Creation Stargate Convention Vancouver - 27.04.-29.04.2012

[Snowflake]

Uh...does Kelowna have a Convention Center?

nope, but it has me

[Scarym1]

Uh...does Kelowna have a Convention Center?

http://wormholeriders.org/cc/?p=4788

My report and a bunch of photos is now up on WormholeRiders. If you like it, please leave a note at the bottom. If you don't...uh...I'll Wraith you!!!

Great Report.

The funny thing is that I was at those panels but I don't recall some of those moments you mentioned. I guess the Jet Lag was worst then I thought.

I still haven't got my con report written up but here are a couple moments that I remember.

During Chris' panel he was telling a story and as soon as he mentioned Don S. Davis, he paused for a moment, looked up (it looked like he was going to get all choked up) but then he continued on with the story. ((((CHRIS)))))

I thought it was funny that during the panel with Kavan, Chuck, Robert & Steve, Chuck joked that he and Weir had a thing going on.

[Arctic Goddess]

Great Report.

The funny thing is that I was at those panels but I don't recall some of those moments you mentioned. I guess the Jet Lag was worst then I thought.

I still haven't got my con report written up but here are a couple moments that I remember.

During Chris' panel he was telling a story and as soon as he mentioned Don S. Davis, he paused for a moment, looked up (it looked like he was going to get all choked up) but then he continued on with the story. ((((CHRIS)))))

I thought it was funny that during the panel with Kavan, Chuck, Robert & Steve, Chuck joked that he and Weir had a thing going on.

I know what you mean about the comments. I was not able to type as fast as I would have liked, or I would have been able to report on more. The thing you said about Chris, I now remember as well, but it completely slipped my mind as I was doing everything I could to cover as much as I could, and take pictures, and have meetings and keep an eye on my guys on Sunday. I'm sure that Chad (Doublecut) can sympathize. Woah what a ride!!!

[Arctic Goddess]

I am anxiously awaiting Krisz's report. She had said she was taking notes. I know Krisz...you are very busy with life...

[Krisz]

I am anxiously awaiting Krisz's report. She had said she was taking notes. I know Krisz...you are very busy with life...

It's been a bit weird how everything happens all at once and doesn't stop when there's something you need to sit down to spend time on! I don't know where the last two weeks have gone! I haven't forgotten and am working on it.

I got a nice pay rise with my annual review today so that is going to help pay off the credit card and help towards payment for the new car hubby had to get. His old car had reached the point where we have almost spent half of what it cost to buy it originally on repairs. It was that bad that even with monthly payments on the new one we're probably not spending much less annually than what we spent on keeping the money pit car going!

[Maidenhead Reds]

I hope I’m not too late to say hi to everyone I met at the convention last week. The event was brilliant, Vancouver was so cool and I made so many new friends (all of which I’m missing).

Special thanks go to Mamasue and Doublecut. The Gateworld parties were just brilliant and the end of con party was amazing. The guests that turned up just finished the weekend so well and winning the star prize, which I promise will be well looked after, was awesome. Actually if winning the draw wasn’t good enough I managed to get extra photos with most of the guests, the ones with Julia and Andee especially cool…

I hope everyone got home safe and sound and I really hope I get to meet up with you all again at other conventions in the future…

[Atlantia]

It's been a bit weird how everything happens all at once and doesn't stop when there's something you need to sit down to spend time on! I don't know where the last two weeks have gone! I haven't forgotten and am working on it.

I got a nice pay rise with my annual review today so that is going to help pay off the credit card and help towards payment for the new car hubby had to get. His old car had reached the point where we have almost spent half of what it cost to buy it originally on repairs. It was that bad that even with monthly payments on the new one we're probably not spending much less annually than what we spent on keeping the money pit car going!

Great job on getting the pay rise. I hope the new car is going well.

Did i mention that i am having dinner with Colin and Corin in June. Probably And now i find out that Jason is also attending the convention. So cool. Can't wait.

[Krisz]

Enjoy Saturday and Sunday to follow.

FRIDAY 27TH APRIL 2012

SARAH STRANGE (MORGAN LE FAY)

Spoiler:

SARAH STRANGE (MORGAN LE FAY)

Sarah came on stage to appreciative applause. It’s always nice to see an actor for the first time. She is such a warm fun person.

Q. What have you been working on lately?

A. /pointing to her bump/ “I’m working on that” she said with a beaming smile, adding that she looked like a “manatee in pants” and doing a lot of eating and napping. She’s expecting her first child.

Other than that she is working on the second season of a Cartoon Network show called ‘Level Up’. She has also done an episode on the show ‘The Killing.’

Q. What fond memories do you have of working on SG-1?

A. She said she remembered doing the movie ‘Ark of Truth’ more. Her abiding memory was of standing totally still for hours, and really loving her character’s hairstyle.

Q. Did you take anything from the set?

A. (she looks around innocently) “No…”

Q. Have you done anything interesting of late?

A. She laughs and holds her bulging belly, “I’m hanging out and my belly button popped out!”

Q. Have you ever had an interesting encounter with a fan?

A. “I’m still waiting.” She said with a grin.

Q. Do you prefer doing movies or TV shows?

A. Depends on the project but likes working on TV shows due to it being ongoing and it’s like a family atmosphere on TV sets.

Q. Have you always wanted to be an actress, if not what did you want to do?

A. She comes from a show biz family, her parents were screen writers. She wanted to be a Doctor but decided…”the whole math thing, ikky blood thing and bunch of other stuff..” put her off. She did qualify as a milliner (makes hats.)

Q. Are you doing some animation voice work?

A. She has done some and thinks it’s great as, “I don’t have to do my hair and I get to do crazy stuff!”

Q. Did you audition for the SG-1 part?

A. It had been a long standing wish, she was happy when she was finally called for an audition.

Q. Did you have parental support for your wish to go into acting?

A. “My parents are screenwriters.”

At this point a guy tried to sneak unobtrusively onto the stage to the side of Sarah to stick a sign onto the lectern that was on stage. He was rubbing it to get it to stick and Sarah looked at him and said “nice” in a seductive way.

Q. Doing the accent for Morgan Le Fey, was it hard?

A. It wasn’t as her mother is English, so it was easy to do.

Q. What was your most embarrassing audition moment?

A. It’s really hard going in with a part of the script, you’ve got people staring at you and you have to do something with that fragment.

She had a car crash scene. She was sitting on a chair pretending to drive and she had to avoid an obstacle that comes up suddenly. She screamed and acted out swerving to avoid the crash. She fell off the chair with her great dramatic effort and just started laughing hysterically and couldn’t stop. “My dramatic moment turned into dog crap…….I didn’t get the part.”

Q. What was your funniest moment on set?

A. “Blanking, forgetting lines, couldn’t remember a thing!”

On the set of the show ‘Regenesis’ an actor was telling the story of how his wife was going blind with a disease. He sought out a doctor who cured her and the actor asked what he could do for him to thank him for what he did. The doctor replied seriously, “get me on your show.”

Q. If there’s one role you would like to do, which one would it be?

A. “Iron Man, why? I think the suit is so cute!”

“Historical characters are pretty neat, Queens would be great.” She then gives a long thoughtful pause and said that she played Annie Oakley. She’s a big fan of period dramas.

Q. What was it like working with the cast on ‘Men In Trees’?

A. Loved working on the show, they were all good people. She loved filming on location in Squamish.

Q. What advice would you give young actors?

A. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Q. What is your favourite location to shoot in?

A. Loves Squamish, the GVRD reservoir (Dam and reservoir is in Capilano Park)
Added with a grin that..”a palace would be nice.”

Q. Did you have a crush on Michael Shanks?

A. “Well…..yeah!” “My heart belongs to Michael Shanks, he’s tall and burly!”
She added that she’s also a great fan of Amanda Tapping. She worked with her on ‘Sanctuary’ and now they are great friends.

Q. Scruffy Michael Shanks or Clean shaven Michael Shanks?

A. “A little scruffy, gets himself into trouble, his hair gets a little messy and his glasses fall off.” She said with a whistful smile.

Q. You will have to fight with a load of women here over Michael Shanks.

A. “Yeah, you wanna go?!” She said with a wicked grin.

Q. Is there a particular actor you would like to work with?

A. Helena Bonham Carter.

She’s addicted to the BBC drama ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and would love to do that show.

Q. Did you totally kick Adria’s butt in the end?

A. “Yes, and I had awesome hair!”

Q. Any advice on ascension?

A. “Think deep thoughts like in school.” “If they want you they’ll call.”

Q. What was your favourite part of the show?

A. “Parts with me in it!”

She ended with a heartfelt thank you to everyone in the audience.

“This was such a treat, thank you.”

BRENT STAIT (MAJOR FERRETTI)

Spoiler:

BRENT STAIT (Major Louis Ferretti)

Another actor I’ve never seen before. He had fun on stage and was very personable.

Q. What is your favourite eatery in Vancouver?

A. He had to think about that due to the vast choice of eating in the foodie city of Vancouver!
Loves sushi. Likes eating at the ‘Cactus Club’ in English Bay.

Q. Have you got a good Chris Judge story?

A. “Everyone had a story with Chris!” He laughed.

Q. What was your favourite piece of acting that you’d ever done?

A. In ‘Mystery in Alaska’ he skated naked into a snow bank.

In ‘Gunfighter’s Moon’ he liked playing a psychotic gunfighter.
They were filming in ‘Bordertown’ (Where SG-1’s ‘A Hundred Days’ & ‘Beast of Burden’ were filmed). It was a scene where they were firing blanks in the guns and they scared the horses which broke free and ran down the middle of the set.

Q. In Smallville your character wore a mask, is it harder as you can’t show facial expressions?

A. He listened a lot to ‘The Shadow’ on the radio as a kid and he worked to capture the 40’s style ‘behind the wall’ sound of the voices in his character’s voice. He also read a lot of comic books and noticed how the position of the hands of characters expressed certain things. He brought some of that into his portrayal.

He told us a few stories about working with Chris Judge; like how his house was geared for parties and he couldn’t go into further details….”have you seen the size of the guy?!”

He met Chris Judge before Stargate when they worked on a movie called ‘Chain Dance’ with Martin and Charlie Sheen.
He also threw in that RDA wore slippers on the set instead of boots.


Q. Do you still play hockey?

A. “Too banged up now.” He used to play on the Stargate Production team hockey team with Mike Dopud and Dan Shea.

Q. Do you have anything you are currently working on?

A. Working on ‘Rose McGowan’ and just did ‘Final Destination’, “got a hook through the head.” Has also done an episode on ‘Sanctuary’.

Q. Do you have a funny audition story?

A. He auditioned for a part as a character in a mask, wore a hoodie in his picture. He came up with a voice and wore the hoodie so no one auditioning with him ever saw his face at the audition in LA. A friend he’d worked with on Andromeda also auditioned for the part moaned later that someone else had got the part. When he got back home he found out that it was him.

Q. For your character Remy in Andromeda, how did you find the voice?

A. he thought he’d do a ‘husky’ back of the throat type of voice with alien sounds which he over articulated. They were then remodeled by the sound people but he made all the sounds. He was then asked suddenly to make up a language when the producers needed one for the Magog. He just made the squeals and sounds on the spot and it worked.

He finished off with some more funny stories of his time on Andromeda. There was one time they were doing a Magog scene and they had problems with the ‘teeth’. They used some really sticky glue to keep them in place and one time when two ‘Magog’ got too close together their faces stuck together!

[ScifigirlSG]

Enjoy Saturday and Sunday to follow.

FRIDAY 27TH APRIL 2012

SARAH STRANGE (MORGAN LE FAY)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34612[/ATTACH]

Spoiler:

SARAH STRANGE (MORGAN LE FAY)

Sarah came on stage to appreciative applause. It’s always nice to see an actor for the first time. She is such a warm fun person.

Q. What have you been working on lately?

A. /pointing to her bump/ “I’m working on that” she said with a beaming smile, adding that she looked like a “manatee in pants” and doing a lot of eating and napping. She’s expecting her first child.

Other than that she is working on the second season of a Cartoon Network show called ‘Level Up’. She has also done an episode on the show ‘The Killing.’

Q. What fond memories do you have of working on SG-1?

A. She said she remembered doing the movie ‘Ark of Truth’ more. Her abiding memory was of standing totally still for hours, and really loving her character’s hairstyle.

Q. Did you take anything from the set?

A. (she looks around innocently) “No…”

Q. Have you done anything interesting of late?

A. She laughs and holds her bulging belly, “I’m hanging out and my belly button popped out!”

Q. Have you ever had an interesting encounter with a fan?

A. “I’m still waiting.” She said with a grin.

Q. Do you prefer doing movies or TV shows?

A. Depends on the project but likes working on TV shows due to it being ongoing and it’s like a family atmosphere on TV sets.

Q. Have you always wanted to be an actress, if not what did you want to do?

A. She comes from a show biz family, her parents were screen writers. She wanted to be a Doctor but decided…”the whole math thing, ikky blood thing and bunch of other stuff..” put her off. She did qualify as a milliner (makes hats.)

Q. Are you doing some animation voice work?

A. She has done some and thinks it’s great as, “I don’t have to do my hair and I get to do crazy stuff!”

Q. Did you audition for the SG-1 part?

A. It had been a long standing wish, she was happy when she was finally called for an audition.

Q. Did you have parental support for your wish to go into acting?

A. “My parents are screenwriters.”

At this point a guy tried to sneak unobtrusively onto the stage to the side of Sarah to stick a sign onto the lectern that was on stage. He was rubbing it to get it to stick and Sarah looked at him and said “nice” in a seductive way.

Q. Doing the accent for Morgan Le Fey, was it hard?

A. It wasn’t as her mother is English, so it was easy to do.

Q. What was your most embarrassing audition moment?

A. It’s really hard going in with a part of the script, you’ve got people staring at you and you have to do something with that fragment.

She had a car crash scene. She was sitting on a chair pretending to drive and she had to avoid an obstacle that comes up suddenly. She screamed and acted out swerving to avoid the crash. She fell off the chair with her great dramatic effort and just started laughing hysterically and couldn’t stop. “My dramatic moment turned into dog crap…….I didn’t get the part.”

Q. What was your funniest moment on set?

A. “Blanking, forgetting lines, couldn’t remember a thing!”

On the set of the show ‘Regenesis’ an actor was telling the story of how his wife was going blind with a disease. He sought out a doctor who cured her and the actor asked what he could do for him to thank him for what he did. The doctor replied seriously, “get me on your show.”

Q. If there’s one role you would like to do, which one would it be?

A. “Iron Man, why? I think the suit is so cute!”

“Historical characters are pretty neat, Queens would be great.” She then gives a long thoughtful pause and said that she played Annie Oakley. She’s a big fan of period dramas.

Q. What was it like working with the cast on ‘Men In Trees’?

A. Loved working on the show, they were all good people. She loved filming on location in Squamish.

Q. What advice would you give young actors?

A. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

Q. What is your favourite location to shoot in?

A. Loves Squamish, the GVRD reservoir (Dam and reservoir is in Capilano Park)
Added with a grin that..”a palace would be nice.”

Q. Did you have a crush on Michael Shanks?

A. “Well…..yeah!” “My heart belongs to Michael Shanks, he’s tall and burly!”
She added that she’s also a great fan of Amanda Tapping. She worked with her on ‘Sanctuary’ and now they are great friends.

Q. Scruffy Michael Shanks or Clean shaven Michael Shanks?

A. “A little scruffy, gets himself into trouble, his hair gets a little messy and his glasses fall off.” She said with a whistful smile.

Q. You will have to fight with a load of women here over Michael Shanks.

A. “Yeah, you wanna go?!” She said with a wicked grin.

Q. Is there a particular actor you would like to work with?

A. Helena Bonham Carter.

She’s addicted to the BBC drama ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and would love to do that show.

Q. Did you totally kick Adria’s butt in the end?

A. “Yes, and I had awesome hair!”

Q. Any advice on ascension?

A. “Think deep thoughts like in school.” “If they want you they’ll call.”

Q. What was your favourite part of the show?

A. “Parts with me in it!”

She ended with a heartfelt thank you to everyone in the audience.

“This was such a treat, thank you.”

BRENT STAIT (MAJOR FERRETTI)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34613[/ATTACH]

Spoiler:

BRENT STAIT (Major Louis Ferretti)

Another actor I’ve never seen before. He had fun on stage and was very personable.

Q. What is your favourite eatery in Vancouver?

A. He had to think about that due to the vast choice of eating in the foodie city of Vancouver!
Loves sushi. Likes eating at the ‘Cactus Club’ in English Bay.

Q. Have you got a good Chris Judge story?

A. “Everyone had a story with Chris!” He laughed.

Q. What was your favourite piece of acting that you’d ever done?

A. In ‘Mystery in Alaska’ he skated naked into a snow bank.

In ‘Gunfighter’s Moon’ he liked playing a psychotic gunfighter.
They were filming in ‘Bordertown’ (Where SG-1’s ‘A Hundred Days’ & ‘Beast of Burden’ were filmed). It was a scene where they were firing blanks in the guns and they scared the horses which broke free and ran down the middle of the set.

Q. In Smallville your character wore a mask, is it harder as you can’t show facial expressions?

A. He listened a lot to ‘The Shadow’ on the radio as a kid and he worked to capture the 40’s style ‘behind the wall’ sound of the voices in his character’s voice. He also read a lot of comic books and noticed how the position of the hands of characters expressed certain things. He brought some of that into his portrayal.

He told us a few stories about working with Chris Judge; like how his house was geared for parties and he couldn’t go into further details….”have you seen the size of the guy?!”

He met Chris Judge before Stargate when they worked on a movie called ‘Chain Dance’ with Martin and Charlie Sheen.
He also threw in that RDA wore slippers on the set instead of boots.


Q. Do you still play hockey?

A. “Too banged up now.” He used to play on the Stargate Production team hockey team with Mike Dopud and Dan Shea.

Q. Do you have anything you are currently working on?

A. Working on ‘Rose McGowan’ and just did ‘Final Destination’, “got a hook through the head.” Has also done an episode on ‘Sanctuary’.

Q. Do you have a funny audition story?

A. He auditioned for a part as a character in a mask, wore a hoodie in his picture. He came up with a voice and wore the hoodie so no one auditioning with him ever saw his face at the audition in LA. A friend he’d worked with on Andromeda also auditioned for the part moaned later that someone else had got the part. When he got back home he found out that it was him.

Q. For your character Remy in Andromeda, how did you find the voice?

A. he thought he’d do a ‘husky’ back of the throat type of voice with alien sounds which he over articulated. They were then remodeled by the sound people but he made all the sounds. He was then asked suddenly to make up a language when the producers needed one for the Magog. He just made the squeals and sounds on the spot and it worked.

He finished off with some more funny stories of his time on Andromeda. There was one time they were doing a Magog scene and they had problems with the ‘teeth’. They used some really sticky glue to keep them in place and one time when two ‘Magog’ got too close together their faces stuck together!

Great stories! I can't view the attachments. It was a pleasure to work with Brent Stait in the vendors room.

[Krisz]

ANDEE FRIZZEL (WRAITH QUEEN)

Spoiler:

ANDEE FRIZZEL (WRAITH QUEEN)

Always a popular and entertaining guest, she has a wonderful collection of stories. She launched straight into one about how her friends look for stories and pictures of her on the internet. They find what people are saying about her on forums and Facebook, such as one discussion about how she is not really as tall as the 6’ 1” that she is. She wanted to challenge one guy who kept on about this on a forum saying with feigned outrage, “how would you like to be up to here with me!” She gestured dramatically to breast height, insinuating that would be this guy’s height if he stood before her. One guy in the audience cried out happily… “Me!”

She says that she tries to make herself look smaller in photos and this backfired on her one time.

She was a bridesmaid at one of her friend’s wedding in Vegas. Her friend was 5ft 1ins and her husband 5ft 3ins and her friend asked her to ‘look’ around 5ft 3ins, so she ‘makes small’. She had a super tight dress that flared out at the bottom so she splayed her legs from the knees down out to the sides. She didn’t wear shoes so this way with the dress it couldn’t be seen that she was doing this underneath. Once she saw the photos she forgot that she didn’t adjust with her arms at her sides, they looked too long!

Q. Which of the Wraith Queens and why?

A. The one with the ‘Channel’ outfit in ‘Submersion’. She was menacing, there was no messing around, meets human…”dead!”

Q. What is your favorite episode?

A. ‘Submersion’. She got to do her own stunts in that. Normally she does her bit, goes back to her trailer, stunt person comes on does their bit and she returns to finish the scene.

Q. Costumes on SGA, how heavy was the dress?

A. They were hot and heavy and the way they were cut she said her boobs kept slipping out. Each costume had their own problems she said. She was built into the black costume and she sweated a lot wearing that. The neck of the corset she was wearing cut into the back of her neck.
The mind melding scene with Teyla had Teyla in a costume with a long train which the set guys had to hold and follow Rachel around. At one point the camera dolly ran over it and almost throttled Rachel, you could see the tire marks on the train.

At this point she noticed someone in the front row working on an IPad, she thought they were doing ‘etch-a-sketch’. She also said that she wanted to show a powerpoint presentation of photos she’d taken over the years but technical problems didn’t allow for it in the end.

Q. Do you get the same old questions about your height?

A. “When people ask, do you play basketball, I say to them, do you play mini-golf?”

Q. What was it like filming the episode where Michael decapitated the Wraith Queen?

A. She said they had fun throwing her ‘head’ around afterwards. Connor looked at her in amusement and shouted, “dude, it’s your head!”

Q. How did they find a 6ft 1in stunt woman?

A. “It was a man, 6ft 3in African/American!”

Q. Did the comfort level of the makeup improve over time?

A. “I’ve eaten my fair share of ‘Barbie’ hair!” The teeth hurt her gums and made her lisp. One time they flew out of her mouth and hit Joe Flannigan in the chest. “This Wraith is falling apart!” He cried.

At this point she looked at the microphone remarking that she’s spat on it, “there’s enough DNA on this to clone me!”

She finished with some bantering with Dan Payne who was waiting backstage to come on next. She suggested that he only come on stage without his shirt on. He shouts out “are you naked?” She urges him to come out on stage, he said he would be her stunt double.

DAN PAYNE & ALEX ZAHARA

Spoiler:

DAN PAYNE & ALEX ZAHARA

Dan began by telling us about how he’d worked recently on ‘Cabin in the Woods’. He spent “two months of getting beaten to snot!”

There was one scene where a character is beaten and falling through a hatch. He was the stunt double and he said it was not fun diving through that hole and then coming to an abrupt stop. He really hoped he didn’t smash his face. He managed to get through the scene and then to his horror they wanted to do it again.

He then spent the best part of 14hrs hanging upside down for a scene where he’s hit in the head by a crowbar and then stabbed in the chest by one of the women, she hit him really hard, he joked she must have had some anger issues!

He also had the fake blood they put on him ending up running up his nose, “not tasty” he winced. To cap this off they wanted him to do the scene with his eyes open so he had the blood running into his eyes too. He was also wearing pure black contacts so that irritated his eyes even more and he was praying that this would all stop!

Alex Zahara told us of his recent work on Once Upon a Time as King Midas that he enjoyed playing.

There was a question for Dan about work he did on the ‘Lycans’ movie.

He had to wear another mask in that, ended up with a full concussion and two cracked ribs, “…but it was great fun!” he added with a grin.

“Kate Beckinsale is nice and cool” He was happy to work with her.

A body cast was taken for his costume and they were made of latex. He said getting into them was “sensual” he said with a tongue in cheek smile. “They grease you up, then talcum powder to try and get actors into them.

Alex Zahara spoke of his experiences of playing the Unas. In ‘Beast of Burden’ he ended up playing nine different Unas, including a female one!

Dan recalled the fun he had standing in for Vala as the Supersoldier on ‘Prometheus Unbound’. As he leaned in to Michael Shanks, Michael said “if you kiss me I’ll kill you!” Dan leans in further and says, “What can you do, you are all tied up!”

Alex continued to say that the Unas costumes were incredibly hot, they got so hot they didn’t have to pee, they sweated so much! One of the Unas went down during filming of one scene, another guy had passed out upright in his suit and no one noticed. After that the assistants were more vigilant on checking the actors more often!

It took over four hours to do the head of an Unas!

Dan said that the Super Soldier helmet and suit was form fitting and was one of the least painful labour intensive outfits he’d worked in over the years.

Q. For Dan- about how he’d hurt his arm recently.

A. He was in Hawaii and on the beach with his son when they were almost buried by a rogue wave. He tore ligaments in his arm in his efforts to save his son, it affected his job for a long time afterwards. Difficult to do the cliff hang scenes!

Q. As a stunt double is it difficult to commit to the next job?

A. Dan looked amused by this question, “…because you could die before!” he added.

Q. What is your favourite character that you’ve played?

A. Alex- Michael the Hippy, “I was a human!” He said happily.
He also liked the sad part of the gentle man who didn’t want to go and fight and kill people so he ad-libbed, “I don’t want to kill anyone” with feeling and the line was kept in.
Dan- “Uber Wraith, the bad-ass motorcycle riding Wraith.

Q. For Alex- Will you be coming back as King Midas in OUAT?

A. It is a recurring character, he got kudos for it “that’s good.” He auditioned for the ‘Magic Mirror’. Two producers wanted him for the Midas character.

Q. Do you prefer prosthetics or a human face?

A. Dan- Prosthetics for him as far as it gives an extra dimension to his acting. There is no Uber Wraith manual so it’s fun to do something different.

Q. What was your favourite location “on Earth!” to film in?

A. Alex- Bordertown.
Dan- Rice Lake in North Vancouver filming ‘GI Jane’. “The sludge pond”, he had to come out of the sludge with his eyes open!

Q. To Dan-What was it like to fight Jason Mamoa?

A. “Clash of the Mini-Titans, Jason is huge!”

Q. Were you both called on a lot to do aliens?

A. Alex- after he auditioned for the part of Zales in SG-1 he was always thought of the guy that always says yes to doing aliens, and we can beat up on him. He will be in a suit for 18 hrs, “that’s our man!”

Dan finishes up the panel with a question of his own to everyone…

“Who had a good time?!”

Loud applause and cheering was his answer.

[Krisz]

Great stories! I can't view the attachments. It was a pleasure to work with Brent Stait in the vendors room.

Hopefully the attachments are there now. I think I got timed out with adding them!

[camelot7414]

Hopefully the attachments are there now. I think I got timed out with adding them!

They're there now Krisz. Great report and pics. Curious to see how you fair with the the absolute chaos of Kavan, Robert, Steve and Chuck.

[Krisz]

They're there now Krisz. Great report and pics. Curious to see how you fair with the the absolute chaos of Kavan, Robert, Steve and Chuck.

Thanks, it was hard to follow what was going on with the chaos of those four having so much fun! I gave up trying to follow what the hell was going on with the "corn porn" thing, so that is up to everyones' memories as to what went on there! LOL!

So, without further ado, next post gives us Saturday's fun times!

[Krisz]

SATURDAY 28TH APRIL 2012

MIKE DOPUD (Varro-SGU/ Col Chernovshev-SG-1/Odai Ventrell)

Spoiler:

MIKE DOPUD (Varro-SGU/ Col Chernovshev-SG-1/Odai Ventrell)

The first time I’ve seen him on stage, although I had met him before, I say it all the time but another warm personable guy! He was at home on the stage and answered questions quite happily.


Q. When you first auditioned it was as a stuntman wasn’t it?

A. He said he was an actor as well and Andy Mikita found this to be quite useful, that he could do both.

Q. Do you still do your own stunts, or do you concentrate more on acting?

A. Having a stunt background helps with his acting. However producers get nervous about actors getting injured if they do their own stunts. He does have stunt doubles now, especially as he is getting older he said he didn’t need injury related problems. He is okay with the transition.

Q. What was it like doing the fight scene with Jason Mamoa, would you have won?!

A. Jason worked very well with him and the fight scene went well. James Bamford was the stunt co-ordinator and he was very good at letting the people doing the fights work with their characters.

Q. You are one of the few who have worked on all three Stargate shows, what was the transistion like and the major growth with how stuff was filmed.

A. On SGU it was totally different, you were on a ship, not much open space! Working with Robert Carlyle was a great experience, he’s such a quality actor.

His first appearance on SG-1 was as a Jaffa. Working with RDA was hilarious, so much fun.

He was always happy to see how Stargate always brought in such quality actors.
Q. Are there any actors you would have liked to work more with?

A. Amanda Tapping. Also Julia Benson, he didn’t have as many scenes with her. However Alaina Huffman was fantastic to work with.

Q. Was your character on SGU going to survive?

A. He didn’t know where the character was going, but he did have a contract for 3 episodes, with a view to recurring as a character.

Q. How was the sense of community on the Stargate set compared to others?

A. On SGU he had a couple of nights out with fellow actors and they all got on really well with each other, a family feel on set.

He is still friends with a few of them, including Michael Shanks. He hooks up with David Blue and Alaina Huffman on occasion.

He is working on another project at present with some ‘Stargate’ people.

Q. Having been an athelete in the Canadian Football League, how did this help with acting?

A. Being an athlete gives an advantage as an actor as you face a lot of rejection! Athletes are driven people and that helps with getting along in the acting profession.

Q. What would everyone be surprised to learn about you?

A. I was a professional athlete. I’m of Serbian origin, that’s why I end up playing a lot of Eastern European characters. He has children.

Added question…”do you knit?” He laughs, “no, I sleep naked!”

Q. What did you want to do as a kid?

A. He always wanted to be an actor. His mum asked him why one day. He’s always liked movies, ‘Mad Max’ was his favourite and the one that made him decide that acting is what he wanted to do. He recreated scenes from the movie which his mum watched him do unknown to him. He kept running into cars on his bike. He also played hockey.

So one day he just went into the SAG office (a talent agency I’m guessing) and said; “I want to be an actor, what do I need to do?”

He also called various agents, told them he had no experience but wanted to do background work first.

His first line was “One, two, three, up” when lifting David Duchovny into an ambulance on a gurney in the ‘X Files’.

He also did stunt work and having been a hockey player he was used to the physical knocks. He had to play falling down after being shot. He got a bit banged up and another person asked him why he wasn’t wearing knee and elbow pads. “I get to wear pads?!” He asked incredulously. Then the producer on seeing this exchange said, “you are perfect for this industry!”

Q. With the new show ‘Continuum’, is it strange to have Vancouver as the setting for the show?

A. He was surprised, he’s happy that Vancouver is a ‘character’ in the show.

Q. Being in Sci-Fi, did it open doors, or are you typecast as a Sci-Fi actor?

A. Because he has been on a lot of Sci-Fi shows it helps in other shows. He did a ‘Warehouse 13’ episode and is getting a name in Sci-Fi now so he said, “I’ll do Sci-Fi anytime!”

Q. What about the danger of being typecast in Sci-Fi?

A. “Sometimes actors don’t have choices, those that claim they do are unemployed!”

Sci-Fi was not the first thing he thought of doing as a genre to act in. He added that just because you do Sci-Fi it doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything else. Also Sci-Fi is a great world of imagination, you need a good array of talents to work in it.


Q. What’s it like working with ‘Bam Bam’?

A. He’s really energetic, a great stunt co-ordinator, very confident and funny.

Q. Can you tell us about what you are working on now?

A. He did an episode of Warehouse 13. Just finished working on ‘True Justice’ with George Segal. He’s also working on a ‘super secret project’ he couldn’t talk about. He was also just finishing up filming on the last episode of ‘Continuum’.

Q. What is your favourite book?

A. ‘Five People You Meet in Heaven’. It deals with family loss and helped him.

Q. Were there any stunts you were really afraid of doing?

A. “90% of them!” he said with a grin. He said that one stunt guy he worked with was afraid of heights!

He was doing a MOW and he had to question why he was doing a stunt in an exploding house. There was a safety meeting, always done before stunts. Everyone was instructed to stand back 500 metres, the guy doing the briefing added that “Mike our stuntman is there in a tank top” as if it was just a normal thing.

He is plastered with stunt gel and is still worried by this explosion that he’s in while everyone was instructed to be 500 yards away!
Further ‘reassurance’ was offered when the guy says, “if Mike is down, no one go near him until our safety crew say it’s OK!” He ended up with a burnt ear.

He also said that the ‘car hit’ is the hardest stunt do do. All you can do is hope that the car is not going too fast!
“I’m really not that bright!” He said with a crooked grin.
The cars are usually doing about 20mph and he wonders after the stunt, “Am I all here?!”

[Krisz]

JULIA BENSON (Lt Vanessa James-SGU/Willa- SGA)
SUANNE BRUAN (Hathor- SG-1)

Spoiler:

JULIA BENSON (Lt Vanessa James-SGU/Willa- SGA)
SUANNE BRUAN (Hathor- SG-1)


Two more wonderful guests I had not seen before.

Q.To Julia- That explosion on SGU!

A. It was amazing and dirty! Covered in dust after, it was pretty close. (I missed her answer to this during the panel, but she told me this when I spoke to her later) She loved playing Lt James!

Q. To Suanne- Was it cold when walking around in that gold bikini?

A. She laughed as she recalled this. She said she was presented with a “coat hanger” and told “this is your costume”! She added that it was really chilly, and even when she started at 6am there were a lot of guys on set and kept growing in number she remarked with a smile.

She said that the bath tub she had to sit in was kept warm though. It was also filled with the ‘shrimpy things’ that she said began to melt! She wondered for a while what the awful smell was, it was the stuff the melting ‘shrimp’ were made of! She smelled of it for days afterwards!

Q. Do you prefer theatre or TV?

A. Julia – Loves both. She started out in theatre, she likes the immediate response of the audience. In the past five years she has fallen in love with working on TV. A very creative medium to work in.

Suanne – Started out in musical theatre in London (UK) It was a lot of work as she had to be “vocally fit” and had to do 4/5 weeks of rehearsal.
With TV/Film it is special being on a film set, different experience.

Q. Do you like playing villains?

A. Suanne – The thing she thought about playing Hathor was, “is she insane, referring to herself as “We” all the time?”

Julia – She killed Brian Smith’s character! She enjoyed playing that scene, the remorse and searching for redemption. She thought that was an interesting love triangle, “James really loved Scott!”

She felt the character got some redemption in the episode ‘Cloverdale’ where they got to talk in a way.

Q. What else have you done?

A. Julia – ‘Till Death us do Part’- finished filming that at 12.30 the night before!
Suanne – She has a theatre project coming up. She had been working on it for 3 years, a one woman stand up comedy show called ‘Sailing Somewhere’, adding it is a ‘To the Manor Born’ style play. (This was a British sitcom of the 1980’s starring Penelope Keith – a story of an aristocrat who had fallen on hard times, faced with “ill-mannered” ‘new money’ buying up her mansion, and ending up living in the coach house.)

Q. Julia – Did you enjoy working in Post-Production?

A. Really did! Worked with her husband Peter Benson crafting the story. With working on shows actors never see the end after all the acting then the editing. She thought it was great to see how the final thing is done.
“An editor can make or break your performance as an actor.” Continuity is everything.

Q. Suanne – Did you ‘have’ to screw up some scenes where you had to hug RDA?

A. “What do you mean?!” she answered coyly. “It was not ‘intentional, “he’s a fine specimen of a man!”

She said she had a lot of fun filming those scenes, “seducing someone with your ‘breath’ is a comedy death trap!” She and RDA laughed a lot doing that scene.

Q. To Julia – With regards to sexually attractive characters, there was an emphasis on your ‘assets’ in SGU?!

A. She laughed and looked down at her ‘assets’, “I was born like this!”
There is always a question at what point it becomes uncomfortable exploitation, and there was the backlash about the tank top scene. She said she never felt exploited. Lt James to her was a super strong woman, “all woman!”
The point of the scene was just about a couple of immature ‘peeping Toms’ and sexuality is a part of being a woman! She found it funny that people were quite comfortable with her character ‘blowing things up’ but uncomfortable with the feminine side.

Suanne – As a person she said she was “shy by default”. So she made people laugh and talks too much as a result!

As a young actress of 20 she had to do a scene as a ‘love interest’ of a 60 year old man, that was so against what she was, it was hard to do.

She did however love the Hathor character for using her sexuality to get what she wanted. “Bow down and worship me” she fluttered her eyelids!

Q. To Julia – What was it like working with Richard Kind on SGA?

A. Fun, a great guy!

Q. Classic or modern play?

A. Suanne – “Shakespeare, what is he talking about?!” she said in a tongue in cheek way.
She likes Noel Coward’s plays. As for a modern ‘bizarre’ play, if the story and cast is good, she’s in!

Julia – Always exciting to try different things. Likes doing the opposite to what she is like.

Q. With rejection in the acting world, what was one job that kept you going?

A. Julia – SGU, she signed up for 3 episodes at a time, she was one of the supporting cast and each time they finished one episode all the supporting cast went back to the trailer and said “I’m not dead so I’ll read the script!”

She says working continuously gives more chances to be creative rather than waiting for things.
Suanne – She moved to the UK from South Africa where she was quite successful as an actress. It was a difficult adjustment going through 9 months of auditions for parts. She auditioned for Oliver Stone’s ‘Evita’, it got down to two of them and it was devastating when she lost out. When another opportunity came up straight afterwards she took it, and decided that was fate, it was meant to be.

Q. When did you decide you wanted to be an actor?

A. Suanne – At the age of 6/7 she went to see ‘The Sound of Music’ with her mother. She asked her mother what the kids are doing, not as the kids in the story but what they were doing to make the story. Her mother explained they were ‘acting’. Suanne wanted to do the same.

She auditioned for the musical ‘Annie’ and ended up doing it for a year.

Julia – Started out as a dancer/ballerina. She went to ballet school. Then jazz- hip hop when she went to the Vancouver Film School. At university she did a degree in Film & Theatre.

Time was up before we knew it, it was a joy to hear their stories, such interesting fun people.