The Patti Report
DragonCon08; Atlanta, GA
August 28-September 1, 2008

Part 1:

So, what a difference a year makes! The DragonCon08 experience was a complete 180-degree turnaround from last year for me….

Oh, um... Yeah, I went to DragonCon. I know, I know, I swore I’d never go again, and given the state of the economy and the lackluster year for my industry, I was pretty sure I couldn’t afford it, but as the time started creeping closer, despite my trepidation at the thought of attending what had been a nightmare last year, I just couldn’t bear to miss seeing James. (Sigh. I’m such a JamesJunkie!) :) (thanks to U.S. Airways for a *really* cheap flight, and the complete strangers who took me in at the Con for a fraction of the cost!) And I’m so glad I didn’t miss it! I’m not sure I can convey this weekend accurately or coherently, but if you go by a dry recitation of events, you’d have thought it nothing short of a disaster, but the truth is, the gestalt was such that it was probably one of the most delightful messes I’ve attended to date. :) So when I talk about all the ‘negatives’ that happened, remember that the overall effect was anything but.

The 4-day event, held in a sweltering downtown Atlanta, GA on Labor Day weekend, was spread out over four hotels this year, and the center of most activity, the Marriott, was no longer under construction, leaving all the hallways, escalators and elevators accessible, plus a lot more space in general for the hordes to mingle and pass. People were still as nice as I remembered from last year, and the costumes were even better this year (an hysterically-laughing-me nod to the big pink “yupyupyupyup” Big-Mouth-Alien from the Muppets and Sesame Street!). I also saw quite a few ‘Steam Punk costumes, a very new, literary-based sub-genre of Sci-Fi fandom I’d just become aware of about two weeks prior, which centers around the era of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, but taking the idea that we went steam power instead of oil-based and going forward from there. I love the costumes—very Victorian-Edwardian styles, but with a punk-ish slant--they are the vaguely-modern extrapolation of what the steam era might have evolved into. There was even a band that had decorated their instruments to reflect the era. Fun!

I had decided to make the journey very late from a DragonCon-planning standpoint, and on a tight, tight budget, so wound up, as I mentioned, in a room with complete strangers…11, give or take a body or two! (Thanks to Karly and the gang in 1023 for being so sweet to this ‘old lady’, making sure I had a bed! Hope I wasn’t too much of a vexation, getting up at such early hours, for you all-nighters! LOL!) :) I actually didn’t get in until about 2AM on Friday, and went straight to my room to get a couple hours of sleep…

With a guy.

Whom I’d never met.

*blink*

…

*shrug* It’s Con! (thanks for being cool, um, Dan? James? Andrew? I’m such a bad ‘date’, I can’t remember the name of the guy I ‘slept’ with! Heh.)

…before I got up to get in line early to register for the con, so I could get into the first James-panel-line for the gang, who were standing in the James Event line, having arranged a couple weeks ago with friends, who were going to get there earlier than I was, to get my Saturday James event ticket. /SPAN>Heh. Did you follow all that? Neither did I, but it worked out, as I was “lucky ticket #4”, and we were pretty well front and mostly center for the Whedonverse Track kickoff panel. (Thank you, C [and the whole JamesGang], who had the amazing dedication of getting in line THAT early and sleeping in jammies on the floor of the Hilton’s hallway all night to make sure we all got James Event tickets! *smoochies*).

James’ first appearance at the con was the aforementioned Friday Whedonverse Track kickoff which started at 1 PM with James’ one solo appearance. James was wearing this very…interesting shirt, with wide red and white block stripes across the chest, and thinner white ‘racing stripes’ down the short sleeves--almost a bicyclist’s style shirt though not quite that tight—with “T - - Home” on the front (Adidas brand with what appeared to be T-Mobile’s logo, and all kinds of writing on the back I never could read), and h e’d added an ‘Obama’ button. And of course his usual blue jeans and running shoes. :) He looked really good, healthy and rested, and his hair is grown out to his normal length again since “Moon Shot” (yay!) and also looked very good. He was upbeat, seemed at peace with his world again, and was very engaging. And did I say he looked really good? Really, really good? Like, scrumptiously good? Like…OK, you get the point, right? James. Looks. Fabulous. When is the man going to age?

He kept saying he was boring us, but he sure didn’t me! I love to listen to JamesBabble. :D He did seem a tad restless, alternating between sitting on, standing along, or pacing ac ross the front edge of the platform next to the tables, because he hated sitting behind them. Then he mentioned SteveH giving him a Red Bull…AHA! That explains it all! LOL! In addition to his usual high energy and his usual nervous gestures--hand-through-hair movements and such--he played with his ear a lot. All weekend. More on that later. ;) BTW, when fans came up and said “I love you [guys]” during the any of his panels this weekend, James always promptly replied, “I love you more,” in a very sexy voice. Heh.

+++
James’ Solo Panel: An Hour in the Buffyverse

James came out, messed a bit with the table, mike and water bottle, and then got up, plopped down on the front edge of the table and said he does best with questions rather than stories we may have heard, and asked for a brave person to come up and ask an interesting question. (These guys never notice that there’s two lines a mile long already waiting to do just that!) As he was getting situated, someone yelled ‘Happy Birthday’ and James grinned and said thank you.

First question was in reference to his being in Moon Shot and the Astronaut vs the Caveman argument on Angel, and James told the story about when he researched Buzz Aldrin he found out that at 77, Buzz had punched out some much younger guy. The guy had been harassing Buzz and accusing him of faking the moon landing. Buzz decked the guy, then sued him and won. James finally said, if Buzz Aldrin was in the fight, Astronauts would win.

Next, he was asked about his opinion of Joe Biden as Obama’s Vice Presidential pick, and James was off on politics. Heh.

Which did he enjoy working on more, Buffy or Angel. Since so many of the people working on Angel -- Joss, writers, directors and such -- were the same, it felt the same to work there. But he was glad that on Angel he was no longer “imperiling the theme”; he was the doppelganger for Angel and his redemption, which he liked -- being in the middle of theme…and he got more lines! Then he went on to talk about call sheets and how they have a one liner about the plot of the day. He told Joss one year he wanted to have a ‘verb’ on the sheet at some point, to actually have some kind of action to take.

Pranks at Torchwood? He saw John’s ‘junk’ (as he put it)—when John thinks things need lightening up, he just drops his pants. “And the rumors are true. I’m like, ‘How can you find anyone who’s willing to do anything with *points vaguely nether-wards* …that?!’” *Frantic ‘warding off’ hand gesture* ROTFL! John doesn’t allow anyone to be sleepy, and is LOUD and boisterous in the morning, apparently. ;)

Asked if he and Andy Hallett had ever considered doing a musical project together, but they have too-different styles.

Asked what constitutes an awesome party to him. (He had a hard time making out the question and his trying to figure it out was rather humorous). He said the perfect party for him would be “a dinner party…with 9 or 10 intelligent people talking about fascinating things.” (audience: *Good wine*) “Good Wine.” If he disagreed with someone he’d “get into a wonderful argument about something unimportant. Then we’d go dancing…‘til dawn. *definitive head bob* Yeah.”

Ad lib at all on Buffy? No ad libbing on BtVS allowed. Writers controlled everything, but that’s the way it should be, and you could tell when even one word was spoken wrong by the loss of momentum.

Who deserved Shanshu? Spike probably… “but then again, he’d probably…*in THAT British accent* ‘I don’t WANT IT!’ *frantic warding gesture with hands*”

Asked which of the ch aracters he’s played is he most like, and which did he like most: “the guy from P.S. I Love You”, whom he described as, “…BOOOOORE-ing. I watched that film and said ‘That was a really good film except for that boring guy.’” He said he’d like to think he was funnier than that, but yeah, basically like him, just a nice guy. He then went into a side note about having learned his lesson from that movie. He’d been a ‘good boy’ like all TV actors when they first do films, he said, playing nice and not speaking up about his role, but watching as others did. “I should have said “I want a monkey on my shoulder!” LOL! He used the lesson and became assertive about his role on DragonBall.

Who did he like playing most? His weird sense of fun says DragonBall because he was scared every day. They made him do virtually all of his stunts because they didn’t like the way the cheaper make-up on the stuntman looked in shots. “And frankly I had a blast doing Spike.” Then he said he had a blast doing them all, doing Buzz Aldrin. But he found out he had a fear of smothering, and wearing the space suit helmet was very challenging, as there were times they couldn’t put in air, and he’d start to get prickly in seconds, and he’d wind up shaking and crying in his trailer after takes, and had nightmares later, and couldn’t understand why. He never thought he had fears, as he often doesn’t feel fearful when he should and has gotten in trouble because of it, so this was something he never expected and didn’t understand at first. But yeah, he enjoyed them, they were his idea of fun, “…strange, masochistic kind of fun,” he said, grinning.

Asked if his height has ever caused him problems with work, he said “You mean, has the fact that I’m not 6 foot ever caused me problems?” *rueful look* “Like I tell my son, if I was 6 foot, you’d be going to Harvard. As it is, you better get straight A’s, brothah.” LOL! He said he never thought about his height until he got to Hollywood and started losing roles to taller actors, but the camera doesn’t know. They built the sets on Buffy to suit her shorter stature, which of course made James look that much taller! People thought he looked 6’4” (me!) and he’d get, “You know you look a lot like that Spike guy, only, you know, shorter.”

Which does he prefer, acting on stage or camera? definitely stage. He talked about the script as a means to start a conversation with an audience, and each night it’s a different conversation, and he likes that. Film is easier but not as fulfilling. They only want models, and no acting.

Will he be back on Smallville or Without a Trace? Probably not on WaT, as he thinks they were upset that he went off to do DragonBall, even though they left him open-contracted, and he’s not been asked yet by Smallville, but that doesn’t mean a lot since filming just began.

Preparing for Piccolo was no big dea l, he’s seen all the DragonBall episodes -- and some more than he cares to :) -- because his son is a fan. He talked about the film’s themes being good for youth, despite the ultra-violence, it’s balanced by the hero’s desire for peace, but willingness to fight only when there’s no choice.

Asked if he ever had to downplay his obvious intellect, he said very often on set because people don’t want to hear him go on about something he heard or saw. LOL. But also, as an actor he’s found he has to get past his intellect, not try to make ‘intelligent choices’ about his acting because they ring false, and if he lets his instinctive brain act for him, it comes out true, even though it might take weeks to know *why* it did what it did, why his subconscious chose to have him do it that way. He also commented that growing up his family liked to have huge, intellectual-sounding discussions about things, but h e eventually realized they mostly liked to hear themselves talk and it was mostly about nothing. LOL—I know that feeling!

Favorite episode and what part of it? Once More with Feeling and he liked Sweet. They were all feeling very good about their performances until Hinton Battle showed up and was so amazing. Then it was… *Depressed voice* “I’m such a Hollywood actor, I’m going back to my trailer now.” Heh. He also talked about how the actors pulled together despite not being hired for their musical talent--the only professional singers prior to the episode were Tony Head and James--especially Sarah, who fought hardest against it, but then when she knew she had to, went completely professional with coaching and such.

Who was the better kisser, Sarah Michelle Geller or John Barrowman. Much laughter at the considering look on James’ face. “You know, John *is* pretty good…” ROTFL! Then he went into how he was trying to act for he and SMG’s first kiss, as he’d never done one for camera before. Sex scenes for camera are not sexy to do and the atmosphere while working is not conducive. *mimics teamsters eating and such* He viewed SMG like a kid sister, and that made it worse, but eventually he found a way to overcome that image by falling in love with ‘Buffy’… which made him laugh, and SMG got mad, thinking he was making fun of her DoubleMeat Palace hat. LOL! “Now John…” James talked about learning he has phobias, and was homophobic (John Barrowman is openly gay) and he had trouble adjusting to John’s zany sexual humor (turns out to be British, more than JB-specific, humor). He told of o vercoming that with John, who, upon discovering James’ nervousness, became totally professional. He came to trust John while working through fight scenes, which made the kissing-a-guy fine when it happened. “punch punch kiss punch. OK.” What he can’t get over is… “how do women deal with [stubble]?!” He shaves much closer now for his girlfriend’s sake. LOL. But he “wouldn’t mind kissing John” any time. Heh.

Smile Time, Angel episode, was the puppet fight scripted? All scripted, but the fact that Spike can’t stop laughing and it’s pissing Angel off, made him laugh when he read it, and he only had to work half a day, so he loved=2 0it. And he got a puppet out of it.

Will he be in Season 3 of Torchwood—hoped so but head writer went to work for George Lucas, so no clue.

Talked about his action figures, he’ll have three now: Spike, Piccolo, and Capt John. “Does it look like me?” he asked (not sure which was brought up). His son, however, who is into action figures, doesn’t remotely care to have a Spike one. LOL!

When asked to do his accent, he said he doesn’t do that anymore, he’s only going forward now…in=2 0the accent. To much cheering.

How has fatherhood treated him? Good, very good, but he had no clue how good it would be before he became one. Also, harder than he thought, monumentally so, but more worth it than anything he ever imagined. Constantly trying to grow into the roll of parent, “hopefully ahead of the kid…I better get more mature, or he’s gonna pass me by.” Heh! He mentioned a study of men’s brains, which showed a huge rise in cognitive ability after they first hold their child. His experience was a god-like voice saying, as he looked at his son on the warming table… *in deep booming voice* “Go to L.A. Make. Money. Now.” He was sleeping in the back of his theatre, and he figured his son would not want to be poor like him. Heh. He always wanted to be a father, he loves playing, though I gather his son is outgrowing some20things he still ikes.

Like John Hart or Spike better? Spike was more complex. Fertile artist ground of angst. But moment-to-moment, how-he-feels-on-the-set-playing-him? Capt. John all the way. Capt. John is like Spike first season (he meant second season of Buffy, Spike’s first season) “before all the love and puppies” no conscience, a villain who did not care, which is more fun.

Will he read more of Jim Butcher’s Dresden novels? Until he hears differently—Jim Butcher gets bored with him or something--he is likely going to continue t o be the voice. He loves the books, thinks they are just that little bit extra good and intelligent, especially on the issues of abuse.

Have you thought about doing comedy? Yes, he’d like to, he was known to in theatre, and felt about a third of Buffy was comedy. He’s auditioning and he’ll take comedy if he’s cast.

A little kid wanted to see his tongue for a scientific experiment. He (she? I couldn’t see) wanted to see if James could roll his tongue (side to side) which James showed us he could. (He actually went down to the child at the mike to show him/her). :)

Asked to answer the next question in accent, he again said he didn’t but did, which was whether he has a book he would like to see done in film. He said reads mostly non-fiction. The End of America, would be his choice, though, it’s about how a country slides into fascism, and how it’s happening here in the U.S. and he expounded a bit on that.

With all the fighting he does on screen does he have any training?: Green belt in judo, some kung fu, mostly street fighting. But really just lots of stage fighting. He really has more experience fake fighting than real. He fears he’ll forget if he actually gets into a fight and pull his punch as usual. Heh.

Recited a short piece from The Tempest.

Would go on Bones if asked. Dave’s a cool guy, just very shy. Tells his favorite story of DavidB, “Horse racing” :)

Asked if he were not Famous Guy and attended the con as a regular guy, what would he be into: Has definite Sci Fi roots, loves the people, they’re more intelligent overall. He used to go to cons, went to the second-ever Star Trek one in Oakland years ago, and went as Spock, with a blond afro, ears, and soaped his eyebrows to draw in Spock ones. (OMG, the imagery this produced in my head!) Even hand-made a phaser and communicator. “…and had the *time* of my life!” Agreed with Jimi Hnedrix: “Let your freak flag fly.” Sci Fi people have stopped trying to impress anyone and let out their sense of fun. The people going to clubs in Hollywood are acting roles too, but all the same one. Likes this playing much better.

Final question: How did it feel to be a hero at the end of Buffy?: He didn t feel he was, because Spike didn’t actively choose to and he mostly just stood there. He was happy to have the rest of the time off and not have to film the last day. He was bummed they let leak Spike’s return on Angel. But had a blast doing all of it… Of being on Angel: ”They’re gonna let me do *that*?! *giggle*”

And blowing us a kiss, he was gone.

+++

The photo op was at 4 PM (I thought), but somehow by the time I got there at about 10 after, despite large numbers of picture-takers, I had missed it. :( So I wandered over to the Walk of Fame (the large, celebrity-guest autographing room) and finally got my first chance to say ‘hi’ to James while I got my P.S. I Love You DVD cover autographed. I asked James how he was doing now, and he said he was doing really well now that he’d finally had a month off to recover and recoup his energies. He asked me if I had been at The Rift, and then said he was so bad off there—it had come in the middle of a year and a half of working with no breaks. I told him I knew and that I noticed when he started looking ill at the time and I’d been worried. We chatted a bit more, mostly about a political article I gave him; it was a humorous conversation I very much enjoyed, but I won’t bore anyone here with it—though I want to say how YUM was the smile James gave me when I said we were politically on the same wave length, and how I wanted to laugh at the comical, confused ‘let me get this stra ight/did you really say that?’ look he gave at the ridiculousness of what I was telling him about. HEE! I also spoke to Steve Himber for a few minutes, just checking in, giving him my thoughts on the recent state of ‘things’ in JamesFandom (and his open letter on the Official Website, specifically), telling him essentially, ‘Right on, Steve!’ Heh.

That was it for the LiveJames-related day, though later I (and some 1500 others) went to see “The ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ Sing-Along” (!) showing, complete with actors. I’d not seen Joss Whedon’s latest endeavor yet (still on crappy dial-up—yes, it still exists!). It was really fun, and Nathan Fillion is a hoot in it! And who knew Neil Patrick Harris could sing so well?! This has become very popular with the fans in the short time it’s been out—there were many Hammer and Horrible costumes floating around the con and everyone but me, it seems, knew all the words to the songs (and half the dialogue, as well)! It was an SRO crowd each time it showed--usually very late at night--I heard.

Immediately following that was “The Buffy Horror Picture Show” which of course was a showing of “Once More With Feeling”, also complete with actors, whose costumes were especially good—I’m in awe of the actress who had to dance around LIVE in front of the 1500-strong SRO crowd in that tiny bra and half slip of Anya’s! They had these placards they held up at certain moments too, that were really funny -- “Fame!” “Shut Up, Dawn!” “Where were you?” LOL! Of course, during the credit roll at the beginning of OMWF, and at Spike’s first appearance, James got the biggest cheers—I made sure of that! :D By the time it ended, it was near-midnight and I just did not have the energy to go to the other two showings of it that were being held that night, after only those few hours of shut-eye. I heard they were packed for each showing as well. (I wonder how those poor actors held up til 3 AM!).

After getting marginally more sleep this night, I was up bright and early to get in line for the Saturday offering… the Torchwood panel, featuring James, Gareth David-Lloyd and Anthony Lewis. James was wearing a nice, black button-front shirt, with the long sleeves rolled to just below his elbows, with the top couple buttons undone; very nice looking. And his jeans and running shoes, of course, though they were sitting the whole time, so I can’t be sure which pants. :) While waiting in line, we had a bit of TW cosplay behind us, complete with romps in the shrubbery! The group=2 0had done a very good job with costumes, especially the VeryPregnantBrideGwen and her ghoulish mother-in-law-to-be. :D

Now, here came the first ‘GrrArgh’ of what would be a day filled with them. Why is it that *everyone* in the audience of, I believe they said around 1800, had to watch their Ps&Qs because a few people might have brought kids along…to a panel that is for fans of an adult-themed show, when there is a day care center provided? *rolls eyes* But the panel was still fun and lively, despite censorship, and you can tell that Gareth and James are good friends. There was a lot of laughter and much teasing and fond reminiscences of, not only on-set, but off.

+++

Torchwood Panel: Inside the Actors’ Gaffe

This panel was hosted by Track mod, Rob Levy, who asked the first series of questions.

First question was to have each talk about their band: And of course, James no longer has one (catch up on your guests, dude, even the official con program mentions James ‘working on his second album’…that would be the one he released almost a year ago…). James said the band did two years together until they got sick of each other. Then he talked about his solo career, and his latest album. Ben Peeler, guitarist for The Wallflowers, and the drummer for Alanis Morrisette worked on it. The first album has too much synthesizer, this one has more human-created sound which he likes better. Influences are Dylan, Springsteen, Kurt Cobain and Joni Mitchell. Gareth talked about his band, Blue Gillespie, a hard rock-blues blend, which formed playing back up for James in Cardiff. Will be having an album soon. They have a MySpace. Mentioned Robert Johnson, Tool, NIN, and Alice in Chains as some of his influences. Anthony ‘s band is The Good Die Young, indie-rock like Cold Play. Mentions Smashing Pumpkins and The Beatles among his influences. They’re also recording an album.

One fan asked them to ask John Barrowman to come next year, the mod said he was up to 72 spontaneous requests now. Asked how it was to kiss John Barrowman, Gareth pointed to James and claimed it was in his contract he didn’t have to answer that question. Truth is, James said, it’s not that sexy to screen kiss or do sex scenes on camera. You’re usually embarrassed and doing an intimate thing in public, and he’s not a porn star. Basically, it was acting. But he started shaving a lot more carefully after, though. Admonished guys “Shave up, shave it off!” Gareth: “Unlike James, I *AM* a porn star and I tend to forget I’m acting.” Anthony has never kissed JB, so he talked about ‘snogging’ Naoko.

Asked James to expound on the difference between being an actor in the U.S. vs Britain, auditions and such. James says they’re nicer in Britain. They mill you through auditions in L.A., but are f riendly and chat with him in London. Otherwise the same, read and hope for the best. Didn’t have to audition for Torchwood. Gareth found it the opposite. They can swap places and… James, in a funky little voice, ”Be nice to the alien.” Heh.

No word on if James will be back so far. But he hopes so, he has a blast on it and hanging with Gareth. James expounded on experiences on set: John B’s loud and boisterous personality. Terrorizing the new guy actor (he played Capt. Jack’s younger brother).

There was a discussion of Anthony’s role and his preparation for it, the WWI setting.

Gareth is set to film Children of Earth, the title for the 3rd season of Torchwood. Relaunching to BBC1, it will be 5 one-hour parts of a whole story arc, filming back to back. Talked about going into it with the loss of two characters. What about new TW agents—are there any, and could James be a regular addition? Gareth answered cagily, revealing nothing. `:/

Asked Gareth how it felt to be part of something so huge, he said it was overwhelming to start with, especially Comic Con and here, but is grateful and is learning to deal. Anthony talked about his next project, a film.

What kind of scripts are they each looking for as actors? James said he looks for something that propels you forward from page to page. Entertaining. Gareth: “I look for lines.” Much laughter. “Then I go back to the beginning, *if* the story is good.” LOL. Anthony said if, when he’s reading it, he can picture it. James said his manager has beat into him that a good script won’t necessarily make a good movie, the creators of the film are important to it, too. Gareth agreed that you can see the movie a certain way, but that doesn’t’ mean the director or producer sees the same movie. James said there’s three movies; one that’s written, one that’s shot, and one that’s edited. It’s amazing how much it’s changed by=2 0the time it’s released.

Crazy shenanigans onset?: James ‘Me first!’ and told that they did a nod to John’s nude scenes on Dr. Who—where he still managed to pull a gun out… When Capt. John Hart is being divested of weapons, they made as if Capt. John pull one out of…there too, and Capt. Jack gives it an “Ew” face, but it got cut. Then Gareth: “Let’s talk about John’s ideas…” Wanted Ianto to feed Capt. Jack bites of pizza while they’re discussing the latest goings on in a scene, to show the ongoing development of their relationship. During the take, John “takes my hand and puts it on his ‘knob’….” The next day “the producers come to *me*…” and tell him to “tone it down, it’s a little camp.” Some of John’s ideas “can be a little… colorful, can’t they?” he asked James, who laughed and nodded. =2 0Anthony told about his experience filming; they were filming two different episodes at once, so he and another actor switched places in bed with Tosh…it was a very guy story…and continued the stray off the PG path for a few moments longer. LOL!

Favorite Color: Anthony: Blue. Gareth: Black. James: Green
Favorite Swear Word: James: “I like them all so much. F*&k is very good, it’s got a good impact to it.” Gareth: “You can’t beat a good f*&k.” James: “But when I get mad I usually use the word idiot a lot. *growled* “Idiot!” Gareth: “That’s rubbish. When I get mad, I use the word ‘Fanny Nugget’ I like that one. Interesting. Colorful. I like the colorful words.” Anthony: “I don’t know whether you use this word over here. I call out the word ‘shite’…yeah, shite? Yeah?” … Gareth goes on to say he didn’t think Americans used it, but someone told him ‘vitimin’ water was ‘shite’. James said he’d never heard anyone in America use the word shite, he figured they were trying to make Gareth feel comfortable. ROTFL!

End of moderated portion.

Asked of Gareth: In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, when Capt Jack suggests an orgy, Ianto…pauses. Was that scripted? He “made it up on the spot, it was brilliant.” He thought the moment needed just that little bit of relief from tension. “And he’s a pervert, so why not.”

Would any of them consider doing a stage musical and what would you go for. James: Anything written after 1975, he doesn’t want to be doing that Showboat stuff. He did that growing up in Modesto because that is all there was, so not too into doing them…but he would love to do Jesus Christ, Superstar. “I would love to play Jesus, that would be awesome.” Gareth: “I would like to do anything *before* 1975. But not the Showboat, not the Gilbert and Sullivan.” Brecht. Political musicals. Sondheim. He’s played Mack the Knife . Ones where songs are used as narrative, stepping out of character to do them. Anthony: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Wicked. Mama Mia, because he had to see it so many times, he knows it.

They were asked to try to bring others from the Torchwood/Dr Who universe. James mentioned Naoko being in the U.S. now. Gareth said they all would love to come if asked. He was just the first asked who accepted.

Asked Gareth how he feels about the show going more child-friendly, but he says it’s not. “It‘s still sexy and bloody and …John Barrowman-y.”

Next Gareth was asked: Two-Captain - Ianto Sandwich, any chance of that? Gareth hemmed and hawed a bit… James: “I’m gonna have to develop some more trust, I can tell right now.” Can’t really say about it in the next series (season) but could be a possibility for the future.

Of Gareth, how he prepped for his role as a murdering psychotic. Loves playing villains. He feels everyone has the ability to be both very good and very bad. It’s fun to play that part.

What are your thoughts on the themes of homosexuality on TW and how does it inform your acting? James likes to be subversive, and he got excited when he heard there was homophobic backlash to TW. Asked producers to get him on as much as they could. Too few subversive ideas are allowed expression. Gareth likes that the homosexual relationships are presented without making them an issue—it’s just how it is. And that’s how it should be, there should be no issue. People are gay, get over it. And, it’s just the same as doing any other scene.

Of James: He’s been in everything [Sci-Fi]. Last year he was asked if he might be in Torchwood, and he was. So, any chance you might be in Heroes? *James looks around for SteveH* He watched it in Wales, and likes it a lot. He’d love to be on it.&n bsp;

Of Gareth: Favorite episode of TW to view (Fragments and Countrycide), favorite to act in? (CyberGirl)

Of the Dresden audio books, not doing one at the moment, but expects to be called for the next one. He would really love to read one of the many ‘George Bush is a bad president’ books, saying, “I would give it that extra…sincerity.” Heh.

How often do they get hurt in fight scenes? James (laughing ruefully): I get hurt a *lot*. Gareth: “I get burned by coffee a lot and James gets scars from fighting.” James compa red it to playing football -- you don’t have to go to the hospital, but the next morning can be a little rough. And once in a while you get really tagged. James lost a front tooth working on TW, but not fighting—he got his foot caught getting out of the TW car and face-planted. Anthony said he didn’t do fighting but he had to shove John around when he was on. After John had left for the day, on his close ups, he had to shove the assistant director instead. Gareth: “I think that was the tea boy, actually…” Anthony: “…I didn’t get another cup of tea after that, so it probably was the tea boy.”

Is Ianto fluid in Welsh? Gareth explained the educational system in Wales. James said it’s obvious in Wales that the English never really took Wales, all the signs are still in Welsh. “Don’t mess with Wales”…but you should also go to Wales.” James liked Newport (Gareth’s ho me town) better than Cardiff. Gareth said James was the first person to ever say that, and he didn’t know why, there’s only one pub worth going to there. Then they talked about that one pub, going back to his friend’s house to watch movies …and peeing on the Courthouse… LOL! Gareth asked James, didn’t he say it was the best time he had in Wales, James said, yeah, he loved it. Gareth then apologized to his hometown for bad mouthing it, “James Marsters, Spike from Buffy, f*&kin’ loves it!”

What would be your ideal role? James: “I can’t say Macbeth ‘cuz I’ve said it too much.” He wants to play a disillusioned Starship Captain. He had an idea for a Star Trek series, which he expounded on a bit. Gareth took Macbeth and would like to see aud iences side longer with Macbeth (he sounded very much like James when he talks about his vision for doing it.) Anthony has always wanted to be James Bond. Also he’d like to be on 24.

Gareth was asked how uncomfortable it was to be filmed naked in the TW HQ. He was fine, except he got no muscle shading. John makes them relaxed—despite his reputation, if John thinks an actor might be nervous, he will treat them very respectfully and carefully. James basically said he was a maniac, but he is very nice under that.

There ensued this whole conversation that I didn’t get, involving apologies, then Gareth was asked to rap, and he did this silly bit about coffee.

Fanfiction got raised, James chuckled, but I think Gareth and Anthony had no clue. A discussion ensued about going online and reading stuff fans and reviewers wrote. James said it was like heroin, too nice and ego inflating, and he tries to avoid it. Gareth said they also write awful things and told of a couple of his more negative ones. It could be ”crushing” but he is not overly sensitive, so he just laughs. James said, “You can’t listen to all that man!” James also said the UK makes an artwork about ‘taking the piss’ out of each other. Lots of really mean jabs at each other, but all in jest. Gareth: “We’ve got a sense of humor, don’t we?” James:”Well, that’s true. If you want to put it succinctly, yes.”

James’ favorite chara cter, other than Spike, on Buffy? Giles. After the flaming baseball bat… and he liked the actor--Tony (Anthony Stewart Head) taught him a lot about acting on film.

How did James portray John’s love for Jack? It was easy, because early on he came to a sense of love for John Barrowman. James: “I blew a stunt early on…” Gareth: “You blew a what?” Heh. James got hurt again, a gash on his leg. He kept it secret, but it got worse. John helped him out quietly. “He’s such a human being.” He also doesn’t think it’s hard to love someone and still be devious. Gareth says Ianto considers an orgy “because of lines like *breathy imitation of James* ‘Into the Rift, Eye Candy’ – there’s something sexy and lovable about being=2 0devious and evil. That’s why most of us like playing villains.” James: “Yeah that is, it’s true.


Thus endeth the Torchwood Panel