Mr W and I went to the London Expo today. Here's how our day went.
When we first arrived, we began by getting Mercedes McNabb’s autograph (Harmony in Buffy / Angel). Then we joined Armin Shimmerman’s queue. It moved incredibly slowly, but when we reached the front it was clear why; he chatted to us for a while and stood up to offer to pose for photos with us. He was very friendly and seemed to be enjoying himself. He had a couple of Nox pictures for signing amongst the Buffy and DS9 ones. He said that he’d really enjoyed playing Principal Snyder, everything except his death scene – although he did think that it turned out very well. Next we got autographs from Marina Sirtis (again, her available pictures included Stargate), and she was jolly nice too. Robert Patrick, looking as unlike Agent Dogget as could be, (for a start he was smiling!) was next, before we queued for a final time for Alexis Cruz. He looks very nice with short hair.
Each of the guests we saw were happy to pose for a quick photo (except for Armin who preferred to take a long time posing for a carefully arranged photo and natter for a bit afterwards). There were many other interesting people, notably the actresses who played Vasquez and Dietrich in Aliens, Lots of LOTR folk, and with the biggest queue of the day, Connor Trineer and Dominic Keating of Enterprise. Larry Hagman was there in a huge Stetson. I was glad he wore the Stetson, it felt like we’d seen JR rather than just seeing Larry Hagman.
Past Expos have been simply dealer stands and guest signings, but the latest ones have had a nice treat for the attendees: guest talks. They aren’t very long, but they’re still great fun.
Robert Patrick spoke for twenty minutes. He said how great he found Gillian Anderson and also Mitch Pilleggi and David Duchovny, and he’d love to be in an X-Files film. Nepotism worked to his advantage in the final series when his wife got the part of Doggett’s ex-wife; he found that weird but fun. Asked whether he believed in alien abductions he said he did, and that his part in the alien abduction film “Fire in the Sky” had been pivotal in getting him the part on X-Files.
The highlight of my day was when six actors from Lord of the Rings shared the stage and gave a long and fascinating talk for us – ‘us’ being only a few dozen fans, so we all felt priviledged. Present were John Noble (Denethor), Craig Parker (Haldir) Laurence Makaore (Witchking, Orc Captain, Weird-Shaped Orc), John Leigh (Hama) and Jarl and Jorn Benzon (Glorfindel, Haldir’s brother, and various orcs and Rohan men)
Lawrence talked about his favourite scene – Killing Boromir. The scene was filmed during the morning and the afternoon, with all of the arrows entering Sean Bean in the morning. Sean had a difficult time eating lunch, pincusioned with arrows that couldn’t be removed until filming finished in the evening. After firing all the arrows Lawrence was facing Viggo Mortensen standing over there (pointing at eleven o’clock) and he was supposed to throw his knife over there (one o’clock). Unfortunately for Viggo, Lawrence kept accidentally throwing the knife nearly straight at him. After several takes, Lawrence threw the knife and it hit Viggo’s arm, raised in panic to block the blade. Luckilly he wasn’t hurt. Peter Jackson was thrilled, and as soon as ‘cut’ was called he roared “tell me you got all that!”
Craig Parker talked of how at the Premier of RotK he had regretted both Peter Jackson’s trick endings and his own over-imbibing beforehand. “The human bladder can only contain so much.”
Lawrence told of how strange it had been to play the Witchking’s chief Orc as well as an underling-Orc and the Witchking himself. “I was playing my own boss, and my boss’s boss.” Jorn and Jarl felt similarly strange playing Elves at Helm’s Deep shooting arrow at Orcs, and also Orcs looking up at the Elves.
They described their various injuries, with the exception of Lawrence who instead described the knocks and cuts he’d given to other cast members. John Noble had had to fall over for one scene. After the first take Peter Jackson decided to remove the padding from the floor cos it didn’t look realistic. It took seventeen takes before he did manage to look convincing as he fell. That night his very bruised bum was photographed by his friends in the bar. John Leigh described ‘cloaklash’ from being in a Rohan funeral procession where all the mourners wore long cloaks which were prone to being trodden on by the chap behind.
Jarl’s worst injury was breaking a tooth eating in the canteen. He and Jorn described Orc pile-ups at Helm’s Deep. Dressed in heavy orc-feet, armour and Orc-mask, they were also carrying eight-foot pikes. They were only able to see through narrow slits, and it was dark and wet. So it was not uncommon for an Orc to trip, and when he did the first that the Orc behind him would know of it was when he felt his feet not making contact with the ground. After collapsing onto the man in front they would feel a series of thuds as the Orcs following became dominoes.
The Benzons started to relate to us how arduous was the life of an extra – up at six, standing around for hours – when Lawrence said, “Oh, here we go….” and countered with the fact that his make-up had taken seven hours to apply and four to remove with eleven hours of filming in between. Craig Parker sneered “Well, just you try thirty minutes for a manicure”.
John Noble said that many scenes make him emotional, especially the one where Sam carries Frodo. All of them were full of praise for the finished films, and said how magical they thought the experience had been. They all keep in touch a fair bit.
At half past four Mr W saw that Marina Sirtis’ queue had gone, so he left me chatting to LotR people and popped over to chat to her. I'll leave the rest of that bit to him to tell...
At ten to five the Enterprise queue was finally through, so Dominic and Connor filled the last ten minutes of the day with a quick Q&A. Dominic said how welcoming everyone had been to them. “Get off!” shouted a voice beside us. It was Marina. “Help, we’re being heckled by Marina Sirtis” said Dominic; Connor said “go away, Marina, you reek of cancellation.
Poor Connor couldn’t understand the questions asked in the Queen’s English, so Dominic ‘translated’ them into an American accent for him.
They were asked what was the most physically challenging episode. Dominic felt that an episode where he had been in a space suit, pretending to be weightless was the hardest, especially as his leg had been trapped for much of it. “I have great abs… well, I did by the end of that week.” And he generously proved this to be the case.
Connor said that his worst had been an episode where he and Archer had spent a long time hanging from the celing from ropes and covered in goo made of McDonald’s Milkshake mixed with KY Jelly. “The porn industry had to stop working that week, we had LA’s entire supply of KY Jelly covering us.” When they were let down, hair and clothes and hands all gooey, their limbs were numb and lifeless from dangling from ropes. Dominic remembered how that week there had been a day when he wasn’t needed for filming, “but I came in anyway, to wave at the guys on the celing and say, ‘Hi, I’m off to go surfing’!”
Dominic told of a drunken night in a Sydney bar, where a lady fan of his was surrounded by friends saying “go on, show him, now or never.” “Show me what?” He asked. She rolled up her sleeve to display a portrait of him, three inches high, on her shoulder. “I was rather puckered.” He says. But he was thrilled, very flattered. Until she revealed that Connor was on the other shoulder.
We had a really lovely day. If anyone is thinking of going tomorrow I believe Armin Shimmerman and possibly Alexis Cruz might be giving talks.
When we first arrived, we began by getting Mercedes McNabb’s autograph (Harmony in Buffy / Angel). Then we joined Armin Shimmerman’s queue. It moved incredibly slowly, but when we reached the front it was clear why; he chatted to us for a while and stood up to offer to pose for photos with us. He was very friendly and seemed to be enjoying himself. He had a couple of Nox pictures for signing amongst the Buffy and DS9 ones. He said that he’d really enjoyed playing Principal Snyder, everything except his death scene – although he did think that it turned out very well. Next we got autographs from Marina Sirtis (again, her available pictures included Stargate), and she was jolly nice too. Robert Patrick, looking as unlike Agent Dogget as could be, (for a start he was smiling!) was next, before we queued for a final time for Alexis Cruz. He looks very nice with short hair.
Each of the guests we saw were happy to pose for a quick photo (except for Armin who preferred to take a long time posing for a carefully arranged photo and natter for a bit afterwards). There were many other interesting people, notably the actresses who played Vasquez and Dietrich in Aliens, Lots of LOTR folk, and with the biggest queue of the day, Connor Trineer and Dominic Keating of Enterprise. Larry Hagman was there in a huge Stetson. I was glad he wore the Stetson, it felt like we’d seen JR rather than just seeing Larry Hagman.
Past Expos have been simply dealer stands and guest signings, but the latest ones have had a nice treat for the attendees: guest talks. They aren’t very long, but they’re still great fun.
Robert Patrick spoke for twenty minutes. He said how great he found Gillian Anderson and also Mitch Pilleggi and David Duchovny, and he’d love to be in an X-Files film. Nepotism worked to his advantage in the final series when his wife got the part of Doggett’s ex-wife; he found that weird but fun. Asked whether he believed in alien abductions he said he did, and that his part in the alien abduction film “Fire in the Sky” had been pivotal in getting him the part on X-Files.
The highlight of my day was when six actors from Lord of the Rings shared the stage and gave a long and fascinating talk for us – ‘us’ being only a few dozen fans, so we all felt priviledged. Present were John Noble (Denethor), Craig Parker (Haldir) Laurence Makaore (Witchking, Orc Captain, Weird-Shaped Orc), John Leigh (Hama) and Jarl and Jorn Benzon (Glorfindel, Haldir’s brother, and various orcs and Rohan men)
Lawrence talked about his favourite scene – Killing Boromir. The scene was filmed during the morning and the afternoon, with all of the arrows entering Sean Bean in the morning. Sean had a difficult time eating lunch, pincusioned with arrows that couldn’t be removed until filming finished in the evening. After firing all the arrows Lawrence was facing Viggo Mortensen standing over there (pointing at eleven o’clock) and he was supposed to throw his knife over there (one o’clock). Unfortunately for Viggo, Lawrence kept accidentally throwing the knife nearly straight at him. After several takes, Lawrence threw the knife and it hit Viggo’s arm, raised in panic to block the blade. Luckilly he wasn’t hurt. Peter Jackson was thrilled, and as soon as ‘cut’ was called he roared “tell me you got all that!”
Craig Parker talked of how at the Premier of RotK he had regretted both Peter Jackson’s trick endings and his own over-imbibing beforehand. “The human bladder can only contain so much.”
Lawrence told of how strange it had been to play the Witchking’s chief Orc as well as an underling-Orc and the Witchking himself. “I was playing my own boss, and my boss’s boss.” Jorn and Jarl felt similarly strange playing Elves at Helm’s Deep shooting arrow at Orcs, and also Orcs looking up at the Elves.
They described their various injuries, with the exception of Lawrence who instead described the knocks and cuts he’d given to other cast members. John Noble had had to fall over for one scene. After the first take Peter Jackson decided to remove the padding from the floor cos it didn’t look realistic. It took seventeen takes before he did manage to look convincing as he fell. That night his very bruised bum was photographed by his friends in the bar. John Leigh described ‘cloaklash’ from being in a Rohan funeral procession where all the mourners wore long cloaks which were prone to being trodden on by the chap behind.
Jarl’s worst injury was breaking a tooth eating in the canteen. He and Jorn described Orc pile-ups at Helm’s Deep. Dressed in heavy orc-feet, armour and Orc-mask, they were also carrying eight-foot pikes. They were only able to see through narrow slits, and it was dark and wet. So it was not uncommon for an Orc to trip, and when he did the first that the Orc behind him would know of it was when he felt his feet not making contact with the ground. After collapsing onto the man in front they would feel a series of thuds as the Orcs following became dominoes.
The Benzons started to relate to us how arduous was the life of an extra – up at six, standing around for hours – when Lawrence said, “Oh, here we go….” and countered with the fact that his make-up had taken seven hours to apply and four to remove with eleven hours of filming in between. Craig Parker sneered “Well, just you try thirty minutes for a manicure”.
John Noble said that many scenes make him emotional, especially the one where Sam carries Frodo. All of them were full of praise for the finished films, and said how magical they thought the experience had been. They all keep in touch a fair bit.
At half past four Mr W saw that Marina Sirtis’ queue had gone, so he left me chatting to LotR people and popped over to chat to her. I'll leave the rest of that bit to him to tell...
At ten to five the Enterprise queue was finally through, so Dominic and Connor filled the last ten minutes of the day with a quick Q&A. Dominic said how welcoming everyone had been to them. “Get off!” shouted a voice beside us. It was Marina. “Help, we’re being heckled by Marina Sirtis” said Dominic; Connor said “go away, Marina, you reek of cancellation.
Poor Connor couldn’t understand the questions asked in the Queen’s English, so Dominic ‘translated’ them into an American accent for him.
They were asked what was the most physically challenging episode. Dominic felt that an episode where he had been in a space suit, pretending to be weightless was the hardest, especially as his leg had been trapped for much of it. “I have great abs… well, I did by the end of that week.” And he generously proved this to be the case.
Connor said that his worst had been an episode where he and Archer had spent a long time hanging from the celing from ropes and covered in goo made of McDonald’s Milkshake mixed with KY Jelly. “The porn industry had to stop working that week, we had LA’s entire supply of KY Jelly covering us.” When they were let down, hair and clothes and hands all gooey, their limbs were numb and lifeless from dangling from ropes. Dominic remembered how that week there had been a day when he wasn’t needed for filming, “but I came in anyway, to wave at the guys on the celing and say, ‘Hi, I’m off to go surfing’!”
Dominic told of a drunken night in a Sydney bar, where a lady fan of his was surrounded by friends saying “go on, show him, now or never.” “Show me what?” He asked. She rolled up her sleeve to display a portrait of him, three inches high, on her shoulder. “I was rather puckered.” He says. But he was thrilled, very flattered. Until she revealed that Connor was on the other shoulder.
We had a really lovely day. If anyone is thinking of going tomorrow I believe Armin Shimmerman and possibly Alexis Cruz might be giving talks.
I'll be watching The Two Towers again, lol!
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