EVENT: Melbourne Oz Comic Con 2014 - Part 1

 

Firstly, I want to thank Kim from Melbourne Mum for choosing me the winner of her Oz Comic Con Giveaway. I won with this little ditty:

“Which cult TV or comic character would you like to have dinner with and why?”

Rodney McKay, would be such a treat,
To serve him food for him to eat.
Whether it be fish, salad or something in need,
Citrus would be such a deadly feed!

Complaint after complaint, would bother me not,
I'd love to sit with this genius - but not stir the pot.
He may be petty, arrogant and treats people badly,
But sitting beside Rodney, I would do gladly.

One day I hope to meet a genius as he,
And serve him a meal of two or three.
Scientific conversation would confuse and amaze,
So many interesting topics to bring up and raise.

I would step through the Stargate if only for the chance,
to listen to Rodney make science talk dance.
Whether we'd eat on this planet or other,
It wouldn't matter to me, one way or another.

Rodney is my favourite character of all time.
I could only imagine how great and sublime,
It would be to have dinner with him. And why?,
For reasons and rhyme; would be my greatest high.

If you don't know who the brilliant Dr Rodney McKay (as played by David Hewlett) click here.

I'm so proud of my lame little poem. I know it's not perfect but I tried to tie in food and reference Rodney-isms as much as possible. For example; he's allergic to citrus, he complains - a lot!, he's a scientific genius, 'petty, arrogant and treats people badly' is a quote from SGA episode 'Grace Under Pressure' and he travels though the Stargate to different planets. So I put a lot of thought into it and I was so happy, surprised and humble to have found out that I had won. Truly, thankyou Kim from the bottom of my heart. I can't thank you enough!

Life is funny sometimes. Back in June I was so stressed out about money. I really wanted to go to OZCC but I owed more people money than I was making and it seemed very unlikely that I would be able to attend. I even considered borrowing money off my sister for the entry fee and hoped I could get some extra cash fast to be able to afford a photo op. But then, after the Anthony Warlow and Faith Prince event, my thought process changed. It's very hard to explain because I don't really understand what happened myself - but suddenly meeting celebrities just didn't seem like such a big deal anymore. Don't get me wrong - I still really want/ed to attend OZCC but my photo op didn't seem so important to me. Whether I regret this or not, only time will tell.

But for now, Saturday...

Details under the cut!

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Please note this is a VERY text heavy entry!

Well, I'm happy to say that I was able to pay back everyone I owed and had enough for the convention - without having to beg, borrow, cheat or steal. Very happy days! I had planned to only go on the Saturday but considering I won the weekend pass, I thought why not take the opportunity to go both days for once as there were plenty of panels I wanted to see!

Our plans for Saturday were:
12 noon – Sam Huntington panel 
1-2 BUY TOKENS. ROBERT  ENGLUND AUTO AT 1.30! 
2pm – Jennifer Morrison panel 
3pm – Robert Englund panel 
4-5 AUTOGRAPHS JENNIFER MORRISON, OLIVIA HACK & DANTE BASCO. 
5pm – Richard Dean Anderson panel

Our plans for Sunday were:
10am – Game of Thrones panel with Daniel Portman & Kristian Nairn panel
11am – Dean O’Gorman panel 
12 noon – Gary Jones & Torri Higginson Panel

When you go with a group of people, you had two choices - either you stick together or you split up. I'm never up for splitting unless you absolutely have to! But this also means attending panels of people that you may not be familiar with - this was the case for me with Jennifer and Robert's panels. But I always enjoy panels so I didn't mind. You prioritise who you want to see most and for me that was to see Sam and Richard Dean's panels :) 

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So we arrived at 11.30 on the Saturday morning and saw a HUGE line of people lining up outside. It was the biggest I've ever seen it! Granted though this is only my second time attending and I usually go on the lesser crowded Sunday. We were pleased that this was the ticket buying line and not the line to get in, so we were able to walk straight though the door and collect our tickets in the main foyer of the building. Awesome perk - I must say!

There were SO many people in the building though! It was quite hard to move around without getting stuck behind someone and especially as - we'd never been to an event in that building before - we had no idea where anything was. We kind of just walked around for a bit before deciding to go upstairs and see what was upstairs - which was lucky because that's exactly where we had to go for our first panel!

So, at around 11.45ish, we stood in line and waited for our first panel - that of one of my childhood favourites (seriously, after Jungle 2 Jungle, I wanted to marry him! - I was 12) Sam Huntington.

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Sam's panel was in such a small room so we were able to get really good seats. I was on the aisle so I was able to get so many good photos. I used up those first five minutes of photo taking time well!

 

I'm going off memory so things may be a little off. Also, I don't and have never watched Being Human so - as a lot of questions were about that - I didn't really know who or what he was talking about when he mentioned character/actor names. Sorry!

Sam was at the back of the room when his name was announced and he yelled out, I'm going to do the whole panel from back here so you're all going to have to turn around! Before he ran up to the stage and the crowd cheered!

To sum it up:

• He said he was quite sleepy and jet lagged because he was on the plane that flooded.
• When asked if he would choose to be a ghost, vampire or werewolf which would he be? He chose werewolf, absolutely! Because as a ghost he wouldn't be able to touch and he quite enjoys being intimate with his wife. He wouldn't be a vampire because he doesn't like the taste of blood, he said in a joking manner. He'd be a werewolf because you're a normal person except for one day a month (when you turn). 
• He was asked if he was going to be in a Jungle 2 Jungle 2. He joked about saying how Tim Allen should play the jungle boy and he would play the Dad. Also joked about how he'd wear the same loin cloth. But it was all sarcasm and he will not be in a sequel.
• He was asked how he enjoyed working on Not Another Teen Movie and he said he really enjoyed it because it was the first movie he ever did where he didn't have to have his Mum on set. So he went out and partied for most of the filming shoot. He also said that he was glad that he got that out of his system.
• He said that he auditioned for Hayden Christensen's role in Life as a House. He said that that role haunts him because there's a tiny part of him that thinks that if he had gotten that role, maybe he could have gone on to be in Star Wars - because he's such a big fan! and he is excited that - with the new Star Wars movies being made - that he will be able to take his son to see it in the cinema.
• He also auditioned for the role of Balthazar in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet. The role went to Jesse Bradford. But he remembers that Baz chased him around the room with a camcorder during his audition process. He spoke of another audition which was memorable where he got to read with some very famous actress in her building in New York - I'm not sure but I think that was for Riding In Cars With Boys - but don't quote me on that.
• When asked who would he marry, kiss and kill of character's from Being Human. He said he'd kill Aiden because he's already dead (he's a vampire) but he couldn't marry himself ... and then he didn't answer the rest of the question.
• A woman stood up to ask a question and Sam got all excited. He said how she had travelled all the way from Perth to be there. She got up at 5am and worked all Friday, got on a plane that night, arrived in Melbourne early Saturday morning and was flying back again that night for her sister's baby shower. And then it turned out - that it wasn't that women at all =P He said he couldn't really see properly though because he wasn't wearing his glasses.
• If he wasn't an actor he would be a chef because he likes food. And whatever food he could make, he could eat.
• Sam said he enjoyed working with William Shatner. It was just him, another guy and William filming for about 8 hours. He said that his mother in law had a big stack of first edition books written by William Shatner - so Sam asked if he would sign it for him. He did - which Sam said was nice because William doesn't usually sign anything without asking for like a gazillion dollars in return!
• He spoke a bit about Being Human. He was naked a lot on set and the cast and crew became like family and got used to seeing him naked. He had to do one scene where he was shedding his werewolf skin and he had to squeeze through this little hole in the furry suit and fall out naked. He said that that was one of his least favourite things to film. 
• He said that he hates filming scenes where he has to pretend to have sex with someone because he feels so guilty - because of his wife.
• He is also very hard on himself as an actor. And he doesn't like to watch himself on screen because he's a perfectionist and he has no control over what takes the editors choose so they don't always choose the takes that he's most happy with. He also said though, that he has never liked seeing himself on screen even on old home movies.
• He spoke a little about his role in Veronica Mars. He was only in two episodes but he thanked the woman in the crowd who said that he was one of her favourite characters. He also said that his character didn't start off bad. (I remember little else) He also said that we were lucky to get Jason Dohring (Logan in VM) at the convention because he doesn't normally do events like these. 
• Sam spoke about his work on the movie Sleepover. He said that's the one time he's ever felt really old. He says he hasn't ever seen the movie but it was weird to work on because all the girls were about 13 and he was 20 at the time of filming. He said it may be a good movie but he doesn't know. But he also said all the girls were very sweet. Alexa Vega (who stars in it) is very talented and he is surprised that she doesn't do more work. He also mentioned Brie Larson who wasn't much in the film but he went up to her and told her that she really had talent - and now she's done heaps of things. 

All up, the Sam panel was very entertaining; and I think, considering the small room it was in, it was more intimate and special. It was definitely my favourite panel of the weekend. I'm so glad I was able to attend!

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After Sam's panel, we went to have a look around and buy tokens. We - when I say we, I mean my friends as I bought nothing - our tokens and went to try and find the autograph section. And when we got there there were SO many people blocking the way! We later found out that they were waiting to get an autograph from Richard Dean Anderson. Once we finally made our way through the crowd, we saw that most of the actors had no one in line and that wasn't surprising because I don't think many people who had autograph tokens could even get through the crowd. 

However, it was pointless because Robert Englund's autograph times had changed so we left pretty defeated. So we looked around trying to find the section where the voice artist guests would be. It took us a while to find it but in the end we did but they were on break :\

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So we went to line up for Jennifer Morrison's panel.

 

So I don't actually know Jennifer from much. I'd seen a couple of episodes from Once Upon a Time but apart from that, I really don't know her too well. My impression of her was very positive. She seems so incredibly loving and extremely elegant. Class is hard to find these days but I think she has it.

To sum it up:

• She said her favourite fairy tales are Cinderella and (oh no! I can't remember!)
• She said playing a doctor - in House - and doing her research certainly has helped her. She said she wouldn't be able to help in an emergency situation but she's had noticed symptoms of friends and guessed they probably had appendicitis - which she was right. And she thought she had an ovarian cyst burst and she rushed to the doctor saying that a cyst had burst. She said the doctor probably thought she was crazy - but her prognosis ended up being correct.
• She said she loved getting to fight with the sword in Once Upon a Time. She was glad that Emma wasn't meant to know how to use the sword so she was allowed to not look like she knew exactly what she was doing. She said it was hard to put the sword back over her shoulder into the sheath.
• She had a bit of a funny moment when the script line was one that was in The Princess Bride.
• She said there weren't many funny moments on the set because the cast aren't really funny people - she said in a jokingly straight kind of way.
• She spoke a little about upcoming story lines. I don't remember too much except she said that they are going to bring in Elsa and Anna from Frozen. She spoke a little about love interests on the show and a character who must have died who will now only appear on screen in flashback. She said that she thinks an Australian is going to play Elsa - or maybe Anna.
• I remember she said 'now we're all having babies' but I can't for the life of me remember what she was referring to ... (it was probably a character thing but I'm unsure)
• The acoustics were really bad and the echo was making it really hard for her - and us - to hear! At one stage the mic made a loud noise and it really scared the whole audience! 
• She said that she was very hesitant about signing on to do a television series because of the demands but she really liked the script and story. She also said that she thought she was unable to do the show because of scheduling but the people involved worked with her schedule - filming episodes out of order - so that she could be part of the show.

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Straight after Jennifer's panel, we went outside to line up for Robert Englund's panel. 

 

It's quite sad that I don't know Robert from much. They played a clip of his work before the start of his panel and I recognised him from a bit of stuff so that was more exciting - because I thought I only knew him from an episode of Come Dine With Me. Sad, I know. But Nightmare on Elm Street would be way too scary for me!

Robert's panel started quite late so it didn't go for as long as it was meant to. Which also pushed everything else back - which is never good! My impression of Robert is that he likes to talk! Ask him a question and he will spend a very long time answering it. He seemed very lovely though also.

The bad thing about Robert's panel was that in front of me there was a kid playing on his ipad which was really distracting!, there were people near us just talking non stop and there was some guy just playing with a paper bag for ten minutes of the panel behind us. The acoustics in the tent made it hard to hear as well so I definitely heard the least from Robert that whole panel!

To sum it up:

• He recommended we all see Let The Right One In. He also recommended a documentary which I can't remember the title (great, huh!) which features many - including Peter Jackson - at the very beginning of their career.
• He spoke about his audition for Nightmare and how, before the audition, he put cigarette ash under his eyes - which is an old actor's trick, he said - to make himself look more hollowed out. He said that he thinks he was also hired because he has a small head so all the monster makeup wouldn't make his head look huge after it was applied. He also said how carrying around the glove made him walk with a slight slant so he worked on the movement of his character with that in mind.
• He also said how he understands why people don't like to see black and white movies. But he's excited that with all the new technology, old movies are being released in high quality digital and all that. So more people can see it. He suggested we all go and watch old movies. He also said how he understands why movies are remade but he thinks some have been remade too soon or too late. He also said there are only so many stories they can tell such as "girl meets boy, boy meets girl, boy meets boy, girl meets girl, girl meets dog" etc.  
• He said that he can go anywhere and be recognised because horror is international. You can basically watch the movies muted and still understand the story. He said that we don't all like art house or drama etc but we all like horror (although, as a non-horror fan, I disagree!)

That's all I remember - sadly! sorry! - it was SO hard to hear in there! 

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My friend had a token to get Robert's autograph but we knew because he had just finished his panel that he wouldn't be sitting at his autograph table so we went to line up at the voice panel artists line. There was a bit of a line but we were able to line up straight away. 

We wanted to get autographs from Olivia Hack and Dante Basco. Olivia played Cindy Brady in the Brady Bunch movies and Dante played Rufio in Hook. I didn't even know that they did voice over work - to be honest - but then again, I don't watch much animation so that is probably to be expected.

We waited in line for about thirty minutes before reaching the front of the line. Olivia was first up. I asked her if the house of cards in the movie was stuck together and she said yes, it was like a block and you just picked it up and moved it. I always figured it was but I felt the need to ask anyway. My bf said that he liked the movies very much so I asked her if she'd seen the third. She said she hadn't. And I said, 'you know when a movie is so bad it's good? Well this is a bad movie that's bad!' So she said she get stoned and watch it one day. (By the way, anyone who can joke about getting stoned is awesome in my book! Also, a good example of why I like security checks at Australian domestic airports =P I like joking with them!)

She asked if me and my bf were together and we nodded and she said that was nice =P

I also told her that I would probably get the sequel signed on Sunday but she had to pretend she didn't recognise me (it was one free autograph per person) and she said something along the lines of, "who are you? I've never seen you before in my life" We had a good laugh and I thanked her.

She was incredibly lovely, has amazing taste in clothes and meeting her was definitely a con highlight for me! Cindy was always my favourite - also because we were around the same age when the movies came out. But I've never watched the show in my life!

Up next was Dante. I only know him from his role in Hook and - to be honest - I NEVER liked Rufio. Never. Ever. I know he was sort of meant to be hated but even when you're meant to like him in the end, I just never liked him. But that had nothing to do with him as a person - it was just how the character was written. The autograph was free so I thought I may as well take the opportunity to meet him. 

I liked him a lot more than I liked his character. He is a nice, charismatic person but he's very intense when he looks at you. I told him to sign the inside of my Hook DVD and we both agreed that when you opened the case it would be like a nice surprise. He also said he liked the freedom of having all the room to write - instead of having to write small on the front of the DVD.

I told him though that Hook would have been so much more awesome if Kevin Kline had played Peter Pan - because Kevin had been cast but he had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts. Dante said that that would have been cool because he is a fan of his too. He thanked us for coming out to see him. And that was it.

We went back upstairs to line up for Robert's autograph but we were told that he was on a break - he wasn't meant to be - and wouldn't be back until around 5.30. So Robert - if you ever read this - I wanted to tell you that I liked you on Come Dine With Me. (My friend was waiting until 7.10pm)

But alas, I had to rush off for the Richard Dean Anderson Panel.

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So I don't actually know Jennifer from much. I'd seen a couple of episodes from Once Upon a Time but apart from that, I really don't know her too well. My impression of her was very positive. She seems so incredibly loving and extremely classy. Class is hard to find these days but I think she has it.

To sum it up:

• Richard said he was quite jet lagged but happy to be there. He said - because he was on the flight that flooded - it took him over 50 hours to get to Australia. That's brutal!
• He said that his daughter is - or is just about to turn - 16. And she's a stereotypical 16 year old girl. He said she's lovely and then shook his head like 'no she's not'. And he said but I love her.
• He said that he was allowed to improv on SG1 quite a bit because he requested that he was able to change his lines before signing on to do the show - which made him a producer of the show. But at table reads - "back when (they) cared enough to do table reads - he would go off the script. So Brad Wright - one of the writers - had to tell him that it was an insult to the writers who were at the table read so improv was then done on the day of filming. So he said improv kind of backfired on him in the end.
• He spoke a bit about MacGyver and how he has done some MacGyver-type gadgets in his day. He also said that everything in the show was tested and researched before put on the show. But he said that part of the show was that it was a stretch. He mentioned how in one episode he needed to use a bike which was made of magnesium - and apparently not many bikes are made from magnesium - so the story lines were a stretch because it was a TV show!
• A question was raised about stolen storylines. He spoke a little about crystal skulls, flesh eating ants and Cliffhanger.
• After five minutes the 'no more photos' sign came up on the screen and Richard goes 'Really? I don't mind!' to which the crowd clapped and cheered. He also kept looking up at the screen because the lights - well camera angles - kept changing. He also used the big screen behind him to check out how his butt were looking in his new pants. He bought them because he's an insomniac so he gets up very early in the morning to walk his dog and the bottom of his pants has a string so he doesn't get frost and mist in.
• He said Sam and Jack - on SG1 - never slept together because Jack is an insomniac and Sam lives in a different location. They only ever got together on different timelines or realities. He also spoke about the episode where it's groundhog day at the SGC. He wanted Jack and Sam to sleep together - maybe just a bit behind a couch (cue funny visuals from Richard when he was explaining it) - on the episode but all that happened was a kiss.
• He was asked if he still hangs out with Henry Winkler. Richard said no because neither of them 'hung out' anymore. He said when you get to their age you mostly just want to nap. 
• He was asked if any actresses have ever flung themselves at him because they found him so good looking. He said that that's the different between made up and reality. So no, it's never happened. He said that he did become good friends with Teri Hatcher - who was on MacGyver - though.
• He spoke a little about stunts gone wrong. He said it happens. He said many times a stunt goes wrong and instantly turns a man into a soprano. He said that a female stunt artist once kicked in in the privates by accident 'or so she says', Richard remarked!
• He spoke a little about at his age he can hardly remember what he did yesterday let alone remember back to specific episodes. He also apologized if he was grumpy with anyone - he said he doesn't have an excuse, he's just a grumpy guy (he says bluntly with comedic tone). He also mentioned the flight he was on was the one that flooded.
• At one stage, a plane flew by and he yelled 'hit the deck!' and collasped on the couch. Then said 'what the hell was that?!' It was really funny!
• He also said that he's normally a really funny person, it's just a shame that he needs to swear in order to be funny. He then shock his head as if he was lying but then shock his head yes. (just imagine the visual - but apparently he does). He didn't want to swear because there were kids in the room. At some stages the kids would talk loudly and Richard would do baby talk back to them. I remember he said, 'I know. I'm hungry too.' to one of the kids.
• Someone asked him what drew him to take a role (I think he may have played a doctor?) so early in his career. And he said because he was broke and trying to make it as an actor. He said sorry to be blunt but that was the reason. Bless.

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If I think of anything else I will add it :) Sorry for any typos. I don't have time to read over the whole thing at the moment ...

Stay tuned for all details from Sunday in Part 2 soon ...

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