An Evening With James Callis

An Evening With James Callis took place in Bonn, Germany, on the 12th of September, 2009. About 100 people were present for a 90-minute panel, photo session and autograph session.

Scifi-trek.de has a video of the full panel. You can download or stream it on this page. There are two download links, the one below is higher quality. For Mac users: alt+click on the links to download the video. The panel is a MUST SEE for all James fans - perhaps the best panel ever, with lots of humor and in-depth answers. And he does those typical James faces all along. He's so animated, the camera can barely follow him sometimes. Lots of fun to watch.

There's also an audio stream of the full panel at VDVD Magazine, here.

Two brief video goodies:
James saying bye to some fans. Awww, so sweet! You know, I think I like that scarf even better than the rest of the outfit. I'm in love with the scarf. And the man wearing it.

James says hello to Caprica.de, before signing autographs. Strangely he looks more tired here than in the other video. His hair looks a bit toussled by the fangirls. :D

Many thanks for the photos below to René Kissien of Caprica-City. More of his pictures at kixxa's blog here.

James Callis with the Caprica City mascot, Schwein.


Pictures from the panel:





OMG Scarf!


OMG Chest Hair!


"And Tricia is like this tall..." (I'm just guessing :D)


And then the photos with MY STUFF OMG (L) (L) (L)


Apparently my name proved a little challenging, as he needed a cheat sheet (see the envelope being held for him.) So cute! :D Don't worry James, nobody gets it right the first time!


Best. Autograph. Ever. He looks so kind, poring over that. (L)!!! Oh James!

A large gallery of photos! He looks so gorgeous. Here. Photos by Evelyne J aka aa_eve_aa

Another photo gallery here. Lots of lovely Jamesy expressions! I'm kinda obsessed with that scarf, and I love the pictures where he touches it. Scarf fetish?

And some more photos here. It says James was a very calm guest, and in the photo session he was completely relaxed and let people do what they wanted. (Hence the photo of two girls kissing him. Yeah, I'm sure they had to twist his arm! :D)

This was the first picture:
He looks SO beautiful. The hair is still long, we've got glasses and ... some kind of English professor getup, complete with vest? Hee! See the picture here. SO HOT.

There's going to be a separate post with a transcript of the panel. I'm going to transcribe the whole thing - and kixxa's offered to help in case my fingers fall off while doing it - but it might take me a while. It's a really great panel, maybe the best one ever. He really expands on some things that we've heard in previous panels and there are some new things as well. Here's just a little teaser. It's about Rubins and Meet Pursuit Delange.

I've been involved in something in England, a pilot... [Meet Pursuit Delange] It's a rather difficult thing to describe. It was a comedy and it was very risqué, very very risqué. It was so risqué that the pilot possibly won't be made. People are interested perhaps in a movie that will be loess risqué. Do you understand risqué? Essentially risqué is rude.. rude or crude, or both. I play this guy who was a wannabe, he wanted to be involved in the media in some way. And he's very naïve and a bit... sweet, like a nice guy, sweet, but he meets up with an old school friend who never was actrually his friend at school. And the old school firend is really mean, really nasty. So it's like a duo between myself who was like Bambi and my friend who was like Satan. (laughter) It was very funny to do.

About Rubins:

It's kind of a bittersweet comedy. Do you have, in Germany, do you have a show like The Apprentice... so you've got your own Donald Trump? A German version of Donald Trump? -You don't? You just get Donald Trump? Well, in England we have this guy called Alan Sugar, who runs The Apprentice. And he's um... terribly successful businessman but started from very humble beginnings. And the character that I played in this film is.. wants to be a business magnate, and is actually rather... unpleasant, naïve..

There's just been something on the news about what I was doing on the film... Which I didn't... when I got the script, I was... It's true, and that's on the news at ten. There's all this mining going on in Africa for [ore?] that ends up in our mobile phones. Do you know about this? Some of you do. You go to the top of the class, the people who do. [laughs] Anyway, there's all this stuff that it's a huge conflict. Mobile or cell phones are a billion dollar industry and business. We're all slaves to being on the mobile phones. But it's causing wars and havoc in Africa where people are being paid nothing. They spend their whole lives mining this stuff out of the Earth. And that's something I was doing in the film. I was very unscrupulous.

And uh, possibly some other stuff... Until I actually got the job, until I'm actually on the set, I don't really like to talk about it. Our industry is so up and down. I have been quoted before going, "You'll see me in this." And it doesn't really happen. So you'll see, watch this space.

Also, a tweet:

Really nice event.Very easy going.he was even later eating in same room and saying goodbye at every table. No charge ;)

Yay! :) Sounds like he was in a good mood and the con was a very relaxed one.


Mindless fangirl gushing

This time, the con was a bit more personal for me, because I also sent James a little something and got his autograph (see the posts below this one for more details on what I sent). I was very anxious about his reaction, and the autograph and the photos were a very important, very positive experience.

HUGE thanks to Pedda of Caprica City for getting me James' autograph! It reads:

Dear [real name] -
Thank you so much for your gifts...
So sorry to miss you
Need I ask -
But do you wanna join my cult?
Membership has its privileges.
Lots and lots of love always
James Callis xxx

(L) (L) (L) OMG James.

Best. Autograph. Ever.
A. It's really long.
B. I know it's easy to write all that "sorry to miss you" and "lots of love" stuff but I am totally going to think he means it. See above how tender he looks writing it (unless I'm just seeing things...)
C. "Need I ask"? :D Hee! But James, I started your cult! Jamus? Somebody needs to get him a leaflet. And I'm going to take that "Membership has its privileges" thing as flirtation.
F. He has his arms over the picture. I'm totally checking for arm hairs when I get it.
G. JAMES CALLIS TOUCHED SOMETHING I OWN.
H. Oh James! (L)

I guess what I wished for was just a bit of James' kindness. It's the thing I love the most about him, and I've seen him be so kind at others, I was hungry for it. I wanted him to be kind at me. I feel like I got even more than I wanted, and my cup runneth over a little. But I'm just really happy and touched by this. I was concerned that maybe I'm hoping for too much and I'll be disappointed no matter what he writes. But it seems like he really understood how much this means to me and was willing to give me some of his kindness. It really means a lot.

I think I'm going to save some money and go to a con myself and report from there. We'll see when and if I can actually afford that, but I'm not nervous anymore. I'm not anxious about meeting him. Obviously there's nothing to worry about. I feel really good about this.