InsaneJournal

Dragon*Con 2007 - Part 3 (The Rest of Friday)
When last we left our hapless would-be drunkards, they were on their very first day of their vacation, leaving the Buffy panel to go get more drinks...

Except that we stop first to get a picture of The Greatest American Hero, who tells us that this year he's wearing a wig, because last year he actually got his hair bleached and ringlet curled, and then he couldn't work for a month when he got back home. Apparently, people kept kicking him off the construction sites--for real. And then we stop at the Walk of Fame, because according to my schedule, Corin Nemec is going to be there at 2:30pm. So we duck in there, and it's actually not too crazy. Dom snaps another close-up of Elizabeth Rohm, and a pic of Gigi Edgely (Chiana from Farscape) (and OMFG, have >I< got a story about her later on to tell you!). As we wait in line, we see a gigantic Klingon and a life sized Rygel (also from Farscape) and his maker, and a staggering Jack Sparrow. Dom almost gets knocked out by Robin, and asks a set of parents permission to take a picture of a young Rogue, who YES, actually DOES have her hair dyed like that for real. Her parents are so cool. About this time, i finall get a clue that Duh! Corin's in a Stargate Panel right now, though in my defense, they listed him under Walk of Fame with times that he WON'T be there, which is just stupid.

Now we're heading back to the room to get drinks. We stop to get a picture of an excellent Lord Vader, Black Manta,and there's also a chick with an umbrella I don't recognize, but her costume is cute. Dom gets his all important picture Drizz't Do'Urden, and I tease him mercilessly, because he's all excited and when I showed him MY picture with Drizz't from last year, he turned up his nose at it. He's so in love with Drizz't since reading the books. One more picture of The King and we finally manage to make our way upstairs.

We get more drinks, and on our way down the elevator, we get held for someone. Why, it's C-3P0. And he looks JUST like he did in the movies. The costume is awesome, but apparently comes at a hefty price, because not only can he only walk with mincing steps like a victim of vicious footbinding, but apparently he can't see, either, and needs to have someone walk in front of him as a guide and tell/show him where to step. Just outside the hotel, I stop Beau and say, "Oh, look! There's a Gambit!" all excited because I haven't seen any X-Men yet--and just then, Gambit turns around and like something out of a horror movie--well, he IS something out of a horror movie. He's zombie Gambit, and there's Cyclops, Mystique, Storm, beast and Wasp with him, all zombified as well. Their make-up is incredible, and Bebe tells us later it was professionally done by someone over at the horror movie booths, I believe it. There's also a badass looking Robocop hanging out out here.

FINALLY, on our way to the next panel, some guy stops me and Dom and says "I don't know who you are, but you look great, can I get a picture?" We pose, then I give him a flyer and explain our web comic book. He immediately asks who we're hosted with, we tell him and he cautions us that we're going to get something like 10,000 hits after the weekend, because he's an editor at Shoutwire, so we should be ready. I'm not sure how serious he is, but we thank him, and head down to the cross walk, where we see Claire Bennet of Save the Cheerleader, Save the World fame.

We get awesome seats for the Ron Glass & Mark Sheppard Firefly panel. Alas, alack, Ron Glass has not yet arrived, so it turns out to be the Badger panel. And dammit, I can't really freaking HEAR him very well, which is SO frustrating. He takes several minutes of rambling to answer each question and often ends up in a very different place than where he started. But he's funny and animated, seems like a REALLY decent guy, so the audience is charmed. I think it's probably very hard to do a panel alone and keep it entertaining. I write down the little snatches of stuff that I do catch that sound interesting. He rambles a LOT, so it's hard to keep in context. Follow me if you dare!

MS: Regarding Badger: Joss Whedon wrote the role for himself, and I was like F**K!

MS: One night, I'm at the grocery store, and there's this woman, this older woman, standing there frozen,. just staring at me with this huge eyes. Like a deer in the headlights, not blinking, with her two kids. And she asks (affects a low, conspiratorial voice) "Are you and actor." And I say, "Yes." (as woman, mimes backing up a step and making a face) "You creepy, creepy man."

MS: "I love fandom, especially the kind of feedback it provides. You don't get that kind of feedback anywhere else.

MS: "My favorite thing about Badger is that he has this cute optimism. He actually thinks Mal & Jayne are going to love him. That scene was the most fun to shoot. My favorite scene, actually, making tea and eating sandwiches for hours, the three of us together trying to make something happen."

MS: "My least favorite thing about Badger is that I didn't get to do more."

MS: "That something I do has that much impact? I love that. I love it. It's [Firefly is] my favorite show."

MS: "When I got the part on BSG, I went back and watched Season 1, and I was like... this is probably the best show on TV."

MS: "Big damned heroes, that's what it was about. Fantastic show. I saw where Mal kicked the guy into the engines and I was like, yeah!"

MS: Dom says, "That's the first one we watched." The woman in front of us turns around, nodding and smiling and says , "That was the first one I saw, too, and I said 'I'm watching every one of these'."

MS: "Baltar is the guy who sells the whole human race out before he leaves the planet."

MS: "My favorite role was all of them. I never got to finish any of them. None of them are finished."

Q: "How tall are you?"

MS: *deadpan* 7 foot 3 inches--laying down."

He talks about bionic Woman for a while and his recurring role on that. He's very charming and funny, and there's still no sign of Ron Glass so he goes on a while. Alas, I still cannot hear him very well.

The mic dies when the next fan comes up to ask a question, so he pats the seat next to him and calls her up on stage. She hesitates, surprised, and he pats the seat again. So the girl goes up and sits next to him. They talk about River and how brilliant she was in the scene where she imitates Badger, and how she so had his number. And here I am, furiously taking notes.

This leads him to talk about what he was doing in that scene, and why he walks up to Ron Glass and specifically looks at him while eating the apple. They told him Badger needed to be doing something, so he picked an act that would homage his favorite Ron Glass scene from All in the Family back in the day. Apparently, there's this scene where Ron is in the kitchen, cutting and eating an apple with a paring knife, and like many of the episodes on the show, this one was about racism, and Ron just knocked it out of the park. He loved that episode and it had a profound effect on him. He finishes by saying "Ron is the heart of TV at its greatest."

Q: "All your characters are a little shady, where does that come from?"

MS: Oh, careful, careful now! Well, they're not really BAD people, they really believe in what they're doing. For me personally, moral ambiguity is fun, but it's a job [on set].

Q: "Where did you pull inspiration from for your characters?"

MS: It's written. It's not from the ether. When the writing is good--and it IS, on BOTH those shows--then you just feel it or you don't.

Q: "What's the worst thing You've ever done?"

MS: "That's the funniest question I've ever had at a panel." (and he rambles for a while, but he doesn't actually answer it)

Q: "How did you feel Badger should have developed?"

MS: "I feel he should have had his own show by now."

MS: "I actually got a letter from Joss after my BSG role--like a fan letter, praising my performance. It was quite a moment."

MS: (regarding his work on 24) I found it unfulfilling. They don't know what they're doing. When you come from BSG or Firefly, where they REALLY know what they're doing, something like 24 is just not as interesting.

And that's all I've got for that panel. We walk out and go back to get more drinks. And wow, it is WAY more crowded here on Friday than it was last year. While I get dressed even skimpier Dom and Beau and Bebe are all out in the room talking, and wow, it's not even 7pm yet and I can already tell Beau's getting trashed. AWESOME. Dom takes the skywalk across the hotel to the mall to buy us the most delicious pizza I think I've ever eaten.

We all head out back to the smoking area outside at the Hyatt--the Axis, as I like to call it. We run into a couple guys who are really friendly and one is especially chatty. Tells us all about how he and his wife are swingers and he just got his nipples pierced, which is weird, okay, since we just met him, but then we start talking about kids and stuff and its pretty cool. We see a lot of different costumes. There's a Tank Girl One set of very cute girls comes up and asks me to pose with them, and a cute anime bunny chick. After a while, me and Dom get tired of running back and forth across the street, so we decide to mix up the rest of the vodka INSIDE the biggest bottle ever created and bring it back with us. And here we all are, drunk as hell. I'm sure you're all so shocked! ;)

We head back to the room about 2am. More fun to come!