The Melbourne Experience Pt 2 - with some pics, some vids and Joe Flanigan
Here's Sunday. I'll try inserting headers so that people can skip to bits they actually want to read. This is strictly for me to glimpse over and I'm not going to "pimp" this to the world at large. There are a couple of vids here and reposting of vids I've posted in previous entries as well.
Arriving and queueing
We all woke up early on Sunday and this time made it to the expo centre around 9 and found parking. Anticipating a huge crowd from Flanigan's popularity, we actually got there when the queue was only a few people long! Joe wasn't slated to start signing until 11 and we were informed that his plane landed and he was through customs in no time. The problem was that his hotel room wasn't ready when he arrived and apparently Nicole Ritchie was staying at the same hotel as him because Good Charlotte was playing in Melbourne. Actually I got this info off one of the guys in queue who had a net connection on his phone.
It was a long wait - from 9 am to 11... and I got texted by
meganina who'd arrive with her sister. The first thing I said when I called her was "Get in queue for autographs coz it's getting very very long!"
Here's a pic of a "medium" size queue
As you can imagine 2 hours is a long wait but hey, I got practice from Pegasus 2 in London... and truthfully speaking, this was nothing compared to that!!! It felt less chaotic and more at ease.
When Joe finally arrived, you could sort of feel the excitement. I think I poked my head up and tried to catch him - and of course saw him in the not-white shirt! There he was in his checkered red shirt, unshaven, casual and toussled hair! As he arrived, so did Connor and the other guests.
I decided to use up my other autograph tickets and get an autograph with John Wesley Shipp aka The Flash and Jane Baddler. I'd already gotten Alan and Connor's signatures so I didn't really queue for them but I was very tempted to get Alan's autograph for one of his solo pics.
Interesting note here: Jane Baddler actually lives in Melbourne and has been living in Melbourne for the past 16 years. If you used to watch V that 80s sci-fi series about alien lizards, then you'd know her. She owns a jazz club and performs there in Melbourne.
As I moved along the autograph queue,derry667 stood with me whilst yokiem and kirei_seimei stood their place in the queue behind. This was mainly so that she could take pictures of me and Joe... as I had my hands full.
Whilst queueing, we also saw Connor again and he gave me a small wave and said hello. I was surprised that he remembered us but I suppose, how many people carry K9 around? I started chit chatting to him but I won't go into that as again, nothing very intelligent was said on my part. There was talk of K9 and Belgium and he said something like "I've never been there...". Let's just say I was ridiculously stupid in all my conversations with him and I sincerely hope that he has no recollection of me! He really was a sweet man though!
Here's a pic of Connor on Sunday thatderry667 took - he might have been talking to me
I threw this one in coz he's cute!
And I also found this pic of Alan from Saturday thatkaaatie took of me and Alan! I really love his PR agent's reaction to Cuddles... she had rather mortified looks at the spider but she was a nice lady!
For more pics, check out my post about Saturday where Connor was wearing a blue jumper.
I actually purposely took my time getting to the autograph queue for Joe because I enjoyed watching other people talk to him first. Again, the lucky VIP ticket ensured that I was relatively in front of the queue and my friends weren't far behind because we'd arrived at 9!
Joe and the Boxers story
I honestly haven't seen anyone tell this story but since she was just before me in the queue, I heard and saw everything. Firstly, these are the pics that I'm talking about...
(pics arederry667's)
This lady actually spent quite a while chatting to Joe and gave him a gift. He took his time chatting and opening the present and whoa behold, it was 3 miniature rugby balls for his sons and a pair of boxer shorts with the Aussie flag.
Joe said "My kids will chew these up!" (in respond to the balls), held up the boxer shorts and said, "Yeah, I'll go join the wrestling..." He was referring to the wrestling ring a few feet away where the stars of WWE were hanging about. I won't tell you what flashed through my mind when he suggested wearing the boxers... *vbg*
Joe in Autograph
When it was my turn, I greeted him and asked him how he was. He was very enthusiastic and chirped, "Fantastic". I didn't really talk much to him as there wasn't much to say except the usual greetings. As I've mentioned before, for someone who just got off a plane and had a delay in checking in to his hotel room, he was remarkably alert, enthusiastic and chirpy! He chatted happily with us. Most intriguing was his eyes and the way he looks at people... he's very absorbing indeed.
I asked if I could get a photo (and keep in mind, this was early in the queueing time and when they hadn't started patrolling the queue lines). He happily stood up and posed, andderry667 took the photo without a flash. It came out awful and I said meekly to him, "I'm really sorry but can we use a flash?" and he didn't mind so I got another pic with him!
Here they are, courtesy ofderry667:
I really love this one...
Joe signing my autograph and yep, that's my arm holding K9
This lady was after me. Joe actually stood up to say hello to her as she was in a wheelchair.
Short Vid of Joe signing autographs
Vid #1: Joe and lady behind me in autograph queue - 18Mb, avi
I know that it doesn't look like it, but he was quite friendly and chirpy to her.
At one point, Joe realised Connor was there and got up and started chatting to him. Peter Woodward noticed him and felt compelled to get up. He pulled Joe into a hug! When Joe was signing stuff, he was very laid back and whilst signingkirei_seimei's stuff, he struck up a conversation with Alan Tudyk. Basically he introduced himself and then they realised that they both knew Jewel. I won't say what was said exactly but I remember asking kirei_seimei about it. They talked about filming in Vancouver etc.
To be honest, the best vids I have are of Joe in the autograph queue chatting toderry667 and kirei_seimei (kirei_seimei, if you got my DVD you'll know that you're in all the vids chatting to Joe and I can hear what he said to Alan).
Here are some caps from two of the vids (obviously I had to cut out a head...)
After that, they started patrolling the lines and stopped people from taking pictures with Joe in the queue, although you could take photos of your friends if you were outside the queue. It was really long and I suppose they wanted to move people along as Joe was scheduled to talk at 1pm.
There's Joe withyokiem and she's holding starrylizard's autograph and there's a photo of Joe and kirei_seimei talking (but I've cut out my friends)
I think the photos came out ok considering I couldn't use the flash. That's probably why I took a lot of vids.
I've posted this already, but I thought I'd share them again, since I now know the whole story (after askingderry667).
Basically,derry667 told Joe that McGillion had sat on K9 which prompted him to ask, "So has it been washed since?" And hence the hands up and "AAGGH!" pic followed by a cute laugh!
I never did get to meet Jane Badler as she didn't turn up but I spoke to John Wesley Shipp, who was very very nice and got his autograph!
starrylizard's autograph
You automatically get a photo if you buy an autograph token. I stupidly forgot my Season 1 cast photo which I had gotten practically the whole cast to sign when they all visited Australia over the years...
yokiem had an idea for us to get an autograph for starrylizard since she didn't come to Melbourne with us. We debated over several pics. I wanted McSmirky but yokiem and kaaatie loved McDreamy.!
This is McDreamy, which is the photo we ended up getting autographed, and the next one is McSmirky, which I ended up getting Joe to sign
The thing is; the way it worked was that if you wanted a good seat for Joe Flanigan's talk, you had to go to the talk before and grab a seat because they weren't vacating the room in between talks anymore! But the way Joe's autograph queue worked was that most people were still queueing for him whilst the guy before him was talking and so some couldn't make it to the talk before.
I decided to hang around and take pics of my friends as I liked seeing him interact with fans. This resulted in quite a number of vids and the above pics.
When we were all done, I headed upstairs for the talk before Joe's... which was John Wesley Shipp. Now I got really lucky because I found front row seats, though at the side of the stage.
John Wesley Shipp aka The Flash
His talk was a full house but I think it was predominantly due to a lot of people getting there early for Joe's talk.
I really enjoyed listening to him - he'd been in other shows like Dawson's Creek. He told us stories of donning the skin tight suit and suffering extreme rash and allergic reactions to the latex.
The funniest thing he mentioned was that when he first started acting in the show, he had no idea that The Flash and Flash Gordon were two different characters. I too was very surprised as I learnt on that day, in John Wesley Shipp's talk that they were indeed two characters. Hmm, it now makes sense why when I watched Flash Gordon, he had no special powers and I felt disappointed!
I thought that he was a really nice guy and very interesting to listen to. In fact I enjoyed his talk rather immensely.
Joe's talk
Firstly, check outkaaatie's LJ for a vid of the first 25 mins of Joe's talk; it's a pretty good vid. I've also taken some vids after the 25 mins, which I will post below.
Secondly, I jotted down notes about what he said but by no means should I be quoted ... it's just my interpretation of what I think he said but that doesn't mean that I'm right and I honestly don't want people to go hound Joe, the cast or Mallozzi over some stuff that was taken out of context or take everything to heart.
For one thing, I really think that Joe Flanigan has a very dry sense of humour (funnily enough I even wrote this in my notes!) and a lot of what he says is laced with sarcasm. I don't mean that as a criticism but I think it's just something that some actors develop when dealing with questions especially in sci-fi where there are some pretty weird questions that crop up every now and then.
I don't know if it's me but I also find that David Hewlett similarly sarcastic. I don't think I noticed it with the female actors of Atlantis (Torri and Rachel) but Hewlett too deals with questions in a very dry manner and often, I've seen people literally take him seriously without realising that he's pulling their leg.
I also don't know American accents well but I thought that when he was more relaxed, some of his pronunciations varied... and he'd slip into a more Southern or sort mid-western kind of accent?
I had front row seats but since I sat slightly to the side, I probably saw more of his butt than I meant to. I only got good pics when he turned around but I took lots of vids:
I don't think that I'm going to say anything that hasn't already been said but here are some of the highlights of Joe's talk anyway (and some of these may already be in Katie's vid):
- his favourite writer is Carl Binder, though I should add that he did not in any way criticise anyone else... if any he constantly praised the cast and crew in his talk.
-derry667 mentioned an important point about what Joe said about acting and the expression of emotions. I don't think I can put it in better words than her, so please don't quote me and please read her comments! It was something that I've noticed more and more in the recent and S3 eps of SGA - that as Sheppard, his delivery of of his performance is purposely subtle and understated. I've read criticisms of this and some people draw comparisons with Hewlett's performance.
But you see, I'm a big fan of both of them and I love them both in their different ways.... plus they do play wholly different characters and so to me, you wouldn't expect them to approach it in the same manner.
I guess what Joe was trying to say was that he purposely plays Sheppard in that understated emotional manner... because the act of holding back an emotion so obviously or just being on the verge of expressing it is a add more nuance (ha! this is actually his word) than an outright expression. He gave us some examples; for instance, watching someone cry is not as powerful as watching someone hold back the tears and trying very hard not to cry. And he mentioned that he would often discuss this with the producers and say, "Hey, I gotta take a step back here because this is not what Sheppard would do."
For the record, I think that Joe does a great job as Sheppard and I often see that emotion flash across his face or that hold back that he talks about.
- he enjoys all the climbing stunts but isn't in favour of the fighting sequences.
- he hates scenes in the puddle jumpers.
2 more vids
- It was interesting for me that it was a guy who asked Joe what his relationship with his co-stars and especially, Hewlett was like (I've heard Hewlett being asked this but it tends to originate from fangirls). Joe's response was "It's platonic" in relation to David and generally that he loves his cast mates. I don't know if Katie's vid has this but he had a really nice smirk on it when he said that. And the thing is, well... Why wouldn't it be platonic??? I personally wouldn't expect him to answer it any other way.
- There was also a cute question from a guy about Rodney. I don't think he meant to word it that way but it came out as "What's it like working with Rodney McKay and is he like that in real life?" and "What's it like going into battle with Rodney McKay?"
Which got Joe rather surprised... because as he said, "There is no Rodney McKay in real life" and "All Rodney does is panic and complain".
Vid #2: Joe's comment about Rodney and David Hewlett, 99 Mb, avi.
- He mentioned that he likes to break props on set and plays pranks on co-stars. The only prank he could think of was that old story of Paul McGillion and rocks, which I've uploaded a vid (specifically sincenewkidfan mentioned that she'd never heard this story!).
Vid #3: Joe and the Rocks, 280 Mb, avi.
- he was asked about how he balanced work and life and he admitted that it was hard but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. He basically lives in an airplane and a hotel room and flies home on Friday night or Saturday morning to see his family. He also coaches his son's soccer team on Saturday afternoons and loves bringing home pressies for the boys, often spoiling them and annoying his wife because she's then left to deal with them.
- He mentions that his kids cling to him when they watch Atlantis and that they're always asking "Is Daddy going to die?" or saying "Don't die Daddy" (this is not verbatim - I'm paraphrasing).
- He also told us that Jason cut off all his hair, which I've since confirmed at Joe Mallozzi's blog... so that would be interesting to see in Season 5.
- He already knew little Hewlett Junior's name, and commented that the baby had peed all over David and his comment was, "Yet another Hewlett genius in the world".
- He talked about getting into acting because he was very shy and listed all the jobs he'd done before acting... which I have to admit, is a lot! It seems that he has this habit of getting fired or quitting if he didn't like something. I'm sure most fans already know this but if you didn't, he got into acting when he was in LA and he had some friends who acted and made decent money. He was broke and so he decided to try it out.
- Odd jobs he'd done included:
- working in the White House as an Advance Man (one of those guys who conducted the tours) for George Bush Snr but he quit that because he didn't like the people he worked for...
- being a writer in the magazine Interview which was Andy Warhol's magazine, but got fired from it.
- I know he's also mentioned Farewell to Harry in cons abroad but I'll just say that he was initially attracted to the role because it was a good story and it was well written but after they started filming, the producer changed the script and it wasn't the same movie he started out doing. I think he joked that sometimes you do something because it pays.
- Everyone already knows this but just before he left for Australia, he got an email from his agent about the movie Shattered being put on hold. He doesn't honestly know what that means and it could be good or bad.
- He was asked if he'd be interested in directing other projects besides Atlantis and he admitted that he was. But first he'd like to have a go at Atlantis though he hasn't been successful with getting a chance yet.
Someone also asked "What was it like to step through the gate into another galaxy?" and he responded "It's just like flying to Australia..." followed by "It's a lot like British Columbia!"
This bit is a bit controversial in the sense that I know that Joe isn't afraid to voice his opinions but I don't want anyone to take things out of context and hound Joe Mallozzi to death... because despite everything that he said, Joe also remarked that they had a very good supporting crew and producers/writers on set.
The question arose when Joe was asked "What was it like working with Amanda?" and "Have you found that conflict that you were looking for in Season 4?" in relation to his other interviews he'd recently given.
Again, Joe praised Amanda and re-iterated that she really was a great person to work with and he quite liked her and yes, he tries to find that conflict. As he talked on, he quickly added that he still missed Torri and then added that he really missed Paul.
This bit is a bit blurry but he basically said that he was a constant "thorn" in the producers' side. He mentioned that he suspected that he was purposely not told that Paul was going to be written out as he didn't know about it till it was too late. Had he known about Paul, he would have fought to keep Paul around and probably succeeded.
There's a lot more to this so please don't hound Mallozzi to death! I think that there are layers of issues here and Joe was just musing about losing Paul, whom I gather he really enjoyed joking with and playing pranks on. As I said, he did constantly praised the folks at Stargate.
- When asked what the strengths and weaknesses of his character were, he said that "his worse trait is that he has an issue with authority" which can also be his strength.
- He was asked about SG1 cast crossing over into to SGA. I have this on vid so I can say almost exactly what he said: he commented that he has voiced concern about too many SG1 characters coming across and SGA would lose its identity. But he was ok with Amanda coming over as long as her role wasn't a typical bureaucrat who was antagonistic towards everything. I don't think that he considers one or two guest starring roles by either Michael or Chris (should they guest star) too much of a crossover.
- A guy asked him if he could play another character on Atlantis, who it would be and his response was Rodney McKay because we all have a little bit of McKay in us and Rodney gets to say anything he wants.
- He mentioned that he's still learning the guitar.
SPOILERY BITS
- To read them, highlight the space below... though I sort of forgot a lot of them...
- there was a kid who must have read the whole plot of Outcast on Gateworld because he stood up and basically recited the plot out to Joe and then asked him what he thought of it and what was going to happen. You can see it in Katie's vid. I thought it wasn't very thoughtful but I could forgive him because he's a kid. I think Joe remarked that he'd make a good journalist.
Joe's response was basically that it was fun to hang around Earth with Ronon and that he doesn't make any effort to hide and just shoots everything.
- I think Joe also mentioned that he's good friends with the actress who'll play his wife as he said that she used to be in a soap and got fired when she got pregnant. This was in response to his comment about Rachel getting 2 months off for her pregnancy.
- He seemed excited about the prospect of having a family and ex-wife given that Sheppard didn't have any backstory.
- It's been alluded to by Connor that the wraith may have something to do with the season finalé of SGA.
After his talk, it was time for photos.
I got lucky in this instance. I bought coupons for a photo with both Joe and Connor. The organisers pushed Connor's queue through first and let Joe take a rest. Since I was queueing for Connor, I asked if I could do a Joe and Connor if I re-queued for Joe and was told by the photographer that I couldn't. So I thought, "Well, at least I get a solo pic with Connor..." but at the very last moment, just before I took the photo with Connor, the photographer changed his mind and asked Joe if he would pose with Conor and me!
Joe was just sitting there so he didn't mind and stood up. I think he may have cracked a joke about the more the merrier or threesomes or something!
What's really really funny is that in all my pics with Joe, he looks exactly the same!
As I said, I was incredibly lucky. I also got a solo pic with Joe and pulledderry667 into another pic with K9 and Joe. The photos didn't come out very well though - I don't know why but the lighting was incredibly bad and they were quite underexposed. I did talk to him about Sydney in the "with derry667" photo; or rather I babbled about going home to Sydney and then caught him looking at me. It was kinda surprising and I stopped talking because I honestly didn't know if he was actually listenning or politely trying to show interest. I just have to admit that he has this way of looking at you straight in the eyes and giving you his full attention when you talk.
Leaving Melbourne
We all managed to collect our photos around 4 and head off from the expo centre. I know that some people went off to the banquet dinner but we all had flights to catch home.
The ever generouskirei_seimei gave us a lift to the airport even after we insisted on taking a cab.
I remember saying toderry667 that this experience was a lot more fun that BOBW when Hewlett et al visited and it was probably because of having some friends around. I gotta admit, from the three years since I started watching SGA, I've been really impressed that I've managed to meet the whole cast (except Jason) and I've even met some of the support cast. I don't think I can complain!
gwene will tell you that I lamented about meeting Joe for a very long time, so I was quite happy to meet him and even happier that they threw in Connor and Alan. Do I love Joe Flanigan - hell yes! Does it inspire me to love Sheppard more? Definitely. I enjoy his portrayal and I think that the man has a lot of interesting things to say. :)
BTW, here is the first part of the con report, with more focus on Connor and Alan. At the bottom, there are links to other reports.
Arriving and queueing
We all woke up early on Sunday and this time made it to the expo centre around 9 and found parking. Anticipating a huge crowd from Flanigan's popularity, we actually got there when the queue was only a few people long! Joe wasn't slated to start signing until 11 and we were informed that his plane landed and he was through customs in no time. The problem was that his hotel room wasn't ready when he arrived and apparently Nicole Ritchie was staying at the same hotel as him because Good Charlotte was playing in Melbourne. Actually I got this info off one of the guys in queue who had a net connection on his phone.
It was a long wait - from 9 am to 11... and I got texted by
meganina who'd arrive with her sister. The first thing I said when I called her was "Get in queue for autographs coz it's getting very very long!" Here's a pic of a "medium" size queue
As you can imagine 2 hours is a long wait but hey, I got practice from Pegasus 2 in London... and truthfully speaking, this was nothing compared to that!!! It felt less chaotic and more at ease.
When Joe finally arrived, you could sort of feel the excitement. I think I poked my head up and tried to catch him - and of course saw him in the not-white shirt! There he was in his checkered red shirt, unshaven, casual and toussled hair! As he arrived, so did Connor and the other guests.
I decided to use up my other autograph tickets and get an autograph with John Wesley Shipp aka The Flash and Jane Baddler. I'd already gotten Alan and Connor's signatures so I didn't really queue for them but I was very tempted to get Alan's autograph for one of his solo pics.
Interesting note here: Jane Baddler actually lives in Melbourne and has been living in Melbourne for the past 16 years. If you used to watch V that 80s sci-fi series about alien lizards, then you'd know her. She owns a jazz club and performs there in Melbourne.
As I moved along the autograph queue,
derry667 stood with me whilst yokiem and kirei_seimei stood their place in the queue behind. This was mainly so that she could take pictures of me and Joe... as I had my hands full. Whilst queueing, we also saw Connor again and he gave me a small wave and said hello. I was surprised that he remembered us but I suppose, how many people carry K9 around? I started chit chatting to him but I won't go into that as again, nothing very intelligent was said on my part. There was talk of K9 and Belgium and he said something like "I've never been there...". Let's just say I was ridiculously stupid in all my conversations with him and I sincerely hope that he has no recollection of me! He really was a sweet man though!
Here's a pic of Connor on Sunday that
derry667 took - he might have been talking to meI threw this one in coz he's cute!
And I also found this pic of Alan from Saturday that
kaaatie took of me and Alan! I really love his PR agent's reaction to Cuddles... she had rather mortified looks at the spider but she was a nice lady!For more pics, check out my post about Saturday where Connor was wearing a blue jumper.
I actually purposely took my time getting to the autograph queue for Joe because I enjoyed watching other people talk to him first. Again, the lucky VIP ticket ensured that I was relatively in front of the queue and my friends weren't far behind because we'd arrived at 9!
Joe and the Boxers story
I honestly haven't seen anyone tell this story but since she was just before me in the queue, I heard and saw everything. Firstly, these are the pics that I'm talking about...
(pics are
derry667's) This lady actually spent quite a while chatting to Joe and gave him a gift. He took his time chatting and opening the present and whoa behold, it was 3 miniature rugby balls for his sons and a pair of boxer shorts with the Aussie flag.
Joe said "My kids will chew these up!" (in respond to the balls), held up the boxer shorts and said, "Yeah, I'll go join the wrestling..." He was referring to the wrestling ring a few feet away where the stars of WWE were hanging about. I won't tell you what flashed through my mind when he suggested wearing the boxers... *vbg*
Joe in Autograph
When it was my turn, I greeted him and asked him how he was. He was very enthusiastic and chirped, "Fantastic". I didn't really talk much to him as there wasn't much to say except the usual greetings. As I've mentioned before, for someone who just got off a plane and had a delay in checking in to his hotel room, he was remarkably alert, enthusiastic and chirpy! He chatted happily with us. Most intriguing was his eyes and the way he looks at people... he's very absorbing indeed.
I asked if I could get a photo (and keep in mind, this was early in the queueing time and when they hadn't started patrolling the queue lines). He happily stood up and posed, and
derry667 took the photo without a flash. It came out awful and I said meekly to him, "I'm really sorry but can we use a flash?" and he didn't mind so I got another pic with him!Here they are, courtesy of
derry667:I really love this one...
Joe signing my autograph and yep, that's my arm holding K9
This lady was after me. Joe actually stood up to say hello to her as she was in a wheelchair.
Short Vid of Joe signing autographs
Vid #1: Joe and lady behind me in autograph queue - 18Mb, avi
I know that it doesn't look like it, but he was quite friendly and chirpy to her.
At one point, Joe realised Connor was there and got up and started chatting to him. Peter Woodward noticed him and felt compelled to get up. He pulled Joe into a hug! When Joe was signing stuff, he was very laid back and whilst signing
kirei_seimei's stuff, he struck up a conversation with Alan Tudyk. Basically he introduced himself and then they realised that they both knew Jewel. I won't say what was said exactly but I remember asking kirei_seimei about it. They talked about filming in Vancouver etc.To be honest, the best vids I have are of Joe in the autograph queue chatting to
derry667 and kirei_seimei (kirei_seimei, if you got my DVD you'll know that you're in all the vids chatting to Joe and I can hear what he said to Alan).Here are some caps from two of the vids (obviously I had to cut out a head...)
After that, they started patrolling the lines and stopped people from taking pictures with Joe in the queue, although you could take photos of your friends if you were outside the queue. It was really long and I suppose they wanted to move people along as Joe was scheduled to talk at 1pm.
There's Joe with
yokiem and she's holding starrylizard's autograph and there's a photo of Joe and kirei_seimei talking (but I've cut out my friends)I think the photos came out ok considering I couldn't use the flash. That's probably why I took a lot of vids.
I've posted this already, but I thought I'd share them again, since I now know the whole story (after asking
derry667).Basically,
derry667 told Joe that McGillion had sat on K9 which prompted him to ask, "So has it been washed since?" And hence the hands up and "AAGGH!" pic followed by a cute laugh!I never did get to meet Jane Badler as she didn't turn up but I spoke to John Wesley Shipp, who was very very nice and got his autograph!
starrylizard's autographYou automatically get a photo if you buy an autograph token. I stupidly forgot my Season 1 cast photo which I had gotten practically the whole cast to sign when they all visited Australia over the years...
yokiem had an idea for us to get an autograph for starrylizard since she didn't come to Melbourne with us. We debated over several pics. I wanted McSmirky but yokiem and kaaatie loved McDreamy.!This is McDreamy, which is the photo we ended up getting autographed, and the next one is McSmirky, which I ended up getting Joe to sign
The thing is; the way it worked was that if you wanted a good seat for Joe Flanigan's talk, you had to go to the talk before and grab a seat because they weren't vacating the room in between talks anymore! But the way Joe's autograph queue worked was that most people were still queueing for him whilst the guy before him was talking and so some couldn't make it to the talk before.
I decided to hang around and take pics of my friends as I liked seeing him interact with fans. This resulted in quite a number of vids and the above pics.
When we were all done, I headed upstairs for the talk before Joe's... which was John Wesley Shipp. Now I got really lucky because I found front row seats, though at the side of the stage.
John Wesley Shipp aka The Flash
His talk was a full house but I think it was predominantly due to a lot of people getting there early for Joe's talk.
I really enjoyed listening to him - he'd been in other shows like Dawson's Creek. He told us stories of donning the skin tight suit and suffering extreme rash and allergic reactions to the latex.
The funniest thing he mentioned was that when he first started acting in the show, he had no idea that The Flash and Flash Gordon were two different characters. I too was very surprised as I learnt on that day, in John Wesley Shipp's talk that they were indeed two characters. Hmm, it now makes sense why when I watched Flash Gordon, he had no special powers and I felt disappointed!
I thought that he was a really nice guy and very interesting to listen to. In fact I enjoyed his talk rather immensely.
Joe's talk
Firstly, check out
kaaatie's LJ for a vid of the first 25 mins of Joe's talk; it's a pretty good vid. I've also taken some vids after the 25 mins, which I will post below.Secondly, I jotted down notes about what he said but by no means should I be quoted ... it's just my interpretation of what I think he said but that doesn't mean that I'm right and I honestly don't want people to go hound Joe, the cast or Mallozzi over some stuff that was taken out of context or take everything to heart.
For one thing, I really think that Joe Flanigan has a very dry sense of humour (funnily enough I even wrote this in my notes!) and a lot of what he says is laced with sarcasm. I don't mean that as a criticism but I think it's just something that some actors develop when dealing with questions especially in sci-fi where there are some pretty weird questions that crop up every now and then.
I don't know if it's me but I also find that David Hewlett similarly sarcastic. I don't think I noticed it with the female actors of Atlantis (Torri and Rachel) but Hewlett too deals with questions in a very dry manner and often, I've seen people literally take him seriously without realising that he's pulling their leg.
I also don't know American accents well but I thought that when he was more relaxed, some of his pronunciations varied... and he'd slip into a more Southern or sort mid-western kind of accent?
I had front row seats but since I sat slightly to the side, I probably saw more of his butt than I meant to. I only got good pics when he turned around but I took lots of vids:
I don't think that I'm going to say anything that hasn't already been said but here are some of the highlights of Joe's talk anyway (and some of these may already be in Katie's vid):
- his favourite writer is Carl Binder, though I should add that he did not in any way criticise anyone else... if any he constantly praised the cast and crew in his talk.
-
derry667 mentioned an important point about what Joe said about acting and the expression of emotions. I don't think I can put it in better words than her, so please don't quote me and please read her comments! It was something that I've noticed more and more in the recent and S3 eps of SGA - that as Sheppard, his delivery of of his performance is purposely subtle and understated. I've read criticisms of this and some people draw comparisons with Hewlett's performance.But you see, I'm a big fan of both of them and I love them both in their different ways.... plus they do play wholly different characters and so to me, you wouldn't expect them to approach it in the same manner.
I guess what Joe was trying to say was that he purposely plays Sheppard in that understated emotional manner... because the act of holding back an emotion so obviously or just being on the verge of expressing it is a add more nuance (ha! this is actually his word) than an outright expression. He gave us some examples; for instance, watching someone cry is not as powerful as watching someone hold back the tears and trying very hard not to cry. And he mentioned that he would often discuss this with the producers and say, "Hey, I gotta take a step back here because this is not what Sheppard would do."
For the record, I think that Joe does a great job as Sheppard and I often see that emotion flash across his face or that hold back that he talks about.
- he enjoys all the climbing stunts but isn't in favour of the fighting sequences.
- he hates scenes in the puddle jumpers.
2 more vids
- It was interesting for me that it was a guy who asked Joe what his relationship with his co-stars and especially, Hewlett was like (I've heard Hewlett being asked this but it tends to originate from fangirls). Joe's response was "It's platonic" in relation to David and generally that he loves his cast mates. I don't know if Katie's vid has this but he had a really nice smirk on it when he said that. And the thing is, well... Why wouldn't it be platonic??? I personally wouldn't expect him to answer it any other way.
- There was also a cute question from a guy about Rodney. I don't think he meant to word it that way but it came out as "What's it like working with Rodney McKay and is he like that in real life?" and "What's it like going into battle with Rodney McKay?"
Which got Joe rather surprised... because as he said, "There is no Rodney McKay in real life" and "All Rodney does is panic and complain".
Vid #2: Joe's comment about Rodney and David Hewlett, 99 Mb, avi.
- He mentioned that he likes to break props on set and plays pranks on co-stars. The only prank he could think of was that old story of Paul McGillion and rocks, which I've uploaded a vid (specifically since
newkidfan mentioned that she'd never heard this story!).Vid #3: Joe and the Rocks, 280 Mb, avi.
- he was asked about how he balanced work and life and he admitted that it was hard but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. He basically lives in an airplane and a hotel room and flies home on Friday night or Saturday morning to see his family. He also coaches his son's soccer team on Saturday afternoons and loves bringing home pressies for the boys, often spoiling them and annoying his wife because she's then left to deal with them.
- He mentions that his kids cling to him when they watch Atlantis and that they're always asking "Is Daddy going to die?" or saying "Don't die Daddy" (this is not verbatim - I'm paraphrasing).
- He also told us that Jason cut off all his hair, which I've since confirmed at Joe Mallozzi's blog... so that would be interesting to see in Season 5.
- He already knew little Hewlett Junior's name, and commented that the baby had peed all over David and his comment was, "Yet another Hewlett genius in the world".
- He talked about getting into acting because he was very shy and listed all the jobs he'd done before acting... which I have to admit, is a lot! It seems that he has this habit of getting fired or quitting if he didn't like something. I'm sure most fans already know this but if you didn't, he got into acting when he was in LA and he had some friends who acted and made decent money. He was broke and so he decided to try it out.
- Odd jobs he'd done included:
- working in the White House as an Advance Man (one of those guys who conducted the tours) for George Bush Snr but he quit that because he didn't like the people he worked for...
- being a writer in the magazine Interview which was Andy Warhol's magazine, but got fired from it.
- I know he's also mentioned Farewell to Harry in cons abroad but I'll just say that he was initially attracted to the role because it was a good story and it was well written but after they started filming, the producer changed the script and it wasn't the same movie he started out doing. I think he joked that sometimes you do something because it pays.
- Everyone already knows this but just before he left for Australia, he got an email from his agent about the movie Shattered being put on hold. He doesn't honestly know what that means and it could be good or bad.
- He was asked if he'd be interested in directing other projects besides Atlantis and he admitted that he was. But first he'd like to have a go at Atlantis though he hasn't been successful with getting a chance yet.
Someone also asked "What was it like to step through the gate into another galaxy?" and he responded "It's just like flying to Australia..." followed by "It's a lot like British Columbia!"
This bit is a bit controversial in the sense that I know that Joe isn't afraid to voice his opinions but I don't want anyone to take things out of context and hound Joe Mallozzi to death... because despite everything that he said, Joe also remarked that they had a very good supporting crew and producers/writers on set.
The question arose when Joe was asked "What was it like working with Amanda?" and "Have you found that conflict that you were looking for in Season 4?" in relation to his other interviews he'd recently given.
Again, Joe praised Amanda and re-iterated that she really was a great person to work with and he quite liked her and yes, he tries to find that conflict. As he talked on, he quickly added that he still missed Torri and then added that he really missed Paul.
This bit is a bit blurry but he basically said that he was a constant "thorn" in the producers' side. He mentioned that he suspected that he was purposely not told that Paul was going to be written out as he didn't know about it till it was too late. Had he known about Paul, he would have fought to keep Paul around and probably succeeded.
There's a lot more to this so please don't hound Mallozzi to death! I think that there are layers of issues here and Joe was just musing about losing Paul, whom I gather he really enjoyed joking with and playing pranks on. As I said, he did constantly praised the folks at Stargate.
- When asked what the strengths and weaknesses of his character were, he said that "his worse trait is that he has an issue with authority" which can also be his strength.
- He was asked about SG1 cast crossing over into to SGA. I have this on vid so I can say almost exactly what he said: he commented that he has voiced concern about too many SG1 characters coming across and SGA would lose its identity. But he was ok with Amanda coming over as long as her role wasn't a typical bureaucrat who was antagonistic towards everything. I don't think that he considers one or two guest starring roles by either Michael or Chris (should they guest star) too much of a crossover.
- A guy asked him if he could play another character on Atlantis, who it would be and his response was Rodney McKay because we all have a little bit of McKay in us and Rodney gets to say anything he wants.
- He mentioned that he's still learning the guitar.
SPOILERY BITS
- To read them, highlight the space below... though I sort of forgot a lot of them...
- there was a kid who must have read the whole plot of Outcast on Gateworld because he stood up and basically recited the plot out to Joe and then asked him what he thought of it and what was going to happen. You can see it in Katie's vid. I thought it wasn't very thoughtful but I could forgive him because he's a kid. I think Joe remarked that he'd make a good journalist.
Joe's response was basically that it was fun to hang around Earth with Ronon and that he doesn't make any effort to hide and just shoots everything.
- I think Joe also mentioned that he's good friends with the actress who'll play his wife as he said that she used to be in a soap and got fired when she got pregnant. This was in response to his comment about Rachel getting 2 months off for her pregnancy.
- He seemed excited about the prospect of having a family and ex-wife given that Sheppard didn't have any backstory.
- It's been alluded to by Connor that the wraith may have something to do with the season finalé of SGA.
After his talk, it was time for photos.
I got lucky in this instance. I bought coupons for a photo with both Joe and Connor. The organisers pushed Connor's queue through first and let Joe take a rest. Since I was queueing for Connor, I asked if I could do a Joe and Connor if I re-queued for Joe and was told by the photographer that I couldn't. So I thought, "Well, at least I get a solo pic with Connor..." but at the very last moment, just before I took the photo with Connor, the photographer changed his mind and asked Joe if he would pose with Conor and me!
Joe was just sitting there so he didn't mind and stood up. I think he may have cracked a joke about the more the merrier or threesomes or something!
What's really really funny is that in all my pics with Joe, he looks exactly the same!
As I said, I was incredibly lucky. I also got a solo pic with Joe and pulled
derry667 into another pic with K9 and Joe. The photos didn't come out very well though - I don't know why but the lighting was incredibly bad and they were quite underexposed. I did talk to him about Sydney in the "with derry667" photo; or rather I babbled about going home to Sydney and then caught him looking at me. It was kinda surprising and I stopped talking because I honestly didn't know if he was actually listenning or politely trying to show interest. I just have to admit that he has this way of looking at you straight in the eyes and giving you his full attention when you talk.Leaving Melbourne
We all managed to collect our photos around 4 and head off from the expo centre. I know that some people went off to the banquet dinner but we all had flights to catch home.
The ever generous
kirei_seimei gave us a lift to the airport even after we insisted on taking a cab. I remember saying to
derry667 that this experience was a lot more fun that BOBW when Hewlett et al visited and it was probably because of having some friends around. I gotta admit, from the three years since I started watching SGA, I've been really impressed that I've managed to meet the whole cast (except Jason) and I've even met some of the support cast. I don't think I can complain!gwene will tell you that I lamented about meeting Joe for a very long time, so I was quite happy to meet him and even happier that they threw in Connor and Alan. Do I love Joe Flanigan - hell yes! Does it inspire me to love Sheppard more? Definitely. I enjoy his portrayal and I think that the man has a lot of interesting things to say. :)BTW, here is the first part of the con report, with more focus on Connor and Alan. At the bottom, there are links to other reports.