Final installment!
Sunday 1st NovemberIt was absolutely chucking it down this morning! Huge amounts of rain which made driving interesting and dashing back and forwards between the hotel and the con a marathon of trying not to get too wet whilst negotiating huge deep puddles!
In the hotel foyer I met up with a girl called Jenny who I had been talking with the day before (she thought James was great but had the major hots for Mark Lutz!) and something she said made me realise that I could get a couple more pictures with James. He was doing his photo ops right then and, as my group had been called the day before, I could go again if I bought a couple of extras. I thought about it for…ooh, a whole nanosecond before declaring “Excellent idea!!” and leaping up to join the queue to buy extra tickets. Jenny was laughing behind me, saying “That’s what I like – someone else with absolutely no willpower to encourage me!” (She bought an extra too!)
So there I was suddenly in the queue for a photo op again – I hadn’t dressed for this at all and had a bit of a flap about how to wear my new wraparound cardi (I let it flow loose in the end) and was hoping to God my hair was OK because before very long, there I was approaching James again. Man he looked so young that morning! His curls were very wet and so were sticking to his head in some places, but in others they were springing free. He was wearing a green t shirt with a different black zip up top over and he just looked utterly beautiful to me.
I hadn’t said it yet this weekend, but with a grin I greeted him with “Hello my hero!” which always seems to make him smile. To my surprise, as Steve was still at the head of the queue reminding everyone to keep their hands down, James reached out and shook my hand as he said “Hi” and then put his left arm round my shoulders and pulled me in against him whilst still holding onto to my right hand. That was so nice and unexpected so I was smiling in delight as Malcolm took that picture. It’s a lovely one, and James looks about twenty years old in it!
Then there was a little confusion as Malcolm thought I only had the one picture when in fact I had two, so I was ignoring him as I asked James if he would do a profile shot for the second. I love doing profile shots, just because for a few seconds you get to look into James’s eyes from very close up – and I’ll never get enough of that. Which is probably why any profile picture shows the most genuine look on my face – there’s no way I can fake that joy!
James said “Sure” and turned to face me and took hold of my hands in his and I was suddenly staring into his eyes. No wonder it took a few seconds for Malcolm’s words to get through to me – I wasn’t hearing a thing! I flashed a glance at him and said “I have 2 pictures!” which he had now realised as the staff were telling him it was so, so I swung back to James again and was caught in those beautiful eyes. I must have been flicking my glance from one eye to the other, as James said “Look into this eye so you’re turning to the camera” indicating his right - so I did and in those few seconds as we waited for Malcolm to take the shot a grin started to form on my face – no way could I stop it! – and James’s smile started to grow too. It’s another great picture as you can see James is holding my hands and again – I can’t fake that look!
Before he let go of my hands, James gave them both a squeeze as I grinned up at him and said “Thank you” Then he still held out his hand for me to shake as I left and I just said “ I’ll see you in a bit” and I got the murmured “ Right on!” in response.
I do remember that the girl who was ushering us out of the photo area said she loved my pendant as I left! (which of course was my For What I Need necklace) But then things were a little hazy for a while as I was in a James fog – the nice kind you get after you’ve just been with him and you have no recollection of the next couple of minutes or how you ended up where you are. That’s what looking into James’s eyes does for me!
The sheets for the intimate encounters had gone up again, but I decided that having been on both the day before I wasn’t going to bid on either this time. Originally I had hoped to be on one each day, but the way it worked out, that was good enough.
I had autographs with James next. As I was doing Patti’s and mine, I decided to go up twice as I had things for James from Patti and several autographs to be done for others too. So I got in the queue as my group were the first ones up after James had finished his photo ops. I still hated seeing him lying on the table – it must have been hell on his elbows too!
In the end, both encounters were fairly brief. I couldn’t take the camera, but then I wasn’t wildly keen to remember James like that anyway. First off after James greeted me with a “Hey Rosie” I explained I was being Patti for this turn – she had a letter for him and a book, but as I really didn’t want to prolong it any longer than necessary I just handed them over and then asked a question that Patti wanted me to ask. (I had James sign the Patti Wish You Were Here notice for her!) I had crouched down to talk with him as it seemed unfair to make him look up as well from that position. He seemed OK, a little less talkative than usual and he wasn’t shaking hands with anyone, but I still felt guilty for keeping him there for any length of time. So I just said, “I’ll be back again in a minute as me” and he grinned.
I went and had a swap round – put away Patti’s bits and then got out the bits I was having signed – one picture I had taken at DragonCon and a GOTR t-shirt and a calendar that I was getting signed for Sara to sell for charity – and went back and joined the queue again. The helper checking off tickets said that I could only have 2 things signed this time as they had so many people to get through and I would have to queue again for the third (though originally they said it 3 autographs at a time) So I slung the t shirt over my shoulder, figuring I’d get that done after, but when I got up to James’s table and started to explain, his helper waved it away “Nah – do them all now – no point in you queuing up again.” I giggled and thanked her and she whispered back conspiratorly “they keep telling people that - I can’t see the point – get them all done now!”
I crouched down again as James greeted me with a “Hey Rosie” and started signing the t-shirt. He changed to a new pen so most of the time he was talking to me he had the original one in his mouth. He was saying how everything had changed for each of the band members. Again, I didn’t really say anything much as I still just wanted to be as quick as possible so he wouldn’t have to stay lying there any longer. So it was a strangely quiet time I had with James.
After that I just had to get autographs with Mercedes and Nick which I did without much bother and after lunch was back in place by the doors ready to try and get a front seat for the talks (which I did!) It was James and Mark up on stage together first – an odd pairing since they never worked together on Buffy or Angel but they made a good combination. Mark stood up for the whole Q and A keeping James company – they pushed the chairs out of the way. James curls had now dried out and he had a bit of a big hair thing going on that was still just as tempting to want to put your hands through – and rather amusingly I noticed later from one of my photos, had a small hole in the armpit of the green t-shirt (which turned out was the one that Kelly had given him at Marstersclass in May)
James was in pretty good form – maybe not as good as the day before, but Mark kept him laughing. He told us the story of a girl from the night before who may have been a teeny bit drunk getting very friendly with him – and then she had come up to him that morning all embarrassed and said she was so sorry – “I thought you were James Marsters…!”
Mark also did a hilarious take on soap opera acting – when they say – “I want to talk to you” and then immediately turn their backs on the person and talk facing away from them, so they can do the dramatic turn back – he had James cracking up laughing.
Most of the questions were addressed to both of them – they were asked which female role they would most like to play – James was Hamlet! (because there has been female Hamlets in the past) but then said “or Antigone”. I can’t remember Mark’s answer, but then James came in with – “Oh – I know! Lady Bracknell! From ‘The Importance of being Ernest’ and then he put on a very haughty expression and said in a very posh English accent “So I hear you wish to marry my niece?” Man – that would be great to see – James being Lady Bracknell – especially in costume!
There was a question about James being trained in various forms fighting including broad sword and quarter staff – he said he had a bit of training in quite a few martial arts and broad sword and he knew a bit about quarter staff but wasn’t exactly trained in it. Mark said, measuring in the air “If that’s a quarter staff – imagine how big a staff is!” which took us a second to get and then as we were all laughing, he added “Kindly go to the far end of the room so I can poke you!” along with appropriate actions. James looked at him and said with a straight face “It’s called a lance!”
Mark was talking about the bio-pic he had done that they had shown the night before about the swimmer and was saying he was reading about Neil Armstrong with (I think) a view to doing a bio-pic about him. Course he is telling us stuff that James knew very well and he was agreeing and then said “Man – I know this – I played Buzz Aldrin” Mark was surprised and then admitted he didn’t know that and then they had a bit of a geek-out together about it all!
They were both asked if they spoke any other languages – James shook his head and said “Come on! – I’m an American!” and then of course Mark being Canadian went off into French…!
That’s what I can remember – it was fun to watch them together and again I got some good pictures. Then as I hadn’t gone in for any of the intimate encounters, I stayed in the hall and listened to Nick who was on stage next on his own. As I’ve already admitted Im not a great fan of his, but he was good to listen too – especially when he said that James was most definitely a inspiration for him as an actor – said that he can really act! He also thought that a Spike/Xander spin off would have been good, with the two of them being flatmates in an odd couple kind of way. And it came up about who was better for Buffy – Angel or Spike, and Nick thought that Angel was too broody and Spike more likely to slap her at any moment and therefore it was definitely Spike, as slapping was infinitely easier to deal with than brooding….! And he did a lovely version of the Snoopy dance for us to finish on…!
Next on stage were Mercedes and James Leary. And I have to say this very quickly became totally cringe-worthy because James L was massively hung over and Mercedes didn’t seem to know anything. The questioner soon ran out of questions that had been submitted so had to go round the audience. And even when people did ask open questions, both of their answers would be one sentence long at most – no elaborating at all. Mercedes seemed to not do anything – she admitted she didn’t read or watch much
and seemed to have little in the way of any opinion on anything, which made for incredibly boring listening. I was wishing the questioner would draw it to an early close as it was just painful to listen to them not saying anything. The only high spots were that James L thought Spike and Clem could have done a spin off series together like the Odd Couple (you see a theme developing here?) and that when asked which other character they wanted to be they both immediately answered “Spike!” Oh and when James L was asked which charities he did fundraising for, a voice from the audience called out “AA” which had us all cracking up – though James L didn’t look that amused…
The other highlight for me was when Mercedes said that her first acting role had been at school when she had played a radish! I just went off into silent paroxysms of laughter – Mercedes played a vegetable – typecasting anyone???
I was greatly relieved when that was over and then we got to the final bit which was the group Q and A with all 5 guests up on stage. We had them all brought on one by one with the Buffy theme music. James was in the middle again and was standing behind his chair – Nick stood up too to keep him company and so did Mark later. It became fairly obvious that James was in pain – he was gripping onto the back of the chair and had his head down a lot when he wasn’t talking. The questions this time were all fairly general , and not very inspiring – a lot of ‘what is your favourite/most disliked…?’ type. After a bit, the guests were getting bored – “Who writes this inane crap?” and started making up their own questions! James was giving straightforward, honest answers to all the questions, and also trying to encourage the others (well – for that, read Mercedes…) he wasn’t joining in the bantering like he would normally and the show was taken over by Nick and Mark – they just got totally insane and very very silly – all the stuff about the Lutz soup that he kept in his shoes… believe me, you had to be there!
I do remember them being asked about reality
shows and Nick saying that is not a question you should ask actors – all the reality shows are putting actors out of work. James contribution for a reality show was the best – “Shoot Simon Cowell in the head” which earned him a round of applause and then they discussed shooting him with paintballs as that was really painful…! I also remember being asked which part of their body they hated the most and Mark immediately started to undo his trousers and threatening to drop them…
One of the interesting questions was which emotion was the most difficult to convey – James said sincerity, Nick said surprise – citing the bit from Tabula Rasa when they all had to look horrified when they opened the door to the vamps. Mercedes said when watching a fight and reacting to it, which I imagine is hard to convey for the camera – Mark said he just did it like a tennis match…
James was getting quieter and quieter and at one point leaned forward and gripped the arms of the chair for a moment. Every James fan in the place winced and from that point on, all I wanted was for it to be over. Not because it was bad but because I just wanted James to be off that stage. It was obvious he was hurting a lot and although he had his ‘professional’ face on, he needed to be out of there. I was willing the questioner to bring it to a close and though sad to see him go, was relieved when it was finally over and James could go off – being the consummate professional right to the end.
Not a lot else to say really. Had a rather rubbish dinner in the restaurant which didn’t give us much of a choice – but it was cheap and hot. There was another party that night which I was going to go to, though I wasn’t bothered as it was just going to be more of the same indifferent music from the DJ and in the end I went back to Jill’s room just for a bit beforehand and we ended up talking until gone 1am and never made it to the party!
As several other people have already said – I was proud to be a James fan this weekend. He was utterly amazing. People have pulled out of these things for far less – and there is James, appearing at the Gold party, even though he had to prop up the wall the whole time, lying down to do autographs and making sure that everyone got one, doing his best to do great poses for photo ops despite the pain, doing all his stage appearances and intimate encounters. He could have done far less and we would have been happy. I think he made a lot of new fans and earned a hell of a lot of respect all round – he really has earned the title of Convention Legend!
And for me, although I hated seeing him in pain, I was as ever glad to see him. Just when I think I can’t adore him any more than I do already, he goes and does something like he did this weekend and raises the bar even higher. And it just makes me love him all the more.