ASH at Kulture Shock last night
Aug. 16th, 2004 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethhttp://www.kultureshock.co.uk/
An Evening with Anthony Stewart Head
at The Puppet Theatre, Norwich.
http://www.geocities.com/beccaelizabeth/ASHbe.jpg
Okay. To say I was looking forward to this event is kind of like saying the Arctic is cold. Teensy tiny understatement. I'd been winding myself up in little nervous circles about it since it was announced. No particular reason apart from its Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles, who I have been obsessing on second only to Ethan for months and months now. And there being a lot more of Giles to obsess about possibly even more than Ethan. Except then Ethan would sulk.
ANYways, I was really looking forward to this.
And it was very fun.
But I was all nervous and then took few notes. All of this from memory, and my memory can be wrong. I totally wont get it in the right order because the topics are filed in my head by what connects and the talk didnt work that way.
Before the talk part Kulture Shock threw stuff at the audience. Keyrings, earrings, and a couple of decks of playing cards. I collected four, three from the Angel deck and one from the Buffy deck. Three demons and Glory.
They also said if someone had a picture of the person they havent announced yet that is going to be at Kulture Shock, they got a free ticket. The hint was someone from the main cast. Someone called out Riley, and the answer was he wasn't main cast and they were sad.
So, someone more main than Riley is going to be at Kulture Shock soon.
I'm keeping my eye on the announcement list...
The ASH talk started with him walking down from the back of the auditorium. The Norwich puppet theatre has steps and rows of seats going up, and stairs that lead up to the back as well as a disabled entrance down by the stage. ASH came in and left by the stairs at the back so he walked right down the aisle. Next to me. Where I had an aisle seat. Yaay.
Then there was the pause for photos. The lighting was somewhat odd. When he sat down it made him all skull faced but when he stepped forward a bit the light was at a better angle and he looked much better. Which meant every time he stepped forward someone snapped a picture. Which got funny, cause he noticed this and whenever he walked out he'd stand there posing and grinning until someone flashed. :)
The lighting was fine for seeing but useless for cameras. At least for my camera, which I fully admit I still havent learned to use well. I snapped four but basically the best the enhanced photo can look like is a ghosty blur with some blurs behind it. Which is kind of artistic, but not particularly useful. Besides, I'd already decided to experience direct rather than via camera, so I put my camera away pretty quick.
Aside from the odd lighting, he looked good. I've been watching (with obsessive attention to detail) early first season Buffy, and he looked older than that of course, but not in any bad way. I was vaguely worried it would be like comparing first season BtVS Angel with 5th season Ats. But no, ASH still pretty.
The stage was set up with three standees at the back- Spike, Buffy and Angel- and a table and chair in the middle.
I'd been collecting questions to ask should I get the chance, but though I stuck my hand up at every opportunity (and, pause to marvel at this concept- me drawing attention to myself. Me attempting to speak not only in front of famous person but hall full of people. woah.) I never got to ask anything. But he talked for I think over an hour, so lots got said.
A lot of what happened wasnt words, it was body language, silly expressions, bouncing around like a lunatic, or significant pauses. Which is difficult to type up and I pretty much wont try.
He talked about how fun it was being the Fyarl
He was always saying he wanted to be evil, he could do evil. So when he heard Giles would be turned into a demon he was yaay, and then it was going to be funny, so that was... sort of huh? (lots of this reaction acted rather than said, so I approximate)
Getting the makeup put on was very zen
the trouble was at the other end of the day when you were all tired and it took an hour to get off
(I was the only one in the theater sniggering at that. bad be.)
The Fyarl was originally going to be wearing fluffy bedroom slippers, but he didnt like that idea. He asked about hooves but they launched into something huge and technical about cantilevers and stuff. But then he said they could put them on high heels if they just cover the heel, and it turned out the prop guys wife could make such things, so the demon had hooves. Which were visible for very little time, but *he* knew they were there.
He had spent quite a lot of time in four inch heels. As you do.
(Being Frank N. Furter in "Rocky Horror Show")
So someone asked him to do a little Frank in the car park one day, so he did. In full makeup as the Fyarl.
swishy demon... I'm boggling at the concept, even before my mental image adds corset and rouge...
Someone asked if he would ever try being Frank again and he said maybe he was getting a little old for it. Much disagreement from the audience, exagerrated happy from ASH.
Apparently he was going to do key dates on a tour but they couldnt sort the dates out to work around BtVS.
He said he is very bad at remembering the words to musicals. Apparently theres always a moment when he is on stage in a musical and starts to forget the words, and the orchestra is looking up at him with a 'what is he doing' look and him getting more and more lost and waiting for somewhere he can get back in again, which can sometimes take a couple of verses. (is more funny watching him tell it than reading me type it).
I think this was said in answer to someone who asked if he picked the songs for Giles to sing in BtVS season 4. Which he didnt. He recorded both at once, because JW couldnt make up his mind which to use until the last minute, but then used both on different times. ASH said this is why his lip sync is crap. Which led to a tangent of him appologising about his language, which I think is when he got on to talking about Spike accent.
Spike saying 'bollix' is not ASH's fault. He corrected JM, but there it was on the broadcast version anyway.
He agreed that JM's brit accent was good. He said a bunch about what part of the country it sounded to him like it was from- Yorkshire via most of the world I think he said, like a Yorkshire accent that had travelled a lot. To start with they had wanted a Sid Vicious, but JM wasnt talking like that, and ASH told him to stick with what he had cause it was fine.
another thing about accents came up when he was talking about Monarch of the Glen. I've never seen this show, because my TV isnt even plugged in and if it isnt on download or DVD I dont watch it (yes, I am strange *shrugs*). But ASH is going to be in it.
Apparently someone came up to (female cast member of MotG whose name I cant remember) and said they love the show, they watch it every week with the sound turned off. So its a great show. The actors get upstaged by the scenery every week.
ASH is playing a character that he and the director thought was supposed to be over the top and (he didnt say silly, I think, but something like that). The character does things like take the tops of champagne with a saber. Not exactly a quiet character. So the director was getting ASH to really go for it, but then the producer saw what they had been doing and, er, was not best pleased. Which was a bit of a surprise to ASH and the director. Apparently the producer thought ASH would bring a quiet dignity to the role. oops. all the directors fault of course... So they had to do some reshoots. Not starting again and redoing everything, which would have been easier, just redoing some scenes, which meant ASH had to tone it down but at the same time match it to the scenes they were keeping, which was tricky.
The character apparently made his money in chickens. Theres a guy round here called Bernard Matthews made his money in turkeys, so Norfolk is famous for turkeys. But ASH said he wasnt playing his MotG character with a Norfolk accent, because he couldnt do a Norfolk accent. So the guy from Kulture Shock decided this was the perfect opportunity to make the evening interactive and call on a member of the audience to come demonstrate a Norfolk accent for ASH to copy.
First person he chose was an older lady with a very broad accent. I think she goes to a lot of these events because she obviously knew the organisers well. He warned her to keep her hands off ASH. She really very ignored him. She sort of ended up plastered all over him. Which he took in good humour. But, as an accent coach, sort of not helpful. (This bit was funny. But in the way that is waaaay difficult to write up.)
Then the guy from Kulture Shock (whose name I should probably find out at some point but I'm terrible with names) got her to sit down and went looking for someone else from the audience. Asked who had a Norfolk accent. More specifically, asked who had a Norfolk accent and didn't want to come up in front of everybody ::)
So they called someone else, and she started off trying to teach him the words people always mock her about, but then the guy from Kulture Shock got a book for her to read from. She happily started where he told her. "Willow and Tara woke up together after a blissful reunion" (or words to that effect). Trail off realising he's got her to read out the lesbian porny bit. Then started again when the laughing died down.
(these bits arent translating well to text. *sigh*)
So ASH copied a few words, fairly well.
but he said the main reason he cant do Norfolk accents is because he lives near Bath and whenever he tries to go rural he ends up Somerset. Demonstrated accent.
He said that because he met Alexis Denisof when he was in England whenever he hears him speaking in an American accent it sounds to him like AD is doing an accent, so ASH is all stop putting that on.
The different accents that Giles and Ripper use (I'm making the names seperate for convenience, he didnt put it that way)- ASH's dad went to public school, and ASH went to grammar school, so if ASH talked the way his dad wanted him to when he was at school he'd get beat up. So he learned to speak one way at home and one at school, demonstrated the accents, sounded pretty much like Giles and Ripper. So he figured Giles was putting on the street accent to try and fit in, because he wanted to be a hard man but really wasnt.
When he got the script for Band Candy he had to figure stuff like that out for Giles, why he would talk that way. Also it had Giles wearing jeans. Which is fair enough but why would *Giles* have jeans? So ASH figured they would be painting trousers, and told the wardrobe people. But their idea of what painting trousers would look like and his really didnt match. They were all *mimes artistic dabbing* and he was thinking more *mimes throwing a paint can at it*.
be was really happy at this. That detail is one of the ones I thought was so perfect for the character, and it was ASH who thought of it. happy.
Also talking about clothes (I'm not clothes obsessed in daily life, but anyone who reads my commentaries on the s3 knows I'm BtVS and Ats clothes focused so this stays in my mind)- when Jenny died ASH had to think of how that would change Giles, what it would do to him. So he phoned his partner and she said that after a loss like that you build a wall, try and keep everything distant. So ASH spent time thinking about how Giles would dress to reflect that, so Giles started wearing more businesslike suits, more formal clothes, to reflect the distance he was trying to build up.
be is doing the happy dance of yes there is a point to taking all these notes because they really did use clothes to say this stuff.
I mentioned that there was a standee of Angel on the back of the stage. Well whenever ASH mentioned Jenny he'd do so with this great exaggerated sob voice, then go punch Angel.
it was really funny.
and again doesnt type up as funny. blah.
someone asked favourite episode and favourite season.
Fav ep he always said 'Passion' (*sob* Jenny! *punch Angel*) but then there was also Hush, and Once More with Feeling.
He talked about how the musical came to be, with the Shakespeare with JW, and the music and tequila, and a lot of stuff I'm not going to type up because I've read/heard it a bunch of times. If anyone else hasnt I guess leave a comment and I'll type it after all.
Fav season was season 2, with Spike and Dru. (And two Ethan episodes, so is be's fav too, with season 4 second fav).
He wore glasses with prescription lenses in them as Giles as often as possible, because he thinks the audience knows if glasses are plain glass (be agrees, though I dont consciously go around pointing it out). He blames this for his eyes getting weaker. Apparently the audience is all a blur now. Which is because of Giles wearing glasses. (be adds, and not, of course, because of the whole passage of time thing known as aging.) He also had stunt glasses, plain glass ones much easier to replace if they got broke, for him or his stuntman to wear to get knocked around (mimes of headbutts, or being knocked over). He has a pair still that he is soon going to auction for charity. A new kids theater in Bath I think.
Talking of theater- he was in a play with Patrick Stewart once. Someone in the audience held up the leaflet for it, that they had brought in to get signed. They had been to see it. Apparently ASH died horribly. He got hung by his hair. PS of course doesnt have any hair. "But a very fine head. *pause* So I'm told." (possible slight misquote, but definite for laughs. he kept doing that, saying things like "mass debate" then pausing like he'd heard what he said.)
told a story about how that play didnt do so well so PS went to do Shakespeare in America, which was where he got spotted to be in Next Gen.
Someone asked ASH if he had been to see Alyson Hannigan's play. He had. He went on to say how he was in a play called Rope with Alexis Denisof so knew him from then when someone asked if he knew anyone for Wesley. Wes at first described as 'Someone who thinks he's Pierce Brosnan but is actually George Lazenby'. So ASH suggested AD. They are friends, and ASH and AH Are friends, so when AD was not on BtVS any more and AH was thinking about maybe dating him AH asked ASH what he thought and ASH was all 'you shouldn't risk a friendship'. AH told him this was not what she wanted to hear at all :) But ASH was on the phone with his partner at the time and she told him to hand her over to AH and then told AH to go for it.
Talking about other BtVS people still in contact with- SMG and Seth Green were over for Scooby Doo 2 and visited with him. ASH says SMG is like a big sister to his kids. He also said "Seth is adorable." Just that. No particular context. I wrote it down at the time but it sort of stays in memory.
Someone asked about if NB has a twin, and if he has trouble with NB being more famous than him. ASH kind of waffled. Then got on to talking about how NB is funny and should get a show to be funny on. He said he and NB used to go out drinking and setting the world to rights, coming up with storylines for their characters. They'd take them to JW and he'd (difficult to describe expression, sort of adds up to 'yeah right' if I'm reading it right).
CC he said has tremendous natural talent (be's brain went to certain pictures I've seen. Yeah. Tremendous. Natural. bad be...), lots of acting talent, though he's sure she'd be the first to say she has trouble remembering the words. (I think that is what he said).
He mentioned Robin Sachs back when he was talking about the Fyarl makeup, saying how he has respect for anyone that acts from under lots of prosthetics, like RS in Galaxy Quest. (actually he paused to try and remember the film and the audience supplied the name. That happened a lot, ASH commented on it.)
He said working on 'Little Britain' was great because the two guys that write it are always happy to get suggestions. When he comes up with something that gets the laugh its great. (it is another show of his I've only seen five minutes of. I dont think its quite my sense of humour.)
Of working on Manchild I think he said "We never got along, we never had any fun, and we never took our clothes off." :) yeah, so very not. I've seen half an episode at a convention only, and I know how much they took their clothes off.
He said the four of them all have very different comedies but the writing uses all of them and makes them work together.
Someone asked if he always wanted to be an actor. ASH said yes. He used to think it started when he was 6. Someone had a playroom that was huge and barn like (or possibly not huge, but huge to a 6 year old) and they put on plays there. He was the Emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes. and no he was not naked, he wore combinations. (be doesnt know what those are, but thinks thats the word he said). He remembers walking on like that and everyone looking at him and thinking *big happy grin* he liked this, he could get used to this.
But then a (pre-school? playschool? forget which word he said) teacher who knew him when he was three had once remarked something like they 'would really like to meet Anthony, but he comes in as someone else every day'. And ASH remembers when he was little he would do that, be a different character. His favourite character was Rusty from Rin-Tin-Tin (again I know not this reference so my hearing of it could be wrong) and he had a hat and when he wore that hat as far as he was concerned he *was* Rusty. So the acting started very young.
A young person in the audience asked what advice he would give to a child who wanted to be an actor. He said the same he would to anyone at any age who wanted to be an actor. If you want to do it, go for it. Said a long speech about how you dont have to do drama school now, take every opportunity you can to act. ASH's kids have been saying they'd like to act and ASH is all *screwed up face of uh oh* and weeeell, and not wanting to let them because of the whole child actor thing. But his partner told him, get over it. Maybe they'll want to act when they are grown up, maybe they wont, but if they are stopped from acting now when they want to they will have a hole in their lives. ASH met someone recently who said exactly that, that they were stopped from acting when they were young and feel they have a huge hole in their lives.
So ASH says if you want to act, go for it, follow your dreams, dont let anyone stop you.
Then the guy from Kulture Shop says (name of guy who works for KS) wants to act in porn, what would ASH advice be?
*pause*
Follow your dreams, dont let anyone stop you, go for it.
:) :) :)
The KS guy was all *hide face in hands* at this point. Apparently he's in some kind of competition he was trying to get everyone to vote for, on Channel 5. And theres a phone line they have you can phone up and someone pretending to be him will do phone sex.
Some people have very interesting lives.
Anyways, found all that out while waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the autograph section of the evening. Event officially started at 4pm, I got mine at around 9pm and there were only half a dozen people after me. I dont mind waiting, so I waited. And talked. Met someone who had also been at The Harvest convention, but the very last ticket number, so a rather different qing experience to me (first 100). plus they were sat right at the back and me practically at the front. Talked about that some. They also had been on the internet recently for the first time reading fanfic, and had not previously known what 'NC-17' actually meant. oops.
Then there was the standing part of the q (many people had been standing for hours and hours, but I always figure if you have a perfectly good seat, it works better if you use it). The competition guy who works for Kulture Shock came in and tried to sell us photos of ASH. I'd bought one with my ticket (very pretty Giles face) and managed not to spend out on any more. But then he talked. I didnt follow all of it, something about Mr Gay UK and how Norwich needs to win this competition so it will have more gay clubs and events. He also advertised some night where you can win subscriptions to gay magazines, but I didnt catch where. Not that I'm big with the social life anyway.
The q was out under a whole lot of puppets, because puppet theater. They stared. I kept wondering what Ethan would do in there. "Have a field day" said the lady in line next to me.
Its great going to Buffy events cause you can be random like that and your fellow fans are random right along with you.
I think while I was in the q ASH said to someone in front of me that the Ripper movie was still a possibility, along with maybe Buffy or Angel TV movies. But I couldnt quite hear clear enough to be sure that was what he was talking about.
When it was my turn instead of asking questions I passed on the kiss the s3 board told me to give.
By saying they sent kisses. And thankyous for being Giles. (he said thanks back)
okay, so actually kissing him probably could have happened, but I'm just not that brave.
I gave him my email address tho.
He gave it right back, but hey, I tried :)
actually I had my email and web addresses written down, and he needed to know how to spell beccaelizabeth for my picture *pause to stare at pretty signed picture again*, so it was entirely reasonable to hand over the piece of paper so he could copy. I also said "This is me being subtle." *sheepish grin*
Then there were photo hugs and a picture on my camera
http://www.geocities.com/beccaelizabeth/ASHbe.jpg
he stopped for photos and chatted to absolutely everyone, which was part of why it took so long to get through, but few people were complaining, and everyone got their moment. It was very very cool. And fun. And good. And be is all happy happy happy.
I think I wrote up most of what he said, but it is so very not in order and I probably forgot bits. I'll add them in comments if I do remember anything.
An Evening with Anthony Stewart Head
at The Puppet Theatre, Norwich.
http://www.geocities.com/beccaelizabeth/ASHbe.jpg
Okay. To say I was looking forward to this event is kind of like saying the Arctic is cold. Teensy tiny understatement. I'd been winding myself up in little nervous circles about it since it was announced. No particular reason apart from its Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles, who I have been obsessing on second only to Ethan for months and months now. And there being a lot more of Giles to obsess about possibly even more than Ethan. Except then Ethan would sulk.
ANYways, I was really looking forward to this.
And it was very fun.
But I was all nervous and then took few notes. All of this from memory, and my memory can be wrong. I totally wont get it in the right order because the topics are filed in my head by what connects and the talk didnt work that way.
Before the talk part Kulture Shock threw stuff at the audience. Keyrings, earrings, and a couple of decks of playing cards. I collected four, three from the Angel deck and one from the Buffy deck. Three demons and Glory.
They also said if someone had a picture of the person they havent announced yet that is going to be at Kulture Shock, they got a free ticket. The hint was someone from the main cast. Someone called out Riley, and the answer was he wasn't main cast and they were sad.
So, someone more main than Riley is going to be at Kulture Shock soon.
I'm keeping my eye on the announcement list...
The ASH talk started with him walking down from the back of the auditorium. The Norwich puppet theatre has steps and rows of seats going up, and stairs that lead up to the back as well as a disabled entrance down by the stage. ASH came in and left by the stairs at the back so he walked right down the aisle. Next to me. Where I had an aisle seat. Yaay.
Then there was the pause for photos. The lighting was somewhat odd. When he sat down it made him all skull faced but when he stepped forward a bit the light was at a better angle and he looked much better. Which meant every time he stepped forward someone snapped a picture. Which got funny, cause he noticed this and whenever he walked out he'd stand there posing and grinning until someone flashed. :)
The lighting was fine for seeing but useless for cameras. At least for my camera, which I fully admit I still havent learned to use well. I snapped four but basically the best the enhanced photo can look like is a ghosty blur with some blurs behind it. Which is kind of artistic, but not particularly useful. Besides, I'd already decided to experience direct rather than via camera, so I put my camera away pretty quick.
Aside from the odd lighting, he looked good. I've been watching (with obsessive attention to detail) early first season Buffy, and he looked older than that of course, but not in any bad way. I was vaguely worried it would be like comparing first season BtVS Angel with 5th season Ats. But no, ASH still pretty.
The stage was set up with three standees at the back- Spike, Buffy and Angel- and a table and chair in the middle.
I'd been collecting questions to ask should I get the chance, but though I stuck my hand up at every opportunity (and, pause to marvel at this concept- me drawing attention to myself. Me attempting to speak not only in front of famous person but hall full of people. woah.) I never got to ask anything. But he talked for I think over an hour, so lots got said.
A lot of what happened wasnt words, it was body language, silly expressions, bouncing around like a lunatic, or significant pauses. Which is difficult to type up and I pretty much wont try.
He talked about how fun it was being the Fyarl
He was always saying he wanted to be evil, he could do evil. So when he heard Giles would be turned into a demon he was yaay, and then it was going to be funny, so that was... sort of huh? (lots of this reaction acted rather than said, so I approximate)
Getting the makeup put on was very zen
the trouble was at the other end of the day when you were all tired and it took an hour to get off
(I was the only one in the theater sniggering at that. bad be.)
The Fyarl was originally going to be wearing fluffy bedroom slippers, but he didnt like that idea. He asked about hooves but they launched into something huge and technical about cantilevers and stuff. But then he said they could put them on high heels if they just cover the heel, and it turned out the prop guys wife could make such things, so the demon had hooves. Which were visible for very little time, but *he* knew they were there.
He had spent quite a lot of time in four inch heels. As you do.
(Being Frank N. Furter in "Rocky Horror Show")
So someone asked him to do a little Frank in the car park one day, so he did. In full makeup as the Fyarl.
swishy demon... I'm boggling at the concept, even before my mental image adds corset and rouge...
Someone asked if he would ever try being Frank again and he said maybe he was getting a little old for it. Much disagreement from the audience, exagerrated happy from ASH.
Apparently he was going to do key dates on a tour but they couldnt sort the dates out to work around BtVS.
He said he is very bad at remembering the words to musicals. Apparently theres always a moment when he is on stage in a musical and starts to forget the words, and the orchestra is looking up at him with a 'what is he doing' look and him getting more and more lost and waiting for somewhere he can get back in again, which can sometimes take a couple of verses. (is more funny watching him tell it than reading me type it).
I think this was said in answer to someone who asked if he picked the songs for Giles to sing in BtVS season 4. Which he didnt. He recorded both at once, because JW couldnt make up his mind which to use until the last minute, but then used both on different times. ASH said this is why his lip sync is crap. Which led to a tangent of him appologising about his language, which I think is when he got on to talking about Spike accent.
Spike saying 'bollix' is not ASH's fault. He corrected JM, but there it was on the broadcast version anyway.
He agreed that JM's brit accent was good. He said a bunch about what part of the country it sounded to him like it was from- Yorkshire via most of the world I think he said, like a Yorkshire accent that had travelled a lot. To start with they had wanted a Sid Vicious, but JM wasnt talking like that, and ASH told him to stick with what he had cause it was fine.
another thing about accents came up when he was talking about Monarch of the Glen. I've never seen this show, because my TV isnt even plugged in and if it isnt on download or DVD I dont watch it (yes, I am strange *shrugs*). But ASH is going to be in it.
Apparently someone came up to (female cast member of MotG whose name I cant remember) and said they love the show, they watch it every week with the sound turned off. So its a great show. The actors get upstaged by the scenery every week.
ASH is playing a character that he and the director thought was supposed to be over the top and (he didnt say silly, I think, but something like that). The character does things like take the tops of champagne with a saber. Not exactly a quiet character. So the director was getting ASH to really go for it, but then the producer saw what they had been doing and, er, was not best pleased. Which was a bit of a surprise to ASH and the director. Apparently the producer thought ASH would bring a quiet dignity to the role. oops. all the directors fault of course... So they had to do some reshoots. Not starting again and redoing everything, which would have been easier, just redoing some scenes, which meant ASH had to tone it down but at the same time match it to the scenes they were keeping, which was tricky.
The character apparently made his money in chickens. Theres a guy round here called Bernard Matthews made his money in turkeys, so Norfolk is famous for turkeys. But ASH said he wasnt playing his MotG character with a Norfolk accent, because he couldnt do a Norfolk accent. So the guy from Kulture Shock decided this was the perfect opportunity to make the evening interactive and call on a member of the audience to come demonstrate a Norfolk accent for ASH to copy.
First person he chose was an older lady with a very broad accent. I think she goes to a lot of these events because she obviously knew the organisers well. He warned her to keep her hands off ASH. She really very ignored him. She sort of ended up plastered all over him. Which he took in good humour. But, as an accent coach, sort of not helpful. (This bit was funny. But in the way that is waaaay difficult to write up.)
Then the guy from Kulture Shock (whose name I should probably find out at some point but I'm terrible with names) got her to sit down and went looking for someone else from the audience. Asked who had a Norfolk accent. More specifically, asked who had a Norfolk accent and didn't want to come up in front of everybody ::)
So they called someone else, and she started off trying to teach him the words people always mock her about, but then the guy from Kulture Shock got a book for her to read from. She happily started where he told her. "Willow and Tara woke up together after a blissful reunion" (or words to that effect). Trail off realising he's got her to read out the lesbian porny bit. Then started again when the laughing died down.
(these bits arent translating well to text. *sigh*)
So ASH copied a few words, fairly well.
but he said the main reason he cant do Norfolk accents is because he lives near Bath and whenever he tries to go rural he ends up Somerset. Demonstrated accent.
He said that because he met Alexis Denisof when he was in England whenever he hears him speaking in an American accent it sounds to him like AD is doing an accent, so ASH is all stop putting that on.
The different accents that Giles and Ripper use (I'm making the names seperate for convenience, he didnt put it that way)- ASH's dad went to public school, and ASH went to grammar school, so if ASH talked the way his dad wanted him to when he was at school he'd get beat up. So he learned to speak one way at home and one at school, demonstrated the accents, sounded pretty much like Giles and Ripper. So he figured Giles was putting on the street accent to try and fit in, because he wanted to be a hard man but really wasnt.
When he got the script for Band Candy he had to figure stuff like that out for Giles, why he would talk that way. Also it had Giles wearing jeans. Which is fair enough but why would *Giles* have jeans? So ASH figured they would be painting trousers, and told the wardrobe people. But their idea of what painting trousers would look like and his really didnt match. They were all *mimes artistic dabbing* and he was thinking more *mimes throwing a paint can at it*.
be was really happy at this. That detail is one of the ones I thought was so perfect for the character, and it was ASH who thought of it. happy.
Also talking about clothes (I'm not clothes obsessed in daily life, but anyone who reads my commentaries on the s3 knows I'm BtVS and Ats clothes focused so this stays in my mind)- when Jenny died ASH had to think of how that would change Giles, what it would do to him. So he phoned his partner and she said that after a loss like that you build a wall, try and keep everything distant. So ASH spent time thinking about how Giles would dress to reflect that, so Giles started wearing more businesslike suits, more formal clothes, to reflect the distance he was trying to build up.
be is doing the happy dance of yes there is a point to taking all these notes because they really did use clothes to say this stuff.
I mentioned that there was a standee of Angel on the back of the stage. Well whenever ASH mentioned Jenny he'd do so with this great exaggerated sob voice, then go punch Angel.
it was really funny.
and again doesnt type up as funny. blah.
someone asked favourite episode and favourite season.
Fav ep he always said 'Passion' (*sob* Jenny! *punch Angel*) but then there was also Hush, and Once More with Feeling.
He talked about how the musical came to be, with the Shakespeare with JW, and the music and tequila, and a lot of stuff I'm not going to type up because I've read/heard it a bunch of times. If anyone else hasnt I guess leave a comment and I'll type it after all.
Fav season was season 2, with Spike and Dru. (And two Ethan episodes, so is be's fav too, with season 4 second fav).
He wore glasses with prescription lenses in them as Giles as often as possible, because he thinks the audience knows if glasses are plain glass (be agrees, though I dont consciously go around pointing it out). He blames this for his eyes getting weaker. Apparently the audience is all a blur now. Which is because of Giles wearing glasses. (be adds, and not, of course, because of the whole passage of time thing known as aging.) He also had stunt glasses, plain glass ones much easier to replace if they got broke, for him or his stuntman to wear to get knocked around (mimes of headbutts, or being knocked over). He has a pair still that he is soon going to auction for charity. A new kids theater in Bath I think.
Talking of theater- he was in a play with Patrick Stewart once. Someone in the audience held up the leaflet for it, that they had brought in to get signed. They had been to see it. Apparently ASH died horribly. He got hung by his hair. PS of course doesnt have any hair. "But a very fine head. *pause* So I'm told." (possible slight misquote, but definite for laughs. he kept doing that, saying things like "mass debate" then pausing like he'd heard what he said.)
told a story about how that play didnt do so well so PS went to do Shakespeare in America, which was where he got spotted to be in Next Gen.
Someone asked ASH if he had been to see Alyson Hannigan's play. He had. He went on to say how he was in a play called Rope with Alexis Denisof so knew him from then when someone asked if he knew anyone for Wesley. Wes at first described as 'Someone who thinks he's Pierce Brosnan but is actually George Lazenby'. So ASH suggested AD. They are friends, and ASH and AH Are friends, so when AD was not on BtVS any more and AH was thinking about maybe dating him AH asked ASH what he thought and ASH was all 'you shouldn't risk a friendship'. AH told him this was not what she wanted to hear at all :) But ASH was on the phone with his partner at the time and she told him to hand her over to AH and then told AH to go for it.
Talking about other BtVS people still in contact with- SMG and Seth Green were over for Scooby Doo 2 and visited with him. ASH says SMG is like a big sister to his kids. He also said "Seth is adorable." Just that. No particular context. I wrote it down at the time but it sort of stays in memory.
Someone asked about if NB has a twin, and if he has trouble with NB being more famous than him. ASH kind of waffled. Then got on to talking about how NB is funny and should get a show to be funny on. He said he and NB used to go out drinking and setting the world to rights, coming up with storylines for their characters. They'd take them to JW and he'd (difficult to describe expression, sort of adds up to 'yeah right' if I'm reading it right).
CC he said has tremendous natural talent (be's brain went to certain pictures I've seen. Yeah. Tremendous. Natural. bad be...), lots of acting talent, though he's sure she'd be the first to say she has trouble remembering the words. (I think that is what he said).
He mentioned Robin Sachs back when he was talking about the Fyarl makeup, saying how he has respect for anyone that acts from under lots of prosthetics, like RS in Galaxy Quest. (actually he paused to try and remember the film and the audience supplied the name. That happened a lot, ASH commented on it.)
He said working on 'Little Britain' was great because the two guys that write it are always happy to get suggestions. When he comes up with something that gets the laugh its great. (it is another show of his I've only seen five minutes of. I dont think its quite my sense of humour.)
Of working on Manchild I think he said "We never got along, we never had any fun, and we never took our clothes off." :) yeah, so very not. I've seen half an episode at a convention only, and I know how much they took their clothes off.
He said the four of them all have very different comedies but the writing uses all of them and makes them work together.
Someone asked if he always wanted to be an actor. ASH said yes. He used to think it started when he was 6. Someone had a playroom that was huge and barn like (or possibly not huge, but huge to a 6 year old) and they put on plays there. He was the Emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes. and no he was not naked, he wore combinations. (be doesnt know what those are, but thinks thats the word he said). He remembers walking on like that and everyone looking at him and thinking *big happy grin* he liked this, he could get used to this.
But then a (pre-school? playschool? forget which word he said) teacher who knew him when he was three had once remarked something like they 'would really like to meet Anthony, but he comes in as someone else every day'. And ASH remembers when he was little he would do that, be a different character. His favourite character was Rusty from Rin-Tin-Tin (again I know not this reference so my hearing of it could be wrong) and he had a hat and when he wore that hat as far as he was concerned he *was* Rusty. So the acting started very young.
A young person in the audience asked what advice he would give to a child who wanted to be an actor. He said the same he would to anyone at any age who wanted to be an actor. If you want to do it, go for it. Said a long speech about how you dont have to do drama school now, take every opportunity you can to act. ASH's kids have been saying they'd like to act and ASH is all *screwed up face of uh oh* and weeeell, and not wanting to let them because of the whole child actor thing. But his partner told him, get over it. Maybe they'll want to act when they are grown up, maybe they wont, but if they are stopped from acting now when they want to they will have a hole in their lives. ASH met someone recently who said exactly that, that they were stopped from acting when they were young and feel they have a huge hole in their lives.
So ASH says if you want to act, go for it, follow your dreams, dont let anyone stop you.
Then the guy from Kulture Shop says (name of guy who works for KS) wants to act in porn, what would ASH advice be?
*pause*
Follow your dreams, dont let anyone stop you, go for it.
:) :) :)
The KS guy was all *hide face in hands* at this point. Apparently he's in some kind of competition he was trying to get everyone to vote for, on Channel 5. And theres a phone line they have you can phone up and someone pretending to be him will do phone sex.
Some people have very interesting lives.
Anyways, found all that out while waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the autograph section of the evening. Event officially started at 4pm, I got mine at around 9pm and there were only half a dozen people after me. I dont mind waiting, so I waited. And talked. Met someone who had also been at The Harvest convention, but the very last ticket number, so a rather different qing experience to me (first 100). plus they were sat right at the back and me practically at the front. Talked about that some. They also had been on the internet recently for the first time reading fanfic, and had not previously known what 'NC-17' actually meant. oops.
Then there was the standing part of the q (many people had been standing for hours and hours, but I always figure if you have a perfectly good seat, it works better if you use it). The competition guy who works for Kulture Shock came in and tried to sell us photos of ASH. I'd bought one with my ticket (very pretty Giles face) and managed not to spend out on any more. But then he talked. I didnt follow all of it, something about Mr Gay UK and how Norwich needs to win this competition so it will have more gay clubs and events. He also advertised some night where you can win subscriptions to gay magazines, but I didnt catch where. Not that I'm big with the social life anyway.
The q was out under a whole lot of puppets, because puppet theater. They stared. I kept wondering what Ethan would do in there. "Have a field day" said the lady in line next to me.
Its great going to Buffy events cause you can be random like that and your fellow fans are random right along with you.
I think while I was in the q ASH said to someone in front of me that the Ripper movie was still a possibility, along with maybe Buffy or Angel TV movies. But I couldnt quite hear clear enough to be sure that was what he was talking about.
When it was my turn instead of asking questions I passed on the kiss the s3 board told me to give.
By saying they sent kisses. And thankyous for being Giles. (he said thanks back)
okay, so actually kissing him probably could have happened, but I'm just not that brave.
I gave him my email address tho.
He gave it right back, but hey, I tried :)
actually I had my email and web addresses written down, and he needed to know how to spell beccaelizabeth for my picture *pause to stare at pretty signed picture again*, so it was entirely reasonable to hand over the piece of paper so he could copy. I also said "This is me being subtle." *sheepish grin*
Then there were photo hugs and a picture on my camera
http://www.geocities.com/beccaelizabeth/ASHbe.jpg
he stopped for photos and chatted to absolutely everyone, which was part of why it took so long to get through, but few people were complaining, and everyone got their moment. It was very very cool. And fun. And good. And be is all happy happy happy.
I think I wrote up most of what he said, but it is so very not in order and I probably forgot bits. I'll add them in comments if I do remember anything.
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Date: 2004-08-16 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 10:41 am (UTC)it was fun
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Date: 2004-08-16 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 12:01 pm (UTC)and he mentioned films he has been in, but I dont remember any of that bit.
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Date: 2004-08-16 03:36 pm (UTC)Giles uses a card index. Because on a computer you just tap keys and its all boring. With a card index you pull the drawers out, and pull the cards out, and fiddle with the cards, and put the cards back in, and push the drawers in (he was saying things all dramatic, with gestures and pauses). Many prop playing with opportunities. So thats why the cards and not computer. But it also fits his attitude to technology.
ASH went to sit in the cafeteria at the high school he visited and felt soooo out of place it was the best research for Giles he could do. ASH said that American high schools are like nothing we (Brit audience) had ever seen.
and I just got out of bed to type that snippet up, so I hope you're all properly grateful :)
(obsessive, moi?) ::) <--eye roll smiley
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Date: 2004-08-16 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 02:26 am (UTC)as long as my brain isnt completely fried at the time I just have a pretty good memory. Record it all for later thinking on.
though this time I have no recollection of touch or smell data. Will have to correct that next time I meet him. :)
Lola stopped by . . .
Date: 2004-08-16 07:00 pm (UTC)All your observations are proving very accurate, aren't they? Clothes stuff and Jane E's comments about Giles and Ethan.
"This is me being subtle." You minx, you! You're on a roll!
Lola
Re: Lola stopped by . . .
Date: 2004-08-17 02:28 am (UTC)yeah
but also, that really was subtle for me ::)
yeah, its *great* hearing stuff like this from the people who made the show. I'm not saying all my observations will prove out, but its good to know that what I'm looking at is something that has data. Sometimes I worry its one big inkblot. But nope, they were saying stuff. happy :)
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Date: 2004-08-18 05:01 pm (UTC)...Although now I want to start pushing for "Alexis Denisof for James Bond" again.
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Date: 2004-08-19 02:46 am (UTC)also, pretty
and AD would be good as Bond, therefore is impossible that he will get it.
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Date: 2004-08-20 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-19 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-20 03:50 pm (UTC)a not very detailed write up
adds
His favourite track on Music For Elevators is " Babies" because however hard he tried to balance home and family whilst working on Buffy, and however supportive his family were there was so much he missed .
Joss gave very specific directions as to the arm waving when Fyral Giles chased Maggie Walsh.
He said that one day you will look at something you have achieved or created and you will see that it is good.You will not need outside affirmation or confirmation of your opinion you will just know , and at that point it will cease to matter whether your parents approved of you or the world sees you as a success , it will be good and it will be yours. It took him till he was 45 to learn that but it was the most important thing he ever learned.
(so of course be forgot it ::) )
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Date: 2004-08-20 04:14 pm (UTC)