First up was the panel with Alex Kingston whom I love from ER and most others love from Dr. Who. She is such a quirky lady, almost like a real life Ms. Frizzle. Some fun stories from her panel:
-The filmed an episode of Dr. Who in Monument Valley, UT and it got a little creepy because when people realized they were there, it was like people appeared out of thin air and started walking across the valley, almost like zombies.
-When she got cast in ER she was nervous because of the commitment to one character for a 5 year contract. She ended up being on the show for 7 seasons.
-"An actors life is really the life of a gypsy."
-In Dr. Who, River was only supposed to be in a 2 episode arc.
-The most emotionally difficult scene on Dr. Who is was saying farewell to the Doctor, they only let them do it in 1 take.
-The most emotionally difficult scene on ER was losing Dr. Greene. She was upset about it and felt abandoned for a week after (so did we as fans!).
-"I am quite naughty and do a lot of naughty things."
-On ER they used a lot of prosthetics to cut into, and in the scene where she does open heart surgery in the ED, she couldn't tell the difference between the extra's real chest and the prosthetic chest. So she put the clamps on his nipples, thinking it was the prosthetic. It wasn't.
-She said Matt Smith, Karen Gillian, and Arthur Darvill burned the candle at both ends and she was like the mother on set.
-She knew she was married to the Doctor and was Amy and Rory's daughter about 6 months before any of them did.
-She really loved working on ER because they were being educated about medicine and acting. Although she felt like she could do open-heart surgery herself.
Later on Saturday I had a chance to meet Alex and grab an autograph. I told her how ER had inspired me to become a nurse and she praised the character of Carol Hathaway in being such a great character. She wanted to know how realistic ER was compared to the real deal, and I told her it was much better than most other medical shows.
Jason Isaacs was up next and his panel was one of my favorites. I usually like the panels without moderators better and he didn't mess around, spewing forth the answers to the questions he always gets and never wants. Some other highlights include:
-"I've been in some amazing stories in my time."
-"I'm a comic book geek, you're my people."
-He became an actor because he is awkward in real life.
-Originally he auditioned for the role of Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter. He had just been cast as Captain Hook and didn't want to play multiple villians in children's literature, so when they asked him to audition as Malfoy instead he was mad.
-He said there are no good guys and bad guys, just really complex characters.
-Lucius is a racist who demonizes "the other" and his fear nearly destroys him. Captain Hook was terrified of youth and becomes desperate. Even that orange guy with a squirrel on his head is afraid and that is why he acts the way he does (Trump). Most bullies are cowards.
-Jason took ownership of the character of Lucius Malfoy and made him what he is. The originally had him as a business looking man in a suit with salt and pepper hair. Jason was insistent that he was a wizard who was so racist against muggles he would never look like one. Basically grabbed a cheap blond wig and a velvet drape and said this is how the character should look.
-The first scene he filmed was at the end of Chamber of Secrets and he had to storm out of Dumbledore's office. Funny stories about how he had to interact with Dobby who wasn't really there (he is CGI) and how he started doing things like kicking him and whacking him with a cane and the artists had to start taking notes so they could create Dobby to fit the scene.
-Talked about how no one played sinister better than Alan Rickman.
-"Voldemort castrated my wand."
-Discussed how Peter Pan was really Wendy's story.
-While Harry was destined to be the hero, Draco was also a hero because he broke the chain of bulling and abuse and made a noble decision.
The next panel was Jeremy Renner. Words cannot express how happy I am that I was able to meet him, grab a picture, and listen to him talk movies. In 2012 I blogged about my love of Jeremy Renner. Please read it and judge me as you wish, I don't care. Ok, so here are some highlights for his panel:
-He hasn't broken a sweat in over a year and would keep it that way but no one wants to see a fat Hawkeye.
-He thinks Hawkeye is a really interesting character and that is why he wanted to play him.
-He is still recovering from an injury he received filming Age of Ultron.
-Spiderman was his favorite superhero as a kid.
-Playing Jeffery Dahmer really messed him up for awhile (I still need to see this movie).
-When filming the scene where Quicksilver dies, they shot a few scenes where he wouldn't die as well. Jeremy just put his hand over Quicksilvers mouth to kill him off anyway.
-On acting: If there is anything you love doing that makes you smile that isn't acting...do that instead. But if you are going to go into acting don't go in thinking you will fail.
-Filming Hurtlocker was an interesting, amazing, and difficult experience in the 130 degree weather in Jordan. They originally were going to film in Kuwait but the temperatures were reaching 150 degrees there.
-Most of the time the arrows are CGI so the most difficult part of filming is when he had a real one and he had to get the shot but not actually hit anyone on accident.
-He thought that Banner and Natasha was really weird and Hawkeye and Natasha have some words about it in Civil War.
-Has been recording some of his music and hopes to release it soon (we hope so too!).
Some other awesome stuff that happened:
When I got out of my photo ops, there was a Dance Party with Joey Fatone occurring on celebrity row. Now let's me be honest, I was never into the Boy Band scene. I liked a few songs by Backstreet Boys and NSYNC but they were never my thing, so I didn't think much of it except I needed a pick-me-up so I decided to check it out. People and creatures were dancing like crazy and it was actually a lot of fun. I grabbed a selfie with Joey and he said that all pictures come with free hugs and grabbed me into a bear hug. It was a lie, I didn't see him hug the girls in front of me in line or the one after me, but I needed that hug and will #winning that moment.
Around the Con Laura, Joey, Becca, Annicka, Jill, and I had misadventures, here are a few:
I see this dude every day of every con.
