completely not expecting that saying "What the hell are you doing?" or whatever it was as his natural reaction forgetting for a moment it was being filmed and it made the cut into the episode!
There was a question of Chuck's (the character's) military background and he was saying how he'd got chatting to a fan, a guy at another conventions I presume, who really knew his stuff and each idea he had for what type of military he could be in the guy shot down for some reason, so Chuck resigned to the idea his character is part of the Canadian Ninja Corps, which goes down well. ;D
Also he joked about Chuck finally getting out of the gateroom briefly in Season 4! Because he's always been stuck at the consolein the gateroom and sometimes had the main cast trying to put him off, playing jokes like putting pics on the computer so when he does his pulling stuff up on the screen...well, let's just say, as Chuck described, it was not appropriate for the show. As well as the sfx? guys attaching fishing wire to the console draw, which won't show up on camera, opening it during his takes once, he shuts it, they open it etc lol. I can't be sure but I think he said there was bum pinching to distract him too! Unless I'm imagining that one. ;D
I know there was a tonne more fun, cool, interesting stuff Chuck said and it's sadly slipped my mind...
Oh yeah, he did a completely random impression with sunglasses as Jack Nicholson being a traffic cop stopping Joe Flanigan doing a red light. Hilarious.
Chuck also had an ear wig, Atlantis earpiece, with him and put it in the auction, which gwene won. Some of the other guests had put in scripts/sides and the auction made a load of money for the charity Bliss. He'd tried to snaffle one of the console constellation buttons as a souvenir but got caught and told to put it back, but had the ear piece since he always kept it in his pocket.
EDIT: Chuck also told the tale of his Sanctuary elevator stunt from 1x07. They warned him he'd get yanked up hard, but he wasn't prepared for how hard and shouted out "Oh Jesus!" or something similar that couldn't be included. So, 2nd take, better prepared but he accidentally made "Eeeeee" noise with the yank because it's so hard and they just gave up, got the footage and decided to ADR it later.
Neil Roberts
He totally knew half attendees might have no clue who he was, and played that up at the meet and greet, because the first question at the table was have you seen me in anything or do you have no clue who I am and he pretty much introduced himself to the whole room the same way when he came in. He's been in so much but he's maybe not an actor many people know by name - I probably saw him in Charmed and Babylon 5 possibly too, but I'd not heard of him. Relevancy to SGA was his recording a Big Finish audiobook with Paul recently, him in London and then Paul doing his lines across the globe not at the same time - there being the writer trying to read Paul's lines in a fake scottish accent and it not working and then James Swallow having a go too, Neil recording each thing at 3 different voice levels so they could edit it right against Paul's recording. Sadly the particular audiobook was not on sale yet, but I now have all the other 5 SG audiobooks (already had the Weir one) due to the special offer of £5 each at the con - just got to wait for Neils to be released.
He was a hoot as a guest, crazy rambling jokes about his haemmoroids and vasectomy and all sorts. I don't think many people got their questions to him directly answered but he was an entertainer for sure and fun to have at the con. fififolle even got a little hug and kiss on the cheek from him as congrats for the costume competition win! ;)
I'm also not sure if I'll be able to take his B5 scene seriously now I know he's naked under the monks robe and the dramatic pauses = him forgetting his lines for the incredibly long take - he swore it was the long scene in tv. Should be fun to watch though. ;P
Paul McGillion
Aww, he told a heartbreaking/warming story about when he went across to Belfast and a little boy who couldn't afford an autograph came up just to say thank you, that Beckett was his favourite character and so give him a slice of his birthday cake. Of course Paul insisted the kid should have a free signed photo, bless em both!
There was again Paul in a kilt, his dusting it off once a year - they did an extra photoshoot with him in it too. Him giving away plenty of free kisses, from himself and the other guys, to get the auction bids to go up!
There was tonnes more, but again I can't remember right now! Was amused when he came out to take a pic of our costume comp groups, we went to put the drinks down and he's like, "No, no, keep the drinks" and took a snap of us drinking through straws with the freaky teeth in, rofl. Iolanda on Gateworld also took the same pic (thank you so much for it!) and hence you can see it uploaded here.
Kavan Smith
The poor guy was ill for a good part of Friday and Saturday, but was a trooper and still came to the convention, still did the Meet and Greet. He'd brought his son along to Europe again, only he's older now and more active, needs more minding - Kavan didn't remember saying last year how he'd not do that again, and looking back he realised how last time was a whole lot easier.
Never again, or so he claims once more. ;P In fact, he said this trip was a sort of honeymoon for him and his wife, who just recently got married - not sure if it turned out so romantic considering they all got the flu or whatever it was, but he looked like he was having fun by Sunday at least when he felt tons better after not eating much all Saturday.
Ah Kavan, he seems to have done plenty of cons by now so he couldn't remember what he'd said the year before. Most bizarre con experience was DragonCon, where he kept taking toilet breaks from his little booth so he could escape the chaos for a while and then he had a strange Robin costumed woman come up to talk to him - in a robotic voice - who he thought seemed to think she could really fly and was wizzing about with her arms out, flapping cape. Odd. sort of almost puts me off the idea of going there. Doesn't sounds like Kavan is keen to revisit it, with the sheer number of people and the fact he thought UK cons = more normal people and US cons = higher level of crazy.
He also told the story about audition for a sex scene and having to make orgasm noises and then screaming at the end because his character was getting eaten by an alien, finding it hard. He found it really hard to comitt to doing it well, kept having to try again and then walking out of the trailer after the embarrasment of it all and seeing all the perplexed guys waiting to do the same. Then getting a call back and being asked to be more manly about it - and he did some noises to demonstrate! - and got the part, only to discover the actress was happy to do it nude, if he also did it nude. His agent assured him they'd demand so much for it they directors would give up on the idea only to get a call back shortly after saying, nah, they'll pay, so he had to do the sex scene. Then found out they had to do the same scene again in green/blue screen, with a "skeleton" crew that wasn't so small because everyone would be peeping wanting to see her naked. So they're reenacting it carefully watching the camera to get it right, making the noises again. Went off for lunch in his robe after, thank god it's over, with the actress doing the scene again by herself and then when she was done he got called up for his turn alone, not having known he'd need to do that and felt ridiculous standing them having sex with himself practically. It's funnier when Kavan tells it I swear, noises and all - con reports can not do the tales justice really. ;D
And alas, I can't remember much more apart from he didn't think he could sing - had done a musical and each night people came to see how he stuffed it up because he couldn't sing high enough - and the extra details to the jetski story from last year, where he wanted to go in the rapids filming on location and insurance wouldn't cover him, so he dropped the oar, fell out and then had quite a ride along them, almost dying practically until he got rescued by the guys on jetskis once they realised he'd survived.
But you know, how much of what Kavan says is true is hard to judge because he's a joker and he said himself at the beginning of one talk that he lies, makes shit up (as well as swearing like a sailor lol). I don't think anyone has yet got a straight answer about his age/birth date because he told fififolle 1984 and someone else 1963 or something!
EDIT: Kavan also expressed the hope he'd back in Sanctuary S2.
Other things
- Conwise the next SG wolf event is next Jan, combined for SG-1, SGA and SG:U and with BamBam already going to come to that as he's doing stunts on SG:U (and poor guy, he was really surprised at people booing etc when he mentioned the show. He's obviously enthused about working on it.). Brian seemed to be under the impression they've had pretty much everyone to the SGA cons, though a few of us did point out "hey, you've yet to get Ben Cotton" but I don' think he was convinced anyone wanted the guy there, even though they've had Wraith actors there and they're playing proper baddies! Obviously Rachel is another main actor they've yet to have at a Wolf event - they did invite her but she was unable to attend due to moving house, in LA?
- Also, instead of the usual SG con in the autumn, there will a Sanctuary con (as yet unnamed and that may be why it's not up on the Wolf site yet) which is pretty likely to have Chuck and Chris attending. I think it was said it would be October 2nd-4th (aww, not a good date for me!) but I imagine it's not yet set in stone, and whilst it's likely to be at the Radison Hotel, I guess we'll all have to wait and see for more definite details and the ability to book tickets.
- At the meet and greet our rooms occupants were sharing a table with doylefan22 and friends and amusingly when one of the guests asked for where we're all from we found out there was another person from the same city across the table, who lives probably less than 30 minutes walk away! Hows that for strange fortune.
- Costume competion was awesome as always. There was a Wraith queen from Rising (who had the most intricate fimo nail/finger attachments), another Waith queen (who had contacts and very nice latex makeup that actually moved with her face, plus cool outfit), alipeeps pregnant Teyla (going the extra mile there lol), a Puddlejumper (their "cloaking" was so fun), a Todd!, a very lovely Sora, a singing Teyla from "Critical Mass", "A Dog's Breakfast" Patrick pulling a dead Ryan in a lifeboat (such a cool idea, very fun), a very fun Teal'c costume too, plus our group of Wraith queen, Vegas disguised Wraith, half-Wraith Aurora spy and a Wraith worshipper. THere might be more I'm forgetting but all the entrants were fantastic and the guests judging it where snapping away taking pics, enjoying it I presume.