GDL panel 2
Okay, the battery on the phone is low, but I have got the laptop working in the panel. I'm not going to transcribe word for word, I don't think although I type fast enough that I'm probably capable of it, but I will provide various notes.
Yay.
Also, seriously, as I wait for this to begin, man I love DragonCon*TV.
Okay, panel starting.
It's a waste of my time to talk about how much I hate GDL's clothes.
They're talking about his favorite beer, because that's all anyone can talk about at this con at this hour of the morning. You can tell the whole room does not care. Gareth corrects interviewer -- Guinness isn't a beer, it's a stout. That's sorta funny.
Oh, now we're talking about panto. Apparently he's going to be a rock Prince Charming. It seems terrifying. Gareth keeps explaining that no, he really can sing! Oh, this just got really funny and hard to explain.
Oh... we're talking about the band again.... no one is here for this. Actually, I suppose they are, I actually saw someone in a Blue Gillespie shirt yesterday.
Okay, now we're onto Children of Earth. Fans are already whimpering. Literally whimpering.
GDL: "You know something bad's going to happen when Ianto starts doing stuff."
He's imitating Peter Capaldi in In the Loop saying all sorts of obscene stuff.
Oooo, asking him about trying to find work in the States....
Talking about pilot season -- only 30% of the shows that usually get made for pilot season get made this year due to the economy. He only had two meetings this pilot season -- one for a vampire show and one for something else -- but neither liked him, but he's hoping next pilot season he'll have more now that CoE did so well.
Talking about the reaction to the Ianto death from fans. "overwhelming and really flattering" "there's a shrine at Ianto's shopfront, and it's still going, people keep putting... there's even a missing pterodactyl... it's lovely and inventive tributes to Ianto and his memory... really overwhelming and I can't be thankful enough for it." (Yes, it was that incoherent and lovely).
Story about his brother getting him drunk when he was six and watching vampire films again... this story got told last year so I am not transcribing it, although he just mentioned biting girls on the neck in the playground -- "which I still do!" -- audience goes crazy!
Talking about shooting in Cardiff. Did five years in London, before he went back to Cardiff for Torchwood. "Why the fuck did I leave in the first place?"
Talking about energy on Doctor Who filming is really different, being a family show it sort of heightens the performances. Talking about the awesome machine-gun thing. Makes the machine gun face. Funny. Talks about the real kick off the guns.
Talking about family atmosphere, knowing David Tennant, etc... (Kali would surely makes an RPS comment here).
Asked about how much script control he had as an actor on CoE... "they are very cautious if you even want to change one word, and you have to call the producer if you want to and then they have to call RTD and Julie." Says that didn't happen a lot.
Talking about the "too camp" story from last year, and how he got yelled at for John's ideas. "It's not my fucking idea! We're talking about the end of the world, the last thing I want to be doing is feed John pizza!"
Talking about how you lend ideas to lines by the tone you use, not by necessarily changing the lines, and you can suggest ideas through how you deliver a line.
Talks about directing theater and his show about binge drinking. Talks about writing plays. Would like to write and direct more.
Oh yay, we're talking about audio books. Talks about the M.R. James thing and how he was three hours late and hadn't had anything to eat and it was all horrible, but the Lovecraft thing went much better. Talks about hard it is to do audio books. Interesting stuff about process and how weird it is.
No sign of more Torchwood audios for GDL.
He wants to play an alien on Doctor Who. Preferably an "evil fucker." Says he'd love to play the Master but "there aren't many people who could do a better job than John Simm" who he then praises some more.
Oh, it's the Gary Oldman topic again. Does AWESOME imitation of Keanu Reeves and how bad he was in Dracula. Then is like "Winona Ryder -- so miscast!" Goes on and on how much he loved Gary Oldman in it, and how too bad it was a shit film.
And we're back with Macbeth! Would like to do the whole of the arc for Henry V, and "when I get the money I'm going to produce it myself." Wants to do Mac the Knife on screen -- since there hasn't been a film of it since the 1930s.
"I don't understand why they are trying to remake good films. Films aren't broken. Don't try to fix it." -- HOW AWESOME IS GDL FOR THIS? "Stop remaking good films."
oooooo, NOT a fan of Christian Bale. "When did his voice get deeper?" More hilarious imitations, and wow, really not a fan of him in Batman.
Oooo, talking about loosing and gaining weight for roles, GDL says he wouldn't take it to the extreme a lot of actors do. Says it's called playing for a reason. "To put yourself through that amount of pain and torture seems extreme to me. Just pretend to be the character." I wonder how much the fan girls are thinking about the whole "pie" thing.... I love that we're talking about this.
"Makeup, you don't have to put on 20 stone to play a 20 stone guy." (well, yes, Gareth, math is hard) "The technology is there...." then there's this long tirade about how awful it is for people's brains to be losing and gaining all this weight in crazy ways for roles. It's funnier than I can possibly describe.
Has lots of praise for Heath Ledger.
Going on about black comedy but hates "generalized comedy" and "situation comedies" and hey... I'm so grateful again. So yeah, he says he would love to do that sort of work.
Tour dates in the states question for the band. None yet. But hey sales are picking up. Acknowledges that a lot of that is due to support of Torchwood fans, and now it's getting some music industry attention.
Oh, audience question mic isn't on.
GDL does "We Are Coming" thing into mic. Then the girl at the mic joins in, then Gareth says "keep that to yourself, love."
Fan questions: "you seem annoyed that you're famous because you kissed John Barrowman."
GDL protests that this is stated as a fact. He defends his hatred of the kiss question, and says that only a tiny bit of his fame is related to having "tongued John." This whole convo is so cracky and hard to explain.
Now talking about the evolution of the Ianto/Jack relations. "Didn't know I was going to be the leading man's man until probably about episode 5 or 6." "Amazing, I'm going to be kissing the leading man, you have to give me more lines!"
Audience question in terms of the expectations in Hollywood here. "The casting process over here is much different, it's much more like a meat market. I find the first stages of a casting are much more shallow and you're crammed into a room. It's more to do with aesthetics than how you can change yourself. It's only a bit like that in the UK. Hopefully there will be a casting director who will let me skip that process next year. "I'm crap at auditions. My performance really suffers if I have to wait in that room for an hour and a half to do it." Goes on and on about having to wait at auditions and how terrible the audition process is. [THIS IS SO TRUE. IT IS AWFUL]. "They are shooting themselves in the foot by not getting the best out of actors that way."
CoE question: would Ianto have made the same choice Jack made about Stephen if the issue had been his niece or nephew? THIS IS THE BEST QUESTION EVER.
GDL says Ianto would have had to. Said it would have destroyed Ianto more than it did Jack... as Jack has had time to develop an ability and a hardened shell to deal with those sort of choices. But it would have utterly destroyed Ianto.
Q: what's on GDL's ipod? -- NIN, Tool, Portishead ... and now he's singing that damn song from Labyrinth again. He's sort of ridiculously good. Emphasis on ridiculous.
On the Jonas Brothers: "do me a favor, fuck off!"
THIS PANEL IS SO CRACKY IT'S HARD TO DESCRIBE.
Talking about how Ianto's background is very similar to GDL's again. Doesn't know if RTD did that on purpose or not.
Asks people to stop calling this Day 2 re: DragonCon because he's flying home on Monday which would be Day 4, and it's FREAKING HIM OUT.
MORE CRACKINESS I CANNOT POSSIBLY DESCRIBE.
"Died as a result of an alien fart."
Q: any chance of bringing back original cast... horrible Q if in an alternate universe would Ianto be straight and reject Jack?
GDL says no... no.... and the says, "Get your cock away from my ass! You can get close but I'm the giver."
But anyway, mostly the crowd is sort of aghast at the weird, homophobic question. GDL seems boggled too.
"If it was changed [in an AU] it would just be a bedroom reversal."
I hate this QUESTION.
Doesn't think there's a chance to get the whole cast back for a season, but he'd love to see an episode with everyone back for one ep, where there's some timey-wimey thing not allowed to tell them about their demises.
Nervous questioner asks Q about Wizard Rock.
GDL thinks its cool. Apparently his band is doing the theme song for some sci fi show he's doing in the future.
THIS QUESTION IS GETTING ANNOYING.
But hey, GDL says he'd let a Time Lord Rock band open for his band.
Q: what book would he like to do an audio of?
"Probably Dracula." Talks about how to work with the diary entries in that. Pretty cool.
Then he compliments a questioner on her gorgeous hair.
Talks about Sex, Wales and Anarchy. Apparently there was lots of spoken word... oh hey, next one in about 6 months (man, I would love for that to be when I'm in Cardiff in April).
Next questioner... forgot her question.
q: If you were given the chance to work with Jack again or travel with the Doctor, which would you choose?
GDL: "I think the Jack/Ianto dynamic is so special, I think it would have to be Jack." THis answer goes on for a while and is rather sweet.
More about his band... talking about the song "The Oblivious" and what inspired it.
Omg, did he really just say the word "existentialist"? -- talks about how "time happens quicker" for people are introspective and aware of the world and how there's something to envy in people who don't do that. It was a bit of a wow moment.
Talking about the blur of the line between big budget television and film at this point. Smart stuff.
Super awkward moment with fan about running into fan at pool. Now talking about a scarf some girl made for him... the girl is at the mic, and apparently this chick sheared the sheep. WHAT THE FUCK?
q: what was GDL's favorite childhood book.
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Sometimes talks about working on Torchwood in present tense and then stops and makes this little awkward face as the the whole audience "awwwwwwws."
Unspoken deal with JB: "don't play me your music and I don't play you mine."
Apparently Burn Gorman was the British beat-boxing champion. Gorman's apparently really shy about this freakish skill but was showing it off while they were shooting Something Borrowed.
"John pretty much puts himself on a platter for all and sundry to see."
Says Kai is very close to his heart. Quite sweet.
Man... all the Blue Gillepsie CD's sold out in about a half hour. Crazy.....
The End.
This isn't a very coherent transcript, but then neither was the panel.