Impressions from the QAF convention
Ok, so other people have posted in many details what happened at the con, so I will just write some moments that I have found memorable.
I have the best impressions of the QAF cast. They were really accommodating despite the delays and the fact that they had to sign autographs and take photos longer hours than the original program required from them. Even with the last people in line the spared a few minutes asking names and where do you come from, thanking fans for coming, apologizing for the queuing.
This is also a cast that I can totally believe is close in real life too. The interactions between them were so cute and hilarious. They were chatting with each other, laughing and making jokes. Examples: Scott walking out of the scene with head hanging low in fake sorrow because he was not in the next fan photo or pretending to kick out Sharon when she was escorted off the scene because she was not in the next photo. Sharon repeatedly smacking Hal like Debbie would smack Michael and so on.
Peter and Scott were so funny! They were really putting on a show for us!
I laughed so much when in the Peter-Scott Q&A panel Peter pretended to shallow the (quite big) microphone and when everybody went awwwww he kept doing it, or when he pretended to snore when Scott was taking long to answer.
In the pub (club) the first night Scott participated in a trick where a “magician” pretended to put a lit cigarette in the sleeve of his jacket (it’s not expensive is it? No, it’s just a Banana Republic!). Every time the magician asked him a question Scott had to answer loudly “Yes, sir!”. At some point he was asked to blow and Scott said “Right now?” and then turned to Peter who was standing next to him dropped on his knees while Peter pretended to unbuckle his belt!
Peter talked about Emmett’s sense of fashion a lot and how the orange pants and see-through top was a dream he saw and after telling wardrobe people that Emmett has to wear this, they made it happen. The orange pants were an original that the designer gave them before it was released on the market.
Scott said that there is this Polaroid picture of him somewhere from after he was cast for Ted when he went on the set and he was asked to wear these very small, very short very tight black shorts. Apparently the lady from the wardrobe had been at a pride and saw some people wear them and thought that this is how gay people are dressed. Scott was like “ehhh, wait a minute that’s not the character I was cast for”!
Peter’s line about Drew: “I always thought that 1 or 2 years later Drew came back and said it was always you” caused a huge applause. Imagine what would happen if Randy said that.
Scott was asked if he talked to people during his addiction arc. He said he went to some AA meetings and talked to people there and that he drew from personal experience because once he had tried ecstasy and he tried to portray the tripping and the negative feelings from that experience.
They said that much of Emmett’s and Ted’s relationship drew from their actual friendship and that during the periods they were filming the See the Light arc or Ted’s addiction was very hard for them because during these periods they would not speak to each other in order to be able to go on set and be able to treat their respective characters like shit. So they were missing their real life interactions. Peter said that Scott would sometimes go into the character that much that he also acted like Ted in real life like “Life is shitty” etc. and Peter would say “This is not you, this is Ted. You are fine, you have a beautiful girlfriend” .
Scott was asked about the bleached hair in S5 “Did you actually walk home like that?” and he said that he actually had to bleach his hair three times in less than a month when you are not supposed to do this. Then one night he was petting a cat and had his other hand in his hair and when he looked at his hands he had equal amounts of hair in both of them.
Sharon was amazing! Also quite humorous. When a phone started ringing she said “I am not here”. When she first sat down and said “Hi, I am Gale Harold” everybody laughed. In the last panel she repeated that she is very proud to fill in for him, that he really wanted to be there and he also had to cancel a soccer game where he would appear with Randy (? I am not sure if my English failed me here). She asked to give an applause for him, which we did standing up. Scott took a picture of us and then he was fumbling with his mobile phone. I think Peter, who was sitting next to him, asked are you sending this and he nodded (again if my English are not failing me here).
She talked about the day they shot the scene with the dildos and the boys. She said the hardest thing was to keep their faces straight. Also that her husband only visited the set once and it was that day and she was thinking “Am I suppose to do this while he is watching”? She also said again how much she wanted to play in QAF “Who do I have to fuck to get this role?”
The girls are so thin! What are they eating? Michelle is so sensitive, nothing like Melanie! When it was my turn take her autograph she got up all teary eyes and she gave a strong hug to one of the fans. She was quite emotional. Both Thea and Michelle loved their wedding scene.
When asked in the last panel how she could lift Thea in the wedding proposal scene she got up pretended to do some push ups and then tried to lift Thea. She kind of dropped her! She said that a very hard scene for her was the threesome with Leda and that she felt like curling in a corner and cry all night afterwards. Thea talked about how conflicted Lindsay was and sort of in the middle between Brian and Mel.
At the end of their first Q&A panel they kissed for us causing a loud applause. I would be really curious to see what would happen if another dynamic duo did anything like that (if they were both present).
Robert and Hal also said that they were very close and with Harris. They both kept memorabilia from the set, Robert a pair of glasses and a poster (?), Hal a musical instrument nobody knew why it was there and kept changing locations in the background. Robert gave quite a show at the “Babylon” club. The next day he said that he loves to dance. He said that the previous night they were so exhausted that they could not even speak in the car but because of the people’s energy their mood changed. I was one of the last people to get autographs because I could not stand in line any more (why couldn’t we get up row by row and save ourselves from some standing?). Behind me the last girl to take Robert’s autograph asked him to dance. When he realized that there was nobody after her he got up and swirled with her a bit.
Randy has probably discovered the fountain of youth! Apparently he was in Paris before which caused applause from the French fans.
He talked a bit about the posse arc, that Justin at that point had to feel like the abuser and then realized that it’s not his thing. He remembered the scene (I think he doesn’t remember his scenes well in general) he was holding the gun against Hobbs and then walking away with the same relief the character must have felt at the moment.
You all know his opinion about post 513 Justin. Nothing new here. He said he was behind Justin’s choice to go to NY, that as an artist he knows how hard it is to make it and the sacrifices you have to make. He did put some effort to be diplomatic.
Sharon kind of pressed the matter “Do you think he fell out of love?”
“With Brian?” “I think after Justin went to NY his relationship (or was it the nature of his relationship?) with Brian changed”
Huge disappointed awwww from the crowd “Well all relationships change….”.
He was kind of cute, he face-palmed and said something along the lines they don’t want to hear what I want to say. Then the matter was dropped.
I only read the German interview today and his answer sounded like bad fic! I am sorry, did I miss the episode where it was established that Justin is pretentious??? Or maybe he was just being snarky and humorous.
I think that the way people picture post-513 depends on their personalities or even their feelings about a character. Are you an optimist, do you see the glass half full or half empty, are you a hard core pragmatist? And in many cases there is personal projection as well.
As far as I am concerned I never got why it was an either Justin stays in NY and becomes a successful artist but breaks up with Brian, OR he stays with Brian and becomes a housewife (!!!). This is a non sequitur logical fallacy. And since in my vocabulary the words “I can’t” don’t exist and what they basically mean is “I don’t want to”, my opinion is that the characters could and did want to make it work.
Other people talked about some negative things. For me it was the endless queuing, the fact that at the “Babylon” club the DJ did not play many QAF songs as it was advertised (really any fan could have made a compilation and give it to the DJ). Where was True faith, Let’s Hear it for the Boy, Forever Young and so many other songs that became so loved? The VIP room which was off view. So kudos to the cast members (Robert, Scott, Peter and Michell) who walked up to the balcony/cat-walk (which would have been a better VIP area BTW) and gave a show for us. The Dinner ticket was definitely poor value for the money they cost. And finally the last fan question for Randy when a guy asked “Do you like Cologne gay boys?”. “Yes” WTF! What a waste!
Despite the short-comings I had fun, especially because the cast members also put up an effort, and I would totally do it again! When I asked Scott if he would do it again or have we scared him off he said absolutely but he would rather not get as involved again. So, let’s not wait for another 7 years people!