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IT MUST BE BUNNIES, OR MAYBE PUPPETS
Saturday night, Starfury event, it must be time for fancy dress! For many the fancy dress parade is the highlight of the whole weekend with months of careful thought, planning and preparation going into the costumes made. The standard therefore not surprisingly is unbelievably high with a wonderful cross selection of familiar costumes and some amazingly imaginative designs. With Emma Caulfield on the guest list, it was understandable that there should be a steady stream of cute little bunnies or Red Riding Hoods in the parade all courtesy of the Halloween episode, "Fear Itself", where Anya first revealed her phobia of rabbits. Unfortunately, Emma did not see the number of costumes made in her honor as she did not attend Saturday evening's activities due to feeling unwell. Robert Patrick was also absent as his busy schedule commanded he return to The States to start his next project. There were also a fair number of Calebs making an appearance some complete with a dangling Xander eyeball accessory.
Connor arrives from Quar'Toth just in time for the Fancy Dress
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There were tributes to the Firefly episode Shindig with attendees dressed in full old Western type costume as well as the obligatory Spike, Darlas and Drusillas for whom without them the fancy dress competition simply would not be the same. Moving away from the Buffy theme, there were entrants representing Hellboy and X-Men and from the world of Angel there was an impressive Quor'toth Connor but perhaps the biggest cheer of the evening was saved for the spectacular appearance of the "Smile Time" Angel puppet complete with detachable nose. It is a popular feeling that had Michael Gilroy, the man behind the puppet mask, launched his prize creation at an Angel event such as the forthcoming Hyperion or Prometheus then the reaction he received from the crowd would have been even more electric than the one he actually got. As it was, Michael ended up being subjected to his 15 minutes of fame as constant requests were made throughout the evening for his photo. Once the Fusion event was all over, CoA traced Michael to find out a little bit more about how his costume came about and just exactly how he felt on the night.
Vampire Willow looked for her Xander all night
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Did you always plan to enter the fancy dress comp at Fusion prior to the airing of Smile Time. If so what was your original costume idea and what made you change your mind to the puppet? "My first con was the SFX event at the Norbreck a couple of years ago and I knew I wanted to dress up as for some reason I got it into my head that you had to attend the fancy dress aspect of the evening. I went as Lorne and I was the only Lorne that year as the character had only just entered the show and people seemed to love it. As there were literally dozens of Lornes at End of Days, I'd given a lot of thought to a costume that could be a winner. Hazel (Michael's girlfriend) had suggested a very funny option which I had toyed with but knew would be complex to make. I dress up as a giant key and say I've come as Dawn in her natural state. I thought this was funny but knew that it could have gone either way with an audience. Two weeks before the show I was a little unwell and absent from work and started to give some thought to a costume. It was then that I finally saw the "Smile Time" Angel episode and thought that's for me."
How long did it take to make the costume and how difficult was it to make? "I have an HND in 3D design for film and advertising so I am a reasonably talented model maker but I don't' get a chance to use my skills as much as I'd like so I knew the sort of things that making such a costume would involve. The first step is to get hold of reference material. I took my recording of the episode and took screen grabs which I printed out making a series of drawings so I could visualize the differences in the original puppet and the foam head I'd have to make. I realized that I'd be looking through the gap in the mouth so that dictated the size of the final piece and I set about removing triangles of foam and then gluing the pieces together. I would use a combination of 2-part epoxy glue with fast setting and the much stronger long setting glue to hold the pieces together. The skin must be put on in one piece to allow a smooth covering. I elected for felt as it is mentioned in the show but after a little research I discovered that real 'Muppets' aren't covered in felt and the nose removal would indeed involve the use of Velcro. The skin was attached using a contact adhesive and the eyes were card on colored felt. The eyebrows were foam, sculpted warped in felt, which only really leaves the hair and the hands. The hands were relatively easy as they were the same felt as the skin but with 3 fingers and not 4 while the hair was the same stuff that they seemed to use on the show, which seems to be made of tiny feathers and moves in a wonderfully slow way. This was also attached with a hot glue gun and contact adhesive. This was not a cheap thing to make but the audience reaction made it so worth it."
Angel, Puppet Angel, and Spike - now there's a story
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You got an amazing reaction from the Fusion crowd as soon as you stepped out onto the floor as well as being asked for your photo all night, how did that make you feel? "As always the Starfury crowd were fantastic. Id made the costume for the audience as well as myself so their reaction was worth every late night. The cheer that went up when I was announced was simply wonderful. I was glad to have my photo taken and for a very short time feel like one of the guests. I was hot but people allowed me to get a drink in-between photos and everyone is so nice that I didn't mind one bit. People had a lot of questions. 'Who made it?', 'How long did it take?', and it seemed like everyone who had seen the episode wanted a picture with me which was fine. There were a lot of people saying 'you were robbed' for most of the night in various drunken states. I seemed to make people happy which is what the convention is all about."
GUEST TALKS, QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Each guest in attendance at Fusion graced the stage on more than one occasion for interactive Q&A sessions with the fan base that had paid good money to spend the weekend with them. Unfortunately not all guest talks could be covered as part of this feature but hopefully this article should have managed to capture the thoughts and tribulations of the key characters and any guests that have had a connection with the world of Angel.
Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells)
Tom Lenk tells the fans, he's no ordinary Watcher
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The character of would-be Troika villain turned Watcher-in-the-making Andrew Wells is probably the last character anyone would expect to see turn up in an episode of Angel simply because there is no history linking the two characters together and no immediate reason as to why they should be linked. Yet the fact that Andrew has made not one but two appearances in Angel's swansong season is a testament to the development of a character who essentially most people consider to be a geek not least Tom himself. After Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 'Vampyr', as Andrew would say, there is still more Lenk to see. Relaxed and laid back Tom spoke of his recent appearances on Angel, "It was cool to be there," he admits, "as it is a totally different energy, more relaxed with a little less tension. I acted like a bit of a basket case because I didn't want them to think I was a lazy actor. It was strange to get direction through from someone who didn't know I had been in Buffy and that I probably knew more about the character than he did but it worked out well in the end." He also mentions the little Union Jack drawn on Andrew's lunch bag during the episode of "Damage". "I wanted it to be good and funny," he admits after confessing that the drawing was actually his idea, "ideally I wanted a picture of David Beckham but due to advertising it wasn't something we could really do." To compensate Tom actually drew his own picture of Becks on Andrew's notebook slyly commenting that, "I think Andrew would like David Beckham."
Fans were curious to hear what Tom thought Andrew would make of an event like 'Fusion' and whether he would take part as an attendee considering his love for sci-fi genre. Tom laughed as he said "He would love to meet me and he would probably have a shopping cart full of stuff including several pictures with Emma Caulfield and maybe a few with that Nathan Fillion too." He was then asked if he had any news on whether the much-rumored Ripper starring Anthony Stewart Head series would ever see the light of day. Tom seemed surprised to hear that plans were even afoot for such a series but then does admit that he "would be the last to know." Considering Joss' busy schedule with the forthcoming Firefly movie, Tom didn't think that the Ripper series would come about but "he would love to be in it kicking back and relaxing in the UK"
On stage with Sarah Hagan, Slayer-in-Training
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The name of Emma Caulfield creeps up once or twice during his time on stage which is not surprising considering one of his most recent projects involved Tom playing himself in Emma's film Bandwagon. He praises Emma and the hard work she put into production but shudders at the thought of having to audition for the part he played, "Can you imagine how awful it would be to audition to play yourself," he comments, "and then not get the part!" It doesn't seem that would be a problem however, as Emma seems to be every bit as smitten with Tom as Tom is with Emma. During his Q&A session on the Sunday, from the left had side of the main hall a woman looking very much like his Buffy and silver screen co-star steps up to the fan's microphone to ask Tom "What's it like to be so dreamy?" Tom looks and smiles at his friend, "It's hard I won't lie, when you're a heartthrob. You have to stay out of the tabloids though," to which Emma replies, "But I saw you in this magazine in a pair of Speedos." Tom immediately answers declaring, "You only get away with them if you're German, but for my body type trunks are more suitable." Emma laughs and waves to Tom before heading back off to her own autograph session.
During the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the episode "Storyteller", the storyline revolved completely around Andrew so it is not surprising that he cites this episode as his favorite especially its opening line, "Come with me now, if you will, gentle viewers. Join me on a new voyage of the mind. A little tale I like to call: Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyrs." The legendary pronunciation of the word vam-PYRE was actually Tom's idea. It came about whilst doing a play and he had discussed with his friends how funny it would be to put the emph-AR-sis on the wrong sy-LLA-ble. He mentioned this conversation to the writers and they went with it and hence the world of the vam-PYR was born. Tom's latest project sees him appearing in his own theatre stand up show Tom Lenk, Internet Semi Superstar. This quite unique concept is billed as 'Join Tom from BtVS as he charts through his journey from high school nerd, veterinary assistant to adult nerd, supporting player on hit TV series using actual chartroom posting and fan emails'. If the sharp mind and wit of Mr Lenk at Fusion is anything to go by then his stand up is bound to be good.
Juliet Landau (Drusilla)
Juliet Landau and Clare Kramer
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Best known to Angel and Buffy fan's alike as the insane vampiress and long time companion of Spike, Drusilla, Juliet Landau shows us that screen egos and the artists who portray them can be vastly different. As a frequent con guest, Juliet took to the stage on Friday with off-screen friend and previous co-star Robert Patrick (T-1000 Terminator 2/ Agent John Doggett The X-Files). The warm and charismatic actress wasted no time in getting on with the questions and settled in to happy routine. Juliet spoke about all aspects of her life from her ballet beginnings, through working with her father, screen legend Martin Landau, right up to Buffy, Angel and her future projects. When asked about how she felt working with her father, Juliet explained that she wished she had more scenes with him, she felt that she didn't get to very in-depth with him and would like a "more expansive role". Juliet was also asked what her favourite Buffy and Angel episodes were, and though she named specifics such as "School Hard" - her very first appearance and "Reunion", the aptly titled episode featuring the Dru and Darla lawyer massacre, she also admitted that both her and her manager hounded Joss about a part in "Once More With Feeling", with a firm passion for both singing and dancing she felt she would fit in the episode wonderfully but alas it was not to be, although in hindsight she was glad as singing in Dru's accent turned out to be a little harder than she thought!
As always, when requested to 'speak a little Dru', Juliet gladly obliged by picking out a few favourite lines (with the help of one attendee's script book!) and also went on to describe the embarrassing events of "What's My Line - Part 2". Juliet recalled, "When we were shooting the Buffy episode where David and I are tied together and there was a whole ceremony being performed. And I chose, for some reason, to play the scene in a deep backbend, which 8-hours later I was really sorry for. But what was funny, is that David and I didn't know each other that well, and they roped us together really tightly, and we were smoothed right up against each. So I was like, 'Hi, it's really nice to meet you, so tell me about yourself,' And the other thing that kept happening was they would yell 'cut' and everybody would leave, and they kept leaving us completely joined together for the longest time and we just got the giggles because we didn't know what else to do, and we sort of laughed, 'Hello? Hello?' and finally they came and undid us."From favourite episodes to hardest scenes, Juliet's experience on both Buffy and Angel appears to have been a fantastic experience if not a little bizarre, when asked what she thought of the Drusilla doll; she explained that it was "surreal to see yourself as a doll, but very flattering."
"Look at all the people. Are they nice people?"
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Clare gets a laugh and gives a smile
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Of course the fans would want nothing less than Angel to go on for another 2-years, and although that may not be its fate at the moment, Juliet did add a bit more fuel to the hopeful fires. "James [Marsters] was talking the last time I was on set that they are talking about doing a movie of the week," she offered. "And one of the ideas I think are something like there'll be a Spike one, there would be one about Willow, like there would be four from what I understood. And then there's also some sort of buzz about there may be a feature film but I don't know anything for certain. Then there's also been some sort of campaign about saving Angel and having it move to another network, because the ratings really haven't dipped at all since the first season, so there's some of that buzz. You'll be in Los Angeles and you'll see a truck going by with, 'Save Angel!'" It is not just Juliet's stage and screen work which makes her the wonderful woman she is; she spoke with great enthusiasm about her work with her mothers charity "Bookpals" and the Make-A-Wish foundation. Bookpals is an organisation that is linked with the Screen Actors Guild and sees actors reading books to children during their 'downtime' in an effort to get them excited about reading. Yet again, it was great to see Juliet at another event, she is a firm fan favourite and seems to enjoy the meetings as much as we do, hopefully we'll be seeing her again in the future.
Summer Glau (Prima Ballerina/River Tam)
Jewel Staite & Summer Glau bring on the Firefly laughs
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The fans questions are making the girls think hard on this one
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It seems appropriate that Summer should have played the role of a prima ballerina during her solitary appearance on Angel as ballet was her first love prior to pursuing a career treading the boards rather than dancing on them. Sitting on stage with Firefy co-star, Jewel Staite, Summer confessed that to dance a piece from Giselle was close to a lifelong dream and an experience she'll never forget yet how much of the classical ballet needed to be adapted for the small screen and how much remained true to its original production. "It was all pretty choreographed, because most classical ballets like Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, the reality is that almost every company in the world will do basically the same choreography to the music and so most of it didn't really have to be changed. Because we were filming it, some of it had to be just slightly altered but that's pretty much the classical steps that are always done to Giselle. So, I loved it, I loved it." Summer also got the opportunity to display her dancing skills in the role that most people will most commonly associate her with and that is of the beautiful yet mentally unstable River Tam on Firefly. In the episode Shindig, Summer took part in a Celtic dancing scene and the question arose as to how different the two scenes were to play, "Angel was more difficult because I'd be wearing the costume and ballet shoes before switching to dialogue and then back to dancing. Shindig was more like a polka and was a lot of fun to do."
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"Ballet is like vocabulary with your body rather than vocabulary with your voice." ~ Summer Glau
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Summer openly admits that she was very nervous when it came to exchanging her lines with Angel's lead actor, David Boreanaz, despite her rather unorthodox initial meeting with him, "The first time I met David, I was stretching and warming up. I had my leg way up over my head when Joss came up to me, hung his head upside down to talk to me and said that he had brought David meet me. It was kind of embarrassing but he was really nice and calming. When we started the scene we were not sure whether to play the role with an English accent or a Russian accent and that was only decided just before starting the scene so I didn't really have any time to practice at all." The first-take of the scene may not have gone as well as she would have liked, "When I started to do the dialogue scene with David on the stage, I actually stood at quite a distance away from my mark, " she explains, "I went through the whole scene until right at the end David asked "was there a reason that you did that 10ft away from your mark. After that dancing was easy."
Summer in a captured moment of thought
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Summer couldn't help but voice her amazement at just how many Firefly fans she had encountered whilst in the UK but part of her wasn't really surprised at just how popular the sci-fi western has become. "Brits really get Joss and what he's trying to do," she says of the Great British (and European) fan base, "They are more open minded about TV and are prepared for something totally different." Maybe that's because like its well-known predecessors before it, Joss has an incredible talent for creating a cast of interesting characters and making them interact with one another in a truly entertaining way. The off-screen friendships often come across in the on-screen antics and Summer was not afraid to spill the beans on some of her Serenity colleagues. "Morena Baccarin is the one who makes us laugh and Gina Torres has a really infectious laugh. Nathan Fillion is definitely the joker." Right on queue Nathan steps up to the mike and asks the girls on stage just exactly who they thought the best-looking guy on set was. Nathan did not necessarily get the answer he was looking for as his friends decided to mess with him a little. Next up was another familiar face, not necessarily familiar to everyone in the room but certainly familiar to Jewel as it was her husband, Matt Anderson, "If you were a type of animal, which type of animal would you be?" he asks. Summer wished as a little girl to be 'my little pony' especially the one with the rainbow tail star on brow unicorn and as far as she was concerned nothing had changed!
