Supanova 2014
Normally at Supanova, there might be one or two guests I'm keen to see. This time, there were five. Which meant lots of queuing, but it was totally worth it.
Jamie Bamber
I swear, he still looked as boyishly charming as he did on Hornblower so many years ago. And the very first question was about Hornblower too! (About whether it was likely to come back, which he didn't have the answer to, and as for his character, well...) He said it was amazing to go to work every morning on a frigate, and he made some lifelong friends. It was filmed in Crimea in 1997, pretty lawless back then, and they spent most of their off-hours hanging out in the casino.
I haven't seen him in anything since BSG (or rather BSG Season 2, after which I bailed), but it seems he's been busy since then. He was in Law & Order: UK, and in the fan series Star Trek Continues, where he played a redshirt and thus kept up his trend of getting killed off.
He was in The Smoke, a series about firefighters, where they got to train at apartments in Gatwick where real firefighters train. One of the joys of acting is getting to inhabit other people's professions. And everyone welcomes a fireman, unlike the cops.
He was in Band of Brothers, where they got driven to a tent in the middle of nowhere for the filming. His character was a new lieutenant, replacing another lieutenant that the characters had known and liked, and everyone was into method acting, so there was a distance between him and the others. Also, when you're running through a field with things blowing up around you, there's very little acting required to look convincing, and you can't tell where the cameras are, so you're just playing to the other actors.
There were quite a few questions about BSG - what he thought of the ending, what he thought of certain events, what he thought of various character fates - and while he acknowledged some things were controversial, he was pretty positive about the decisions the writers made.
Someone asked him, "What has been your creepiest interaction with a fan?" which I thought was a pretty creepy question. He gave a very classy answer though, saying he didn't like to dwell on negative incidents, because the vast majority of fans are really nice people.
Stan Lee
It was pretty cool to get a chance to see him, and I could have listened to him talk all day. He said, there are things like James Bond, but there's never been anything like the MCU, where you get two or three new movies every year.
His favourite Marvel character is Spider-Man. When asked to create a new superhero, he thought about what powers would be different from those existing, and was inspired by seeing a fly walk up the wall. He tried the name "Insect-Man", then "Mosquito-Man", and finally hit on "Spider-Man". He decided to make him a teenager, because that was different, and he decided to give him problems like money troubles and a sick aunt, because that was different. But his editor said, "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard! (1) People hate spiders. (2) Teenagers aren't superheroes, they're sidekicks. (3) Superheroes can't have personal problems." But Stan wanted to get it out of his system, and he got the chance to feature the Spider-Man story on the cover of a closing magazine. And it sold really well. Then his editor said, "Remember that Spider-Man idea we both loved? I want you to do a new series about him!"
His favourite cameo was the security guard from CA:TWS ("I am so fired").
DC's iconic female superhero is Wonder Woman, but what is Marvel's iconic female superhero? He'd say Black Widow. But it could be any of them.
In some continuities, Aunt May finds out Peter's secret identity, and she's always against it. Would she ever support him? The thing is, if Aunt May were supportive of Peter being Spider-Man, it would take away from his problems. And problems are what makes a story interesting. So he needs to hide it from her.
Has he ever made a character he thought wouldn't work, but it surprised him? Never. You can always make a character work. All you have to do is give them enough problems that the reader worries about them and wonder how they'll get out of them, and give them a solution they wouldn't expect but which makes sense.
At the end of the panel, there was a special presentation where he was given the Aussie version of Captain America's shield, ie in green and gold! Pretty cool, though I imagine it causing some doubletakes when he put his luggage through the airport x-ray.
Michael Rosenbaum
He entered singing "We Are The Champions", and that kind of set the tone for the whole panel. Instead of sitting on stage and waiting for the moderator to go to audience members with the microphone, he took the microphone himself and roamed through the crowd, picking out people to ask questions of him, often with sarcastic quips and banter. It was mesmerising and slightly alarming, like watching an unpredictable stand up comedian who might turn his humour on you.
Most of the questions were about Smallville, and kind of fluffy: favourite supervillain (Lex, and also the Joker), favourite quote ("We are going to be the stuff of legends"), favourite episode ("Lexmas"), etc.
He had asked the producers, why can't I wear a wig like Gene Hackman, why can't I wear a bald cap? They said, you're shaving your head, because we're paying you. Also, by playing Lex Luthor, he thought he would get to take home cars and suits, but all he got were razor blades.
Were he and Clark ever genuinely friends? He thought yes, and didn't the deception start with Clark?
John Barrowman
His first time in Australia, and very happy to be here, despite almost being caught at customs with a bag of undeclared food. Not five minutes into the panel, and he was cracking bawdy jokes and delivering shameless innuendoes. Very entertaining, but oh my ears were burning. (He even said, "Anyone who brought their kids along, have fun explaining this after. Or just watch some Torchwood episodes, that'll explain everything.") I still have no idea whether to believe the anecdote he told about him and Eve Myles dancing naked in a hotel room during a convention, or the one about just missing out on being interviewed in a jacuzzi full of rugby players.
I've only seen him in Doctor Who and Torchwood, but he talked about Arrow too. There was an emotional scene about his wife's death, where the director wanted him to play it stoic, but he decided to play it with emotion. Because he knew all the ladies would go "Ohhh!" (he mimed clutching his heart), and the ratings would go up, and he would get to be a regular on the show. So he played the scene both ways, and the emotional version got aired. "Because I know what you want!" he said, grinning and pointing at the audience.
Of the Doctor Who villains, the Autons scared him most as a kid, to the point where he was terrified of walking past mannequins in shop windows. Nowadays, he has a Dalek in his front hall, which he uses to scare kids on Halloween.
Someone asked him, "What has been your creepiest interaction with a fan?" and maybe it was the same person as before, because I really hope this isn't a thing now. He said there are people who camp out for hours outside his house, waiting to catch a glimpse of him when he goes outside.
He brought his husband on stage to say hello, which was really sweet.
He talked about how he lucky he was to play Jack Harkness, who was omnisexual, and a role model, and how if he was eight years old and saw the character on TV, he would have felt a lot less alone.
He ended with a heartfelt thank you to the fans, because playing this role changed his life, changed both their lives, and in return he always wants to give as much time as possible at conventions.
Ming-Na Wen
I'd seen all of three episodes of Agents of SHIELD, but Melinda May was the best thing about them, so why not check out her panel? I'm glad I did, because Ming-Na Wen was absolutely lovely. She was funny and chatty and very different from her character, and someone actually asked her if she had trouble keeping a straight face during her scenes, and she said yes.
Her favourite fight scene was the last one, "Because he really needed his butt kicked."
Her favourite line was "Wheels up in five", because normally you wait for ages on the tarmac, but she can get a plane in the air that fast.
Her favourite place to film was the Gold Coast, because her husband proposed to her there. This was during the filming of Street Fighter, where she played Chun-Li. (How did I not know this before?)
Considering all the fight scenes, did she have a martial arts background? Slightly. Which form? The acting form.
Since there's crossover with AoS, would she want to be in the Marvel movies? She's been asked this question so many times, and it's like being asked, do you want to win a million dollars? Of course yes! She's just waiting for Joss to call.
What was it like dealing with the negative reaction to the first half of the season? Not easy. The show was promoted as related to the Avengers, so people expected superheroes. Marvel is like SHIELD, they only tell you as much as you need to know. So the actors just get one script at a time. There was shock after CA:TWS at the plot developments. But now they're finally turning the show around.
She got into Twitter during Stargate Universe, and coming from a theatre background, it's like getting the audience reaction of live theatre.
She spoke Cantonese in episode 5 of AoS, and very well - did she know it or have to learn it? Her reply was also in Cantonese: "What are you talking about? I'm a Hongkonger!"
She loves watching gag reels, and can't wait for the AoS one. Whenever she panics and forgets a line, she'll just blurt out anything and hope that no one notices it's not her line. (Though they do.)
Shopping
I caught up on back issues of Noble Rot and picked up the first issue of Eternal Life. I was very tempted by the adorable t-shirts at TeeTurtle, like Ghibli Road, The Last Planeteer, and An Honest Mistake, but it was the end of the convention and there weren't many designs left. (Online though...)
Photos
Best ever Gambit and Rogue.
Captain America! I saw so many, all ages and genders, and it's really cool how anyone can pick up the shield, sort of like "We are all Spartacus."
It's everywhere...
Jamie Bamber
I swear, he still looked as boyishly charming as he did on Hornblower so many years ago. And the very first question was about Hornblower too! (About whether it was likely to come back, which he didn't have the answer to, and as for his character, well...) He said it was amazing to go to work every morning on a frigate, and he made some lifelong friends. It was filmed in Crimea in 1997, pretty lawless back then, and they spent most of their off-hours hanging out in the casino.
I haven't seen him in anything since BSG (or rather BSG Season 2, after which I bailed), but it seems he's been busy since then. He was in Law & Order: UK, and in the fan series Star Trek Continues, where he played a redshirt and thus kept up his trend of getting killed off.
He was in The Smoke, a series about firefighters, where they got to train at apartments in Gatwick where real firefighters train. One of the joys of acting is getting to inhabit other people's professions. And everyone welcomes a fireman, unlike the cops.
He was in Band of Brothers, where they got driven to a tent in the middle of nowhere for the filming. His character was a new lieutenant, replacing another lieutenant that the characters had known and liked, and everyone was into method acting, so there was a distance between him and the others. Also, when you're running through a field with things blowing up around you, there's very little acting required to look convincing, and you can't tell where the cameras are, so you're just playing to the other actors.
There were quite a few questions about BSG - what he thought of the ending, what he thought of certain events, what he thought of various character fates - and while he acknowledged some things were controversial, he was pretty positive about the decisions the writers made.
Someone asked him, "What has been your creepiest interaction with a fan?" which I thought was a pretty creepy question. He gave a very classy answer though, saying he didn't like to dwell on negative incidents, because the vast majority of fans are really nice people.
Stan Lee
It was pretty cool to get a chance to see him, and I could have listened to him talk all day. He said, there are things like James Bond, but there's never been anything like the MCU, where you get two or three new movies every year.
His favourite Marvel character is Spider-Man. When asked to create a new superhero, he thought about what powers would be different from those existing, and was inspired by seeing a fly walk up the wall. He tried the name "Insect-Man", then "Mosquito-Man", and finally hit on "Spider-Man". He decided to make him a teenager, because that was different, and he decided to give him problems like money troubles and a sick aunt, because that was different. But his editor said, "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard! (1) People hate spiders. (2) Teenagers aren't superheroes, they're sidekicks. (3) Superheroes can't have personal problems." But Stan wanted to get it out of his system, and he got the chance to feature the Spider-Man story on the cover of a closing magazine. And it sold really well. Then his editor said, "Remember that Spider-Man idea we both loved? I want you to do a new series about him!"
His favourite cameo was the security guard from CA:TWS ("I am so fired").
DC's iconic female superhero is Wonder Woman, but what is Marvel's iconic female superhero? He'd say Black Widow. But it could be any of them.
In some continuities, Aunt May finds out Peter's secret identity, and she's always against it. Would she ever support him? The thing is, if Aunt May were supportive of Peter being Spider-Man, it would take away from his problems. And problems are what makes a story interesting. So he needs to hide it from her.
Has he ever made a character he thought wouldn't work, but it surprised him? Never. You can always make a character work. All you have to do is give them enough problems that the reader worries about them and wonder how they'll get out of them, and give them a solution they wouldn't expect but which makes sense.
At the end of the panel, there was a special presentation where he was given the Aussie version of Captain America's shield, ie in green and gold! Pretty cool, though I imagine it causing some doubletakes when he put his luggage through the airport x-ray.
Michael Rosenbaum
He entered singing "We Are The Champions", and that kind of set the tone for the whole panel. Instead of sitting on stage and waiting for the moderator to go to audience members with the microphone, he took the microphone himself and roamed through the crowd, picking out people to ask questions of him, often with sarcastic quips and banter. It was mesmerising and slightly alarming, like watching an unpredictable stand up comedian who might turn his humour on you.
Most of the questions were about Smallville, and kind of fluffy: favourite supervillain (Lex, and also the Joker), favourite quote ("We are going to be the stuff of legends"), favourite episode ("Lexmas"), etc.
He had asked the producers, why can't I wear a wig like Gene Hackman, why can't I wear a bald cap? They said, you're shaving your head, because we're paying you. Also, by playing Lex Luthor, he thought he would get to take home cars and suits, but all he got were razor blades.
Were he and Clark ever genuinely friends? He thought yes, and didn't the deception start with Clark?
John Barrowman
His first time in Australia, and very happy to be here, despite almost being caught at customs with a bag of undeclared food. Not five minutes into the panel, and he was cracking bawdy jokes and delivering shameless innuendoes. Very entertaining, but oh my ears were burning. (He even said, "Anyone who brought their kids along, have fun explaining this after. Or just watch some Torchwood episodes, that'll explain everything.") I still have no idea whether to believe the anecdote he told about him and Eve Myles dancing naked in a hotel room during a convention, or the one about just missing out on being interviewed in a jacuzzi full of rugby players.
I've only seen him in Doctor Who and Torchwood, but he talked about Arrow too. There was an emotional scene about his wife's death, where the director wanted him to play it stoic, but he decided to play it with emotion. Because he knew all the ladies would go "Ohhh!" (he mimed clutching his heart), and the ratings would go up, and he would get to be a regular on the show. So he played the scene both ways, and the emotional version got aired. "Because I know what you want!" he said, grinning and pointing at the audience.
Of the Doctor Who villains, the Autons scared him most as a kid, to the point where he was terrified of walking past mannequins in shop windows. Nowadays, he has a Dalek in his front hall, which he uses to scare kids on Halloween.
Someone asked him, "What has been your creepiest interaction with a fan?" and maybe it was the same person as before, because I really hope this isn't a thing now. He said there are people who camp out for hours outside his house, waiting to catch a glimpse of him when he goes outside.
He brought his husband on stage to say hello, which was really sweet.
He talked about how he lucky he was to play Jack Harkness, who was omnisexual, and a role model, and how if he was eight years old and saw the character on TV, he would have felt a lot less alone.
He ended with a heartfelt thank you to the fans, because playing this role changed his life, changed both their lives, and in return he always wants to give as much time as possible at conventions.
Ming-Na Wen
I'd seen all of three episodes of Agents of SHIELD, but Melinda May was the best thing about them, so why not check out her panel? I'm glad I did, because Ming-Na Wen was absolutely lovely. She was funny and chatty and very different from her character, and someone actually asked her if she had trouble keeping a straight face during her scenes, and she said yes.
Her favourite fight scene was the last one, "Because he really needed his butt kicked."
Her favourite line was "Wheels up in five", because normally you wait for ages on the tarmac, but she can get a plane in the air that fast.
Her favourite place to film was the Gold Coast, because her husband proposed to her there. This was during the filming of Street Fighter, where she played Chun-Li. (How did I not know this before?)
Considering all the fight scenes, did she have a martial arts background? Slightly. Which form? The acting form.
Since there's crossover with AoS, would she want to be in the Marvel movies? She's been asked this question so many times, and it's like being asked, do you want to win a million dollars? Of course yes! She's just waiting for Joss to call.
What was it like dealing with the negative reaction to the first half of the season? Not easy. The show was promoted as related to the Avengers, so people expected superheroes. Marvel is like SHIELD, they only tell you as much as you need to know. So the actors just get one script at a time. There was shock after CA:TWS at the plot developments. But now they're finally turning the show around.
She got into Twitter during Stargate Universe, and coming from a theatre background, it's like getting the audience reaction of live theatre.
She spoke Cantonese in episode 5 of AoS, and very well - did she know it or have to learn it? Her reply was also in Cantonese: "What are you talking about? I'm a Hongkonger!"
She loves watching gag reels, and can't wait for the AoS one. Whenever she panics and forgets a line, she'll just blurt out anything and hope that no one notices it's not her line. (Though they do.)
Shopping
I caught up on back issues of Noble Rot and picked up the first issue of Eternal Life. I was very tempted by the adorable t-shirts at TeeTurtle, like Ghibli Road, The Last Planeteer, and An Honest Mistake, but it was the end of the convention and there weren't many designs left. (Online though...)
Photos
Best ever Gambit and Rogue.
Captain America! I saw so many, all ages and genders, and it's really cool how anyone can pick up the shield, sort of like "We are all Spartacus."
It's everywhere...