Saturday, January 31, 2015

Rebecca Blogs FanX (Friday)

Friday is always the best day of conventions! I’m going to start with the highlights of today, because I want to scream the following sentences from the rooftops forever: CARRIE FISHER PUT GLITTER ON MY FACE. AND TOM FELTON GREETED ME BY SAYING “HELLO, MY LOVE.”

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The con opened at eleven this morning, so I was there at eleven. The line moved remarkably quickly, aww yeah. I headed straight to the celebrity row. Carrie Fisher was at her table and I joined the line. It was very slow moving. To say those words does not extent the slow moving-ness of the line. It did not move. As I eventually got closer I observed that Carrie Fisher is tiny. Tiny! She had her dog, a French bulldog named Harry, sitting with her, and she was rubbing glitter on all the meet-and-greeters. Why? Because she's Carrie Fisher and she can do that, that's why.



I stood in line for two hours. She went on break once for probably forty minutes. I stayed. It’s Carrie Fisher. When she went on break she looked at me (the wrap around line I was in had put me near her table) and said, “We’re going to replenish the glitter. This is stale glitter.”

She did come back. I made it to the table and picked out a photo for her to sign and suddenly I was standing in front of Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher. Princess Leia. PRINCESS FREAKING LEIA. I could tell from watching that she was a celebrity who liked to keep a distance from her fans, with excellent reason. I’m sure she has heard insane stuff since this all blew up in the seventies. The appropriation of slave Leia into popular culture makes me sick. So I knew that I wouldn’t want to try to chat her up or anything, because I'd probably end up telling her about the childhood pillowcase I had with her face on it, and that's not cool. She thought the girl in front of me was Rebecca and then I said, “No, I’m Rebecca,” and she said, “You’re Rebecca” and then, “Close, please” meaning to close my eyes in order to get silver glittered RUBBED ON MY FACE WITH THE ACTUAL FINGER OF CARRIE FISHER. She was telling someone about her dog while doing it, and then sang, “Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca” to some tune that I’ve heard before but don’t know, all with my eyes still closed. It was a very surreal moment. She wrote “Love to Rebecca, Carrie Fisher” on the picture. She was a gem. Observe me showing off the glitter:





It was about 1:30 and I went to the ballroom to see who was in there. It was the original Uhura from Star Trek, and she has a very nice singing voice! After her panel was Felicia Day. Felicia Day is the bomb. She at one point made a face and then said, “I did a dumb face cuz I got awkward. HI.” Felicia Day is me. She automatically says yes to anything Joss Whedon offers. She has written a book, to be released in August! Once on the Supernatural set Jensen was making fun of her during their fight scene and she hit him so hard she dislocated her thumb. She was so great.



Then it was Tom Felton’s panel. Tom Felton. Tom Felton. The man is so freaking sexy. HIS VOICE THOUGH. British accents are the most attractive of all the things. He was sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore recently, and so everyone was teasing him about that. “I had to be in bloody Gryffindor.” And the first time he met his girlfriend she was an extra at the Gryffindor table. “The signs were already pointing towards my true house.” He’s in the editing process of making a documentary about conventions and super fans, how cool is that?? He clearly has an insider’s perspective. He thinks it’s bizarre that people act like conventions are weird, then yell at a television for two hours about a game that doesn’t affect them at all. “This is not right at all.” Describing how he got to be Draco Malfoy: “I managed to sneer pretty bad.” If Harry had accepted his offer of friendship, “I probably have just kicked his arse.” When he’s nostalgic he says, “Scared, Potter?” “If you see me wandering around saying that to myself don’t think I’m crazy.” He met a very naughty spoken six-year-old. When meeting people on set everyone loved the trio and was afraid of Tom. He says that Alan Rickman embraced the fear he inspired and would say things like, “Tuck in your shirt, boy" along with giving out cuffs to the back of the head. A little girl asked Toma question and he asked how old she was and she said nine and he said, “You’ll be getting your letter soon” and it was adorable.



So after that panel I went to get in line to meet him. It was a very long line. I know I said that the line for Carrie Fisher didn’t move, but I was further back in this one and it Did. Not. Move. This line ended up being almost three hours. Luckily the couple in front of me were friendly and we became line friends. The wife’s name was Katie, I don’t know the dude’s name. Life friends are a funny phenomenon. The husband complimented my shirt (Calvin and Hobbes/Star Wars crossover) and asked my name about an hour in. We're all fans of Firefly, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and conventions in general. Husband accidentally called me a liiiiiitle bit pathetic for being there alone, but our line friendship survived nonetheless.



We saw a dude wandering around in a sports jersey and I remarked it is the opposite of high school-- one jock in thousands of nerds. The husband: “Maybe he’s a geek in jock’s clothing.” A girl dressed as Oliver Queen asked if I'd ever been to Spain, because I look like someone she met on a plane there. At some point we realized that we had moved forward quite a bit in line. It really was strange-- I don’t remember moving. Neither did wife Katie. There is only the line, stretching out into infinity. But we did move, but then the volunteers started warning that Tom was leaving at seven (it was 6:20), and we were not guaranteed to make it through. I felt lame about that, as did those around me. But I waited, hoping against hope. The husband said, “Watch as he goes away right when we get there.” I berated him about putting such things out into the universe and made him take it back. "If I don't get my autograph, it's your fault, and you will be cursed."

Then the volunteer came to get the last ten people and blessed be this day for I was one of the ten. At this point my heartbeat raced out of control because he was right there being his gorgeous British self and I was going to meet him and I couldn’t handle it. A sticky note with my name was stuck to the headshot for him to sign, and suddenly I was standing in front of Tom Felton.

He is so hot in person.

He was looking around for more pens, because apparently the markers they had been using were starting to run out. So he wasn’t paying attention to me and I was standing there not knowing what to say and finally he looks at me and I go “HI” in probably the weirdest possible way. He says, in those dulcet British tones that make me absolutely melt, “Hello, my love.”

HELLO, MY LOVE.

IN BRITISH

THIS IS NOT REAL

Then, “Rebecca, is it?” Yes sir that is me. I think I made some noise of affirmation. Tom said, “I see you met Carrie earlier. Got glittered.” GOT GLITTERED. I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with how that phrase sounded coming out of his mouth, but the obsession is real. I said I was a big fan of Carrie Fisher. He started to sign the picture. I was freaking out because I wanted to ask if he hated monkeys (it's a running joke between my roommate and I) but knew the time was short.  I said, “I have a quick question for you which I promised my roommate I would ask.” Tom Felton: “Hit me.” Me: Do you have negative feelings towards monkeys because of your death in Planet of the Apes?” He looked a bit thoughtful and said, “No, I don’t think so.” I said I was scared of them and he said, “Oh, I’m scared of them. I guess I’ve always had negative feelings towards them, but not because of the film.” HAAHHA YES HE DOESN’T LIKE MONKEYS SCORE. I put out my hand for him to shake and he did and I was shaking for probably the next ten minutes. Katie and her husband were waiting beside the table to talk to me, which I thought was exceedingly nice, because usually your line buddies just vanish into the mists of time. But we said our goodbyes and they thanked me for providing entertainment in line and I was shaking so bad for like an hour because TOM FELTON SAID “HELLO MY LOVE” in his British accent and ahhh

He wrote “To Rebecca, Love Tom Felton, Draco.” He has the most lovely handwriting.


I could have stayed a bit longer (I haven't had a chance to look at even most of the booths this time around, and am not sure how much time I have tomorrow), but I had to go home and get ready for an audition and scream to my roommates about how fantastic fan conventions are. CARRIE FISHER PUT GLITTER ON MY FACE AND TOM FELTON REMARKED UPON IT. 


Thursday, January 29, 2015

Rebecca Blogs Fan X (Thursday)

Let me start by saying: BOY HOWDY I FREAKING LOVE FAN CONVENTIONS. This is my third one in twelve months, and they're just the best. c: 


I woke up early to be to work by seven so I could leave at three. I was a bundle of nervous energy on the way down. (I was really paranoid that my wristband wouldn’t work.) (Spoiler alert, it worked.) In the general admission line I stood next to a girl named Alicia with an animatronic Wheatley (check it out here) that lit up and moved and was awesome. She was friendly and we talked and I enjoyed it. After we heard, “I would murder Mark Wahlberg for his voice” I’m keeping a Comic Con quote book. The best, though, was us talking about how Comic Con is like General Conference for nerds. We block off traffic, there’s a huge congregation of people dressed different from everyone else, and we gather to listen to speakers. These are my people! When the volunteer came to our section of the line to let us into the Expo hall he said, “FOLLOW ME” like freaking Moses and we all surged forward. Alicia and I were checked in and went our separate ways. She was cool.



I walked right into the Mark Pellegrino panel. He played Jacob on Lost and Lucifer on Supernatural. He was funny and charming. (He says that is the worst direction a director can be. “Can you be more charming? And go.”) He does the craziest made up accents. He would marry Jensen and Jared (his Supernatural castmates). Quote: “If zombies were around I would be a zombie rights activist.” Talking about playing Lucifer before the fall he pointed out that he really only played a guy whose body was taken over by Lucifer. Imitating Lucifer: “That Nick is sooooo SMEXY. I’m being him forever!” When asked if the actors had any idea what was going to happen on Lost he said, “Jacob knew everything. He was the source of all the mythology.” *pause* “I knew nothing.” He was great.

I stayed in the ballrom for the next panel, which was Karen Gillan and let me just say girl crush acquired. She is gorgeous, she is hilarious, she has a Scottish accent, she is flawless. So funny! Three adorable kids asked her questions; one little girl said, “Did you cry when you cut off your hair?” and it was so cute. The other little girl asked which was her favorite monster on Doctor Who. Karen said the Silence and the Weeping Angels. Then Karen asked the little girl what hers were and she went, “…..same.” A little boy asked how long it took to put all the makeup on for Guardians of the Galaxy and when Karen said five hours his face was literally :o (Kids in costumes are my FAVORITE.) 



She was full of quotes. She saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir last time she was here and was very impressed. “Good choirs here.” When somebody said she spoke Gaelic she immediately corrected the punctuation to “gallic” even though she doesn’t speak a word. (It’s funny because I just learned about there being two different languages from grandma and grandpa.) She can’t drive, and will wait for the self-driving car. Take that, Amber! She told a hilarious story about Matt Smith trying to impress a supermodel and ending up knocking over a fake lamppost. Karen strikes me as a very real person. When she got her last script for Doctor Who Arthur Darvill and Matt Smith were calling her to talk about it and she said she was like, “NOPE NOT HAPPENING.” Her and Matt Smith must be so tight. When somebody asked how it was to flirt with/kiss him in the beginning of their seasons she said it was like kissing your brother. “Incest is wrong.” On flirting with him: “Best acting I’ve ever done” and cracked up. Someone in the line to ask questions was dressed as a Weeping Angel and she said, “I really hope I’m not the only one who sees that.”

But the BEST part of Karen Gillan was definitely when she was asked to show off her dance moves. She said she didn’t want to dance alone and asked for a volunteer from the audience. Some dude dressed as Robin, with practically nonexistent shorts, dashed up and was so *sassy*. He danced and she did the running man and I was dying. Only at Comic Con.



As I was walking out of the Karen Gillan panel some guys in front of me were saying how Scottish is the most attractive accent. “Even the Scottish men are hot.” Truth. In line to get in I kept passing this RIDICULOUSLY ATTRACTIVE Han Solo cosplayer who had curly dark hair and basically I wanted him. But he was with his Princess Leia, so, lame. There are so many attractive dudes there! Some year I’ll get up the nerve to try the speed dating out, or wear a shirt that says Single and Geeky. It's only logical.




I got several compliments on my shirt, which features Ten and Rose kissing in front of the TARDIS. I ran into Jessica Eldredge with her cute little family. She saw me; I was entranced by a giant dinosaur walking around. (Have I mentioned that I freaking love Comic Con?) It’s crazy to run into people in such a crowd, and today was sure to be the least crowded of the days. Tomorrow is my hardcore one; I'll be there almost all day. Awww yeah.