James Callis at FedCon Germany

Last updated on Monday, 18th May, at 10:20 PM Finnish time.
(Obviously check back for updates, but I'm tired of putting that in the title)


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Latest updates:

Caprica-City has a paraphrase of James' Saturday panel up. If you know German, you can read it here. If not, here's a free translation of the key points. Thanks to Caprica-City for the detailed report and Artemis_Neith for translation help! (I've left out the things I already covered from earlier reports.)

-James was asked what happened with Baltar's harem. He had to admit he doesn't have any idea. He feels that Baltar always knew his religious talk was fake and never truly believed in it.

-What kind of person would be inspired by Baltar? James said that maybe he doesn't want to know, but possibly someone who wants to start their own religion. Hee!

-Asked about the height difference between him and Tricia, and also who was cast first: James said they were both cast at the same time, and the casting directors wanted to see which two actors had the best chemistry. He added that Six, while very feminine, also had masculine qualities, while Baltar embodied some feminine qualities. (True, and something fans have often pointed out. It's quite brave of James to play a character that's sort of androgynous. I know some fans find Baltar annoying precisely because he's "not manly enough", while some others like myself find him all the more compelling and sexy because of that.)

-Whole scenes were never improvised during filming, but there were added bits. For instance, the scene in season three (Taking a Break From All Your Worries) where Gaeta attacks Baltar was changed. Alessandro Juliani wasn't happy with just attacking him for no apparent reason, so he came up with the idea of Baltar whispering something into his ear. (Very interesting, and not the first time I've heard of AJ adding to the role - the homoerotic vibes were his idea too. I wish we'd seen more of Gaeta throughout the show.)

-For a long time, James had no idea who the final cylon would be. He had someone in mind, but was very surprised about who it was, and liked the choice. He was also happy it wasn't Baltar. (I wonder who he had in mind then?)

-Asked about the naked scenes on the baseship... I'm not sure what this answer is supposed to mean, and Artemis_Neith wasn't sure either, so it's not just my German. He apparently said there was a lot of green screen, and when people had to be added later, they put a microphone stand with a tennis ball on top there, so it was better than that at any rate. (????)

-Someone asked if he wishes he had played Baltar differently in some scenes. James said that's not the case; he always wanted to make Baltar as three-dimensional and human as possible.

-Is Baltar evil? James feels that things simply happen to Baltar, who, while not moral, is not evil. Asked about the scene where Lee tells him he's never done anything unselfish, James says the scene was originally shot with Head Six there, so it might seem like Gaius is shaking his head etc., but it's not at Lee. ARGH WHY IS HEAD SIX ALWAYS REMOVED?! It ruins the rhythm of the scene!! Grr I'm angry. Um, sorry. Back to James, he said Baltar doesn't need Lee to tell him who he is, and that some of his acts weren't completely egoistical. (I'm so glad he mentioned that.)

-He was also asked about the project he had to leave for, but unfortunately couldn't reveal more than that it's a comedy about a family. (Aww, too bad. I'm very curious about the project, but we'll just have to wait and see!)

Sunday updates:

Aha - found an explanation for the "in bed with the cylons" magazine cover behind James in the panel pictures! Apparently this guy had made those covers, and James really liked his!

Nonetheless, he's the one responsible for the title of this post - he seemed really impressed by my work (resulting in his words on his signature - I never got a thank you on one of those before ;) ). "I will take that home with me, that's some great work - thank you very much!" PRIDE! :)

:) That's great! James is an appreciative guy! *gush* I was a bit confused about that cover, because it says "James Callis" at the bottom, so I was wondering if James himself wrote it - it does seem like that kind of humor. It's got that Baltar flavor, somehow. Great work!

And a couple more photos at flickr! The Q&A:
A dizzy view, a sly look, the suit looks white again, dammit, and can't think of what to call this one, it's just a very James smile.

Plus a cute jamming picture from the opening. Hee!

Thursday update:

Pedda of Caprica-City has posted photo galleries, including one of James' Q&A! He looks adorable! :) He's pretty thin right now, but you can tell in some of the pictures that he has a tiny belly, and it's driving me insane. Soft and juicy!

Wednesday updates:

A forum thread with lots of photo op pictures of James (see all pages). He's looking very cute but kinda tired - just like in the Starfury photo op pictures. Maybe the con days are very tiring for the stars, meeting so many people. And to be quite honest, the boy next door shirt and the coat together - not a particularly good combination. Typical James! :D

And yes, he doesn't seem to mind hugging perfect strangers, and yes, I did imagine myself there, once again. *fantasy cuddle*!

Tuesday update:

A picture gallery here with photos of James from the opening ceremony and the Q&A. I won't link individually to each of them, because there are quite many. A cute crazy-eyes look here though. And I love when he rubs his feet (perhaps without noticing?) like this while talking. It's very boyish. (In one shot at the In the Moment gallery, link below, he actually touches the sole of his shoe, which is a bit gross, but also really cute.)

Sunday updates:

A gorgeous series of Q&A photos at In the Moment. It's clearly a professional photographer's site, and he's captured a lot of hilarious James expressions. Beautiful!

"I had a farm in Africa" actually wasn't James' own idea - I'm surprised, that sounds like a very James autograph:

Could you write down
"I had a farm in Africa"
for us?
At first he didn't seem to catch it,
but then he went"You know, it's a pretty funny joke"
Then he laughed, and I could have colapsed XDD

Hee! :D So cute.

A picture from the autograph session! Yay for Coke! I was wondering why there weren't any pictures with Coke bottles this time around. (Don't abandon our dark master, James!) I wonder what's in the bigger bottles. A good array of pens will come in handy when you're signing, too. OK, it's a really cute picture of James smiling too, but I tend to get distracted with this "objects related to James" fetish. In the bigger picture, there seems to be some chocolate... Edited: I'm not sure if that's chocolate now, maybe it's actually a... hard case of something... :P That's a real puzzle.
There's also a cell phone, earphones... (OK, I think I can just publish the post and continue obsessing to myself at this point.)

Two new photos from the Q&A's at Flickr! Here and here. One of these links refers to a piece of news that was not given by James himself. It seems like this shouldn't have gotten out yet, so I will not comment on it until we hear from James. I am very happy though, and anxiously waiting for the news.

I'm going to buy the BSG DVD from FedCon, but it sounds like it won't come out until sometime in October. So look forward to my Q&A transcripts then. The reports seem to be dwindling down; there will probably still be some updates to this post though.

Saturday updates:

Nicole (flyergrafix@web.de) has given me permission to use the beautiful James pictures above.
She also shared her meeting story:

Even though I was not an explicit Baltar Fan to begin with, James was such a nice guy, I think I'll rethink.
When I showed him the painting, he was speechless. "That's brilliant" he said... and such a beautiful smile! The autograph reads: Nicole - there is no black and white, just shades of grey. You've captured that beautifully. Lots of love to you, James Callis."

Awww! :) I'm always glad to hear when someone sees how nice James is and decides to like Baltar a little. And have I mentioned how much I love his personalized autographs?

A cute little story from Caprica-City:

James Callis hab ich vor dem Zigarettenautomaten an der Garderobe gesehen, der wusste leider nicht wie man so ein Ding bedient, ein anderer Besucher schon u ich konnte English. Sah fetzig aus in weiss aber Mönsch ...ist der klein!

Translation with some help from Artemis_Neith: "I saw James in front of the cigarette machine in the wardrobe. Unfortunately he didn't know how to use it, but another guest did, and I knew English. He looked handsome in white, but man - is he ever small!"

White? I thought the suit was beige, aagh! But seriously, it's very cute. Artemis_Neith wants to point out that German cigarette machines have specifically been made difficult to use, so that children wouldn't be able to buy cigarettes. Somehow the idea of James fumbling with a machine like that sounds very comical to me though. I wonder why he didn't bring more cigarettes with him (are there limitations for that, or did he end up smoking more than he was planning to? And did he buy Marlboro or some other brand? Why does this fascinate me so much?)? Questions abound.


Thursday updates:

Plus a picture from the opening ceremony from the same blog.

And a review of Saturday in German, with some details (but no photos) of the James panel:

Auf die Frage welche Rolle er außer seiner gerne gespielt hätte war die Antwort, dass er gerne die Sechs gespielt hätte, dann hätte er sich den ganzen Tag irgendwo eingeschlossen und mit sich selbst gespielt - hehe. Ein Fan fragte dann noch, wo denn Baltars Harem hinverschwunden sei plötzlich. Das wusste er auch nicht so genau, aber er meinte eventuell sei ja ein SpinnOff mit dem Titel “Baltars Lovecult” geplant.

He was asked which other roll he would have liked to play, and he answered that he would have liked to be Six, because then he could have played with himself the whole day. Hee :D

A fan asked where Baltar's cult disappeared so suddenly, and he said he doesn't know himself, but there will be a spin-off with the title Batlar's Lovecult. :D :D

A report in French about one of the Q&A's. Lots of beautiful pictures, and some fun details! I'll translate a few bits that I understood:

Hop, une petite question à propos de Bridget Jones et des hôtesses de l'air. Oui, James est toujours reconnu par les hôtesses de l'air pour son rôle dans le Journal de Bridget Jones. Alors il se demande si regarder le Journal de Bridget Jones, ce n'est pas une condition obligatoire pour devenir hôtesse de l'air.

James said he's always recognized by stewardesses from her role in Bridget Jones' Diary, and he wonders if seeing the film is an obligatory requirement for becoming a stewardess. Hee! He also mentioned having fun with the other actors who played Bridget's friends and Renee Zellweger who played Bridget. (And something about Renée that I didn't understand.)

James was very charming. (Well, of course! :D) He did his Aerilon accent for the audience. It was apparently inspired by a visit to Northern England, where he couldn't understand anything the people said. I always thought those accents were insanely hard to get, but I didn't know even British people felt the same way!

J'ai bien aimé sa réponse à la question d'une jeune fille qui lui demandait quels conseils il donnerait à des jeunes acteurs débutants... pour lui, on est tous plus ou moins acteurs, même dans la vie. Et il suffit de puiser dans les situations où on se met en scène pour y trouver la bonne recette. D'ailleurs, il imite une californienne avec ses stilettos et son mini-chien et c'est très drôle !

He imitated a Californian woman with her stiletto heels and little dog. Hee! :D I'm not sure why he did - I think it's in connection to a question about how to become an actor, and he said we're all actors in our lives. But my French fails me at that point.

Oh, and apparently the same writer just commented on this post that the suit is definitely beige. So now we know. :D

Wednesday updates:

There haven't been any transcripts or videos from the Q&A's, so I'll mention now that I'm planning on purchasing the FedCon BSG DVD and transcribing from there. (It might take a while though.) But if any readers have photos or stories they'd like to share, please leave a comment or email me.

I love his personalized autographs - "I had a farm in Africa"! And another photo op picture! He looks more animated in the Q&A photos, but there's something endearing about these fan photo ops. I'm glad he got to do at least one of them.

A collage with a picture of James here - looking kind of adorably tired. Long day signing? :)

More photos from the opening and discussion in French here. Now the suit looks grey. Oh, dear! I think some of the fans are saying that James isn't as stylish as he was in France, but he's adorable anyway. :D

The first photo op picture here - James is looking very intense! And wearing the coat over the boy next door shirt! And the coat looks sorta white again - maybe we should agree it's off white, or some such shade. It's very confusing!

And James signing here, with some text in French. I think it says he was irresistable with his samll t-shirt and his hair "dans tout les sens" - not sure what that last bit means.

And a picture from the Q&A here.

That's about all for today!

Tuesday updates:

Another picture from the opening.

And a report from the con with a mention of James and a picture of the stars signing autographs, here! Apparently they gave the actors something called "stroopwafels", so maybe that's what James has next to his coffee cup in that one picture. (I almost wrote "God" instead of "James". Ahem. Well, I have the flu, so that explains it, right?)

Thanks to Airings for uploading them and Nicole for the link, there are tons of pictures at this LJ! He looks gorgeous! Sounds like he talked again about the torture scene where EJO wanted him to wear the eye clips:

And then James did an impersonation of Eddie, going all "No. You've gotta do the pins. It doesn't make sense without the pins" and James said "..I don't want to go blind for Battlestar Galactica". BUT THE IMPERSONATION, YOU GUYS. I DIED.

Also:

He said he had to be in London at 7am the next morning to film a movie! That's some dedication right there.

Just as I thought - Rubins calls! I'm glad he got to do two days of the con anyway.

The shirt is totally adorable and he looks so cute and tiny and fluffy-haired! I know I've been obsessing over the donut gut thing lately (and still am), and I can't decide if I prefer him chubby or skinny. Either way, he's really adorable.

These pictures come from Caprica City, where unfortunately most photos are members only. The reports have been mostly of Sunday so far, but I will keep an eye on them and post some translations where applicable.

A picture from the opening night. It's odd how the suit that looks beige in other photos looks white in others. So what color was it really?

And here, an adorable picture from upclose, while James is signing. Chest hair! Arm hair! His hair upclose! And - is that candy he's got next to the coffee cup? You know, I'm becoming vaguely obsessed with that shirt. Boy next door shirt!

Monday updates:

A picture from the Q&A's! What say we on the shirt? It's amusing because it looks like the kind of shirt I've seen on so many guys. I'm used to seeing James in costume, I guess, so it's always odd when he's wearing text. :D

And a brief but amusing tweet:

Got literally overrun by James Callis at the Friday night party and wrote on my autograph the next day: lots of love, gotta run.

Heee! :D That's so James!

That's about it for now. James was at FedCon for Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday. At least one photo op was cancelled. Views of Teamwak reports that the shooting for Re-Uniting the Rubins started yesterday, so he probably wanted to get to London in time for that. There may not be as much stuff this time because of that.

Saturday updates:
The con is still going on, so there won't be a lot to report at this point, but there are a couple of photos at flickr.

James with Eddie, Hogan, Richard and Nichelle Nichols here.
...the microphone here.
...Mark, Richard and Michael here.
...Mark, Richard, Michael and Eddie here.
Richard in light, James in the shadow here.
James waving here.

The hair is still fluffy! I'm glad he keeps it like that, instead of the slick-back he sometimes does. And I love how small he looks inside that suit. Our little man!

More later. The reports will probably be mostly in German, so I will be providing English translations where necessary, and Artemis_Neith has offered to help in case of need.