Of interest: There's a new project on James' imdb bio. It's not FlashForward. It's "The Scholarship - details only on imdb pro." I'm very curious about this. Anybody here have imdb pro? *M reports that this movie has something to do with Nick Cohen. Interesting. It's apparently not a James co-write/co-produce thing this time, though.
This site seems to have some protection issues but the cache version works. It's an appreciation thread from 2008 and there's some meeting James stuff when you scroll down.
As someone who dislikes his character, I was thinking that I probably won't like him, but James was awesome to talk to. He was friendly and funny.I mentioned that we were from fanforum.com, etc and he was interested in it...but the idiot that I am, me and my gf were kind of caught in the moment of "talking to a famous person" that we forgot to write it down for him. He was like "I'd like to check that out, I told him what it was, the site in general, and that he's got his own appreciation thread....James said he enjoys lurking on BSG forums, etc reading what the fans have to say.
...James, are you reading this? :D I'm not super-surprised, because he reads the Unofficial site and recognized Matt and Nat of GalactiCast, but it's nice to know he reads fan sites. It's amusing to think of him lurking in forums. While I'd love for him to post more online (say in his own personal blog), I think it's wise of him to lurk and not start defending Baltar in online conversations. That would be messy.
Hilariously, someone said he was like Baltar, and someone else asked for a clarification:
Some of the mannerisms are like him. I asked him how it was to work with Lucy Lawless and Tricia and he said that they were totally in love with him. That's what I thought was like Baltar. But he was very nice and great to talk to.
LOL! That's called being facetious. And it's not like Baltar at all. Baltar would have said that and meant it. It's amusing that some people apparently can't tell when James does this.
Triniroslin found some promotional pictures of The Hub. Drool! I know he's supposed to be injured and all, but he had a little tummy. What can I do but gush? Also, The Hub is probably my favorite Baltar/Laura episode evah and contains some stellar performances from both James and Mary Mc. Plus it has Lucy. So James+Mary+Lucy plus a bunch of people touching his belly. I mean, is this episode designed to please me or what?
In a similar vein, there's also this full image of a distraught Gaius on the destroyed Earth. And a few other pictures from the shooting. OK, this is old stuff, but it's still nice to see it.
A very cool video of BSG vs. Beastie Boys song Sabotage. The link also contains a very cool mention of James:
No lie... James Callis sang part of Sabotage to me at Megacon last year, when he saw that I was wearing a shirt from that video. :P
Awesome! Maybe he likes that song? (*goes and listens to Sabotage several times just because James knows it*) (seriously speaking, it's not my favorite music style but the video is really cool, what with the monikers and great sync of BSG scenes.)
Christina Schild, who played Playa Palacios on BSG, recounts working with James on the bathroom stall scene:
Oh, it was so much fun to work with him. I remember walking back into the bathroom stall -- when he goes in and I follow him in -- I remember we had to try and keep ourselves from giggling, because we were squished into that bathroom stall. Waiting for the director to yell cut. We had a really fun time.
Hee! Actually, it's too bad she wasn't really seen after that. It might have been fun. Or not. Um, we didn't really get a very good idea of who Playa was.
Some 2008 Starfury stuff.
James Callis is absolutely stunning, and I didn't expect him to be so down-to-earth and thoughtful towards the fans. He really made an effort to write a different dedication on every autograph.....Tahmoh, I don't know, he is nice and intelligent and everything, but he doesn't have that special presence on stage that captivates you, especially if you compare him to James Callis. James starts talking and you can not NOT listen to him.....James - Seemed laid back and funny. Also commented on the pronounciatino of my name...
Awww. People often seem touched at how much effort James makes, and it does a fan's heart good. And - he was interested in someone's name again? It really does seem like he loves names. (L)!!!
Another cute fan meeting:
- HUNG OUT WITH JAMES CALLIS (BALTAR!) AND TAHMOH PENIKETT (HELO!) AT THE MARRIOTT BAR!!! Both the dudes were really cool, and James told us to watch what happens in the second part of season 4 - he said it's pretty heavy. He also told Anna she was very beautiful and that she should find him when she's dressed as Six, lol!
Hee! I bet he enjoys hanging out with the girls dressed as Six. ;) (I'm not jealous of Anna. At all.) (Not AT ALL.) (Hmph.)
A lovely discussion of the Bear McCreary concert (2008).
Me: Um. This will be a bit spooky but I have in my possession a large picture of your head.James Callis: Ah. Well. That's all right.Me: Uh. My roommate gave it to me. It's been hanging awkwardly in my room since, advertising your show. But um. Please don't think I'm creepy. I'm not trying to be creepy. Honest!Gaius Baltar: o_o
LOL!!! Yeah, I imagine being pretty much that awkward if I ever meet him. "I write a blog about you. It's all about you. I think about you a lot. But I'm not creepy, I swear!"
Seriously though, there is nothing creepy about having his poster on your wall. But I have a feeling that if the fan gets incredibly defensive about it, it might begin to seem creepy. There's really no point in constant "I'm not a stalker, seriously" apologies, but I realize I make those on here all the time. I should probably stop. If James thinks I'm a stalker, there's nothing I can do to convince him otherwise, but really why would he? (He wouldn't, right? Right?)
On the other hand, there's this:
Grace Park, who plays a collective of Cylon characters (Sharon/Boomer/Athena), said she recently got "a box big enough to fit a golden retriever in" that was packed with intricately assembled scrapbooks. "This fan had clearly spent hours and hours putting this together, and every page was about me, all the places where my name has popped up in a story or on the Internet. This story will be in the next one, I'm sure of it. It's very nice, but it's also a little . . . much."
Note to self: don't send James scrapbooks. Ahem, not that I have scrapbooks. Seriously though, even I think that's a little much. Assembling a blog for fans to find the links, okay. But sending a scrapbook to a star..? Hmmm. Reminds me of the fan who gave Tahmoh Penikett a casket of fake money at a con, "for all his services". That was a WTF moment for most other fans. But that's not on James, so I digress. Also in that article: Ron D Moore apparently very much enjoyed the black-screen ending of The Sopranos. I did too, but I'm kind of glad they didn't do quite that with BSG.
OK, back to James. A cute little encounter story:
I met James Callis (Dr. Baltar from the new Battlestar Galactica) @ the same con. He saw my friends and I in Red Sox gear and mentioned he had attended his first baseball game a few weeks ago. He said "I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I kept drinking and booing Barry Bonds".
Hee! :D That's hilarious! It's especially funny because of baseball commentator Jim Callis, who I suppose is also named James Callis, but never goes by that. I wonder if James is a fan of soccer like most British men seem to be - or if he's just not that into sports? I know Aaron Douglas talks about sports a lot. I was going to add him on twitter, but he seemed to talk about nothing but ice hockey. Nothing personal, Aaron.
This was also the second story where James found a discussion topic just by looking at someone's shirt. It's a nice way of breaking the ice and giving the fan a story to tell. Plus it gives us more trinkets about James' personality, which is always welcome.
San Diego Comic Con 2008: A pic where James "chats with Eureka creator Jaime Paglia". He looks kind of nervous, like it's a fan meeting for him. So cute!
Random stuff that comes up in these searches
I won't link to this because it's obvious spam, but once again, this type of thing amuses and baffles me.
James Callis, best Naruto complete series dvd box set known as Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica dvd box set, has been cast in a recurring mad men dvd box set role on FlashForward, TVGuide.com has confirmed.
You know, I just don't see how adding "naruto complete series dvd box set" OR "mad men dvd box set" into the text accomplishes... well, really, anything. Does it sell something? Does it put a virus in your computer if you open it? Is it designed to get as many hits as possible through any means? There's a LOT of this stuff on Google blogsearch now. Maybe I search for James too much and spammers have realized it's a common search term.
Another constant result in Google searches is Game of Thrones, which HBO has apparently greenlit. Pretty much everyone thinks James should play "Littlefinger". I don't know anything about Game of Thrones, so I don't really have an opinion. However, I'm not sure how anxious I am to see him play "little" anything - not that he isn't adorably little, but if the character is specifically meant to be short or British or scifi/fantasy or villainous or whatever, I worry that it's just typecasting. Lots of people online haven't seen James as anything but Baltar. Most every week, there are tweets like "Hey! Gaius Baltar is on Bridget Jones' Diary!" Yes, James had a life and career before Gaius. It's odd how everyone is thinking this stuff at the same time.
Gaius Baltar was great and probably his best role so far, but I worry that people will only want to see him as another version of Gaius Baltar from now on. He's so much more than that. But if you've never seen Going Wrong, or Sex and Chips, or even Beginner's Luck, you wouldn't know. I hope he's going to get roles that exhibit different sides of him as an actor.
I know James is careful about typecasting, so if Littlefinger is anything like Gaius Baltar, I suspect he's going to disappoint a bunch of fans and just not do it. Like he did with Dr Who. (Although I don't know if they actually offered Dr Who to him.)
2 comments:
So many people seem to be impressed by how lovely James is in person...it must be true! He's übernice, no way around it.
I've never understood why a stalkery fan would even want to send their idol a box full of scrapbooks. If I was that fanatical, I would keep them myself and look at them all day! After going through so much trouble, why would I give them away? The same goes for any kind of gifts that fans give to their idols.. why? Do they really think the idol appreciates them the same way they might if a real friend/family gave it to them? At best, they will feel uncomfortable that a total stranger gave them a gift... it just makes no sense to me, but then again, I'm reasonably sane when it comes to fandom.
Duh, because NOW THEY HAVE SOMETHING YOU TOUCHED. or even something you made. It feels special.
It's odd how many fans give similar presents though. I remember reading a Backstreet Boys interview where they said they eat the chocolate, but give away any stuffed toys to a children's hospital. The fans may fantasize about them sleeping with the toys and all that, but it doesn't pan out that way.
I think I'd be touched if a total stranger took the time to make me something. But yeah, I also wonder why Grace should have those scrapbooks - she's bound to be less interested in them than the fans, and now the fan doesn't have them. But maybe the fan has all that stuff on her computer and just made the scrapbooks for Grace to have.
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