Live From New York It's Mary McDonnell!!
Notes from the Big Apple Con. Here was our lovely VIP badge.
We did pictures first. Mary was about 20 minutes late and everyone was squished in the basement of the Pennsylvannia Hotel. It was warm, but she finally showed up. Many of the fangirls went in first and had a great group shot taken. They did move through the shots pretty quickly, since she had to do her panel at 1pm. I got my pic done, being sure to keep my eyes open, YAY!! She looked fabulous as always. Sometimes I think she has a picture at home aging away in a closet somewhere. LOL!! I mean really, the woman looks FANTASTIC!!
On to the panel, the VIP's got to go in first and sat in the first few rows, which was nice. Mary again asked for no pictures. Darn and I lugged my camera around all day for nothing, but I respected her wishes. Have to remember to snap right away. Although I got a fuzzy one as you can see. They also asked to turn off your cell phones and it was amusing when Erin Gray's went off in the panel. She apologized quietly. Mary said her and Erin have become partners in crime. Go Wilma!!!
Her panel was great of course, lots of great stuff. Like EJO, I could listen to her talk for a long time.
She started by mentioning “Scream 4” saying that she's already got in trouble for talking too much about it. LOL!! She did enjoy doing the film and learned a lot from Wes Craven about how to act fear. She pretended that she was being chased by the “scream” killer, pretending to stab. Hmmmmm, please speculate here... Two girls beside us had the scream masks on and Mary jumped when she saw them and then asked them to please take them off. It was very funny!!
She had some trouble with the mics and then Erin brought her a wireless one. That eventually ended up at the back to where people could ask questions and Mary went back to the wired on which seemed very short. She mentioned almost falling off the stage and then thanked 37_soul_sister for saving her life. Here I'll pull out the only pic I got of her afterwards.
She mentioned “The Closer” and said “wait till we see what is coming next.” Hopefully Raydor will be in season seven. Fingers crossed although she didn't mention that.
Someone asked about the UN and she said that experience really changed her life.
Did we miss BSG? What kind of shows did we want to see on tv? She talked about how great the ensemble was in BSG and that really made the show great. Mary added that it was the talent of the producer/director to be able to get all those actors with giant egos to work together. Able to satisfy all the actors and that they all had to shine, and get each one their moments.
She mentioned working on the independant film "Narrow Margin" in her "things I did this summer" recap.
She knew that BSG would be great from the beginning.
Someone asked her if she would like to direct, but would rather produce since she was too much of an actor to direct. They wanted her to do a BSG ep, but she declined. She talked about Catherine Bigelow winning the Oscar and that she beat her ex-husband. YAY!! She felt Catherine broke a lot of barriers, since she made one of the best war films, which are usually made by men.
She always knew that she was different. She would sit at one end of the table and her family at the other end, and they would pretty much look at her and say “what”. She also said that you can’t teach acting, you either have it or you don’t. She has the squiggle gene for acting.
Someone asked if she got any props from the show. She did get the black cups from Adamas office. She said how she had planned everything out and how she was going to steal different props every day, ‘cause that was the only way to get them. LOL!! She really wanted the Armani suit as she has said before. So she had her gifts ready to give to the crew and was plotting her stealing when Harvey Frand called. It went something like this:
Harvey: I have something to tell you.
Mary: We’re not cancelled.
Harvey: No, you’re wrapping tomorrow.
Mary: But, I haven’t stolen my stuff yet.
Harvey: What?
Mary: Well, can I have all my clothes from Daybreak.
So she didn’t get anything, but sees them here and there. She laughed when someone showed up in the purple, sorry lavender suit.
She would love to do theatre again and will, when I’m old enough to do “The Gin Game” for 8 shows a week. ( a play of an elderly couple in a retirement home who play gin rummy and cut each other up while playing cards). That would be nice with Eddie. Okay I added that thought in at the end.
I forget what she was referring to but Mary asked what was "fancy little government on Colonial One" was called, everyone yelled out “the quorum”. She said “oh yes the quorum and thank you Richard Hatch”.
Someone asked about fantasy and reality and she said they were the same thing. When she was on the Colonial One and looked out the window and there were just stars and she had a panic attack because it was real.
She said a similar thing about DWW, flying in on the plane and you feel like such a phony, the little white girl. Yet, then you get there and see how real everything is. She also said how she didn’t like horses and her trainer called her “dust in her face.” Of course she did very well in the language classes.
Someone asked about going into acting and if she had any advice, Mary said you have to “do it, not want it” and you have to give yourself permission to do it”.
That's everything I can remember. I did try and take some notes. Feel free to add or amend anything if you attended.
As for autographs, she signed my pic from Spain that Eddie had signed. Erin Gray pointed out that I had been reading one word wrong, thinking the "and" was "said". Duh.THANK YOU ERIN!! I will have to scan it and post it. Mary then went through the story about the grey skirt from Spain, Erin hadn't heard it and either had I. It was how she had just left the press room when the skirt fell down around her ankles. She said "can you imagine the press" and pretended to be clicking away with a camera. Thank goodness she had made it into the other room. I also thanked her for all the great people I've met from watching the show. She really liked that and said how wonderful that was.
I had a great time and enjoyed meeting all of you wonderful peeps at the con!! Some new, some old!! Heh, you know who you are, but we can still wander around the West Village into the morning hours and steal glasses from the hotel, so as to not drink wine from a plastic glass. Can't wait for the next con to see you all again. LOL!!