Two weekends ago was Wizard World
Chicago Comic-Con, and I have to say that it was my best con
experience yet. That said, this was only my third con ever but I
really did have a fantastic time, and a fair amount of it was due to
taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity.
A few weeks beforehand, it looked like
I would be going alone if I went (I hadn't fully decided at that
point), but was then contacted by a friend from college who in lives
in the area and didn't have anyone to go with either. So we decided
to meet up at the con and go together. It was really good to catch up
with her and talk about all the nerdy interests we have in common.
Also, she did a great job of holding my bags/taking pictures when
people asked for a photo with me in my Black Widow costume.
I really enjoyed walking around the
vendor halls. A lot of the booths had some really good stuff, and it
was a good way to see a lot of people's costumes. I was able to pick
up a few things for myself, as well as get some presents for my
sister. For myself I found a pair of TARDIS earrings that were
reasonably priced at only $10, as well as a t-shirt of Aquawoman
done in a pin-up style. There is a series of posters with her and
other DC females that I really like but don't have the wall space
for, so I was glad to find it on a t-shirt but I had the hardest time
deciding which one to get, changing my mind about 5 times. I also
found a necklace of Mjolnir (Thor's hammer), and instantly knew that
I was going to get it. Originally I thought of getting it for my
sister, but decided that I liked it too much and wanted to keep it
for myself.
We went to two panels that day, though
I had hoped to attend at least three. We were both looking forward to
John Barrowman's panel that evening, but it was canceled (and
rescheduled for the next morning) because he missed his flight that
morning, and I later found out that it was because he accidentally
overslept. I totally understood because we've all done that at
sometime or another, and I really appreciated that he kept updating
his page throughout the day as he tried to get to Chicago for at
least some photo ops in the evening. Even though I was not staying
that late, I really appreciated that he was trying to make up for it
and that he understands how much everyone there was looking forward
to meeting him. It seems like he comes pretty much every year, so
hopefully I'll be able to see him next year or if I go to another
convention that he's at in between.
The first panel we went to was Karl
Urban's panel, and it was so much fun. While we were waiting outside
there were three guys in Judge Dredd costumes hanging out together,
and when Karl Urban came out on stage, he was preceded by two of the
guys who then stood in front of the stage for the entirety of the
panel. I took a couple of notes, so I thought that I would share some
of the panel highlights with you. First of all, he said that he is
planning on starting filming for Star Trek 3 sometime in early 2015.
He said that he really enjoys when McCoy gets to argue with Spock,
since arguing with Zachary Quinto is so much fun. He also did a
pretty funny impression of William Shatner.
In a question asked by one of my
friends, he said that he is a pretty adventurous guy but has to curb
what he does a bit so that he doesn't end up getting himself killed
(and is therefore unable to be insured for jobs, haha). However, on
the first day of filming for Almost Human he pulled a ligament
in his leg just walking down a hill. He compared filming a tv series
to trench warfare, just in that it is so intense as to having a tight
schedule and needing to get everything done. In talking about Almost
Human, he mentioned that in
being one of the lead actors on the show he thought a lot about
working on Xena and
how Lucy Lawless did such a great job of leading the crew and
encouraging everyone. They did do a lot of improvising on Almost
Human, and the “scan my balls”
line early on in the series in an example of that. They would do the
first few takes of a scene straight from the script, but then do a
few where they would possibly improvise.
In
reference to Lord of the Rings,
apparently Peter Jackson cast him in the film series after seeing him
in a film called The Price of Milk.
One guy asked what it was like working with Sean Bean on the films,
and he replied that it not good since they never worked together
(Sean Bean's character dies in the first film and Karl's character
doesn't appear until the second film). It was a bit of an odd
question to ask in my opinion since that's pretty common knowledge
about the trilogy, but Karl did a good job of rolling with it and
answering good-naturedly.
One
thing that became abundantly clear is that you do not want to get
into a pranking war with Karl Urban. He prefers the long game, rather
than several quick back-and-forth pranks. He actually waited about 10
years to get back at Viggo Mortensen for something that happened
during Lord of the Rings.
They were both in Spain for press for different projects, with Karl's
press stuff happening the day before Viggo's. What he did was tell
all the reporters how Viggo had purchased a goat farm, which he was
then going to go visit once he was done with the press for this
project. This caused a huge
fervor, making the front page of the paper about how Viggo was
retiring from acting and had bought this goat farm, and it was pretty
much all anyone asked Viggo about the next day. He has something
planned to get back at Simon Pegg and Chris Pine while making Star
Trek 3, and decided to share one of the ideas he had, but decided
against using. He was going to talk with Roberto Orci and come up
with a special draft of the film for Pegg and Pine, and when the cast
all sat down for a read-through, they would realize that they had no
lines and McCoy was the hero of the entire film.
The
last question asked was what his favorite episode of Xena
was, and he said the it was the season 3 episode “Destiny”. I
have to give him props for then telling a story about the shooting of
the episode in which he became a huge dork. They were shooting a sexy
scene between his character Caesar and Xena, when something happened
to his contact lens, causing him to blink one eye repeatedly and in
an quite unattractive manner. So much so that Lucy finally pulled
back and was like, “What the f***?” That had everyone laughing
hard, and I have to again give him credit for telling that story. It
would be so easy to not mention and just keep everyone believing that
he's this majorly cool guy, but it's nice to know that your favorite
celebrities have awkward moments like that, just like the rest of us. I really enjoyed the panel because I've been a huge fan of his since Xena, and it was so exciting just to be in the same room as him.
The
second panel we saw was the “Guardians of the Galaxy” panel with
Michael Rooker and Dave Bautista. For some reason, the panel started
more than 10 minutes late. There wasn't really an explanation, so I
assume maybe they just had trouble getting them away from
photos/autographs. To start things off, Rooker came on stage and
started “Grooting” (dancing to “I Want You Back” a la the
mid-credits scene in Guardians,
then freezing whenever Bautista looked back at him), then having
everyone get up and do the same. Bautista said that Rooker is the
best dancer on the cast, while he is the worst. When they were
filming the “dance-off” scene near the end of the movie, they
managed to trick Bautista into dancing. In the film Ronan doesn't
dance and just stares at Peter Quill, but here Lee Pace started
dancing and pointed to Bautista, who then started dancing. Other than
that, they said that there were not very many pranks on set.
However, they had a number of behind-the-scenes stories about the
making of the film and insight to how they saw their characters.
Rooker said that he had about 3 ½ to 4 hours of makeup a day, though
he would often fall asleep in the chair and ended up having an “ear
assistant” who would hold his head up by his ears. He also had his
hair in a mohawk when they started filming, but by the end because of
all the trimming he did to it, it was practically nothing. When Yondu
punches Peter in the stomach, Chris Pratt told Rooker to really go
for it, so he did just that. When Yondu smiles at the end after Peter
tricked him by switching out the Infinity Gem for a troll doll,
Rooker feels like he was thinking, “That's my boy,” quickly
followed by a, “I'm going to get him.” When commenting on working
with characters who are mainly CGI, they said that Sean Gunn
(director James Gunn's brother and Yondu's right-hand guy) was a
really good stand-in for Rocket Raccoon. When asked about their
favorite scene from the movie, they both agreed that it was a tie
between Peter rallying everyone together and the “gunslinger”
scene with Yondu. Rooker “hopes” that there is expansion on
Yondu's character in Guardians 2.
Rooker and Bautista finished up the panel by answered 10 questions
rapid-fire, splitting them 5 and 5. It was pretty funny and when
asked what color underwear he was wearing, Rooker simply pulled them
up and showed us. Bautista then ended things by sharing how Rooker
ran off with Bautista's fiance. When she visited the set, Bautista
was introducing her and only go out, “This is my fi-” before
Rooker picked her up and ran away with her.
After the panel my friend and I went off into a side hallway because
the main hall way was packed with everyone trying to get down one
tiny escalator. I had just hung up on the phone asking my parents to
come pick me up (they were nice enough to drop me off in the morning
so I wouldn't have to pay for parking) when Michael Rooker walked
right past us. I swear, I could have just about reached out and
touched him, but in wanting to respect his personal space after what
had likely been a long day for him I resisted the urge. My friend and I then
parted ways, her to the parking garage and me back downstairs to the
lobby. I got a few photo requests while I waited to be picked up, and
was happy to oblige. On the way home we needed to stop at the grocery
store for a few things for dinner, and I think that I embarrassed my
mom by going in with them in my costume. I took off the holsters and
whatnot, and I didn't have a problem with it, so I just teased her
about it. Honestly, maybe I just made someone's shift a little less
boring because they saw some weirdo come into Jewel in a costume.
Well, this post is long enough as it is, so I'll wait until my next
post to talk about my amazing afternoon at the convention on Sunday.
And I promise it will appear soon, unlike the part 2 of C2E2 that I
still have to post, haha!
