Sam Carter/Amanda Tapping Discussion/Appreciation

[Chelle DB]

Glad you are OK. Quakes are weird.

If you had a quake, potential tsunami time for me... better go check the warning center.

Where are you tagger???...The epi centre was about 30km from here...you should be fine!!

[scarimor]

*sigh* distribution politics suck.

Hmmm, I'm putting (virtual) money on MGM.

long live SANCTUARY.

Hoo yeah!

I know it's kind of off topic, but I used to think I was a lot bigger than I am from watching American tv/ reading American stuff. Turns out American sizes are 4 sizes bigger than ours.

Thank you! I've been trying to work this stuff out all week (why? - can't remember now, lol). I knew there was a difference but not by how much - I guess ours are the same as yours, NZBG.

I need to watch Dominion. I'm behind on my Sam fix

[JuliaR]

Regarding the personal comment from the poster earlier (which I'm not going to quote again and perpetuate throughout the thread because hopefully it will get pushed back by the hundreds of nicer things said on here)

...but

.......<sigh>

Julia

[starlover]

amanda is fantastically normal. i mean, here she is, working in an industry where to be 'in' you must be anorexic and starve yourself. to be 'in proportion' you must be underweight. as in having bones sticking out. as in, for some, to be so underweight that your body doesn't function right. your hormones shut down, you don't have your cycles. you have no resistence to illness cause your body has nothing to fight diseases with.

this is the pressure she lives under. heck, every season if she dares to put on a pound or two the whole 'is she preggers' talk starts again. lord forbid she puts on a pound or two....like every one of us do as we yo-yo up and down on a daily basis.

the guys live under this too, but it's a bit worse for women.

I have no small amount of respect for her that she's being healthy, for herself and her family, rather than give into the pressure to starve herself to be 'right'

Ok lots of lurking of me lately...but to go in on this topic while i have now the time for it.

I agree with you

Many people that are famous atm are very skinny..i think that is ugly...also many young girls(as you also see on my school) think that they are fat while they are very skinny(ok i admit it i also think i am to fat...but that is a girl thing right??? )

Also there is also a sort of an image for men, but not the same as woman, they don't have to starve themself to dead(almost) to loose weight and all...

That AT has a normal weight IMO...and it looks VERY good i think it is very good what she does...if i look at it good(and i can't judge it very good because i have never met her in RL....yet) But she stays a normal person(atleast i read that out of stories) that is great, and i admire her because of that

In all...AT Rocks!!!!

**end of rant...back to homework again..bleh**

[Chelle DB]

Another quiet night...where has everyone gone to??
Oh well...no one to talk to so I'm off...goodnight everyone...take care, be safe, stay happy and hugs to everyone...hoping you all have a great day!
I just want to say that I love the character of Sam Carter...she's strong and realistic...a great role model for all peoples...but I think Amanda is the bees knees ...she's just totally awesome...it's hard to find just one word really to describe her...but awesome comes pretty close.

[ChopinGal]

Glad you are OK. Quakes are weird and scary.

If you had a quake, potential tsunami time for me... better go check the warning center.

EDIT: GW more up to date than NOAA and CNN at this point hehe, but nothing to worry about. Whew.

Completely OT, embarassing story:

Spoiler:

I used to live in a place that had frequent, fairly large earthquakes and I kind of got used to them, as strange as that sounds. Blasé about the earth moving? Crazy, but it happens.

Anyway, one day I had just gotten off work, hopped into my very old Volvo station wagon, and started up the 4 aged cylinders. As I was sitting in the car letting the poor old auto get warmed up, my car began to move. It felt like someone was shaking the car from the outside. I looked around and couldn’t see anyone touching or moving the car, so I immediately concluded I was being carjacked – someone had to be on the roof of my car and they were trying to kidnap me! Well, I wasn't gonna let anyone kidnap or carjack me, so I revved up the elderly engine and drove like an absolute maniac around my empty work parking lot. Swerving and turning at 90 degrees as fast as I could to get the person on the roof of my car to FALL OFF! I had seen enough Hollywood car chases to know how to get a criminal to slip off a car roof! Not too many minutes into my stunt driving debut, the radio blurted out the news that we had just had an earthquake. Thus, my stunt career was over, but my ability to embarrass myself continued. True story. Hehe.

To this day I don't know what was sillier - thinking I was carjacked, or thinking I could drive an elderly Volvo fast enough to remove the carjacker.

tagger, this is a GEM ... it gives new meaning to "driving yourself crazy"! And you drove an old Volvo like Sam Carter!

And chelle, so glad to hear that you are okay! You've made some great posts here, beautiful sharing of yourself regarding Amanda. Thanks.

[ChopinGal]

And beyond having a great body without appearing to emaciate herself, there's a strength in her character that comes out on screen, on stage and in person.

When I think about what it was that made me become a fan of hers, I remember when I first joined the fandom, and she was co-hosting the SciFi Lowdown in 2003 (which premiered right before S7). Michael Shanks said it perfectly when he called her "the girl next door," and that's been said many times before. It's the kind of beauty that is striking because it pervades the superficial outer beauty that she already possesses, and it makes you take notice of the truly sweet soul underneath. I've never had extended contact with AT during the two times I saw her in person, because I get nervous as hell, but it's quire clear that she's just real.

I think there's a sort of energy women with both inner and outer beauty have that draws certain people to them. Some people are drawn to the Britneys and the Jennifers; some are drawn to the Amandas (and, of course, some are drawn to both ). The Britneys and the Jennifers have worked hard for their stature and respect, yet at the same time it's handed to them on a silver platter after a certain point. The Amandas of film and television have worked just as hard for their place, but have to quietly truck on in the background - sometimes thanklessly. Without a doubt, it takes a certain kind of character to be able to do that.

Back to her inner strength - when I look back at the actresses whom I've looked up to since I was little, I think of the "Taxi" reruns I used to watch years ago, and how Marilu Henner played the single mom amongst a group of misfit guys. It wasn't so much that she played a "woman in a man's world," but that her character was that strong, indepedent, feminine voice from within the ensemble, and it wasn't in your face. I think that same chemistry of traits has worked for Amanda in many ways, not only through her alter ego on Stargate, but through the way she's treated life in general.

I just can't fathom why else 20+ people from all over the globe would go to Toronto to see her on stage for a total of maybe 15 minutes. That kind of loyalty doesn't come out of nowhere.

Terrific post, spaz! Samanda love!

[JenniferJF]

Seriously, she was so great. She shows up on Saturday, gets up on that stage for the first dress rehearsal and she has us in stitches within the first few seconds. Not everyone in the cast was in the theatre at the time, some were in the green room, but those of us who were out there were bowled over. She's one of those artists who are just so talented; she has a presence on stage (or screen) that compels you to watch her, even when she's not speaking. Not to mention her timing, from a comedic point of view, is out of this world. She's a real perfectionist and she works damn hard, I can tell ya that after this weekend. Really damn hard, and it pays off for her in spades.

One of the things I noticed watching Dominion (and maybe it's because/why I'm a Samandan in the first place) was that, when everyone was just standing or sitting around, my eyes were always drawn to Sam. She was never just there listening, but would react to everything that was said or done in the room. You can't wallpaper here, she won't do it. slight Dominion spoilers:

Spoiler:

I was also VERY impressed with the Vala and Sam interactions here. CB and AT are doing an excellent job with their comedic interaction, and it's a joy to watch. Just the little looks they bounce off each other are hysterical.

amanda is fantastically normal. i mean, here she is, working in an industry where to be 'in' you must be anorexic and starve yourself. to be 'in proportion' you must be underweight. as in having bones sticking out. as in, for some, to be so underweight that your body doesn't function right. your hormones shut down, you don't have your cycles. you have no resistence to illness cause your body has nothing to fight diseases with.

this is the pressure she lives under. heck, every season if she dares to put on a pound or two the whole 'is she preggers' talk starts again. lord forbid she puts on a pound or two....like every one of us do as we yo-yo up and down on a daily basis.

the guys live under this too, but it's a bit worse for women.

I have no small amount of respect for her that she's being healthy, for herself and her family, rather than give into the pressure to starve herself to be 'right'

I've noticed Amanda put on a bit of weight since Olivia, and I think its fabulous and if anything it makes her more attractive than in previous seasons, especially 7 and 8. Some of this, though, may be that Sam always seemed vaguely miserable and angsty in those seasons compared to Seasons 9/10 and in my mind her skinniness may be reflective of that since I tend to get a bit underweight myself when depressed or anxious and only seem to be able to manage a healthy weight when happier. I suspect, with Olivia, Amanda is also generally happier now and maybe this is true for her, too.

Either way, she was by no means too skinny before nor has she put on too much weight. I think, as has been said by others, that it's fabulous that she proves women don't have to be extremely skinny to be attractive.

And, speaking of women and attractive, spoilers for Dominion and slightly OT:

Spoiler:

I found Adria (the actresses name escapes me atm) to be so much more attractive when lying in the hospital bed relatively un-made-up and being honest emotionally than she's ever been before. Not that she has ever not been good looking, but given how much effort usually seems to be put into 'making her up' I was impressed by how good she looked then.

The ability of any woman to be attractive is based less, IMHO, by the weight she may or may not be carrying, the make-up she may or may not be wearing, the clothes she may or may not be wearing, but in the way she presents herself, and treats herself and others.

AT has that in spades.

[Skydiver]

this is gonna sound odd. ok, living in the midwest, we get tornados all the time. and no, it's not like it is in tv, we dont' literally have tornados every week, but we do have them. One year kansas had over 100. Of course only about 20 of those actually hit something, the rest spun out in a field and scared a few cows. we DO have a lot of nothing for them to hit.

but i've always wanted to experience an earth quake. I've never realy felt one.

there was one in vancouver when i was there for gatecon, but it was a little thing adn i was in bed and just kinda thought i'd drunk too much. It wasn't until we visited mt st helens a few days later that i learned, yep, it was a real earth quake.

Of course my wishing is with the full knowledge that we're kansas. we DO have fault lines. In fact, one of the biggest in north america, the new madrid fault. the last time it cut loose back in the 1800's it made the mississippi river flow BACKWARDS for several days. it was a 9.something.

and if we have anything close to that, it' destroy us. we don't engineer our homes for earthquakes. almost everthing will fall down.

but i still want to experience a little one. 3-4 point one, just strong enough to feel.

but the dang universe refuses to cater to my whims. everytime i've been in earthquake country, nothing happens...or i sleep through it

[Rachel500]

I just wanted to drop by and thank everyone for the reports on the Vagina Monologues. Sounds like you guys had a ball.

Oh and happy belated birthday Lida!

And Happy International Women's Day!

[Skydiver]

one thing i dont' like about women who over skinny themselves...they look horribly old. their features are all gaunt, their cheeks are hollow, heck the lack of body fat even makes thier skin wrinkle worse and makes them look older than they are.

I perpetually have a bad time because i am over weight. not massively, but enough that clothes dont' fit right. I've got the tummy pooch and i've had it for years and no amount of crunches will make it go away. It's depressing to try to buy clothes and try to find something that fits. to be in my sister's wedding and know that she's gonan pick something that won't make me look good, and resigning myself to that fact.

I don't look in the mirror cause i don't like how i look. never have, never will. I've heard my sisters making snarky remarks about me being fat. I've been told to my face that i'm too fat and i still and likely always remember the horror and embarrassment i felt. and i nkow how much it hurts.

and i don't have those remarks plastered all over the internet.

Who gives a fig about Amanda's weight? It's her weight adn her business. She's healthy and she's happy and that's what matters.

Enough with the weight. She's a damn gorgous women with a spirit that's beyond lovely.

[minigeek]

I don't look in the mirror cause i don't like how i look. never have, never will. I've heard my sisters making snarky remarks about me being fat. I've been told to my face that i'm too fat and i still and likely always remember the horror and embarrassment i felt. and i nkow how much it hurts.

and i don't have those remarks plastered all over the internet..

My turn to tell one of my stories, forget Amanda, lets talk about ME!

About eight years ago, I'd started to gain a smidge of weight. I was about a size 8 beforehand (which for someone who's 5'9(ish) is pretty slim), and I'd gone up to a size 10 (much to my mortification - because I was acting a lot at the time, and as Sky already said, it's a tough business for image). Anyhow, I was in a play and we were rehearsing on stage, and there was a short stage combat bit amongst the guys. Well, one of them fell into me (accidentally) at the time, and I fell over with him, landed face-first on stage. He got up and I was about to do the same when the director (a woefully insensitive yet very professionally accomplished man whose name I won't mention), says:

"Ohhhh, beached whale..."

Well.

I. Froze.

Right there on the stage, face first on the ground with my nose in the dust, staring at a piece of green blocking tape. I even remember what the place smelled like. A moment frozen in time. And I was thinking... well, thinking things about myself which shall never be repeated. I also thought, I have to get up now. But I will not cry. And of course, everyone was watching me. So I did get up. And I did not cry (in front of them, at least).

The director didn't INTEND to be cruel, he just didn't censor his thoughts, but once the words came out, there they were. And I felt pretty humiliated.

Three words, one man's complete lack of thought, and I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.

Amazing how a thoughtless phrase in passing can still be cruel, isn't it? Well, he didn't MEAN IT that way. Perhaps not ... he's still not back on my Christmas card list, though.

(Now, of course, I'd kill to be a size 12 again!)

Soon, I tell you!!

Hugs,
mini(the beached whale)geek

[Mandysg1]

I'm reposting this pic because I don't know if you can notice, but look at the expression on Amanda's face. She seemed so happy There is something about her smile that draws people to ber. And afterwards when we met her and had a chance to talk, she was very excited about the experience. She is beautiful both inside and out, just being able to get the chance to meet Amanda, was more than I had ever expected. She is a very real person!

(((Amanda)))

[Zoser]

Just a quick note on this International Day of the Woman -
I want to thank Amanda Tapping for her portrayal of an intelligent, strong woman. She has provided a role model in Samantha Carter of a woman of integrity. Her physical beauty hopefully draw people to see what lies beneath - a woman of substance.

[PengYn]

The dungeons have opened for lunch so I can come up for air. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all their VM reports and pics. This is one of the greatest places to live vicariously through people.

Oh and let me pause to hug the Sam family (((Samandans))). You all look like your avatars to me, so there are many of you who look like various shades of Amanda - which - according to a few pages of posts so far means that you all look fantastic!