SLCC15: Captain America saves the day.

 

In the past for the biggest guests/a group of guests they charge for an exclusive panel. They promised not to charge when they announced Chris Evans. When they combined him with Anthony Mackie they decided to make the panel a lottery. I was feeling really bummed out when I didn't win the panel lottery Friday night. Then kind and generous people started giving away some of their winnings and due to these kind a generous people I was able to attend and so were Laura and Sarah. So Saturday I was basically skipping to the con and you couldn't wipe a smile off of my face all day. Chris Evans is amazing. I can't even wrap my mind around finally meeting one of my ultimate celebrity crushes of all time and he was just as kind and funny and interesting as I imagined he would be. True confessions...over many boring night shifts I have watched every interview on youtube available featuring Chris Evans. But this panel was full of new information and I will never get enough of Chris.


The panel started a bit late because Chris was interacting with a bunch of Make-A-Wish kids backstage. He talked about living with gratitude always, how he handles his anxiety (which isn't the giant social anxiety people keep claiming he has), who he would support during Civil War, and how much he loves playing Captain America. He also loved playing Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four because it is closer to his real life personality, whereas Cap is who he aspires to be. He talked about not living with regrettable insecurities and how it is too bad that focusing on the negative seems to be a human trait. He also told us to hug him. It was actually a pretty inspirational discussion which I was honestly surprised by. Here is a YouTube video of the whole panel:

Part way through the panel Anthony Mackie (The Falcon) came out on stage and surprised Chris Evans.  It was adorable how excited they were to see each other.  Then Hayley Atwell (Agent Peggy Carter) also crashed the party.  I wish Hayley had a chance to say more because she is just too delightful. 

 

 

 

After a while Chris had to leave and then we had a chance to hear Anthony talk about the Falcon.  Some highlights:

-When asked if he has had Fry Sauce his reply... I have not had the sauce of the fry.
-When asked what was worse, being served by Eminem in 8 mile or being beat by Ant-man, he said that he was pretty sure that they guy who got the most hits in actually won the fight, thus he wasn't beat by Ant-man...and it was Paul Rudd.

-The Falcon wing pack is 30lbs, but all of the flying wings are totally CGI.
-In Civil War he has a line "Ironman, what's the problem" and he went all Shaq 1963 on it.

 

-Before he says that line he swoops in and lands.  He watched his stunt double do it and thought I can do that.  Then he was hoisted way up in the air and weighs more than the stunt double so it was a rough landing and he was coughing away dirt as he is trying to spit out the line.
-His career started in Utah and he loves to fly fish here so he coniders himself a Utahonian....when we told him it was Utahn he didn't believe us.
-When asked about what it was like to be the first Black Avenger/Superhero he gave a poignant answer about how kids don't see race and how anyone should be whatever superhero they want.  It was really cool.  We should leave the "except" off of statements.
-He talked a lot about the respect he has for and the work he does for vets. 

 

-He would love to play the Hulk because he grew up loving Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk and he is angry all of the time, and he gets Black Widow.
-On set of Civil War, Vision challenged everyone to a push up contest, (Anthony said that you know the jewel isn't real right!?) and Falcon beat them all with 85 pushups.  Then the moderator Jay and Anthony got down and did a mini contest.
-"If it ain't broke don't fix it...DC got a lot that are broke"
-If he had Cap's powers he would use them all for the wrong reasons and Chris puts so much passion and love into the character he wouldn't want to play it after him.  Plus he said he would be a terrible superhero then, like Hancock.
-If he could rewrite a Marvel story he would make a Californian retrospective Thor who whacks people with surfboards after a day of working at Starbucks.

Anthony's panel was hilarious and he and Jay were brilliant together.  Laura and I grabbed a photo with him and Becca, Zach, Laura, and I grabbed one with Chris and Hayley.  These people were some of the most genuine and awesome souls I have ever encountered. I also got Chris' autograph and while we were waiting for him to arrive, Hayley kept us entertained and rallied us in a Team Carter cheer and video for the DubSmash Wars.  Most of the people in line kept us entertained as well. 

https://twitter.com/HayleyAtwell/status/647936456313278464

Our last panel of the day was John Barrowman.  He sang songs, flirted with everyone, and kept us all entertained.  What a spaz, I loved it.

The night ended with the Hillywood Show and a cosplay contest.  I love the Hillywood show parodies and it was cool to see them in person.  There were lots of awesome cosplays and on the way out I met a nice old man who had won an award for his steampunk ghostbuster.

Other fun pictures from the day:

And what Chris and Anthony had to say about it...

SLCC15: Goonies Never Say Die.

Friday at Salt Lake Comic Con got started early and was full the good and bad and everything in between. I had a gold pass this year so I got onto the floor an hour earlier than general admission. 

After seeing the Phelps twin's panel I decided to splurge and stop by their booth and grab an autograph.  It was awesome to chat with them for a bit.  I was worried they didn't make it to the RSL game the night before because the photo ops were taking so long.  They said they only made it to the last 25 minutes of regulation but they saw 3 goals in that time so they were pleased...and apparently a lucky charm.  I asked them what they were up to now and James, who just finished camping on the west coast for a month, had finished a BBC film with Oliver the month before and had just found out he was to audition for a TV show in England when he got home.  He was looking forward to the audition but was sad that he had to cut his trip short and miss Moab.  Oliver is heading back to England to work on a writing project for the BBC.

Our first panel was Sean Astin.  He rode into the panel on a golf cart like the Pope.  It was pretty funny.  His first question was what he likes about Salt Lake City (he has been here multiple times) and he said the people, the view, the Mormons, and the fringe culture. After they mentioned each movie he had been in that made him really famous (Goonies, Rudy, and Lord of the Rings) he went into character and quoted a line.  It was a really good panel. Some highlights:

-It has been 15 years since Fellowship of the Ring wrapped. 
-He has 2 different charities #run3rd and Read Aloud.
-He would love to do a movie with Adam Sandler
-When asked about the possibility of Goonies 2 he said that there is always hope when the fellowship is true for a goonies 2.
-He talked about Tolkien's love for Sam and how Sam was the heart of the fellowship.
-During the filming there was a lot of sitting around or walking around. 
-He wished that Sam was utilized better so when it got to the part where Sam carries Frodo to Mount Doom he insisted on filming those scenes over and over and over so he could relish the moment.  He talked about how they filmed so much and for so long that they each became their character and truly embodied it and how in that scene they all were in tears (including Peter Jackson) because it was so intense.
-The mount doom was a real volcano

-He was gifted the backpack with the pans and sausages and stole his hobbit feet.
-Someone asked how Mikey from Goonies liked his potatoes and he said Mikey would have just eaten Lembas bread.
-As a kid his favorite movies were ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Back to the Future.
-When asked if he liked playing Sam or Rudy better he said that they are basically the same guy and said that while one sacked the quarterback in front of thousands and the other walked into a volcano so he chose Mikey.

Later on Friday Becca and I had our photo op with Sean.  It started early so I missed Anthony Daniels panel, but it took over an hour to even get back into the picture area, so I was extra mad because I could have seen Anthony after all.  Then Sean stepped out right in front of use that was cool, but when we got into the photo booth he was being a total spaz and we had to take 2 pictures...this is the best of the 2. Not in love with the picture but I am learning to appreciate the humor of it.  One reward was seeing Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans walking to and from the bathroom.

Laura, Kristan, Jake and I had a photo-op with Sebastian Stan who played Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier and he was very nice and took the time to welcome us into the photo rather than just stand there like some I have met. 

Sebastian's panel was really good.  I don't really know a lot about him as a person so it was cool to discover some interesting things during the q&a.  Some panel highlights include:

-They about 5 months filming Captain America: Civil War.
-As a kid he watched a lot of movies and decided he wanted to try it out.
-He plays the Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time
-He lived in Romania until he was 12.
-He stars in the Martian with Matt Damon and said that Ridley Scott (director) filmed with 8 cameras at once so you had to be "on" at all times.
-When he was cast as Bucky Barnes, Captain America was the first comic book he had ever read because he grew up communist (assuming that means he didn't have access) so it is still his favorite.
-During the filming of the Martian they went to NASA and he said it was really cool and astronauts are real superheroes.
-His favorite scenes... 1st Cap movie was the date scene with "that Dr. Who girl" (Jenna Coleman, who was also at the con), 2nd cap movie was the causeway fighting scene.  And for Civil War he says all of the fight scenes will just blow the previous movies away.
-His go to karaoke song... He started singing Green Day's paranoia.

My sister asked him a question about how he got into the crazy mindset...

 

 

-He likes playing the Winter Soldier more than Bucky because it is more fun, but the Russo bros (directors of Civil War) kept cueing him to channel more Bucky.
-He didn't know they were doing to Winter Soldier story arc until he was at SDCC and they announced the title for Captain America 2.
-When asked if they will explore some of the history between Natasha/Black Widow and Winter Soldier he said yes.
-"Having the Falcon as a new Captain America would be like Biff in Back to the Future 2"
-He researched a lot of PTSD stories to prep for the Winter Soldier role and used specific music to get in the mindset.

 Our next panel was Dean O Gorman who plays Fili in the Hobbit.  He was totally chill and willing to answer anything.  He told lots of embarrassing stories about the other cast members and you could tell that while their time together was crazy he misses it.  Highlights:

-When asked about if the group of dwarves were drinker/partiers he said that they stayed well hydrated and half of the group was Irish so...
-Embarrassing story about Peter Hamilton (who played Gloin) was that he was really sick but no one could tell because everyone was always sweating.  He was doing the line with Orlando Bloom where he shows Legolas a picture of his "wee lad Gimli" and he threw up on Orlando Bloom.

-Adam Brown (Ori the dwarf) was doing a pantomime once and his junk fell out of his shorts during it and he didn't know.
-Fili and Kili would always hide people's props like hammers and weapons
-Favorite scenes he hopes are in the extended are fight scenes with goats and chariots and some dancing?!
-He has a photography exhibit opening soon in Germany of artistic First World War photography. 
-He filmed a lot of homemade movies about the Vietnam war as a child.
-He hates doing love scenes because there are like 80 people watching.
-The dwarves had digital doubles and they could mess around with their facial expression and Kili got stuck on permanent smoulder, and Ori on constant worry mode.
-Pumpkin in New Zealand is a vegetable so he is fascinated about how Americans have turned it into many desserts.
-He doesn't usually watch his work but in the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies he totally got caught up in the story and was surprised how emotional he got watching his character Fili's death (Us too dean, us too).
-They were given their swords as a gift after the Hobbit was over.
-Gloin's beard was Yak hair and it was like he had an angry yak on his face.  There were people with chopsticks who picked food out of it.



Laura asking Dean a question.

 

After our panels I met up with Annicka and Jill and we headed to the Guinness Book of World Records event.  We were trying to break China's record for the biggest group of comic book characters gathered in one place.  I went as Jane Foster since I don't cosplay and in the Thor movies she wears a lot of things I do.  They had us come in and be counted and then line up in groups of 100.  The record to beat 1,530.  We danced and sang "don't stop believing." there was a pool of deadpools and then Manu Bennet showed up as Slade Wilson to help us win.  So rad.  We did it will over 1,700 people!!  It was rad and we honestly busted out with a USA! chant at the end. We all got a participation certificate and official pin.

 

 

After breaking the Record Becca and I headed over to Abravenal Hall to see the Utah Symphony, Marina Sirtis from Star Trek, and a Sci-Fi symphony performance.  It was a really cool performance and a great way to end the day.  Obviously I loved the Star Wars music but I also teared up during the main theme for newest Star Trek movies by Michael Giacchino.  Such a beautiful song live.  A pic from their twitter...

 

 

Here are some other pics from the convention, lots of great photo ops.