Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[EH-T]

I send a message I think 2 days ago and it didn't bounce back (that I know of).

Did you suggest to her she could come to your place of work as a way to celebrate her birthday since you visited her workplace on your birthday?

[EvenstarSRV]

so, on a very different topic, anyone here like Deadliest Catch??

I think i've written one of the oddest crossover fics ever

http://www.jackfic.net/emeraldcity/a...re/roworw.html

(Penguin warning)

Great fic!

And (((Rocky and family))), I hope your grandmother is alright.

I've finally finished the Sanctuary panel transcript (no thanks to my computer crashing and house losing power), but it's quite long so please forgive the multiple posts. I'll put it in spoilers so it won't stretch the page.

Spoiler:

Sanctuary 2009 SDCC Panel Transcript

Michael Logan (TV Guide): ML
Martin Wood: MW
Damian Kindler: DK
Robin Dunne: RD
Amanda Tapping: AT

ML: Let’s introduce the two big bosses, first of all, the executive producer of Sanctuary, Mr. Martin Wood. (applause) And his partner-in-crime, executive producer Damian Kindler. (applause) You know him as Dr. Will Zimmerman, Robin Dunne. (applause) And the lady who is a great actress, great executive producer, and an international superstar, Ms. Amanda Tapping. (applause)

RD: Hi everyone
AT: Hello everybody!
ML: As a lot of you probably know, it was two years ago at Comic-con that these guys had a little project called Sanctuary on the internet, and somehow they stole, beg, borrowed, and stealed some booth time and set up an autograph line
DK: Don’t say stole, we take offence to stole. (laughter)
RD: We prefer squatted
DK: We were squatters
AT: We squatted in someone’s booth
ML: But what an amazing trip is just two years, so talk about that. I mean literally, two years ago this was a little internet show and now it’s… They’ve already been very pioneering in their efforts on the show but another big thing that’s happened now is because of the second season pick-up, no internet project has ever gotten on television in such a big hit way and had a second season. So, there’s some history for you right there. (applause) So tell us about this travel over these two years, Amanda.
AT: (funny voice) Hello! I’m gobsmacked sitting here looking at the size of this room and all the people in it. I remember squatting at a booth, and a little autograph line formed and people were so receptive and so supportive and I think then we sort of got an inkling that ‘hey, we could be on to something pretty cool here.’ And then when we starting shooting our first season and had that, sort of, ground swell of ‘this so cool what we’re doing! This so cool and we just hope that people embrace it,’ to now sitting here in front of this room full of people. Ahhhh, there are no words it’s amazing. Thank you so much for supporting us.
RD: It’s been an amazing journey for us, and I think you know one of the main reasons why we’re here is because of you guys. I mean, you’ve given us the support over the years and, you know, I don’t want to start some kind of competition or anything but, I think we at Sanctuary have the best fans of any show out there. (applause)
AT: I think that true!
RD: I just think that’s one of the things we’ve got, so thank you very much.
MW: And, I think, Robin I think you could actually say that we’d actually still be here, it would just be really empty, there wouldn’t be anyone here. (laughter)
AT: It’d be very quiet.
*S2 promo trailer is shown*

MW: I want to tell you something about that promotional thing. What happens at this time of year is, we’re almost to the end of our second season shooting, and it takes a great long time to make this show after we’re finished shooting it. And the promotions people at Syfy came to us and said, ‘oh can you give us lots of stuff from second season?’ And we went ‘No, it’s not done yet!’ (laughter) So, a lot of what you saw there was from first season with little snippets of second season mixed in. If you guys liked what you saw in first season, you have no idea what’s coming in second season, because it’s (gesturing) that much higher. (applause) And the effects and things like this are so far above what they were originally, it’s just outstanding. You don’t get it from that [trailer], that gives you a good taste but, boy I tell when you actually see some of the stuff coming out, you’re never going to leave your television set, you’re going to stay there and wait for a whole week for the next one. (laughter)

ML: One of the big themes of the new season is going to be the discovery that there are other Sanctuaries actually all over the world, so talk about this.
DK: Uh, right, there are Sanctuaries all over the world. (laughter) Amanda! (more laughter) It’s part of, how can I put it, a global idea that we all had, which is that we wanted the show to have this big scope, and in a way almost have that James Bond feel of we can go anywhere in the world and the story can take place in different parts of the world. And that does lend itself to the way we shoot. We love to put up a green screen and take you to Rome, take you to Tokyo, take you to London, and all sorts of really cool places. And, so, we felt that it lent itself to the world we created that Magnus had started a Sanctuary, back in say the turn of the 19th century, but then over the years she’s built dozens of Sanctuaries in London, Moscow, Rome, Sydney, Mumbai, so on and so forth. And it makes sense that you would see work around the world this way, and it gives our show a dimension and a palette that I think makes it unique. And this year, season 2, we really flexed what the global Sanctuary network looks and feels like. You’re going to see Sanctuaries in other parts of the world that look different. We didn’t just say, ‘and here’s the same thing,’ we actually built new Sanctuaries, and it’s amazingly exciting, I can’t wait for you all to see it.
RD: One of the great, I mean of one of the many great things about working on this show is the undying commitment by Damian, Martin, Amanda, the creative team behind the show, to always push the envelope, always be outside the box. And from an acting standpoint, every time you pick up a script you just never know what adventure you’re going on. You know, a lot of that happened in season 1, but I think season 2 the envelope has been pushed more, I mean stylistically, the stories. I mean some of the stories, some of the things that, some of the torturous things that Amanda and I had to go through (AT laughing) this year.
MW: Show them your bruise, your bruises.
RD: Sadistic. (laughter)
AT: We’ve both got bruises. (AT points to one on her shoulder and makes a sad face LOL)
ML: Well, let’s talk about the helicopter episode, because that was pretty grueling for everybody.
AT: Oh, the helicopter episode…
RD: I’m still, I’m still you know (waves with his arms) I still have my sea legs a little bit I think, because of this episode.
DK: You should start with the title, it’s the 8th episode of season 2, called Next Tuesday, and we were in the time where the work flow was just in a giant bulge. We were all running around and doing a million things, editing and writing, and shooting, and acting and everyone was doing too much, and we needed to have a script ready. And we needed to, you know, we did a great episode last year, which was my favorite episode called Requiem (applause) Amanda and Robin, yeah. Next Tuesday is not nearly as good as that. (lots of laughter) But, it was cool because Martin and I had seen a helicopter on location and without talking to each other had basically said, just to other people…
MW: We were in two different places. He was at one end of the building I was at the other and we both saw it at the same time, came running to each other and said, “Hey, let’s doing a show about helicopters!’ (laughter)
DK: So what end up happening was we did a two-hander with essentially Will and Magnus transporting a rare abnormal off of a decommissioned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, in a helicopter. Magnus flying and Will in the back, and the thing gets very upset and escapes and brings the helicopter down, and they crash inside this hollowed-out well just above the water tangled in wires, and the creature escapes, it’s in the water they’re in the helicopter. Water, helicopter, water, helicopter, creature, helicopter…
AT: Creature, creature, creature (laughter)
DK: And so for 5 straight days Martin, Amanda, and Robin were in wetsuits working around a helicopter that was hanging just above the water with green things around them in the water, and it’s a very different hour of television. (laughter)
RD: Let me tell you, on day 4 that water, man, it was getting a little raunchy, you could almost walk across the water. (laughter)
AT: We had crew in there, we had underwater cameras…
RD: All kinds of floating debris
MW: And we didn’t have any stunt people, so when you watch this show you have to understand that it’s Robin and Amanda doing everything in there, everything. And it’s really quite remarkable when you see Amanda Tapping hold her breath for 94 seconds. (applause while AT pretends to hold her breath and faint)
ML: I also understand that she drives a car in one of the upcoming episodes (AT: Yeah!) so tell us about that.
DK: We don’t fake everything on Sanctuary!
AT: In our first episode of season 2 there’s this big car chase, which you know you hire stunt drivers for, and we did, but we didn’t use them. (laughter) Not very much anyway, but we needed a car so Martin turned to Damian and said ‘Hey can we use your car for this?’ Well sure, says Damian, not knowing that I’m going to be the one driving it. (big grin from AT while audience laughs) And fast!
RD: And I’m in the passenger seat and I am not acting, I am terrified ok, terrified. (laughter)
AT: I’m an excellent driver!
MW: When we started the sequence it was Magnus chases these guys and I was, you know I’ve got this cool location where we can actually close the street. And I have this car which is called a Russian Arm, which is a Mercedes truck with a big arm that hangs off the side, which will actually allow you to shoot as you drive beside the car. And it’s been used in a million movies, it doesn’t usually get used in television because it’s not the kind of thing you use in a television show.
DK: It’s a like Fast and the Furious thing.
MW: And I said to Damian, ‘can we use your car in this because Magnus has to go chasing something.’ And he said yeah sure, then he came out on the day, and we had a stunt driver there for Amanda but didn’t use her because Amanda was really having fun with this. (laughter) So we put the Mercedes with the arm, we put the BMW there and they were racing side by side and then Damian showed up, (laughter) standing there looking at these two cars racing at him. And what happens is the outside car has to go twice as fast as the inside car and so it skids around corners. And then Amanda decides that, well I can do that too, and she skids around the corner too. (laughter) At full speed. And (motioning with hands) the camera car was here and Amanda was here and she goes right up to it (laughter) so you really know it’s Amanda Tapping doing it.
RD: And I’m doing this (makes terrified face) ahhhh! Please I don’t wanna die! (lots of laughter)
MW: And in the background you see Robin, and Damian is doing that too! (lots of laughter)
DK: I was like, uh, why isn’t the dynamic stability control not kicking in? ‘Oh we turned that off, we don’t need that.’ (laughter) Will I need new tires? ‘Yeah you will.’ (more laughter)

[EvenstarSRV]

Panel Continued

Spoiler:

ML: Here’s something else they didn’t fake. I mean the show through the magic of technology can take us anywhere in the world and they have. They’ve been to the Himalayas, Victorian England, and 20,000 leagues under the sea in a submarine. But they actually went to shoot part of the season finale in Japan. So what’s up with that? When you can fake Japan so easily you actually went all the way around the world!
AT: Yeah, we did a world-wind 76 hour trip to Tokyo, which was amazing. We were doing some press there, Sci-fi Asia invited us, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to film some scenes while we were there. And we, well Martin can talk about it, because Martin did everything!
MW: What happened was, here’s a picture of us in Japan. (holds up his iPhone) (laughter)
DK: Pretty cool, man.
MW: It’s really wild.
DK: You’ll notice we’re not wearing pants (laughter)
RD: I thought we weren’t going to talk about the no pants thing (more laughter)
MW: So what happened so we got there, and we were touring around, and we had to shoot the scene where we meet to new Tokyo Sanctuary head. Because in the first episode….
DK: Shhhh, don’t tell them!
AT: Don’t tell them everything!
RD: Oh you ruined it! (laughter)
MW: All I was going to say was in the first one something happens (laughter) and at the end we meet the new head of the Tokyo Sanctuary and the rebuilt Sanctuary.
DK: Oy! (headdesks to laughter)
MW: I didn’t tell them anything I just said something happens!
DK: That’s too much! Nothing happens…
MW: You now the movie Godzilla? (laughter, DK headdesks again) What? I’m just asking if they know it! It will help to understand what we did. (more laughter) Anyway, we get there and we have to shoot one scene. And we got there and I said we need this type of camera, which is a very specific of ours because we do a lot visual effects. And they said yes we’ll have it, but when we got there they didn’t have somebody to operate it. (laughter) So I went ok, well I’ll operate it.
DK: This was as the monsoon was kicking in. (laughter)
MW: It started to rain. And then we thought, we had so much fun shooting this in the pouring rain, let’s make up another scene and shoot it right down in the middle of Shabuya, which is the neon signs and such. So we have Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne walking through a million extras, a million cars, in a city of 10 million people. We’re standing almost on the road with cars coming at us and we’re going ‘Psh, we don’t need clearances for anything here!’ (laughter)
DK: We’re going to be on a place in 6 hours, let’s get out of here.
MW: So Damian wrote a scene while we were there, and these two ended up memorizing it in about 45 seconds, we shot it and ran away. (laughter)
DK: We were on a little bus going ‘you could say this and he can say that.’
RD: Run and gun.
MW: That’s how Sanctuary shoots, that’s how we roll. (laughter)
DK: I think there’s some kind of reverse fun we’re having, where yeah we can throw up a green screen and buy some really high-def stock footage of Tokyo and say look haha. But there’s something cool about being in Tokyo and shooting with Japanese actors. There’s this very venerable Japanese actor, musician, artist, named Tatori Ishi (sp??), who we worked with and he was amazing. And he just adds a dimension. And by going there we did so what I mentioned earlier about creating a global scope and scale for the show, which I think is rare for TV.
MW: And the funny this is, Mark Stern, the head of Syfy for us, looked at it and said ‘pretty good visual effect.’ (laughter) That’s what everybody is going to think when they see this, that we did a visual effect.
RD: But we were actually there. We have the scars to prove it. (laughter)
ML: Speaking of visual effects, Sanctuary has been nominated for an Emmy for its visual effects. (lots of applause)
MW: Anthem Visual Effects, with Lee Wilson, the magician Lee Wilson and his team Lisa Wilson and Sebastian Bergeron and 60 artists who work on this for 29 weeks every show.
DK: I want to jump in because this Emmy is very important to all of us…
MW: But we haven’t won it (laughter)
DK: I said nomination! In my head. (laughter) This Emmy that someone will steal from us. This Emmy nomination is very important for us, not just because of the amazing work of Anthem and Lee, but I think it’s important to say that Martin is the visionary who executes everything in lock step with Anthem. It get lost in translation that, all the great visual effect designers do this, they do do it, but Martin absolutely says, ‘I want it to look like this, I need it to feel like that, more dimension, more light, make it move right. The detail work for every visual effects shot runs through Martin, so this Emmy nomination really has so much to do with this dork sitting next to me, we should give him a big round because he’s the man. (applause)
MW: Having said that, I want you to know, after I’m done talking Lee Wilson takes it and does something to it and makes it better than I ever imagined.
RD: But we do have our captain here who, we mentioned earlier, it’s not just Amanda and I floating around in the water for 5 days, it’s Marty Wood too. He’s not a guy sitting behind a bank of monitors telling us what to do.
AT: He’s in a wetsuit…
RD: In a wetsuit floating around in the water telling us what to do, standing on a Tokyo street corner in the rain.
AT: It’s kinda creepy but… (laughter)
DK: That’s not a visual you want in your head, by the way. (laughter)

ML: There’s another first this season, Amanda Tapping will direct an episode! (lots of applause) And she didn’t take the easy route out by picking one that Dr. Helen Magnus was kinda light in, in this episode she kinda going bonkers right?
AT: Yeah, she goes a bit doolally, as they say. Magnus is completely off her rocker, which worked because I was directing and feeling a little twitchy about it, so no acting required. (laughter) It’s really a mystery and a solving of mystery, so it showcases Robin really beautifully, I think. (to Robin) You were do good in that, thank you so much!
RD: Stop it, stop it, it’s all because of you and your directing.
AT: It’s called Veritas and it’s a lovely story, and I’m really, I’m usually not one to toot my own horn very loudly, but I’m really really proud of this episode. I think it looks beautiful and I think the performances are amazing, so I hope you enjoy it. Veritas! (in funny voice)
DK: It’s a season highlight, for season 2, it’s absolutely a tour de force of directing.
MW: When we were doing Stargate and Amanda directed her first Stargate (applause)
AT: The only one!
MW: She shadowed me around for a while and got an idea about the way I was directing, then went and directed her show. And we spent a lot of time talking about the shots and things like that. She came up to the one she did this year, which is called Veritas, and I said ‘hey, do you want some help’ and she goes ‘no.’ (laughter) And she didn’t have any help, and it’s better than most of my shows!
AT: Hope you like it.
MW: It’s outstanding, it’s really quite an outstanding episode.
RD: And as a fellow actor it was such a lovely experience working together like that.
AT: We really like each other a lot! (laughter) [but it really does come across that way, like a mutual admiration society]
RD: It’s all an act, we don’t get along. (laughter)
DK: I’ll just say that, while we’re talking about this episode, it’s a very real showcase of the Will Zimmerman character and his loyalty to Magnus. I mean when the world turns it back on Magnus he is absolutely the one man who refuses to step aside. And it was a good centerpiece of the way we approached the characters this year, where we can’t just say that ok they working together with monsters and quipping. Things have to deepen, relationships have to deepen, become more dimensionalized and real, and the relationship between Magnus and Will is wonderful in season 2. To the point where even, what of the things that’s cool about the helicopter episode, aside from the amazing creature fights, is the fact that they’re having this argument, a very powerful disagreement throughout the episode, despite the predicament they’re in. And we can all relate to that, we all have close friends that we agree to disagree with, and that felt very real to me. And we’re trying to spread that throughout season 2, to give these characters and really human interplay, and not sort of stock hero stuff. Something everyone can identify with because when you’re writing it, and directing it, and acting it, you want to identify with it too, it’s not that different it is the same response that the audience has when you’re creating it. You write it you feel it, well I think it’s cool, and it has to feel real, and we tried to get there this year and I think we did a pretty good job.

ML: Will, let’s hear from you about this. [LOL, wrong name!]
RD: Uh, I agree! (laughter) I think, between season 1 and season 2, an interesting thing happens. Last year, in terms of the characters, it was about establishing these people, the relationships between them, particularly for Will. He’s been brought into this world, not really sure about it, it scares him a lot, seems to be always running away and screaming from different things. Season 2 is still a lot of running away and screaming. (laughter)
MW: There’s a lot of Robin in this character, you have to understand. (laughter)
RD: It’s pretty much me. I think there’s a groundedness to this year. Now we know the relationships between the characters and what Damian has been able to do is deepen those relationships and make the Will and Magnus relationship, they’re more honest with each other this year. I think Will’s very honest with Magnus several times through the season, and even says things that she maybe doesn’t necessarily want to hear to that she needs to hear. So yeah, I think a deepening of the relationship, and it’s a blast. And the great thing about this show is that I get to come to work with my very best friends everyday and do work that we’re proud. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
(AT and MW pretend to get teary prompting laughter from audience). I was being sincere! See what I have to deal with, I can’t even say one thing.
DK: Can I ask who you were talking about?
MW: Those guys he always brings to set. (laughter)
RD: They hang out with me. You can’t even see them, they’re not even there. But they are my friends. (laughter)
MW: Once again, Lee Wilson ladies and gentlemen!

[EvenstarSRV]

And continued

Spoiler:

ML: We had some flashbacks in the first season of Will’s very early years and his creepy and tragic encounter with an abnormal, and we saw that Dr. Helen Magnus was a part of that and has been in his life far longer than we thought. So are we going to find out more?
DK: (pause) I have to back and think. We really played a lot last year with Will’s backstory, this year was more about moving forward, figuring out where it’s all going to, where it’s leading to, and we carry that with you. But we didn’t want to feel like we were constantly referring to things that happened before. I think by this point you want to get real about it. Say ok you’ve had the veil pulled off your eyes, you’re in the zone, you’re working with abnormals now, you have a short-hand with your boss, it’s the best job you’ve ever had, you’ve acclimated to working with very frightening things, let’s get on with it. Let’s get your Irish up a bit, and that was…
RD: Whoa, hey…. (laughter)
DK: It’s a good thing!
RD: Oh good, continue! (laughter)
MW: Can I just say, while being cryptic and not giving anything away, we don’t get backstory on him this year, we get future-story! (laughter)
RD & AT: Oooohhhhh…
DK: Oh yeah, there’s a very cool future story.
AT: I think that our first season felt like a first season, it was a lot of introduction, it was a lot of getting the audience acquainted with our world and what we’re dealing with and our characters… (RD and MW are talking a laughing next to her)
RD: Sorry, sorry, we’re listening! (laughter)
AT: (pretending to be affronted and talking in funny voice) Season 2 feels very much like the sophomore season of the show, where we’re moving forward with it! (laughter) It just feels different, season 1 felt like a first season, season 2 feels like we’re moving forward.

ML: And you actually really move forward because you have a post-apocalyptic episode, it sounds like it’s going to be really shocking.
AT: Pavor Nocturnus is an episode where it’s a probably future and it’s Will unlike you’ve ever seen him before, it creeped me out when Robin walked on to set. (turns to RD) You were freaky.
RD: It was kind of a weird week, without giving too much away, it was set in the future and I guess the future didn’t go so well. So it was weird walking into the Sanctuary and seeing it in its decay. And it was kind of upsetting, you know the Sanctuary, particularly Magnus’s office, it our home, it’s the anchor of the show, and to go in and see it all messed up was just, (makes disgusted face) it was just kinda weird.
DK: Plus you had a mullet, which is very, very scary.
RD: I thought it was actually good, no?
AT: Will had a mullet (makes ‘eek’ face)
DK: When society falls, mullets begin. (laughter)
RD: It was like 1985 Bono, no?
MW: That’s what we told you it looked like. (laughter) It was a hockey mullet.

ML: There’s also a new character this season, so let’s talk about Kate Freelander.
DK: Kate Freelander, played by the amazing Agam Darshi, joins the cast of the show as that irreverent, shoot-from-the-hip, Han Solo character. She’s essentially a freelance operative who works for the highest bidder, she’s worked for the Cabal who are the bad guys from season 1, and she’ll work for anybody, and she’s a bit of a lost soul who’d never admit it. But she brings an amazing kind of instinctive quality to the mix, and we created her because we felt there was a need of someone who spoke from the gut. You have Magnus who has this amazing experience and amazing mind, and Will who is a very logical thinker, a very deductive reasoner, and with Ashley who’s obviously very emotional too, but there’s something about bringing in someone who has this streetwise, school-of-hard-knocks past with abnormals and monsters and creatures. Like you want to track down a dangerous steno-happalopowalus? [no idea!] Here’s how you do it, you take this and you stab it here. And then we go, ‘uh, that’s not we do things.’ We found a really enjoyable character and she’s introduced in the opening two-parter, and I think she’s going to become a favorite because she’s a wonderful, kind of everyman/woman mix to it, and she’s just a cool, cowboy character, and with love working with her.
AT: I think, just thinking about bringing a character from outside of the Sanctuary is that, it shines a light on everything that we hold dear and the routines that we have and the way that we do things. And to bring somebody in from that outside to question it, it sort of forces us to reestablish ourselves, and figure out whether what we’re going is the right thing and whether the way that we’re doing it is the right way to do it. It’s a really cool dynamic that is brings to the show.
ML: So what does Dr. Magnus think of her.
AT: Off the hop, she doesn’t trust her at all. Because she’s an interesting character, I’ve seen kids like ‘kids these days.’ (laughter) I’ve seen kids like this and at first she definitely doesn’t trust her. There’s a game, right, there’s always a game and ‘what’s your take, what do you want’ and she treats her like she’s a grifter.

ML: Everybody wants to know about love interests for both you, actually, so any of that, any action this season?
AT: Aww, there’s some shippers out there! (laughter)
MW: You realize that she held him on her knee when he was eight, right?
RD: That’s hot! (lots of laughter while AT looks shocked) I mean, come on! (hugs AT)
AT: It sucks being 158!
DK: You know that disclaimer that comes up when you get your DVDs that says ‘the opinions expressed in these interviews are not the opinion of the studio.’ That falls under that. (laughter)
RD: Every now a then, just as a side note, Damian inadvertently does a very good Christopher Walken impression. Do it, go ahead, come on!
DK: Why did you throw me under the bus like that? (laughter)
RD: Here’s your bus…
MW: We’re going to have a Walken-off!
DK: See, when we were shooting the webisodes, quick story, we were shooting the webisodes and I’d just gotten to know Robin. Martin had worked with him years ago…
RD: You hear that? You go (Walken voice) ‘Martin worked with him years and years ago.’ You did it, you don’t even realize you’re doing it! (laughter)
DK: Really? I’m already there? We were filming these behind the scenes and Robin’s doing some off-the-cuff stuff as Will Zimmerman, just what it’s like to join the Sanctuary, and I finally said do the next one as Walken. So he’s like (Walken voice) ‘Damn! Magnus! You’re crazy!’ (laughter, including AT’s chipmunk laugh) ‘She’s so damn smart!’ And on and on, and I was going, he does Walken that’s awesome. And from then on we just made everyone around us just insane.
RD: I’ve got to work at it though, you actually do it.
DK: (Walken voice) ‘You have a microphone, damn! Crazy!’
RD: Sorry, Michael, we’re going off on a tangent here…
AT: (quickly) Magnus has no love interests, ahh…(laughter)
MW: Yes she does, she has the count.
AT: I do, I have Count Olaf and (laughter) I know…
DK: He isn’t a count anymore, but he owns a soccer team.
AT: He owns a gremlin(??) soccer team. But for Magnus it’s always the great paramour of Druitt and you’ll see a lot of interaction between them. (cheers) She likes the bad boys! Yeah, you’ll see a lot of interaction between them.
RD: Wow, awkward!
AT: You’re not! (AT laughs and lays head on RD’s shoulder)

ML: A big question that a lot of people had is what’s up with Ashley at the end of the season finale? She clearly turned into a rat, or is she being manipulated by the Cabal? What’s up with that?
AT: Wait and see. (laughter) No, a very cool thing happens with her character and it actually sends shockwaves throughout the entire Sanctuary network. We really can’t give away too much, but it’s pivotal to the show, and it’s pivotal to all of us what happens to her. Of course, you’ve seen how we end the season with her being captured by the Cabal and we start this season on that incredibly high vibration of emotion that’s tied around what’s happening with her. And we don’t let go of that for 3 full episodes, and it’s very intense.
DK: The one thing I try to keep in mind, and maybe I go too far with it with tortuous helicopter shows, but I believe that life should never be easy for the heroes.
RD: Oh believe me, we know that! We got that!
AT: We got that! (laughter)
DK: But if they win a victory something else has to give way, because that’s sort of the hero’s journey, without meaning to get all high-falutin about it. But you have to make them suffer, it’s the way they constantly deal with obstacles and rise to occasions that makes them heroic, that makes us identify with them and want to be like them. So the issue of Ashley ties into that, life is not going to get easier for Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman at the top of season 2.
MW: I think as a result what you end up seeing is, and one of the reasons why I said at the beginning of this panel that season 2 is so much far and away better than season 1, better is not just production, you see these two stretched like you’ve never seen them before. I mean watching Amanda for 11 years on a show where you see a character stretched in huge ways, and then getting to see Requiem last year where she did this amazing arc, and Robin doing the same kind of thing. The beginning of this year, watching a couple of that, I’ve never seen Amanda work that hard before, and certainly Robin reached new heights. And there are scenes in this thing where you’re going to see these two do things that you’ve never seen them do before, which in terms of acting there’s some serious stuff going on. And then for the next 4 shows we proceed to beat the crap out of them, physically and emotionally, and it’s a completely different thing that both of them go through at the beginning of the show.
AT: Oooh! (laughter)

[EvenstarSRV]

And here's the last of it. This was quite fun to do, if rather tedious, but it was fun watching the dynamics between these people, like a quirky mutual admiration society.

Spoiler:

ML: Let’s take some audience questions.

(First guy asks about Magnus’s high body count amongst her friends and colleagues, and if that trend was going to continue.)

AT: Stop killing our guest stars, you mean.
MW: Nobody ever dies!
DK: It’s sci-fi, nobody ever dies! We reassembled his atoms using the re-assembling atomizer. (laughter) Done and done.
MW: We do tricks that a lot of you probably don’t know about, like Druitt, bring him back as another character on the show, on the days when he’s not working since season 1, day 1. You know, I mean you didn’t even know that did ya? (laughter) We can kill a lot of people off and bring them back, just put a little mustache on and a fake nose, new guy. (laughter)
DK: It’s a good point.
AT: Yeah, it is a good point.
ML: But you have some cool guest stars coming up, talk about Michael Shanks from Stargate. (cheers)
AT: I really wanted Michael to be on the show since we started, but I didn’t want it to be a Sam/Daniel thing, we didn’t want it to be us just poaching all the Stargate actors. We wanted Sanctuary to stand on its own as a fully-realized show, and then start inviting our friends in to come and play with us. So this episode there’s very little interaction that Michael and I have together, the show is really about his character and the character of Kate. And it was the perfect way to bring Michael back, he’s a great actor, it was fun to have him around, and it didn’t feel like the Sam/Daniel show it was different.
DK: You guys do get into a cool gunfight together, which is cool.
AT: Yeah, and there’s a moment where our characters see each other for the first time, and it’s such a nice moment, it’s really genuine. I get this huge smile on my face, Michael gets this huge smile, and it’s not only Michael and Amanda it’s our characters, but it was so genuine it was really great to have him. Very cool.
ML: And you have a guest from Eureka too coming.
DK: Chris Gauthier…
MW: We have two of them actually
DK: Yeah, and Erica Cerra. I’ll just quickly, Martin directed it, and I didn’t write it, but I was there and I saw it happen. (laughter) Chris Gauthier, from Eureka, is just a lovely guy and he’s in a wonderful episode, it’s episode 4 called Hero about an insurance adjuster…
MW: Who becomes The Adjuster! (laughter)
DK: He comes a superhero and there’s a little bit of a Hancock this that happens, and oh my god he just gave it everything.
RD: He just took it and ran with it. And trying to do scenes with him, you could just barely get through them because he’s just so funny.
DK: He’s a killer comedian.
RD: And committed, he was just so committed right to the end with it, it was great.
AT: And we had Erica Cerra on our show, she was in the episode that I directed so I cast her, which was cool. It’s nice to be able to do that, go ;hey you want to do my show?’ And she actually turns the tide in the Sanctuary network by something that she does, so she’s an interesting character that’s very cool.
ML: Next audience question.
MW: We have Callum Blue as well (he said more that I can’t make it out but it made the audience laugh a lot)

(Girl asks about Watson and if he’s coming back)

MW: You gotta remember, he lived for a long time and we tell backstory all the time, so he’s not dead in our show. He’s only dead from that point on.
DK: Peter Wingfield really is amazing. (applause)
AT: Yeah, we love him.
DK: He was shooting that mini-series, the unnamed mini-series, he just dropped by recently, what a lovely man. And the character of Watson I agree is really intriguing and we will see him again. I think if we can get third season going (cheers) we would love to have him back.
MW: What do you mean if? (AT is crossing both fingers. LOL)
DK: Sorry I just got slogged. But I would love to spend more time doing what you’re talking about, talking about Magnus’s extraordinary past, that history
MW: (something about answering the question)
DK: But you interrupted me.
MW: ‘Cause you were going to talk about the thing we’re not suppose to talk about.
DK: Oh, right. (laughter)
AT: He’ll back.
RD: Wait what is that, I don’t even know.
MW: Remember the notes…
AT: Bullet points, do not say this
DK: Stay on message.
RD: I’m Ringo, I don’t get to talk to, I don’t anything. (laughter)
DK: An episode where we get the Stargate, break in a Stargate (I think, he says it in a funny voice)
MW: I can’t believe you said that
DK: What I didn’t say anything! (laughter)I was imitating someone else.

(Girl asks about cool stories about accidents or scars from filming)

RD: Do you have 4 hours? (laughter)
MW: Miss Amanda Tapping everyone.
AT: I am a woman who should’ve never been allowed to do her own stunts, and yet I have for the past 13 years on television done them. (cheers) And I’m a mess! It’s very cool, I have a great time, but I’m probably one of the biggest spazzes I know, so I don’t think I make it through an episode, even if it’s a simple walk and talk, without breaking a heel or something. I have scars. (laughter)
RD: I have emotional scars from Martin.
DK: My hands get crampy some times. (laughter)
MW: I tend to inflict emotional scars on Robin.
RD: Yes!
AT: The helicopter episode, actually, we got cut up pretty badly because there were these wires that were holding the helicopter up, they were frayed at the end and it was just wire. And Robin and I our hands were a mess, because we had to work around them and dodge them.
RD: And also you’re in the water all day so your skin is like sponge, just cut yourself all over the place.
DK: (softly) Shrinkage. (laughter)
MW: You have to leave now! (DK gets up as if leaving then sits back down)
RD: I thought we weren’t going to talk about that. (laughter)
AT: We’re ending on such a classic note…
RD: That is a red card, right there. (AT mimes drawing a card)
ML: I think we’d better end this discussion now…
RD: There was no shrinkage! No shrinkage! That water was very cold, ok! (lots of laughter)
MW: You read this thing on the back ‘please be aware that many audience members may be under 18 years of age.’
RD: I will take my pants off, if I have to. (laughter and cheers as RD stands up as if he’s going to and then AT pulls him back down) It was the one thing I was told I wasn’t allowed to do up here.
MW: It’s one thing you’ll probably never see, but almost daily Robin drops his pants. (laughter)
AT: It’s true, it was literally we all got these rules, don’t say this, don’t say this. And Robin just got one piece of paper, do not take your pants off on the panel, that’s all we ask. (lots of laughter)
RD: I’m just trying to keep everyone laughing, you know what I’m saying.

(I think they show the trailer again, and then the panel says goodbye and thanks to the audience)

[Jumble]

Thank you very much for doing that Evenstar It must have taken hours - that's dedication

[SamJackShipLover]

Did you suggest to her she could come to your place of work as a way to celebrate her birthday since you visited her workplace on your birthday?

Now, why didn't I think of that??? My workplace might be not as interesting though

[leiasky]

Evenstar, thank you for taking the time to transcribe the panel! It was lovely!

[rderoch]

Did you suggest to her she could come to your place of work as a way to celebrate her birthday since you visited her workplace on your birthday?

I think it's only fair.

[Skydiver]

I just got a bit of a word about the AT birthday wishes

And you can forward this wherever it needs to be forwarded

If people are having issues sending their greetings to webmaster at amandatapping.com, you can e-mail them to me.

I have Kamil's personal e-mail...but i'm not putting it out there. E-mail your greetings to me and i will forward them onto him.

I will reply to every person whose mail i forward, so you know i sent it on. So if you mail it to me and don't get a response, harass me and we'll make sure it gets through.

my e-mail is

[email protected]

[SamJackShipLover]

Sky, is it possible to ask Kamil to send a quick reply to the messages he does receive? Or would that be too much of a bother for him? I didn't get an error while sending the email, but am not 100% confident it got there. But I don't want to send the mail to you now, with the chance he gets it twice ... that would be much more work for him, to sort out the doubles. What do you think?

[Skydiver]

i would imagine, once he gets home, he'll send 'got it' replies.

since he's out of town, it's possible that he hasn't looked at them to process them.

[katjoy]

Did you suggest to her she could come to your place of work as a way to celebrate her birthday since you visited her workplace on your birthday?

hehe, i like it...

And here's the last of it. This was quite fun to do, if rather tedious, but it was fun watching the dynamics between these people, like a quirky mutual admiration society.

thank you thank you thank you

I just got a bit of a word about the AT birthday wishes

And you can forward this wherever it needs to be forwarded

If people are having issues sending their greetings to webmaster at amandatapping.com, you can e-mail them to me.

I have Kamil's personal e-mail...but i'm not putting it out there. E-mail your greetings to me and i will forward them onto him.

I will reply to every person whose mail i forward, so you know i sent it on. So if you mail it to me and don't get a response, harass me and we'll make sure it gets through.

my e-mail is

[email protected]

ive emailed mine to you sky... thanks

[EvenstarSRV]

Thank you very much for doing that Evenstar It must have taken hours - that's dedication

Heh, part dedication, part boredom, and part fun way to channel my nerves of moving to a new city in a couple of weeks.

Though seriously, thanks for all the greens and messages guys, I'm glad you liked it.

[NZNeep]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to use the Sam quote "that's a pretty fine line you didn't cross" just there. It was awesome.