The Baltarstar Blog.

James Callis on Portlandia

2012-01-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

I know this has been online for a week or so, but I wasn't able to view it for some reason. So I've been grumpy and keeping out of the discussion (thanks to Nicole for screenshots and description though!). But now, through not entirely legal means, I have seen the episode and it was beautiful!

For those unfamiliar with the show, Portlandia is a sketch comedy with observational humor. Based on this episode, I really liked it. There are some pretty funny skits on bad tattoos (featuring Eddie Vedder), an artisan knot maker (Jeff Goldblum), and an allergy pride parade. The James part is at the very end, where BSG-obsessed Doug and Claire have gathered together James, Edward James Olmos, Ron D. Moore (who's just some black guy with the same name), and a "local actor", played by the real Ron D. Moore. They do a table read of "one moore episode", and the hilarious part for me is how excited James is to just play along and please the fans. He's basically playing himself, Nicest Guy in the World.

Eddie, on the other hand, is visibly uncomfortable and openly grudging about his role in all of this. He even gets up to leave at some point. The script is a bit ridiculous, including lines like "I need you here, now get out of here!" The "local actor" pronounces "frak" as "frayk". Even James has some issues with the script, although he's nice about it: "Do I just repeat 'you gotta listen'?"

Then - the fake Ron Moore's wife comes home, unhappy to find all of the strange people still there. Dramatic drums, zoom-ins on everyone's face. James breaks the tension: "I've got an idea, something we can all do together to relax. Are you familiar with Dr Who?" And then they watch Dr Who, and Eddie falls asleep, and they all agree to watch one more episode.

Also, James is pretty frakking handsome in this, with long hair and some kind of facial hair stuff. And he wears shorts. (And he drinks Coke I think, and you can kinda see his belly when he's sitting on the sofa, and it's all very sexy.)

Oh goodie, it's already on Youtube!

With many thanks to CZDeus.

James Callis at Galacticon Five: Panel 2 Transcript

2012-01-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

Many many thanks to Proiezioni Mentali for uploading these videos! So this is Galacticon Five in Italy, November 2011, and I was inspired by to transcribe at least this second, utterly charming panel. (They're both must-see, actually.) I've left out some of the pauses for translation, because there's an Italian interpreter for those who don't know English, and indeed many questions are asked in Italian, which seems a bit awkward but works fairly well. The commas denote a shorter pause in his speech (as we do in the transcribing business, ahem). I hope it's readable.
Edit: And btw, there is no panel 1 transcript as of yet, but I might make one. This one's labeled panel 2 as it was on the second day.

Video 1
(There's a bit of smoke coming out, but it doesn't look too impressive. James waves it off.)
"Sorry, one of the cylons just blew up backstage."

I'm not sure what the first question is. There's a lot of back-and-forth in Italian and English. Something about being in a different country.

"Obviously if you're from a different country, you have a different sensibility. So you bring, a new energy or a different energy, to the project. Because most people who were on the show were American or Canadian, and.. Yes, I think that for example, not just myself but Jamie Bamber as well, although he was playing American, he's also English. In fact [laughs] Jamie is possibly more English than I am. But yeah there was, there were ideas about things. I can't be, specific but... Like I said before, a sensibility that you bring to something else. I suppose one of the things I, I mean I was playing an antagonist, not a protagonist, if you know what I mean. And one of the things I think that I could bring with it, or bring with myself to the part, and I think this comes from possibly acting on stage and being in plays, is I was not afraid, to be thoroughly unpleasant. This is a big thing because actually, um.. Most of us want to be liked. It's an important thing in our whole lives, nobody wants to come across badly, even in acting. So if I'm playing a character who's bad, because I want the audience to like me, or have sympathy with me, I can cut the corners of some of the nastiness to come across better. So, that wasn't something, like I say that I was, I didn't need to look good. You know, I left that to Tricia to be quite honest, looking good. Didn't matter really what I looked like and.. As we would say, I didn't mind being, weak or a scoundrel or doing the wrong thing. That I think a lot of other people would have found quite difficult. But I think that's coming from as well.. Do you see a program over here, it's an English show called Fawlty Towers? (Some repetition of "fawlty" from the audience) Fawlty. Is anybody familiar with this show?"

I have to stop here and interject that in Finland, Fawlty Towers was called "Long John's Inn", for absolutely no reason. I know the pun wouldn't translate but Jesus.

"Yeah, it's a very funny television show about an odd couple who run a bed&breakfast hotel, and it's a disaster. But the lead man, who was in Monty Python, his name is John Cleese, is very very funny. But he's funny because he's rude, and he's strange, and he doesn't care. And I think that, I tried to bring some of that to the character. There's certainly a lot of comedy in there, and I would say that that's a direct result of being born in England, being part of that culture and... Yeah. It's about serving a character, rather than necessarily serving yourself. And actually you serve yourself better if you serve the character, but there is a tendency I feel.." [he has to stop here to let the translator talk. You can just tell his mind is going a mile a minute and it's hard for him to stop in mid-talk. I feel for the translator too.]
"So at the end of all of that, there's a.. Trying to say.. We have a strong tradition in the UK, of characters who we find uncomfortable to watch, and our humor can be quite cruel, in a way that in America it isn't. And also if you go to Los Angeles, you're around this kind of place, every third person is gorgeous, they're so good-looking! And they kind of want to keep that up, like I'm the bad guy, but let me smile, because I look.. So that's one of, I'd say that's part of the sensibility. Also just our education, Jamie and I would talk a lot about how we see things differently, from the rest of the cast, and.. For me it was absolutely essential that he was in the show, cos it was like, although we hardly ever acted together, but I must have been on the phone to Jamie Bamber for five years. And [laughing] we spoke to each other every single day about so many things, and then some of the ideas that we would have ended up on the show. I would say more of Jamie's ideas than mine because he's very very brilliant, and he has a kind of brilliant, analytical, structural mind, like sees the whole story and how things can change or, it can be manipulated to serve the story the writers want to tell better."

Awww, best buddies. (L) And you don't have a brilliant mind, James? But maybe his mind isn't as structural, more like wobbly and surreal and making weird connections. Maybe Jamie's is easier to adapt to writing. I wonder how an episode written by James would have gone. (Tries to imagine a mix between Beginner's Luck and BSG. There would be a Paris montage.)

"I was in university in the north of England in a place called Yorkshire. [in Yorkshire accent] And so I could do that quite well, because I was, I lived there so, (-) voice. Funny thing for me is that, this won't transltae so maybe I can't.. [laughs] My first time in Yorkshire I wnet to lunch in the pub, and I said what is the lunch, and the lady replies to me, she says, "Beef au park". Beef au park?! Is that French? Is that in a pastry? How is that? And she looked at me like I as an idiot, she said "beef au park". I said I don't know what that is, you know what I'll have it, I'll have the beef au park. And the man next to me said, "Beef or pork, you idiot." [the audience laughs a lot, so maybe the joke doesn't have to translate.]

"So this is, and they wanted me to be a different kind of a guy, a different kind of a Gaius. And yeah, they had some ideas abou the accent they wanted me to use, but I felt that that particular accent, although it's not really, not necessarily anything to do with farming or farmers, at least in England particularly, it gave the air of.. [thinks] In England there is a big divide, maybe it's the same in lots of places, north and south. The south is quite rich, the north is not as rich. So that's the big deal."
Translator: "Here is the contrary probably."
"Oh so it's a different.. But you see, in every place there is this thing. People, you know, in London they can be quite snobby, or quite "Oh you're not from here, so you don't matter." And the rest of the country is "Hey! This is England, not just London. You're part of the whole country, not just this little city." So that's where this came from. They wanted me to be a farmer, and in the end, I was."

This might sound silly, but it's the same in Finland. Even if Helsinki only has 500 000 inhabitants, it's one tenth of the whole Finnish population, and they think they're hot shit. (And you can deduce from that if I live in Helsinki or not.)

Video 2
This question is actually in English, thank gods.

Guy: "Hi."
James: "Hi."
Guy: "What's your favorite English tv show, other than Monty Python and Dr Who?"
James: "Did you say Dr Who? Who told you that was my favorite show?"
Guy: "Except of them, something else."

Hah! So I guess in Portlandia, he's just pretending to adore Dr Who. He didn't say Monty Python was his favorite either, he said Fawlty Towers. But he's not all "eww, Monty Python", so I feel validated as a Monty fan. (I have never watched Dr Who so no strong feelings there.)

"What's my favorite British show? That's really difficult."
Someone shouts something from the audience like... Black something? But it's not Black Books or Black Adder, and I have no other ideas.
"No, I must say." [laughs]

"I mean it's awful, I don't watch TV all that much. (--) I would have to say one of my favorite shows is Fawlty Towers. It's not on anymore, but you can watch the same episode, again and again and again, and it's always hysterical. Doesn't matter if you just watched it and you watch it again. It's one of the funniest, it's just so fun. So I would have to say that that is my favorite."
(Some question from the audience about Monty Python.)
"They are, well not really. I mean John Cleese was in Monty Python, but he and Connie Booth, who played the maid Polly, wrote Fawlty Towers. And actually what's interesting is they only wrote 13 episodes. This is, funnily enough, something Jamie and I always told the producers, cos the idea is that once a show is good, it's just gonna run forever, and you're gonna be in the show forever. And Jamie and I would say 'Listen, the British model is different. Because actually if you don't do so many, then you have a gem.' And you don't, you know, what's the word, bore the audience with the ninth series. Eddie used to joke that if we went for so long, that we'd have to have an episode where he lost his pen. And then found it, happy end."

That's true. If you compare the American The Office and the original, I do think seasons 2-3 are still very good, but that's kind of where the show peaked, and thereafter it's been in a steady decline. This is just my opinion, but now they even changed the leading man, and that's bound to make it a different show. It might have been different if they'd done a spin-off. I think 13 episodes is quite little, but if you said, I dunno 50 to 100? I don't think a show can do many more than that and still be as good as. But it depends on the story.

I've seen only some episodes of Fawlty Towers in my adult life. I think it's hilarious at times, not so much in others. For me, it can be a bit too much fuss and all over the place, and I wonder if this is a British thing, like their comedy is really bleak à la The Office, or really all over the place like Fawlty Towers or say Little Britain. My cousin recently moved to the UK, and she said after a year or so, she began to get the British comedy a bit. I do wonder though, if James didn't love FT in part because his parents also owned a bed and breakfast. It must have been some kind of identification there. Maybe the show hit upon some truths about hotel guests and how it can sometimes be?

The next question is about the wrap party for BSG. Apparently Kandyse McClure was at the same con some other year, but she had been unble to go to the wrap party. They cutely call it "it's a wrap party".

James: "The wrap party?"
Translator: "The one at the end, the 'it's a wrap'."
James: "Nothing special, genuinely. I mean it was nice, we were in some big building, everybody drank a lot [laughter], we were all dressed quite smart, but I have to report it was a wrap party like any other, it passed without incident. You know, as well, the show, it seems to gather more weight, every year that it hasn't been on television. But like when we finished, we were all really excited to finish, and it was a really happy occasion, and we all moved on. Now, it's like three or four years later, and I think if we had known, the impact we were having, maybe it would have been more emotional, but actually we had said our goodbyes, and we had gone thru all the emotions in the story, in the camera, on the TV. You've done it already, you've done the crying, you've said you goodbyes, so the party was just a really nice, I'm sorry Kandyse wasn't there, I mean I must have, I don't remember. [laughter] Can't remember if I was there! [laughs]"

I think this is a part of the show that is hard to understand for viewers, because for us, it just goes on and on. The DVD's, the reruns, the discussions, the ships and the fan fiction. There's no real ending, and there are endless rewrites and re-re-imaginings. I can see how it might be different if you worked on it and there's a clear point where you stop working. I mean, James will never again be doing the pilot, or season one. He can remember it but not re-live it in the same way we can. Or can he?

"I don't know about everybody else, I really wanted to finish. I had had enough, of crying and being tortured [laughter], I really had. I didn't like looking in the mirror, because I didn't see myself, I just saw Gaius Baltar. Oh, I think that's my wife."

(Why are people laughing at the torture part? Well who cares.) This is the cutest thing on Earth right here, because he digs his phone from his pocket and PICKS UP. His voice is totally tender.

"Yes, it's quite funny. -Hi darling. [laughter] I'm fine, I'm on stage giving a chat. [laughter] Lots of love, bye. [applause]"

(L) (L) (L) SO CUTE I AM DYING. Not of jealousy, mind you, just cutesyness. So sweet.

"So yeah, I look back at the pictures and everything, even the picture you have here.. What's the word?"

The translator suggests he translate now, and James can think of the word. I wonder if it's weird to see old pictures of yourself, playing someone else, all over the place. Most of us can shed our old selves but can actors? But then are those their selves or just the character? If you really start thinking about it, how much of our image of him is James and how much is Gaius? Oh brain freeze.

"So I looked in the mirror, and I saw this man who looked at least ten years older than I am, and that was through all of this stuff we've been going through. So I really, I think one of the very first things I did afterwards was just shave all my hair off, just tried to get aw-, went on holiday, we all.. It was an emotionally driven thing, it was a lot of fun and we did laugh, and it was challenging and I worked with incredible people, it slightly took its toll on all of us, because the show we were doing was actually very, I think very important. This is the big thing about the show, you're not supposed to cry or feel sympathy for fictional characters in a fictional world, in a spaceship that's not really a spaceship, but you did, and we did, so..."

I just have to interject here: what's the point of your story if you don't feel sympathy? I always feel sympathy. Well, maybe not if it's downright silly. But yeah, I get his point, it was genuinely touching because they really felt it. Imma let him finish.

"If perhaps they had told slightly different stories in the fourth season, there may have been a way to, continue the story for like another year maybe, but I think it would have been a push. I think everybody wanted to say goodbye, we'd done the show, so I think that's... that's the truth."

I think as a viewer, it did take its toll and you always crave for more, but you also want closure. I think it's good that it came when it did. The marketing already went way too "the mysteries will be revealed" by the end, and when they weren't all revealed, the fans were a bit let down. I think the show had run its course somehow.

What's interesting to me is the thing about his face changing with Gaius Baltar. Lots of people have noted, in con reports etc., that he is younger-looking in person. I think he's also younger-looking in some other roles he did since Gaius. But how does he take on another man's experience as a part of his own face? That must mean he really lived through it, but in that case, how can he shed it? It must take more than a haircut.

"No. I, was at a.. Mary, Jamie and myself received an award in France, the Jules Verne Award for sicence fiction. I don't know, it's something about promoting, peace in the world through science fiction, I couldn't really work it out but..."

Hee! Well either way, it's an honor. I realize I still haven't transcribed the French panel. He pronounces Jules Verne in the French way.

"The Jules Verne Awards. It was very special, it was an amazing event, but they asked the same question, and they asked Jamie, and then they asked Mary, and then they asked me. And Jamie and Mary gave quite lengthy answers. Like Jamie would go down to the gym every day and then he was doing this accent and so many things, and I think he went down to flight school, so it looks really realistic. And Mary delving into politics and all that, and then they got to me and I said, "I wake up, I'm Gaius Baltar." [laughter] Like I get up, I go to work in the morning..."

What's especially cute about this is that James does all these hand movements - going to the gym (a weight-lifting movement), flight school (steering something), delving into politics (hand dips down). So endearing.

"Yeah, I think the thing is, one of the reasons I possibly got into the show, is because initially I didn't take any of it seriously. I saw a lot of people taking it very seriously but.. They only made me audition about the very beginning scene, where I'm.. found in bed with another girl by Number Six,which I thought was very funny. And I said to them, 'Yeah but this is not, the man who will be in your show, because at the moment in this scene, he has no idea of the consequences, he doesn't know he's been sleeping wtih a robot.. [blows into the microphone] And.. [laughs]"
[Translation. Hmm. I guess the blowing is like "whoa, so many things".]
"Yeah so, I know one person, in London who will remain nameless, but they are a lovely person, but htey are a very bad liar. They are the worst liar that I met. And I thought that that would be a funny thing to bring to the character, like 'It wasn't me!' [derpy Baltar look] It's like yeah, it was, it's written all over his face. And I suppose that's the only thing that I really brought to the party, was a sense of humor about it. I didn't see the man as very clever like he plots for the chess pieces, that he's like some grand master who has a plan. He's an absolute pawn, he has no idea, he is the pawn and he doesn't know who's, putting him where on the board, and everything he does is about damage limitation, essentially."

(Again, he does the pawns with his hands.) He's said all this before, but I never tire of hearing it. I love that he sees Baltar the same way I do. It must mean I'm a genius too.

James rocks in his chair, listening to the next rather wordy question: essentially, there were so many different phases for Gaius' life, what was his favorite? This is a great answer, and I've left out the translation pauses.

"I loved all of them, they're all part of the guy. There's some great highlights. I loved, Baltar loved saving Roslin's life. And although it wasn't in the script, every time that Laura had a fight with Gaius afterwards, I put it in the script. I was like, I would say to Mary, 'Mary can I say I saved your life?' She was like 'If you must' [shakes head; laughter] And I did all the time, because I thought that was a very interesting moment in the life of this man, because actually, he wasn't really concerned with saving her life. He was interested in being clever enough to do it. The whole idea of that was that every time anybody saw her and she was still living, she was the living testament to the genius and ingenuity of Gaius Baltar."

He pauses for translation, and the translator doesn't say anything, so James says: "In French?" And there's laughter. Heee! And I have nothing to add to this and it's just too true and my fan-heart is playing a beautiful melody at these words. James just knows Baltar so well.

"Yeah, so that was one thing I enjoyed. The other thing I really did enjoy was, even though a lot of people didn't like it, I loved my cult. The women. There were a few men, I didn't sleep with them, (just saying). [laughter] I loved the cult and the women. Actually it was because it reminded me, it was slightly Monty Python, it was like you know, he's not the Messiah, he's just a very naughty boy. [laughter]"

I think he means Life of Brian here. Hee!

"And I loved the whole idea that, across the fleet, there was this mystique, and what had the man really become, did he really have the answers? And then you see him with these women and it's just pathetic! It's just, and it's very petty. I'm always like "No shut up Jeanne! No no, don't do it.." It's like what, is this guy really the son of God? It's like "No I will have peanut butter, yes. Yes I will. Thank you very much." [laughter] It's all just so, and it was like the blind leading the blind, so I enjoyed that very much."

This is lovely, and he looks SO funny saying this. But my mind immediately went "WTF PEANUT BUTTER!!??" and began to write a very poor weight gain fan fiction where James eats too much peanut butter and argues about it with his wife. I'll spare you the details.

Video 4.

"Yeah I said this yesterday, signing the death warrant, that was difficult. [someone laughs in the audience, wtf?] Genuinely it was difficult. That was a horrible, horrible, nasty thing to do even if you're on.. You're laughing. Would you like to see yourself on camera signing a death warrant? I don't think so. That was horrible."

James is nice about it, but he looks a bit disapproving that someone would laugh at this. I hope they were laughing at something else, because he's absolutely dead serious here.

I'm a bit confused by the next bit, some guy says a lot to James in Italian, he says "Thank you" and the translation is something like "He wants to offer you wine".. I'm not sure I'm hearing right. Let's go to the next question.

Asked what part of his job he likes most. Being a director and writer is mentioned, but he seems to only think of being an actor.

"I like them all, there's you know.. Yeah, to work as an actor is a privilege, so whatever it is, it has its own demands. I.. There isn't really one thing that you love, I love more than the other. I'm actually more interested in the story and the character that I will play, whether it be on stage, on TV or in film."

The next question is about Gaius again, "he started with nothing and now he has everything." I thought it was the other way around, but maybe the idea is that he had more in the end than in the middle of the show?

"I think that's quite fair, I think that's possibly true. He's.. [thinks hard] He should have been shot dead. That's his, that's really where I saw him, that's what I saw happen to him, I saw everybody leaving the ship and that he would be like a child, quite excited to leave, and then there would be somebody come up behind him, a shadow, and it'd be like 'Did you really think that we would let you live? Did you really think that we could forget (- you)?" My story in my own mind is that his blood is stained (- dead -), he doesn't get to go to the promised land. Luckily I wasn't writing it, Ron was writing it [laughs], and is far more generous, in his mind in the whole eight years than I would have been towards the character. Gaius Baltar is liberated in the end because he is forgiven. That's the most important thing, and yeah, it was a really beautiful, like sad moment. It's like the guy has come full circle. You know the thing is as well, he could.."
Translator: "One moment, please."

Hah, I was just about to hit the pause button too so I could type up the rest. It's interesting that perhaps some fans were more lenient towards Gaius than James was, even if he's always defended Gaius as a pawn. Maybe there's a certain sense of justice James has, like he's so disgusted by people who really destroy lives that he can't let that slide, and it seems unjust that Gaius should be happy in the end. Mind you, I can't really draw a psychological profile of him since I don't know him, but that's the impression I get.

And now: Gaius and Caprica 4evah!!! (L) (L) (L)

"I think the very end as well he.. The whole thing in the beginning is that he doesn't know his own girlfriend's name. I mean, he's been having an affair with this woman for two years, he doesn't know what she's called. And she says right at the beginning, 'Do you love me?' And he says, 'Wha?!' And she says 'I was joking', and he says 'Oh thank god.' [laughter] It's like he can't deal with that.

But this woman haunts him for the whole show, and it's only at the end, that I think he realizes that he has been in love with her but.. but in denial, and possibly she with him. And it's through their union together that he can be saved. So yeah, it's come totally full circle, from like 'hey you're just my girlfriend and I don't, whatever, no commitment'.. He needs her, so very much, at the end."

FANGIRL SWOOOON!!!! Nicole and Maddi and I were talking about this on Twitter and we were all like "OMG MY HEART", because it's our OTP and... We ship Gaius and Caprica so much. For those who also ship them, I just have to plug it again - my friend Robyn has a lovely blog called Emissary from Another World, and it's all about Gaius and Caprica living together after the finale, and it's super psychological and deep and painful and loving and READ IT if you haven't already.

The next question is if he has projects and if he can talk about them.

"No, sorry. I do, I can't talk about them."

Awww. Can he at least say if he might go back to theater?

"I would love to, at some point yeah. (Definitely.)"

The next question has something to do with 9/11, but I'm really not quite sure what it is. I suppose it's simply "do you think BSG was influenced by 9/11?".

James: "I mean yes, essentially yes. That's my simplest answer, yes."

But the [original?] show was written before 9/11.

James: "Of course it was."

"And then it was updated."

James: "Everything gets updated."

So... OK then? I'm not sure if I heard everything correctly, but it sort of appears like he doesn't want to get into 9/11 and the aftermath. Or maybe the question isn't about that anyway. Confusing.

Next: can he tell any funny stories about filming?

James: "Funny stories?"
Translator: "Joke."
James: "Well there was a lot of funny things. One time, Eddie didn't turn up. So they were filming, but he wasn't there. And I [laughing] said his lines, and it was a very wide shot, the camera was right at the back, and it was the Pegasus episode where he was meeting Admiral Cain for the first time. And Michelle Forbes, playing Admiral Cain, came forward to shake his hand but he wasn't there. The camera, what we say when it's from very very far away, it's a big wide shot. And so the camera was actually filming over one of the spaceships, it couldn't see all the people. So I did all the lines, because I felt like the scene has to go on, you know so [Eddie voice] I became Eddie. (--) thing like this. [laughter] And you know, she then said the lines and I was being, cos I knew his lines, there were only a few of them. I just thought it's important, it's a big wide shot, and then people just started laughing. I think heightened by the fact that it was such a serious moment and everybody's standing up and it's very serious so you're not supposed to smile, and that's when it's difficult cos everyone is like [giggles]. Anyway, we did the take, and then the director at the time, he got quite angry, and he's like 'Hey, we just had the most incredible take right now, we just got something brilliant, and you all fucked it up cos you're laughing! Now what the fuck is so funny?!' [laughter] So then they were like, (--) 'It's James! James was pretending to be Eddie!' But because the camera was so wide, the director had no idea, [laughter] (--) Eddie wasn't there! So yeah, he was like, 'No he was there, I just heard him.' I said 'No no no, that was just me pretending to be him, which is why everyone's laughing.'

It's a cute story (though not as cute as certain other, pastry-related stories.) And I love how, when he does the Eddie voice, he also does the stern Eddie face. Or maybe the Adama face, because Eddie doesn't seem at all as stern.

Video 5.

The next question is if he was dressed like an Admiral, and his answer is simply: "No." There's much laughter.

Were the cast of BSG like a family, or were there fights?

"Honestly never. They're the most amazing bunch of people, it's not that we were a family, we still are a family. We speak to each other all the time, through Skype, through telephone, through Facebook, through Twitter, we spend time with each other.. These are some of my best friends. And not just friends, more than friends, it is like family. The most incredible experience, and all because of the personalities. It was such a supportive environment to work in, people were not competing with each other. It's like hey, the better I am the better you are, and the better you can be. What can we do to help you, to help you do the thing you wanna do? How can we support, what do you need? Everybody was very conscientious in this way. If every job were like this, it would be the most incredible thing in the world, but not every job is like this."

It's kind of amazing, it's all of the cast who say this, and you can really tell they mean it. We can only hope that means they'll work together again. When the cast is that close, it really comes thru on the screen too, you can sense the chemistry. It just works.

Someone from the audience asks in English about Gaius being the bad guy, he made a lot of mess, etc.

"Yeah, the one thing Gaius was not, even if he was the antagonist, and you know, effectively he was the bad guy.. Most villains are, malicious. And Gaius Baltar was not. He wasn't malicious. And he had, so like everybody, good and bad but you know, everybody else hated the cylons, I was just saying this, but Gaius could not hate the cylons, because how could he hate a robot for being a robot? I think that made it more interesting."

I do wonder if this point is something that arises from James' own personality. Would Baltar, played by someone else, still have been open-minded in that way? Either way, I was already fan-gushing with Nicole about this on Twitter: James mentions that Gaius is not malicious! You'd be surprised how many people did not get this while watching BSG. Surprised and really annoyed.

Next, the question I probably would have asked: what can he tell us about 17th Precinct?

"I'm not sure, genuinely if I can talk about that, cos I signed a thing as well, a contractual (-) or whatever. It was an amazing thing to do, obviously. Actually, I really was acting with Jamie this time around, which was just brilliant. I think the ideas were quite brilliant as well, in the story. I think that.. I suppose it's interesting, what I think doesn't really matter. But it was quite a science fiction show, but it was not on a science fiction channel, it was for network. And I think that they, you know they watched it and they were like 'what the, what is going on?' So if it had been perahps for another channel or for Syfy, I think there may have been more life in the, thing. Having watched, you know people in the show and whatever.. Yeah, it was, there were some amazing performances on that show, and some beautiful photography and.. It was.. The problem with the show was that Battlestar had something like four hours to set up the story in the beginning, in the pilot, and 17th Precinct had 40 minutes. Not enough time to tell a bit of the story and all of the backstory it needed, so if it was longer, if they'd whatever, I mean I think it was quite expensive anyway, but if it was like a two-hour pilot, then maybe it would have had more of a life."

He looks sad talking about it. So he shares our grief for the show that never was. I have yet to write about it. I think there are many great things and many problems, but I have a feeling some things were cut that would have made it more... alive. That's why I feel a bit unsure about critiquing it. I mean, it's easy to say something doesn't work when you haven't seen the process. But maybe when you're too close to the process, it's hard to be critical too. So it might in fact be something between brilliant and problematic. Or maybe it's both and. Either way, I really wanted to see more of it. I am sad.

Is Edward James Olmos (or Eduard Olmos, as it sounds like) really so serious? Hee, such a question. :D James fanboys:

"Eddie is the most amazing, amazing.. genuinely he is the most amazing individual. He is serious when he needs to be. He has a heart bigger than this room, bigger than this city. He is (fated and lauded), he has so many awards, not so many for the acting which is incredible, but for humanitarian work across the world.
This is a real man, so he knows when to be serious and when to have a laugh. He actually started out life as a musician in a rock band, and slowly gravitated towards, acting. But he's.. Yeah, I can't say enough amazing things about that guy, he really is amazing."

I can say something about Eddie. When I first read interviews or listened to podcasts or whatever, there was talk of "Eddie", and I had no idea who that was at first. To me, he was like this big important serious Commander Adama, and he was a bit scary, and people go around calling him Eddie? But well, then I saw the third season gag reel and things where he was just really... shall we say not as dignified, so I've changed my view. I think it actually says a lot about him that all the younger people on the show have so much respect and admiration for him. That says more than anything else.

"Just as a little post-note to that: he was the preson who told us to take the show very seriously. He called all of the cast into his, trailer, his caravan. And this is right at the beginning when we were just doing hte pilot. So nobody knows if we're coming back. And he said 'we're gonna be here for five years'. [laughter] 'If you don't take it seriously, nobody will take you seriously. This is a very important story that we are telling and I need you to be on board, I need you to be there for me, for all of us.' He is a true leader. So say we all." [laughter, applause]

Wow. I can't believe Eddie knew the number of years. Maybe he saw something about BSG then that the others, because of their shorter experience, couldn't see. I respect him more because of that.

At this point, James starts to roll up his pant legs, which is adorable. Maybe his pants are a little too long, because he is a man of short and adorable stature.

The last question is about his relationship with the final five, and his fatherhood of Hera.

"Um, as a father, yeah... I was never her father, really, that was, I mean it's Helo. And it was more a kind of spiritual thing. I had no relationship with the final five, they could have been doing a jazz song in the background [laughter], maybe they were. I didn't have any cnnection with them, I really only had connection with Number Six, and she was my entry into the cylon world."

Wait, what about Number Three?! And Tory Foster? She was one of the final five and they had some kind of connection.

"I think that.. He goes, very luckily right at the end because of the storyline, he gets to be integral in saving the life of the baby. But this is more because this is part of his redemption, that he actually stands in front of the gun that someone's waving at him, and we've seen what a coward, and what a weakling he has been, and finally he's standing up for something other than himself. So it's the making of him."

Oh beautiful, beautiful. I'd read a book written by James about Battlestar. He has a way of thinking through the character and talking about it that's quite poetic. (Of course, the book would require a lot of editing due to dash overuse.)

So that's it. I really enjoyed this, I haven't transcribed in a while. I do it for a living now, so I won't be doing these a lot, but it's been a bit quiet in the office in the past week, so this felt kind of like fun-work.

Also, in this panel, James is wearing a very sexy black leather coat, which may be the same one he's worn in previous years. It's a bit tighter than the plaid shirt so that's good, but it's still hard to tell.. Oh dear. Hotly, he touches his thighs and butt a few times, most notably when getting up. Quite nice. This is the shallow part, I'm done with the deep part now and my brain is all gooey. I think I'll go think about peanut butter.

New James Callis Interview!*

2012-01-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

* mostly visual unless you know Italian. Disclaimer: I have nothing against Italian, I just really hate dubbing.

So yeah, it's a James Callis interview at Rai.tv! And it's DUBBED IN ITALIAN so you can't really hear what he's saying.

I'm gonna be lazy and not crop this, so you can see what tabs I have open. Fascinating isn't it?

Things you can learn from this interview:
-he has a red phone. (I'm not sure why this surprises me. I guess I just hadn't thought of his phone colors.)
-he keeps his phone in his left chest pocket.
-he wears a tie with a flannel shirt, which is confusing. (This would have been my first question in the interview: what's up with that tie? Is this a British thing?)
-he looks quite... sexy. Very sexy.
-lots of cute faces and hand gestures.

Seriously speaking, I do get some of what he says. He says about the finale: "We didn't tie all the knots but we tied all we could" and "I think it was a brilliant ending". (After all this time, I'm inclined to agree. It wasn't perfect in every way and it didn't tie it all up but... it was pretty damn good.) I think he also says "I have no idea how I would have written the finale", which fair enough, it was a tall order for Ron.

Also, Battlestar Galactica was a political show and "it was absolutely meant to be that way".
Amusingly, he says "every. single. level" at least once.
Eureka was a lot of fun because he got to play a guy in the past who looked at a phone and said: "Wow, that's brilliant, it's so SMALL!"

I probably won't listen umpteen times to try to make sense of it, but it's cute nonetheless.

I do hope, though, that some day they won't intercut an interview with a million clips from the shows, including some that don't even have James in them. We don't need a recap of the entire BSG to get what he's saying. (And the clips are also very disturbingly dubbed. I hate dubbing.) (Oh, aren't I the grinch today. I think I'm in a bad mood because I have to take my cat to the vet, and he already detected the hated box and plans to make a run for it. Let's take another look at cutesy ch..exy James. (Chexy! That's good.)

James Callis = Santa?! Part 2.

2011-12-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

It has come to our attention that Mr Callis has been suspiciously quiet during the past few weeks on Twitter. This might mean he's busy working. Or chilling with his family. Or also, like we hypothesized before, HE MIGHT IN FACT BE SANTA CLAUS.

We believe that Mr Callis is in hiding, due to the fact that he's quite white and bearded at this time of year. We have manipulated this photo to show what he might be looking like right now:

(mentally add some extra Santa pounds, of course!)

After Christmas, Mr Callis - or is it Mr Claus? - tends to show up again all clean-shaven and slender, but what about the holidays? I guess we'll never know.

So in case I don't get around to posting more before Christmas, this is it. Happy Hanukka, Christmas, Boxing Day etc. (If I do post, you can expect something very sugar-fueled and silly indeed.)

Have a good time, eat lots, and think about James at regular intervals. And remember: Be good!

James Callis at Galacticon Five: Check Back for Updates

2011-11-05T04:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 9th of January

Well hello there. You must have thought this post was done for. I certainly did. But as it often goes, the best con updates come later, and here they are: THE FULL PANEL WITH JAMES IS ON YOUTUBE!

It's all here at ProiezioniMentali's Youtube channel. THANK YOU SO MUCH! If I find the time and/or energy, I might provide a transcript. James' voice is not dubbed, thank the gods, but there is a translator, so every time he gives an answer, there's the Italian translation, and it's slightly awkward.

Highlights: he talks about the angels in BSG, and he says it's more like the Western idea of angels. He explains how in the Western world, we think of people as separate, and therefore God is a separate being, angels are people with wings, etc. But in the Eastern view, which he leans more to, people are connected instead. Thus it's not the same idea of God. (This is in video 4.) When I heard him say that, like an epiphany about how he sees himself and fans. If we're all connected, then he's not "the star" and he doesn't try to be higher than us, and maybe I could even be on the same level with him, or on every single level, and not embarrassingly obsessive about him and so much younger and dumber etc. etc. I tried asking him but I fumbled it and deleted the tweets, because maybe in the end I was asking if he sees me as inferior or not, and it's not fair to ask him something like that. So now I feel mighty embarrassed, because he might have seen the tweets anyway. But it felt GOOD, is the point. Like I saw his approach to humanity and it was very connected and not separatist. But um. I'll get back to James and out of my own issues and oddities.

Anyhoo, I thought it's very interesting. Since his wife is from India and he's visited India a lot, he probably has a pretty good idea of the Oriental way of thinking and the sort of religions they have there. Without bringing it back to my own issues, I think this understanding of being connected could be helpful in finding empathy for other people, something that it seems western culture lacks lately. It's like there's better people and worse people, whether the division is rich/poor, able-bodied/disabled, white/black, male/female, straight/gay, whatever. I wonder if that comes from this sort of separation thinking. Like it's the dark side of individualism or... Or maybe that's just capitalism and I'm projecting my own thinking to this.

I was also glad to hear he doesn't see Gaius as limiting to his career, and that he saw Bridget Jones as a lot more limiting, because they wanted him to play the gay friend every time. "I'd go to a meeting and they'd go, 'Right, it's an alien movie, but the alien has a gay best friend.'" LMAO! I hope that's not a real example. (I seem to recall a movie in The Simpsons universe called "My Best Friend's Gay Baby".)

He mentions working with "people who made Napoleon Dynamite", so that's Jerusha Hess and Austenland. Interesting. He doesn't go into detail about the movie, but mentions that it's a role he got because of BSG. Also, Hollywood people apparently think BSG is called "Battlestar GalactiStargate". :D

The first couple of videos have some of the old questions about auditioning, but I think it's cute how he retells the same stories, it's never exactly the same. The philosophical stuff is in videos 3 and 4 mostly though, if you want to get right to the new stuff.

He's wearing the tie and the plaid shirt and I must admit it looks oddly suave, especially with his glasses on (which he removes quite early on though). It's hard to make out his contours under the shirt though, which is obviously a drawback. Some tighter clothing would be nice, but other than that, this outfit is growing on me. (Not literally though.)

Tuesday, 8th November

LOL!!!! OK, here's the video and.. heee! "Buga buga!" Oh James! How obnoxious, you go to Italy and first thing, you compare their president to Gaius Baltar. How rude! :D Thanks to ProiezioniMentali for the upload.

*rubs his hair nervously* You know, I think I have a James-touching-his-hair-fetish. I keep finding new fetishes, it's a bit worrying really.

Monday, 7th November.

There's another photo on Twitter, you can click to enlarge the new profile picture of Tommy_The_chef. Very nice indeed! The tie gets curiouser and curiouser as you look closer at it, because apparently it's made up of tiny black dots on a white base or something. Which makes it look brown or beigeish? Interesting. Or maybe I just zoomed in so much that the picture became overly pixelated. Hard to tell. Also, Tommy sounds like another very happy customer (if you can say that).

Someone promised to put together a video of James talking about Baltar and Berlusconi (??!), but Twitter search refuses to show that entry right now. I'll link to the video if/when the link shows up. I must say I'm quite curious - what does Baltar have to do with Berlusconi? (Maybe the Italians don't like their president very much?)

James' hair seems like it's bigger from the front than the back. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or an incredibly hot thing. It's often hard to tell.

Don't you love con time? So many people loving our boy. Ah, James' be.. I mean, James. Ahem.

Sunday, 6th November.
First fan pictures! Ah, so the tie is BEIGE or brownish! Not yellow. The plaid shirt is growing on me, actually (not literally). I like the way it looks on him, kind of a casual yet neat look. But the tie is a mystery for the ages. There's some stubble on a closer look, which always adds to his sexiness. Also he looks friendly and relaxed, so that promises good things for fan satisfaction. (Did that sound dirty? Or not dirty enough? I'm a bit ill, so my writing's not top notch but who cares.)

From the look of the tweets, it sounds like James did great.

PILO7980 PILØ
It was a pleasure lunching and talking with @jamescallis , a great actor and a wonderful person.

Natychan11 Nespola Plebea
comunque James Callis(Gaius Baltar) è una persona fantastica!!abbiamo chiacchierato tantissim *__*

According to Google Translate (I know), this means: "However, James Callis is a fantastic person! We talked a lot." :) :)

More updates as they come in. I'm feeling more mellow now that we have a few pictures and I know what James is looking like Right Now. (And I know the look is to my liking.) (Although it's never NOT been. I don't know why I always feel nervous about this.)

Saturday, 5th November 2011.

Yay! James at a con! This is so exciting! It's been over a year since the last time, so my googling skills may be a bit rusty, but here's the first photo!

And he's wearing - a flannel shirt and a yellow tie??? O.o Oh James' con fashions! I've missed you. In fact, there seems to be a fancier shirt under the flannel shirt, but then he has the flannel shirt and the sleeves rolled up, so maybe he's cold.. or hot? I... Heeeeee.

The hair looks very short still. I had somehow expected for it to be longer by now. I wonder if he's doing shorter-haired roles, or if he just prefers it short on his off-role time. Fascinating. Hopefully more updates (and deep analyses) soon!

James Callis on BBC's Merlin: A Deep Dish Analysis.

2011-10-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

("Camelot!" "Camelot!" "Camelot!" "It's only a model.)

I was going to say "deepish" anallysis, but deep dish sounds much funner and fits in with my favorite type of pizza. So we'll go with that. Ahem. This is a very serious post though, really. I'm putting on my academic glasses.

I was kinda hoping that James would play a valiant knight who can carry a damsel in distress - even a very plump one - into safety on his strong arms. But even if Julius Borden is the worst kind of scoundrel and I won't be fainting into his arms anytime soon, I really enjoyed this performance. The role isn't particularly layered, but James can do a lot with it; his expressions and voice add layers to the otherwise slightly two-dimensional character. He uses the gruff "bad guy" voice, but it's not too distracting, because he plays with the intensity. Some lines he almost barks from the throat, while others are slightly more high-pitched, closer to his usual voice. This makes it sound more organic than it has before (say in One Night With the King). Does he sell the evilness though? I find myself asking that, but it might be because I know he's really NOT like that. I find it very hard not to like James, no matter how the character is. So I kinda did like Borden there for a moment. He must have had a really tragic childhood or something, right?

Yes, he's really a good guy deep down. Very deep. Well, if nothing else, he's very handsome! *drool*

Speaking of which, it might have been nice to know a little more about Borden. You get a hint that he and Gaius have a shared past - he cheated Gaius in some big way and disappeared. But we don't find out how exactly. Also, I'd have appreciated more horseback riding. And where's that scene of Gaius climbing over a stone wall? We never see that. (Or maybe I skipped too much of the knights searching him, which was frankly a long boring bit.)

There are also many firsts, like James descending down a rope; jumping over a huge gorge (I'm not entirely sure he did this himself, but still) and climbing up the cliff bank; James shooting, first with some medieval gun thingy and then with a slingshot (hee!) and James waving a huge fiery fire..stick in rage. He's really pretty scary, but if you look upon it as a performance, it's just awesome and fierce.

And amazing faces of course! As Borden, James plays an arrogant, ruthless guy, and his faces range from sneaky to greedy (pictured) to fierce to pleading. It's enjoyable to watch him just for that. (It also makes for particularly good screenshotting!)

This seems to be a one-off episode, not something that would require previous knowledge of the show/myth. Basically, Julius Borden is an old pupil of Gaius* (Merlin's master), and he comes back to town to get a special magical KEY. The key leads to a dungeon containing the FINAL EXISTING DRAGON'S EGG. Merlin, as the last dragon lord, really wants to help with this, and does so against Gaius' ADVICE. Borden is a sneaky bastard and tries to KILL MERLIN, even after Merlin SAVES HIS LIFE. Then, Merlin runs away with the egg and Borden IS BURIED IN RUBBLE. But we don't actually see him die, so maybe he will come back to retaliate?!!! The DRAGON BABY is summoned out of the egg by Merlin, who names him "Aithusa". The dragon is WHITE.

This all sounds rather silly, but the show manages to pull it off with some seriousness, even with the CGI talking dragon. Borden's desire to get the egg is believable, and Merlin's dragon lord self is pretty impressive. However, the show loses some dignity when Merlin REMOVES ARTHUR'S PANTS WITH THE POWER OF HIS EYES. This was a fan favorite moment and OK, if someone removed James' pants, maybe I'd feel the same. But it was a bit, well, not so serious.

There's quite a lot of James, and I've already made a few photo sets over at Fuck Yeah James Callis! and will make more tonight. I've just been delayed slightly by people being wrong on the internet.

Just a quick couple of pictures here, re: his weapons on the show.

Bow and arrow of sorts!

fire and fiery rage!

And the somewhat less impressive slingshot.

Last but not least - his mighty fists!

I greatly enjoyed his look for the show, what with the gruffy beard (evil beard?). The hair could have been slightly less cropped, but maybe it was the style of the day. Now I made a promise to not mention certain issues re: his physique, and it seems I am being tested (possibly by the Lords of Kobol). But I will cheat a bit and show you, in picture form, how I feel about his body right now.

* yes, Gaius and Gaius, a joke that has been widely acknowledged. James himself noted it and appreciated the irony in May. I think all the jokes have already been told. Hmm. Two Gaiuses walked into a bar...

(I guess I could have picked a screenshot where Gaius isn't out of focus, but this is a James blog, so let us be partisan.)

Merlin Gush! O.o

2011-10-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

Seen Merlin so excited OMG I will post more coherent stuff later but you can check my tumblr Fuck Yeah James Callis! for the first excited picspams. I'm trying to not post much yet because I'm just too excited for my own good and I have a feeling the post would not be very HOW GREAT IS THIS CAN YOU BELIEVE HE WAS ON TV AGAIN SO SEXY coherent.

I mean how exciting was that?! It was really exciting! Just... so exciting! I'm so excited!
*yip yip yip yip yip*

..so a very quick recap: he's kinda evil and he tries to kill Merlin. But his expressions, voice (gruff evil guy voice) and body language and everything, so fitting and so hot. There were quite a few firsts - descending down a rope! And jumping over a cliff! And just, being really scary and crazy! (Actually he did that in Numb3rs too so it's not strictly a first. Just a different kind of crazy.) Great performance, I'm proud to say. (Why am I proud? It's not like he's my son or something. I'll analyze this later.) Sadly, it seems like it will be only this one episode, but who knows?

And yes, in a slapstick moment, Merlin does pull Arthur's pants down with the power of his eyes. This seemed to take all the fans' minds to the gutter and it's hard to find commentary on anything else. But hey, I can relate. If someone pulled James' pants down, I doubt I could focus on much else buttocks. It'd be nice to see what the show's fans thought of Borden though. Maybe on a calmer day.

Ahhhhh *reaches nirvana*

James Callis in BBC's Merlin: Trailer!

2011-10-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

"Borden is not a man to be trusted". Very intriguing indeed! James will be in this week's Merlin (but without a mysterious book of beasts I hope). He seems to be leaping and running and threatening people with knives too. (And we know from his tweets that he will be riding a horse! But he isn't in this clip.) He looks ruggedly handsome, although I'm not a fan of the hairstyle. His "deep voice" is employed here, so we know we're dealing with a masculine, perhaps not altogether good guy. I'm not sure how I feel about another "villain" type character, but oh who cares it's JAMES ON TV AGAIN!

James will play Julius Borden. (Ah, I wonder if they thought of Gaius Baltar's father, and the fact that he's an ex-pupil of another Gaius on this show!) Apparently the plot has something to do with dragon eggs, and the show also includes a giant talking dragon. I've never watched, so I'm very confused indeed. There's an episode synopsis here.

This episode, titled "Aithusa", will air this Saturday on BBC One, and I'll probably see it on Sunday, completely legally of course. Screenshots and descriptions coming. I might not know enough about Merlin to give a really good analysis or whatever, but when it comes to James' acting, I'm really the expert, so you're in good hands. (Well, right after James himself.) I'm open to guest posts though, if a Merlin fan would like to write about it.

This is so exciting! We haven't seen James in a new episode since... is it since EUREKA?! O.o That would mean over a year ago. I've almost forgotten what it was like. I faintly remember it was glorious and gave plenty of material for screenshotting, analysis, and fangushery. Much drool was spilled over various parts of his physique which I've promised to no longer comment on. However short-lived, this bliss will soon be ours again. I should start getting in the mood.

Re-Uniting the Rubins: Clip, Dates, and Trailer!

2011-10-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come that we may SEE Re-Uniting the Rubins! If we're in the UK, that is. But I'm pretty sure that a DVD release will follow.

Check out the Facebook group Re-Uniting the Rubins: the Movie for all details. You can also see the show dates here, and helpfully the site tells me my distance to the cinemas - the nearest one is ONLY 1443.7 miles away. Um, I probably won't be there.

If a reader is going and would like to write a review, I'd be more than happy to publish/link to it here. Just let me know in the comments. I'll write a report of my own when I finally see the film. I'm certainly buying the DVD from play.com as soon as it comes out.

Orange.co.uk has an interesting clip with James Callis as Asshole Businessman (Danny Rubins). Or should I say - a right plonker? Is that correct British? He's really rude and unlike himself here. (The Behind the Music mockumentary comes to mind.) Also, he can apparently speak Chinese! The Facebook group has a few other clips up.

Here's the official trailer:

This looks like such a fun film. I've enjoyed the little clips we've been given. It's a bit weird to know that the film was completed two years ago and has been shown in a festival or two, but the large audience is learning about it now. It's like new, yet not. I wonder how it feels for an actor to see something emerge two years later; it's a bit strange but delightful to a fan.

Unfortunately, the two clips I linked to earlier have been password-protected, and I took down those posts. I never meant to step on anyone's toes, and I did link back to the site which was public, so it feels a bit odd. But obviously, if I leaked something that wasn't meant to be out, I apologize. If you see something on my blog that you'd like me to take down, please let me know. I only publish things when they're already public, or I have specific permission from the person who owns the rights. But these lines are hard to tell online.

It's YoungJames! Eating Toffee!

2011-10-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

OMG THIS IS A TREASURE! A young James Callis playing the Colonel in "Patience". This is from his University days, so it's YoungJames. The wig is very interesting indeed!

This is hilarious! I've never seen this play before, but it looks like so much fun.

Also it's James...eating... toffee. And taking more. And.. and.. *stares tantalized* COSMIC! O.o

(I always thought toffee was called "fudge" in English-speaking countries?)

James Callis in BBC's Merlin: New Pics and a Blooper!

2011-10-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

Two scrunchy new HI-RES photos have been posted of James in BBC's Merlin! See here at the farfarawaysite's gallery. This is only promotional photos so far, so it doesn't tell us much about the character, but does speak volumes of James' sexy posing stylings. Mmm hmm. The hair is unusually short (not my favorite style but not bad) and perhaps dyed darker than usual? Hmm. The outfit is very layered. This is, of course, a bad thing; I hear he plays "guy in a mac" in Threatre of Dreams too. One day soon, I hope he'll play "guy who wears nothing but tight T-shirts and shorts". But outfit-wise, it looks quite fascinating with its strings and details. Have we ever seen him in wrist-length gloves before? The pants seem sort of modern to me, but then, I'm not that up-to-date on the latest pant developments. There's some mustache and beard, which looks quite...virile, I might say. Chest hair visibility is at about 15 % (margin of error 3 %). Definite eyebrow action.

James will play "Borden" (not to be confused with Lizzie Borden, hopefully), an old pupil of Gaius (!). Nice bit of irony there with the names. Apparently he's in episode 4, at least, so it should air in a couple of weeks!

Also: a fun detail in the Merlin season 4 blooper reel. At about 2:54, James is having trouble putting something into his pocket. This is so adorable. I've seen very few failed takes with James. The BSG gag reels were funny, but they had very few actual bloopers.

The End of the Donuts?

2011-09-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I had a few "James Callis fat" searches. They found my blog with that, and while I don't think I ever said he is fat, I've certainly mentioned fat located in his body many enough times. I'll admit I was turned on by these searches, but I also felt - really sad. Most people, when they say "fat", they mean it in the bad way. Many people have said I'm fat in the bad way. It feels humiliating, even if you try to re-educate yourself and love your body. And I'm kind of shocked that anyone would think James is fat. I know there are people who think un-lean=fat, but it's just... really not the word I'd use with him, even at his relative chubbiest.

Then I thought: what if they search for that because someone is pointing people's attention towards his weight? Someone like, say, me. If you do a James Callis weight search, you come up with me multiple times. Embarrassingly many times, in fact.

So, I talk about James' belly a lot. This is more to mock myself than him, and I definitely never meant any harm by it. I think everyone who knows me has realized that I'm just into fat, it's not a bash if I say he's gained weight or whatever. I would never have mentioned if it he hadn't said something about it first. So as long as you know me and James, it's just harmless. But if you don't? Suppose you're just a drive-by reader and you come across a post of me saying James gains weight alll the time and he's so chubby and all that. Suppose you don't get my humor? Suppose James doesn't want this attribute constantly advertised?

The last thing I want to be is a fan blog that makes people think James is fat. That would be awful. I'd be contributing to a culture I hate: the culture of scrutinizing celebrity bodies and mocking them. I'm glad to say James fans are too mature to do this, but BSG has a big fandom with all sorts. There have been quite a few Fat Lee jokes, and some of them weren't entirely benevolent. James' career is followed by many BSG fans... yeah, I don't know.

One reason I've been doing this openly is that James isn't fat, and his weight gains have been pretty negligible (and sometimes invisible to people other than me, but if he says so himself, it's not in my head!). If that were to change, maybe it would be more important to be discreet about it. I'm not sure where it's going at the moment, but he's aging and it would be only natural if he began to gain more weight and not lose it back as easily. It might be a little mean to keep pointing it out. If I'm in the habit of talking about it, people might wonder why I suddenly stopped, but to be quite honest: the fatter he gets, the less OK I'll feel talking about it. I'm not sure how he feels about it and it comes a little too close to my own issues. I'd still feel turned on by it if he got fat, but I have so many issues myself that it's a bit of a clusterfuck.

It might be because I'm trying to heal from my own eating disorder, but I just feel like I don't need to be publicly involved in James' weight changes anymore. I went through a phase where I had to comment on everything he does and says and is, but I think that's the sort of thing I should steer away from. I'm not his binary messenger. He has his own Twitter and if he chooses to talk about his weight, he can do so. He chooses not to, so maybe I should take my cue from that. He's not my plaything, after all.

The fat fetish is a difficult thing in this respect, because I frequently feel the NEED to talk about it, but I also want to be kind and fat acceptant. It's probably not a great thing for the blog either way. I can always bore my friends to tears with weight gain fan fiction (HeadSix taunting Gaius about it or something). I don't need to do it here. I don't want to feel remorseful for possibly giving the wrong impression.

I just can't find peace with this, so I think it's easier to stop talking about it than constantly feel guilty over it. The guilt probably means I'm walking a fine line and possibly breaking my own rules because of the fetish. If you want to see the belly talk continue, speak now or forever hold your peace. (If you think "thank GOD she's gonna stop it", you can keep that to yourself, because I feel embarrassed already.) Maybe I'm overreacting, I can't be sure. I just really want to be kind.

So I'm gonna stop talking about James' belly, but rest assured I'm still gushing about it within. I just want to be kind. And I want this to be a place of respect (and loving teasing), not mocking.

And if I ever did mock: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Gaius Baltar: Not That Evil, Part 1,000,000

2011-09-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

James is featured as number 40 in EW's "Biggest Emmy Nomimation Snubs". I love that he's there, although he could be higher (like say number 1). I know James has said he doesn't care about the Emmys, and maybe he has a point, but still. He did a great job as Gaius and deserves some award love.

Once again, I have to take objection to how Baltar is presented though.

Callis' Baltar has worn so many masks, it's still hard to pin down who he is: weasel-like traitor, Iago-esque manipulator, power-hungry despot, broken political prisoner, crazed cultist?

I wouldn't describe him as any of those things. Well, maybe broken political prisoner. Weasel-like? Yes. Traitor? Yes, but he didn't know the stakes, so it's a bit debatable. Lago-esque manipulator? Absolutely not. Who did he manipulate and how? If anything, HeadSix manipulated him throughout the show. "Power-hungry despot"? That one made me laugh a little. I don't think he even cared about being president, in between the hookers and the drinking. He was just really miserable. "Crazed cultist"? That role was thrust upon him. He never really believed in the cult thing anyway, and secretly despised the women but was kind to them, because he had no choice.

But see - he was KIND to those women. He was kind to Gina, kind to Caprica (also bitchy at times, but that's part of a relationship), kind to Gaeta in the end, etc. He really did very little evil, and he wasn't consciously manipulative or scheming, ever.

Did James Callis "redefine onscreen evil"? That's an interesting claim. I'm really not sure. On the one hand, he did give "evil" a kinder face, much kinder than the writers and producers would have. But was Baltar evil enough to redefine evil? Can you really put him on par with all the real baddies who have no conscience or heart to speak of? I don't think you can.

Callis drenches Baltar in such palpable fear and insecurity that his evil acts can actually make sense... making them all the more horrifying.

I agree with the first part, that's good writing and a good analysis of the role. But the second part? I just feel like they had to make it seem like Baltar is evil in the end. Maybe he did a few things that I thought were horrifying - almost killing the Chief to torture Sharon, for instance, and giving Gina the nuclear war head - but those acts didn't really make sense to me, and I don't think he was horrifying. He always seemed conflicted and guilty afterwards.

What's horrifying about Baltar is how human he is. It horrifies me when I can relate to him, because it says something scary about my own personality: we're all weak and we could all end up in his position. That's the horror, not his evilness.

BBC Merlin News Snippet

2011-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

James' BBC Merlin role has been named: he will play "Borden, an old pupil of Gaius"! Digital Spy reports that James will appear in the fifth episode of the new season. The show will return in one month, which means James' episode will be aired in about two months' time. Exciting!

I must admit I've never watched this Merlin, but it's pretty cool he got to do a scene with Gaius of all names. Also, he will be riding a horse, which is exciting to me for some reason. (I'm not sure why - maybe I just like the skill of it? I've never done much riding.)

I don't have any other news about this, so here's the clip of him "climbing the wall" in "the rain", again.

New James Callis Project(s?)!

2011-09-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Screen Daily reports that James will be in a British soccer-related film in Manchester. It's described as "Billy Elliot meets Bend it like Beckham". So will it be sappy or funny? Hard to tell from the description, but it's James working with children, so it should be awww material! Also, it promises to be "distributed in the UK in 2012", so this might be something we will actually see. What worries me is that James is mentioned sixth, so it might be another small part. Must stop hoping he'd always have starring roles.

There is an indie film too, A Little Place off the Edgeware Road. And while indies are never something we get to see, I'm kinda hoping he does this one. He's unconfirmed, but very much wanted in the lead, and it's based on a Graham Greene story. I'd love to see him do something literary. (Bridget Jones doesn't count.) It's very sweet if he does this, because he'd basically be working pro bono, but I'm not sure if the soccer film comes first.

Oh, James tweeted he's already in Manchester! The Jamesman flies on, never stopping long in one place. They say Tampere is the Manchester of Finland (I guess because it's an industrial city), a.k.a. "Manse", so by admittedly rather far-fetched logic, he and I are in the same city. O.o Cosmic!!

As a side note, I almost eletrocuted myself with my old hair dryer. (It wasn't really that serious, but I had to go to the emergency room.) It reminded me of this deleted scene from Meet Pursuit Delange, so I'm re-posting it:

"It was certainly food for thought, and I knew that for the rest of the day, my mind would be filled with personal mission statements, Campari-fueled incontinence nightmares, and concerns about badly wired home appliances."

So you know what my mind's filled with right now. Well, apart from the incontinence thing.

Like they said at the hospital, my heart is in great shape, but I do suffer from very severe fangirl-itis. Modern medicine knows no cure, so I'm not gonna quit the blog anytime soon. More news as it comes in!

News Splash

2011-09-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Firstly, some long-awaited news: Reuniting the Rubins has announced a release date on Facebook! 21st October, it will run a whole week in the UK cinemas, but the screens are still to be announced. I wonder if I could pester the local arthouse cinema Niagara to show this film. The previews seemed pretty promising.

Little birds have tweeted that we haven't seen the last of Dr Trevor/Charles Grant! The finale for Eureka was shot last week, and James Callis was in attendance. I'm quite excited about this! He was a no-show in the second part of season four (unsurprisingly, as we knew he was in Delhi while they were filming it). Dr Grant might just come to wrap things up neatly, or wreak more havoc. We'll see!

Edward James Olmos announced at Dragon*Con that he, James, and Ron Moore were going to Portland to shoot "an improv BSG skit"! :D This sounds awesome, and just up James' alley. I wonder what the skit will be like, with just the Admiral and Gaius Baltar. If it's anything like the Music of BSG segment, we're in for a treat. Edited to add: Oh, and it's apparently on a show called "Portlandia", which I had never heard of. So a guest starring role! Nice! Also something I can expect to see online soon after it airs. Watch this space!

Tricia Helfer, on the other hand, mentioned that she and James used to take shots of scotch before love scenes. Heee! They really needed alcohol to find each other attractive? I'm starting to wonder if Gaius Baltar's drink glasses contained actual scotch instead of some fake swill. BSG set was an openminded place...

During the past week, James has apparently managed to be in Vancouver, Portland, Zürich, Delhi, LA and London. (Or at least all of the airports, if I deciphered his tweet correctly.) This will only fuel the rumors of Mr Callis being Jesus, or Santa, or an unknown super-powered entity. We'll keep watching him for signs of greatness and report as need be.

If indeed Mr Callis had flown through the air without the means of a plane, we imagine it would have looked something like this...

Re-Uniting the Rubins Making of Teaser!

2011-08-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

Re-uniting the Rubins: Behind-the-scenes Teaser from tomhollings on Vimeo.

Much like the film itself, the making of documentary doesn't actually seem to be available. But hey, here's a snippet of the first day of filming! James Callis can be seen several times, looking happy and donning his bubblewrap vest. (OK, sorry James, it's a very stylish coat, really. Ahem.) Rhona Mitra can also be seen. Timothy Spall and Honor Blackman are NOT in this video.

What you can see in this video is the amazing amount of PEOPLE present in every scene. If the scene is three people walking along a corridor, there are five others following them with cameras and microphones. It seems like so much work. How do they make it seem so effortless?

The movie does look good. I hope I get to see it some day.

Mustenland?

2011-07-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

OMG people. LOOK AT THIS. James Callis posted this photo on Twitpic yesterday and I can't even.

Colonel Moustache

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :D :D :D :D :D
I was gonna joke at him at some point that if he's an old-timey gentleman, he needs those moustaches with the ends twirling up. Well, apparently he's got it!!! Also, LOL at "trailer trashistrocracy" :D I love his puns so much.

If he looks like this on the movie, I don't know. Very nice outfit and dignified, but that moustache! And even the sideburns, I mean look at them. Are they glued on? Is the moustache real? I will have some real trouble taking this seriously. Hehhehhee.

Other news from twitter:

mrbonturcode Bradley Porter

@VMShorts Always. On set at the moment as Bret McKenzie is giving r&b dance lessons to Jane Seymour, JJ Feild & JamesCallis. Friday feeling

Sounds like they're having a lot of fun! :)

Also, author Shannen Hale reports:

After one very cute and sweet actor shared some chocolate with me, I felt I had to report it to my husband, because hey, he was cute and British and he gave me chocolate!

I choose to believe this was James. It just sounds like a James thing to do; eating chocolate AND sharing it? Swooon and gushhh (but only tentative ones in case it turns out it was Bret or Rupert instead!).

I'm also happy to hear they've been ad libbing. It might make for a nice genuine feel and allow James to build up Colonel Andrews a bit. The film really sounds pretty promising.

Ahhh *fantasizes about sharing chocolate with James, but then remembers the moustache and starts to giggle again* hihihihi.. :D

James Callis Shirtless Ideas

2011-07-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

I get so many "James Callis shirtless" searches lately that I have decided to post a few gratuitously shirtless movie/tv show ideas for him. With pictures of him shirtless thrown in. No need to thank me; I aims to please.

"Oh no... I think the fangirls are objectifying me again!"

Shirt Free.
Hillbilly couple Jimbob (James Callis) and Trishlene (Tricia Helfer) decide to become hippies. They take their shirts off and wander around in the wild, putting flowers in their hair and singing stupid songs about going shirt free. Their arch enemy is Rody (Edward James Olmos), an angry old chief of police who hates nudity of all kinds, yet can't turn his eyes away from it. Their friend Ostrich (Jamie Bamber) is always at hand to join in the shirtlessness, as well as take shirt-free photos of them. This sitcom will run for eighteen seasons, despite being extremely formulaic. In each episode, they are almost but not quite caught by Rody, and Ostrich takes a series of sexy photos of them.

Some dialogue:
Jimbob: Golly, it's mighty fine going without a shirt! (ruffles chest hairs)
Trishlene: Oh yeppers. (ruffles boobs)
Ostrich: I done me a picture series that done been very sexy. I will get some cash for these. Yeehaw!
Rody: FREEZE!!!!
Jimbob: Oy, not him again. (puts shirt on)
Trishlene (puts shirt on, reluctantly)
Rody: YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR... wait a minute, where's your shirtless bodies?
Jimbob: Them's under them shirts.
Trishlene: Them. (points at boobs)
Rody: Hot fidgety fudge!!! *stomps ground in a comedic fashion*

Chest to Chest.
What if shirts had never been invented? What if people just rubbed lotion on themselves and each other to keep warm- and safe? This horror drama explores such a sexy but dangerous world. Fyvush (James Callish) and Driwsha (Trisha Helfer) are starring, among others. Oh let's be honest, it's the entire BSG cast with no shirts to speak of.
Fyvush: Honey? Time to get up.
Driwsha: Mmmh. I had a beautiful dream that there were no chest-eaters. We just ran around happily with no fear.
Fyvush: But it was only a dream. The reality is, they are out there...
(looks out the window. A futuristic, poorly CGI'ed bird-beast stares back and licks its lips.
Fyvush: Ugh. (cuddles his chest)
Driwsha: Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll just rub this repellent lotion on ourselves and each other.
(30 minutes of lotion-rubbing in slow motion)
Bird-beast: GAWKK!!! (flies away from the smell of the repellent)
Fyvush: We finally found the right smell to repel them.
Driwsha: Too bad it's the smell of shit. But hey, you get used to everything.
(The TV turns on by itself)
Fyvush: We gotta fix that thing.
Reporter: A chest-eater mauled a young woman to death today in city chest. It was later found to be a suicide. The 25-year-old woman had left a note saying, "I cannot stand the smell anymore." She was a notable model and studied medicine... (Picture of the woman; Katee Sackhoff)
Driwsha: Oh my chest. Such a pointless death!
Fyvush: That's it! I will find a lotion that smells better than shit!

A chest-eater!!! Honestly how creepy is that?! (Toby says it just looks cute and I'm too easily scared. Maybe he's just scarred from playing too many Silent Hill games. It's HELLA SCARY.)

34t My 541rt.
(eat my shirt)
This ground-breaking idea explores a world that is exactly like the internet. People of all sizes keep stopping for sexy posing, while the jealous troll them relentlessly. The dialogue goes into many directions, but someone always mentions Hitler.
(beginning screen) You must be 18 or over to proceed. Please click YES if you are and NO if you are not.
(invisible hand clicks YES) We're not sure we believe you. But wtf ever, how could we tell?
(Street. Regular-looking people walk around. Among them - Jimbyc (James Callis) and trutricia (Tricia Helfer). People randomly stop to pose shirtless, sometimes pantsless.)
Jimbyc (takes his shirt off and gives some sexy poses.) (He could gain some weight for this role. Just an idea.)
Troll: LOL U R fat
Jimbyc: LOL Shut up haters u just jelous
Trutricia: F U stop being rude to my boyfriend he's rily hot u not
Troll: WTF is this Nazi Germany u just want ppl to say u r hot f u both
Troll 2: Show ur b00bs
Trutricia: (shows them)
Troll 2: w00t [CENSORED]
Jimbyc: WTF Shut up u perv its my gf u r talkin 2

I could go on forever, but I think I'll stop here. I hope you were turned on, I sure was.

A Slight Alleviation. (James Callis in Austenland)

2011-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

So I dunno. I'm not going to say that I will LOVE this thing, because I probably won't. BUT.

-If you do a search, dozens of blogs are already squeeing over this film. It's all over the net. People are going to watch this. People are going to watch James. So it might not be the main role or anything, but he's at least VISIBLE to the great audience again. Some will watch for Stephenie Meyer (sigh), others will watch for Keri Russell, some because they love the book or Colin Firth. So it's visibility, and all visibility is good for his career.

-James' role is Colonel Andrews, according to this link, which is Shannon Hale's personal blog, so we can be pretty sure it's accurate. There's a preview of Austenland here, and browsing through it, I found Colonel Andrews on page 27 and on. There are fairly many scenes with him; he's an OLD-TIMEY BRITISH GENTLEMAN, just like I hoped. Swooon!!!! I want to see this! James is so good for the part of a gentleman, because well, even off character, he is. He may be down-to-earth and a bit clumsy and awkward sometimes, but always polite, and in some way very British. So it at least sounds like a fitting role and one I can enjoy watching.

-Colonel Andrews is described as "fair-haired, with a decent set of shoulders and a very ready smile". Fair-haired?! I wonder if they've given up on that or if James will dye his hair. Also, he is said to emit a "whiff of tobacco", which is fitting too. So maybe we get to see him smoke again!

That's about it. I must admit I couldn't read the book; I can't focus on this kind of fiction. I fear I sound like a snob now, I do enjoy entertainment, just not of the chick lit kind. However, I have no idea how much bearing the book will have on the actual film; Bridget Jones's Diary, while entertaining enough, was a terrible adaptation that took away the best scenes and shrunk the best characters into the margin. So reading the book might actually not warm me to the film at all. Maybe it's best to just know what part James will play and look forward to gentlemanly charm. I do find Keri Russell charming and a good actor, so that's also a plus.

I guess you could say I don't have "great expectations" for this film. Heh heh. Wait, no, that's Dickens. I'm approaching this film with too much "pride and prejudice". See? That works! I am clever! I should totally write a chick lit novel about a girl who obsesses over James Callis.

James Callis to be in "Austenland". (AKA I'm Sorry But.)

2011-07-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

So James will appear in "Austenland", a rom-com about a woman who's obsessed with Colin Firth's Mr Darcy (who's apparently not called Mark except in Bridget Jones - so much for my classical literature education ;)). It's an adaptation of a book by Shannon Hale, starring Keri Russell. Brief article here.

I'll start with the good: it sounds like a mainstream film that WILL make it to Finland, so I can actually go see him in the cinema and buy the DVD. Yay for that! The premise sounds like it could be interesting, book adaptations tend to be better than run of the mill rom-coms, and I do like Keri Russell. (And Colin Firth, assuming he appears in the film at least in some way.)

But the bad... Oh, dear. OK, I'll just say this now, before I know more about the film: I'm a huge James Callis fan, but that comes second seat to my politics. I'm a feminist, and rom-coms exhibit all things I hate about modern "women's culture": they're shallow, feminist on the surface but patriarchal in the core, terribly dated and stereotypical, and what's worst of all, totally unfunny. I've seen a couple I liked, but there's a big chance I will not like this film. And I'm sorry, but I will gripe in that case. If I think it's a waste of my time and James' talent, I will gripe. I'll try not to make the posts ALL about that, but I won't make totally unpolitical gushery posts if I'm not feeling it. The only thing that will stop me from griping, if it's anything like other rom-coms I've seen, is if a) James is fat or b) he gets to play a really charming, funny, sexy gentleman (a well-written one). Preferably both. I know, boring feminist grouch, but there it is. (I wouldn't apologize if this were my personal blog, but I always feel like a fan blog should be a little more for the other fans, and I've already made it so much about me. But I am what I am.)

Also: SUPPORTING cast. In a rom-com. If this is another Bridget Jones's Diary, I will just... I mean, I know some good actors (Colin Firth) have done a bunch of rom-coms of varying quality. Maybe I'm biased because I'm just a big ol' fangirl but James is talented. He's smart, he brings a world of emotion into his roles, he's handsome, he has it all. He could be doing main roles, serious movies, genuinely funny comedies, Charlie Kaufman or David Lynch or something like that. It troubles me when he's cast like this, mentioned last in a Stephenie Meyer project. Is there something I'm missing? Is it his accent? His height? His lack of buffness? The fact that BSG was popular only in nerd circles? Or maybe he's just happy doing this kind of thing and doesn't want the stress and fame that would come with a bigger role. Maybe I'm taking him too seriously again and I need a new hobby.

On the other hand, he was going to be working on 17th Precinct, and probably passed by some other roles because that was his first choice. So maybe there's more good stuff coming later.

All of that said, I will give "Austenland" a try, and if it's good, address a full and frank apology for suspecting it sucks. (But can you blame me? Stephenie Meyer, Nacho Libre writer.)

Incy Wincy James Callis Came Climbing Up the Wall

2011-06-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

Taken at Pierrefonds on May 10th, 2011. At 1 minute: James Callis climbs the wall of the castle. It's fascinating to see how this happens. What surprises me is how many people are constantly there while a scene is being filmed. And they're all so quiet.

Have you ever wondered how they film rain scenes? Apparently they just use a big hose to create it. And when someone has to climb the wall? He has a LADDER. He makes it look like a lot of work. And OK, hanging in that position and being rained on, it probably is, but so much for the magic of cinema! I've never watched Merlin, but I'm intrigued to see why James climbs up the wall and what happens inside the castle. I know he filmed many inside scenes, so we'll see!

In the scene with the horses (near the end), you can see someone who MAY be James with a white horse. I really can't tell if it's him. After staring at his pictures so much, I really should be able, but all I can say from such a distance is that it could conceivably be James. Maybe. (I have the same problem with his figure, the clothes are really bulgy and hangy. Hmmm.)

I also think it's adorable how that guy - Colin Morgan? - is kissing his horse in the end. So cute.

Edit: Oh, and where are my manners? Original video here, big thanks to JulesVids!

Fan Musings o' the Moment

2011-06-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

I posted this on my LJ already, but it belongs here too, I reckon. How I'm feeling about fandom right now. Short version: I'm feeling well.

I was randomly James Callis-browsing as usual, and finding nothing new. (I have this theory that a fan can exhaust all the good hits on Google in two years. It's based on my own bitter experience.) There was a mention about him being smaller than on the show, though, and it made me think.

Maybe they meant shorter and not thinner (isn't he plenty thin in most people's eyes already?), but it made me think. When I met the fat guy in Ace of Base, he didn't seem all that fat. What's more, the fatness kind of didn't matter, because he was THERE and human. He seemed... flat in some way, stripped of his idol-greatness. Granted, this happened after my fandom sort of withered to death, so I might still see James as idol-great.

I always thought it might be super disappointing to meet him, because I had built up this image. Like I'd realize that image is totally bogus, and it'd be shattered, and I would be left with an admiration for some vague guy I don't even know.

But in one way, I'm already meeting him on Facebook and Twitter. (By which I mean, mostly, seeing him.) I saw him flattening when I first read his posts. It was weird. It was like, "he's really there, tweeting, right now". And it meant - he's human in a way I hadn't considered. He's got a computer or phone or whatever, he's typing - and not always correctly - and that sort of puts him on even keel with me. I'm not sure why, but it does. He has more followers than me, but it's not like a JamesCallis template, it's just him posting on a regular site.

But it wasn't a disappointing sort of flattening. For a while, I felt sad that we're really not friends and probably never going to be; it was like that was suddenly clear to me in a new way. But I realize that I might not be able to handle constant close contact anyway. There's no rejection in not being friends, nothing personal. There's also no pressure; I can talk to him when I feel like it, he won't block me or be rude about my feelings. He might not always respond, but I know he can see it, and sometimes I just want to be seen by him. (I'm not sure why, and I worry that's a kind of neediness, but I can't help this.)

I haven't been disappointed in James. It's like the good things I admire are still there, more so than I had expected. He may not be larger than life, but he's a good guy, and funny, and kind. He's interesting to follow. The surprise is that imaginary James - is still there. I can still coo over his belly, feel like I know him and we share a special bond, and I can blog from this angle, but I can't talk at him like that. It's just a different mindspace.

There are two Jameses: the real him, who's a little more distant, someone I don't quite know; and the imaginary guy, who I can mold to whatever needs I have at the moment. He held my hand when I was severely depressed; he laughs at my jokes and eats with me and all that. If I don't need him, he's not there.

I can't ask anything of the real James, and I need to remember the constraints of the fan-idol thing, the constraints of his limited time. I have a certain respect for him that I don't have for the guy in my head. The real James doesn't share a telepathic connection with me, but it's somehow better, because it's always surprising what he ends up saying and when. I also enjoy the spectator role, the friendly distance between him and fans.

What disappeared is the Evil Idol. I don't remember if I wrote about this before, but when you see your idol as ideal, you know it's gotta be false, so your mind creates an alternative image, the Evil James who hates fat girls in general and me in particular; someone who really thinks my blog sucks and wants nothing to do with me and blocked me on Facebook blah blah. The flattening seemed to happen on THAT end.

Why did the evil image disappear? Probably because I see on Twitter how many people are talking to him, how many people want a piece of his time. He only has 24 hours a day like other people, and he has a super busy job, travels a lot, and has three kids. Is he going to have time to dissect every word people say about him and look for possible insults? Would he want to use his precious time on reading a blog he hates? Would he really choose to hate on a fan or fat girls in general or anything like that? The answer is obviously no.

Also, he has never once stepped in it and said something rude that upset people. By which I mean, he's never been openly sexist/racist/ableist/whatever else. He's not spewing bigoted jokes or uneducated opinions about things he knows nothing about. He really sounds friendly in his tweets; and deep-thinking; and like someone who just wants to live and let live. I'll admit I'm very easily offended, so this is an achievement. It must mean he's either unusually kind and non-judgemental, or unusually good at judging what to say and when. Either way, epic win.

For better or worse, I'm not a huge part of his life. James might or might not have an idea of me, as separate from the other fans, simply because I talked to/about him so much. That idea might be negative, but really, it's more likely to be positive or neutral. Hate takes a lot of mental energy, and his attitude on people is generally benevolent. He doesn't have unlimited time to ponder on me and my feelings for him. If he ever chooses to talk to me, or read my blog, I can take that as a huge compliment. Because he considers me worth his time.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Wonderful Spam!

2011-06-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

You know, spam can take many forms, and I often find it highly amusing. I found this "blog" where "James Callis" (might be their real name, or might be using our James's name in vain - blasphemy!) writes about various products he's tested and is happy with. It's all so amusingly NOT James's style. I mean, look at this:

My friend showed me this video game called Angry Birds, and it is surprisingly entertaining.

I know he has an iPhone, but I don't think James would ever say it like this. "This game called Angry Birds"? He would assume everyone already knows what it is and he's late for the party. He'd say something like "Finally tried Angry Birds - I guess an old dog - can learn - new tricks - t.g. 4 the iphone! xxx"

Also, since James has a 2-year-old, it's good to hear they're finally getting her a crib, and a stroller, and some other essential child goods. His spouse is really on top of this kind of thing, apparently. Heh heh. I can't imagine a tweet here, because he doesn't tweet about his private life, and only obsessive baby parents describe this stuff anyway.

But the one most amusing to me, for obvious reasons, is this weight loss-related one.

There are lots of different diet programs on the market, however I am leaning towards ones which reduce the carbohydrates to help lose weight. Most of these make the most sense in my opinion because I’m able to understand that the majority of the foods I take in have a lot of empty carbs without any vitamins and minerals

I guess he's finally mending his donut-loving ways, LOL! I'd think he was always able to understand their nutritional value though.

I could imagine how he would write if he were to embark on a valiant weight loss journey. Actually, I can't really, because my own fantasies get in the way and it gets way too detailed and descriptive (exactly what his belly looks and feels like, etc.) I think he'd just be self-deprecating and brief. Or would he even tweet about it? Probably he would not.

One thing's for sure, though: he wouldn't write about this stuff just to endorse a product.

James Callis Birthday Pix. (Linx.)

2011-06-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

I'm having a James' birthday bash over at Tumblr where there will be lots of new and old pictures. The old ones are mostly from the Unofficial Website though, browse their photo gallery, it's amazing. James was very young and cheekboney. I think he looks better nowadays but I can't put my finger on why. More wisdom? More confidence? Even more kindness? He looked kinda young and insecure here still. But he really hasn't changed much in 20 years. No wait, it's only fifteen years since the first photos.

Also, Janine posted a bunch of James Eureka promo shots and he looks amazing! Link here.

I might as well link again to the latest pix we have of him, on the set of BBC's Merlin. So the age has brought a couple of lines (adorable) around his eyes, a bit more chub (even adorabler) and not much else.

What will the future bring? Hopefully more chub. Seriously though, I can see him only getting better as an actor as he has more life experience. I just hope he gets roles that are worthy of his talents. And I hope him happiness and good health and lots of joy. Oh f, I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

James Callis' Birthday (40th); A Formal Greeting and Congratulation

2011-06-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Ahem. Dear Mr. Callis, it has come to our attention that thou - thee? - you are celebrating thine - thorne? - 40th birthday today. We are taking this with the utmost seriousness, and thus have composed for thee - thou? - a poem that goes thus:

Ah!
Each time I lay eyes onto you
My heart doth stoppeth.
For it is in the gentle forms and slopes
of your form
That I
cometh.

Ahem. Yes, sometimes on times like these, we have a tendency to get overly, well, stimulated. Perhaps it is best to device a new poem, this time more appropriate.

Thy beauty fills the Earth and skies
And rivers, lakes beneath it;
Ah, how fans wish they could device
a machine with which to repeat it;
So then we could jump onto thee
and...

Perhaps it is the poetic format here that is making the... lack of ... or the excessive... Let us attempt in a more contemporary, jocular style.

You are turning 40
The fans are getting horny
Today is your birthday
So make it your girth day
Eat lots of donuts
..something something gonads?

Oh for f's sake! Can't I write something NORMAL and non-horny! This bugs me.

My fandom, my fandom,
it makes my heart explode.
It's not any of your fault,
but I still want you to know.

What the fuck was that?!

You bring so many people joy,
don't ever stop being a little boy
at heart and soul and imagination
continue to create and seek elation.

Hmmm, bland yet boring. But it's not creepy. This is a step in the right direction.

I think I thought of just the perfect thing to say. Ahem:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES!
You are the wind beneath my wings,
the apple of my eye,
the whiskey in my brandy,
the stretch marks on my thigh;
the wind in my willows
the fluff in my pillows
the wuthers of my heights,
the power of my lights;
my failure to comply,
my tendency to lie,
my rifle of the night,
my sorrow shining bright;
my grown up teenage dream-a,
my Anna Karenina,
my heart.

*sniff* that was beautiful. I'm happy now.

Blah.

2011-05-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've tried but I just can't write about 17th Precinct anymore. It was going to be so great, and just.. I just can't. Let's just pretend, for now, that the whole project never happened and we weren't promised an awesome James-Jamie-Tricia reunion and a cool premise that might have been AMAZING, only to have it yanked out from under us. NBC sucks, and if I didn't love Community, I'd boycott it.

A propos Community: couldn't James Callis join it? Pleeease? Just a thought. It's just his kind of humor. Well, technically, it's just my kind of humor, which may or may not be his kind. But I think he'd be awesome on that show.

What else? I guess nothing. I have no idea what's going to happen with James this year. He was going to be John Bosson - sniff! - and now just.. could be anyone. I mean, maybe a window will open up elsewhere and he will be in an amazing role. We just have to have faith.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'll go get drunk. There's always a risk that I send James some embarrassing messages while intoxicated, but that's a risk I have to take.

Dear "James Callis Penis" Searchers.

2011-05-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

I hereby announce that I HAVE NO INFORMATION PERTAINING JAMES' PENIS, whether it be its size, shape, or whereabouts. I doubt any other site does either. Just saving you a lot of time.

If you wish to ask James about his penis (not recommended), please direct all questionts to his twitter at http://twitter.com/jamescallis I assure you he knows more about the topic than do I.

Also: LOL and he's not a porn actor, people.

Thank you.

I AM SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW.

2011-05-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

So it seems official: 17th PRECINCT WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY. Ever. The wise executives of NBC have decided that a show with James Callis, Jamie Bamber, AND Tricia Helfer is really too good to be true.

I am so mad right now, I will express my sentimets in this crudely drawn Paint "art"work. The grey represents the dullness of the TV landscape without 17th Precinct; the broken heart symbolizes my broken fan heart; and the ugly background color is a symbol for how annoying everything is right now. Also, my cat is very angry.

I'm so mad and disappointed, I can't even talk about it more right now. Mo ranting will probably follow.

Mr Tourist Goes to France..

2011-05-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

There are some photos of James Callis on set of BBC's Merlin here! And I mean, look at him. "OMG I'm in France! There's a castle here! Let's see if I can get a good angle! These will be great for my holiday album!" Plus flirting with all the ladies on set, obviously. LOL!

I don't know how he always manages to look like he's not working, but having a fun holiday somewhere. I guess acting could be one of those jobs that don't feel like a job, especially if you're just guest starring and don't have a lot to film.

I'm not sure if he's in costume here or if these are his own clothes. They look a bit big on him, but then his clothes tend to, so go figure. (Also note: he's wearing a coat while the women are in T-shirts. Always cold. <3) The hair is still short and there's a minor mustache alert, with stubble. Handsome combination if you ask me. The belly looks slightly bulgy - slurp - but it's hard to tell. Unfortunately, due to my new job, I have to focus on other things and can't do proper analytics on his belly size and prize. Maybe another time. Sigh. No, I love my new job. It's just hard to focus sometimes when stuff is going on with James.

Les Nouvelles de James Callis

2011-05-10T02:54:00.000-07:00

Il me faut écriver en francais, parce que James is in France filming BBC's Merlin! Awesome!

jamescallis James Callis In Merlin (UK) filming in France scenes with merlin and Gaius (!) and on a horse called Galactico!!! #comeoncoincidence!!!

Wow, that's like the hand of God guiding him to the role. Except that the horse's name is one letter off. God doesn't do typos.

This is the good Merlin, from what I hear. I haven't watched it, but I probably should. He's going to be in season four.

I like seeing James on a horse. It's pretty sexy and impressive. I mean the horse isn't sexy, just James is. But if the horse makes him sexier, does that make it pervy? OR will I see anything as sexy if it's connected to James?

Also, he's impressing people left and right with his French skills on Twitter, so check it out. Also what looks like Italian to me. He's really pretty good, and he clearly enjoys impressing people with it. J'espere qu'il mange beaucoup de croissants et baguettes. Et.. donuts, whatever that is in French.

The sad nouvelles is that it really sounds like NBC won't pick up 17th Precinct. I'm really hoping it's just a rumour, but if not, I will sulk and grump in another post. Glad to know James has work even if it doesn't happen. (But not with Jamie and Tricia :( )

Ramble Baubles, Part 1,000,000

2011-04-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't written a real post post in a while. Not much is going on, of course, but that never used to stop me. I'm feeling down lately, and that also reflects into the fandom. Some of the joy is lost, but probably not for good. Also, I have the flu right now so if this post turns out to be super blah, it's just because of that.

I'm still very much NOT blah about James, though. Tumblr is proving a lot easier to post photos with, so I'm posting a couple per day over there. Also reblogging some beautiful artwork with James/James and Tricia. See it all at Fuck Yeah James Callis!

Soon we should have news about 17th Precinct, and I'm very hopeful that it will be picked up. If/WHEN it is, James will return to Vancouver to shoot next month, and there will be more delicious tidbits. I've purposefully not written a whole lot about the show so far. The thing is, I want to withhold my judgement until I've seen it or at least heard a little more about it. I'm a little unsure and nervous if I'll like it. I don't usually like police procedurals. But I do like James, Jamie and Tricia, and I like Ron's writing. I think I'll get a kick out of the magical elements too. So I'm cautiously optimistic still. It may not be my new favorite show OMG, so I'm trying to not be too pre-emptively gushy.

The good news is that James is very happy with the show, as told by Aaron Douglas:

theaarondouglas BTW. Spoke to James Callis, said 17th precinct was a great shoot & everything he hoped it would be. Check it out when it airs, gonna be gold

After BSG, James must have high expectations. We don't always have the same taste - Merlin?? - but he must hold Ron D. Moore up to a very high standard. This should be good.

Whether I like it or not, the show being picked up would be a great thing. It would mean more visibility, new fans, possibly more cons. It would mean lots of James and Jamie and Tricia being gorgeous together. From a less selfish perspective, it would mean that James gets to work with people he loves in a place he loves. So I'm really hoping for a green light here.

In the meantime, James has been tweeting a lot. His Twitter is everything I had hoped: funny, at times insightful, friendly. He doesn't spam with every minute detail of his life, and he doesn't get into fights with people. The tweets sound playful and down-to-earth. Some celebrity twitters are a bit, well, self-indulgent, and I never get that impression with James. (But then I may be biased. Maybe.) I enjoy reading his thoughts. I feel a bit nervous and jittery when he posts still, and I reply too much, but this too shall pass.

He's also a big fan of Radiohead, which is kind of cool. And odd. He can have fans and he can be a fan... which kind of means he's higher than us and Radiohead is higher than him? OR he's on the same level as us and also in the position of wanting to admire other people and their work? Hmmm. Sorry, I'm working on trying to bring him down to a more human level and not put him on a pedestal. It's not always easy for me. I tend to really get into things I love, and sometimes I need a reality check.

He hasn't put his foot in his mouth with some racist/sexist/etc. comment yet, so I'm starting to think he never will. I think he's actually really OK and accepting of other people. He's just human, so surely he has some bigoted notions and biased ideas, but he's smart enough to not tweet them. Sometimes actors, particularly comedians, dwell in the negative or offensive things, or they want to stir shit and say stuff that's "daring" and rude. The temptation might be quite high if you have a thousand followers. I respect James for not going that way. He has a beautiful mind. Am I putting him on a pedestal again? It's hard to tell.

There has been much request - or at least many searches - for "James Callis shirtless". There are no recent photos depicting him in such a delicious condition, but if you want to see some assorted BSG and Going Wrong goodies, look in my Tumblr, here. There are several pages. Some are just from his shoulders up, but there are several that show his lovely and somewhat hirsute torso too. Mm hmm. And I promise to keep adding screenshots in this category, too.

Some more search terms just for fun:
"james callis hair". I get a lot of these searches. Ah, the luscious mane! The lion's pride and horse's billowing-in-the-wind appendix. I know I've always been vocal about my love for his hair in all forms - perhaps too much so - and I do hope he won't go bald in the near future. If you wish to see pictures of his hair, see, well, every picture. But also the ones specifically tagged long hair or short hair.

"does James Callis smoke" - James Callis smokes, now don't you forget it.

"does james callis hate jamie bamber?" NO. They were very chummy on the set of 17th Precinct. See here. (Why should he hate Jamie? Or anyone, for that matter? I don't think he's the hating type.) They've always said what good friends they are, so I'd be very surprised if they suddenly fell out. And frankly, a little upset.

"James Callis always crying" - Umm, I don't think he is. Actually, I've never seen him cry off character. I imagine he's a touchy-feely guy, but it's not like he sits around weeping for no reason. If you mean on BSG, I think it's in part because he's so emotional and in part to humanize Baltar. He has the loveliest sad puppy eyes, doesn't he? Nicole made a great list of Baltar crying moments, but I can't find it for some reason. Maybe some linkage, Nicole?

"james callis weight" / "how much does james callis weigh"? You know what, get on Twitter and ask the maestro himself. If he doesn't like a question, he won't answer it. And I refuse to ask him, because he probably knows I'm horny about it, and it would be awkward. I'm not that curious about the number, actually, just his attitude on it. Not that it's any of my business, but then, what is?

Speaking of weight: "james callis thin"/"james callis skinny". It kind of varies. Usually, in the last couple of years, he is not skinny. Either way, don't worry, he's not anorexic or something. It's strange, I used to see him as very skinny before the donuts comment. I wonder how much of the chub I'm actually projecting and how much is there. For your own analysis, I refer you to the shirtless pictures linked above. Or perhaps the "tummy" tag.

"great Gaius Baltar quotes". I'm sure there's a site with some.. .let's see. If there isn't, I may have to make a post. Oh my, "Gaius Baltar thought of the day"? This is gold, Jerry, gold! Most of my favorites are already in there. I'd add "Oh my god, oh my giddy aunt!", "No, I haven't done anything!" (when asked "Are you Gaius Baltar?") and... Hmmm. I should really make some posts/tumbls about my favorites. Tumblr has gotten me into a major Gaius Baltar fangirl mood again.

"men pissing" - sorry, wrong blog.

"finnish blog fandom james callis" - right blog. Unless you be hatin'.

"hot girl standing next to paint horse" - wait, what?

James Callis on Twitter: Addendum.

2011-03-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a lot of searches about this, so just to reiterate: James Callis IS on Twitter, his name is @jamescallis. It's not officially verified I but it's him. He announced it on his personal Facebook and the Unofficial James Callis website. That may be as official as you're going to get.

If it seems weird to you, it's just because JAMES CALLIS IS WEIRD*. He's not like Tricia Helfer; he won't tweet straightfoward observations about his day. He will quote song lyrics, say cryptic things that may be impossible to decipher, and tell goofy schoolboy jokes. Also, he abuses dashes, doesn't always type things right, and over-capitalizes. I dunno what's up with that, but it's adorable.

If you want a sample of his style, read his messages to fans from before. Totally consistent with what he writes on Twitter.

James is a laid back, casual guy. He can be funny and silly or heartfelt and shocked at tragic world events. He's fun to follow. Just don't expect a rock star.

* and I mean that in the very nicest possible way

James Hedges?

2011-03-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, forget what I said about James Callis being a long-haired dachshung. He is clearly a HEDGEHOG. Look at the similarity there!

Other than that, awesome James + Jamie shots by Susan Gittins! I'll be lazy and just link to my tumblr, but by clicking each picture, you can get to the original source. James has been a bit fluey and I think you can tell in these photos that he's under the weather. But ever the champ, he's still standing and working. Can't really tell what the show will be like; "Public Necromancer" van is amusing though. :D

Oh, and there's also a Tricia/James/Jamie pic tweeted by Tricia! :) But since it's on my tumblr too, I won't link separately. Eeee! Yay for the hedgehog hairdo! Yay for the cheekbones! Yay for the slightly too tight coat and slightly too long pants! Yay for the scarf that looks bigger than James himself! :D

Ideas for 17th Precinct...

2011-03-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Confirmed actors:
Jeff - James Callis
Caolan - Jamie Bamber
Morgana - Tricia Helfer
Right on! So what could these three get up to? I have a few ideas... :D

(Ron Moore if you use these please be fair and pay me OK? xoxo D)

Can't Buy Me Love
Jeff's ex-wife (played by Lucy Lawless) shows up in town all sexy and in a huff, demanding more child support. Jeff's conscience takes the visible shape of Morgana in a blonde wig. Meanwhile, Caolan keeps seeing a strange blonde lady too (played by Katee Sackhoff). His longing takes the physical form of binge drinking and he ends up chasing a pigeon with a broom for ages. No crimes are solved in this episode.

A Rose by Any Other Name
Jeff decides that his name is completely boring and unfitting to his androgynous British charm. He goes and changes it to Sebastian D'Ubervilles. Susan, who has been bonding with Jeff because of their dull names, breaks up with him. Caolan notices changes in his wife's appetite, but can't figure out why. Will Jeff change his name back? In the actual plot, the town is swept by a wave of mysterious murders, and the murderer always leaves a rose on the crime scene. But when you sniff it, it smells like something quite different. Is it a real rose? Is the murderer a rose-inventing magician? Could this be more contrived? I'm no good with police plots.

I think I need to yank the horniness higher and it will improve my ideas.

A Chest Hair's Stroke Away
When the Chest Hair Strangler (Callum Keith Rennie) terrorizes the town, Jeff develops a mysterious rash which doesn't allow for him to wear a shirt. Seeing his delicious chest hair and tummy all the time, Morgana realizes her horniness could be the very key to solving the case...

Sexual Liaisons
Caolan and Jeff get more than a little bi-curious, and one thing leads to another... In the police plot, some guy is murdered with a baseball bat up his oh who the hell cares, sex all around!

Two New James Callis Pictures! Eeee!

2011-03-10T03:21:00.000-08:00

I woke up to two pictures of James on Twitter, so it's a good day already. Eeee!

James with scoobykoo on set.
James alone, on set. Looking a bit like "Oh dear, are you taking another picture? Oh well ok then."

Observations:
-eeeeeee!
-Wait, what? Wasn't Jeff supposed to have long hair? O.o He has really short hair. Is he actually not playing Jeff? I saw from some sources that it was not confirmed he is Jeff, so... maybe we were wrong? Or maybe he wears a wig while filming? Mysterious.
-He seems to be wearing three coats on top of each other. Is it really that cold in Vancouver? Although James always wears layers, so it's hard to say. Poor cold-blooded boy. <3
-He doesn't look all skinny, and this makes me happy. (So I prefer the chub to the long hair, now? You learn new things about yourself every day.)

OK, now off to make lunch and wipe this stupid grin off my face. And get to work.
*grins stupidly all day*

Eine Kleine James Callis Character Name Rant.

2011-03-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

I know this may interest no one but me, but it's my blog and I have the flu again and please pity me and I have to wait six months to see James on the new show so I'm just frakking posting this.

So in 17th Precinct, he's going to play a Jeff. My initial reaction was "Ugh, Jeff?" and I still don't feel like the name suits him. I'm not sure what it is about Jeff that bugs. Too macho? Too American? Too old for him? It just feels off. It feels downright offensively dull for him. I mean, James isn't the most exotic name in the world, but it's handsome and... Hmm. Maybe James is so common that there's no specific image, but Jeff gives me a very macho American image that totally doesn't fit James.

This got me thinking about names I could see him having. I also discussed this with M on Twitter, so the list is partially mine and partially made in cooperation with her. This is very important for his future projects, so I hope he's going to read and take heed.

My favorite character name so far: Gabriel McDow (FlashForward).
Beautiful, sounds poetic, not overly popular nor too weird. Gabriel is something that really fits James for some reason.
Runners-up: Gaius Baltar, Justin deVere Montague, Danny Rubin, Sebastian

My least favorite one so far: Mason Duryea (Numb3rs).
Sounds hard, strange, and deliberately unattractive.
Runners-up: Raoul, Aspyrtes, Clive Lanyard, and of course, Jeff.

Then there's Pursuit Delange. It's a really bizarre name. But you know, it's so bizarre that it comes back to being kinda fitting in a comedy like that. So we'll let that one be.

Names I can see James having
(* = he's played a character by this name)
I think these have the feel of slightly effeminate and sensitive, yet masculine and strong guy. But this might be a matter of taste. I'd love to hear others' thoughts...

Aaron
Adam
Alan /Allen
Alec, Alexander
Andrew
Anthony (but not Tony)
Benjamin*
Bradley
Charles*
Christopher
Colin
Daniel*
David
Donovan
Dorian
Duncan
Emmett
Ewan
Felix
Forrest
Frederick
Gabriel*
Gilbert
Henry/Harry
Herman
Ian
Jason
Jeremy/Jerome
Joel
Jonah / Jonas
Jonathan
Joseph
Joshua*
Justin*
Kenneth
Kent
Lee
Leonard (but not Lenny, just Leo)
Logan
Louis
Mark* / Marcus
Michael
Nathanael
Neil
Nicholas
Noah
Noel
Owen
Quentin
Paul
Peter
Robin
Samuel
Sean
Sebastian*
Simon
Stephen
Thad
Timothy*
Thomas*
Tobias/Toby
Trevor*
Victor
Vincent
Wesley

On the fence about: Barry, Dominic, Jack, Randall/Randy, Rhys/Reese, Robert, Ross, Walter, William (Will would be ok but not Bill)

Names I cannot see him having
Angus
Archie
Barry
Bob (not sure about Robert. I guess it's a no to Robert and yes to Robin.)
Burt/Bert
Calvin

Carl

Christian (bc he is Jewish; it would really fit him otherwise)
Cliff

Clint

Clive*

Conrad

Corbin
Dean
Donald
Dustin
Ernest*
George
Glenn
Harvey
Horace
Hoyt
Irwin
Kurt
Larry (I guess that's a no to Lawrence too, although that might fit him better)
Lyle
Marvin
Mason*
Morgan
Morris
Moses
Murray
Nigel
Norman
Raymond
Richard
Rory
Rupert
Russell
Seamus
Solomon
Tex
Trey/Troy
Wallace
Warren
Wayne/Dwayne

OMG I have to stop before I include all the names in the world. Is anyone still reading? Hello? Echo! Oh dear. Well, when the news comes in, they'll be back.

Great 17th Precinct Info Post. (James Callis-heavy)

2011-03-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

Monday, April 11th

I just have to post this, because it's a VERY GOOD OMEN INDEED.

theaarondouglas: BTW. Spoke to James Callis, said 17th precinct was a great shoot & everything he hoped it would be. Check it out when it airs, gonna be gold

I know James must have had high hopes for the show, after BSG. So hearing it's what HE hoped it would be, I have extremely high hopes myself now. Eeee!

Sunday, March 27th

Tricia Helfer just tweeted a photo from the wrap party!! Handsome alert! Chest hair alert! HELP! They are too pretty together!! Also, James' ears never cease to amuse and endear me. Very cute.

So that's a wrap then. I dunno how I can wait until September. I hope we get some teasers and stuff before it...

Oh, and I almost forgot to add this, the most adorable James/Jamie photo yet! They're trying to figure out a word in a crossword puzzle. Look at James' thinky brow!!!! Thanks to Craig A. for the photo.

Thursday, March 24th

And we have news on the name! Jeff was turned into John, so the final name is John Bosson. Awesome! It's a bit rhymey, but then so is James Callis. I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, but I just simply cannot see James as a Jeff, and I'm very happy they switched it to John. It's a slightly dull name, but it has no strong connotation with "American guy", and this helps me believe in the character. I like the last name Bosson a lot, too.

The shoots in Vancouver will end this week. After that, there are some screenings, and the shoots continue in May if NBC people like what they saw. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

A big article on the pilot script. This one is more positive-sounding than the taragel one. There are many spoilers, so I won't reveal everything. But it sounds very cool, and James has some powers of his own! Also this:

Caolon (pronounced ‘Kay-Lawn’) Longstreet, played by Bamber, is a blonde thirty-something copper who project a seriousness and deep focus. His partner Jeff Bosson, played by Callis, is a Brit; unlike Caolon he’s a bit more down-to-earth and not exactly fit.

Not exactly fit?! O.o Does that mean they will REFER TO THIS on the show? Because if they will, I have a feeling I will forgive many, many plot holes and suspend lots of belief.

An article from YVR shoots, by Susan Gittins:

I arrived to see detective partners Jamie Bamber and James Callis filming a scene exiting from their strange police car to investigate a crime scene in the alley. Between takes, the two ex-BSG castmates proved inseparable, giving each other playful shoves and taking breaks at the craft tent together.

Playful shoves!!! Sounds so "dude" and amusing. Obviously they're great friends, and I'm sure this chemistry will show on their scenes too. Excellent.

Lots and lots of photos at zimbio! James and Jamie, James alone. Craig Anderl from the set has also been tweeting many photos. But how to link to them all at once? Oh I know, browse through my Tumblr. (The link is to the "17th Precinct" tag, so it should find all posts with that tag, no matter when you read this post.)

Oddly enough, James has SHORT hair. So much for that squee. But hey - he looks like a cute hedgehog! :D So not too shabby. He looks chubby to me, although not everyone agrees. But needless to say, I am happy! You can tell from the photos with James and Jamie that James is meant to be a slightly more down-to-earth character, someone who may be a bit of a maverick. I wonder if the coffee is part of the script, or if he just brought his own. He looks laid back though. This will be interesting. Although I will say that I'm sorry for Jamie if he has to play the straight man again while James gets to goof off/have more variety to his character.

Oh and look at this! I think he's actually picking up a donut!!!! I think, I mean it could be a bagel or a muffin or something, but... *drools* He looks SO happy. :D My dream is to see him eat a donut some day, but this is really good too.

Meanwhile, James is obviously getting into character by listening to some Dire Straits, and was shocked over Japan. Many new tweets at his twitter. (And yes, it's really him.Craig said so.)

Tuesday, March 8th
The shooting started today!

Tricia has dyed her hair brown for the role, and the result can be seen here. Very classy! I was worried they might give her jet black hair, but this looks much better.

M and I were discussing the pilot scoop - found in taragel's post linked below - that "Jeff" is sleeping with his partner's wife, "Susan". So what will the character be like? Will this be another morally ambiguous character? Will he be remorseful or turned on by the secrecy, or both? Will we get James Callis love scenes again?!

We joked that, since everyone else on the show has more exciting names, Jeff and Susan might be bonding over their dull names.

Jeff: I feel somehow... inferior and dull next to "Caolan" and "Morgana".
Susan: Well, what about me? Susan.
Jeff: We have so much in common.
Susan: Let's make love!

Either way, not looking forward to all the "Oh he's a traitorous manwhore like Gaius!" comments on Twitter.

Saturday, March 5th.

I'm going to start this now, even if we still know very little. I plan to put all the news on the show here until it airs, so that you don't have to weed through endless newsposts here.

Facts known as of today:

-created and produced by Ron D. Moore

-shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

-the pilot will be directed by Michael Rymer

James Callis' character is, a homicide detective. He's long-haired and British.

Jamie Bamber plays a crime scene investigator who's very focused.

Tricia Helfer plays Morgana, a necromancer, acting as a coroner.

Other cast members include Stockard Channing and Matt Long.

There's a review of the pilot here (taragel's LiveJournal). It sounds like the show is set in a sort of alternate universe where both the cops and the villains use magic. Ah! That sounds interesting. I thought it'd be more like regular people in our universe fighting evil magic. I love the idea of plants inside houses, and I think this might look really neat. Many of the aspects sound interesting. However, I'm a bit worried about the fact that it sounds so police-procedural and so little character development. Like taragel, I'm worried it's going to be a little cheesier than BSG and not as compelling. (The linked post was written before James and Tricia were announced, so it doesn't discuss how central their roles are. I'm hoping James' will be more central than Jamie's, since Jamie is apparently not very prominent in the pilot.)

The show could really go either way for me. I could love it, or I could be kind of meh. I like supernatural elements in shows, but I don't love police procedurals. I've never been drawn to shows that operate on "crime of the week". I'd rather see characters and themes building up. That said, those two don't have to be mutually exclusive; I just don't want to see another CSI with magic thrown in. As for the magic being cheesy, I might still like it. I do enjoy Medium and The 4400, because I love the actors on those shows, their chemistry, and the characters they build little by little, even if the plot doesn't always compel me. I have a hard time believing that James, Jamie, and Tricia wouldn't bring something more into the roles than is on the page.

I'm going to be cautiously optimistic about this. I trust RDM, Michael Rymer, James, Tricia and Jamie. (Not necessarily in that order.) And I promise, if I don't like it, this is not going to turn into "17P Hate Blog" where I rant each week about how much I hated the latest episode. (Note how I'm omitting the possibility that it won't be a series.) I want to support this project because these people are like... (family? No, way too cheesy for ppl you haven't met) (TV friends? Hmm) people I feel warmly about, without ever having met them. (Eh.) I hope I'll also get to squee though.

James Callis + Tricia Helfer 4ever

2011-03-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

GUYS I'M SO EXCITED THEY'RE GONNA BE ON THE SAME SHOW AGAIN! SO EXCITED!!!!!! EEEEEEEEE FANGUSH!!!

(James' middle name is not actually Hieronymus.)
(That I know of.)

Most Exciting James Callis Casting News Since Forever!!!!

2011-03-04T02:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, now I actually have news. No wonder James sounded so excited, because!

FANFARE!

HE WILL BE ON THE NEW RONALD D. MOORE SHOW WITH JAMIE BAMBER!

The show is called 17th Precinct, and it will be like "Harry Potter for adults", a cop show with supernatural stuff. James' character, Jeff, is a homicide detective, "slender, long dark hair, British accent".

The good:

-Ronald D. Moore!

-Michael Rymer!

-Jamie Bamber! How great that he gets to act with someone he is friends with, and has worked with before. That will definitely show in the performance.

-long hair!

-British accent!

-With RDM and MR, there will be lots of possibilities for ad libs. James will have real influence on his character here, unlike on, say, Eureka.
-This will give him great visibility and possibilities for future roles.

-Cops like their donuts, so maybe he can do some character study... ;) (Toby had to remind me of this, I hadn't even thought of it! He tells me I'm going loose on the donut associations.)

The bad:

-It's only a pilot, so it's still possible it won't make it into full series. But I mean, how could it not? Let's be optimistic. And gleeful. And incredibly hyper!!! EEEEE!

-The premise sounds a little silly and could easily be dumb. But so did BSG, and RDM made it glorious. I hope this one will also be gritty, political, real, with multi-layered characters. I believe it will. Besides, I can handle a bit of suspension of disbelief. I watch The 4400 and Medium.

-I have to continuously spell "precinct". I might actually go for 17P, so I don't have to expose myself to endless typos and frustration. (Hee, pee. OMG, grow up, self.)

-Jeff. Really? It doesn't fit him at all, and it doesn't sound remotely British. Blah.

-Homicide detectives have to be pretty gruff sometimes. I hope James will get to be sensitive too and do the sad puppy eyes. I can't really imagine him as an overly-macho type.

UPDATE: OMG OMG OMG TRICIA HELFER WILL BE ON HTE SHOW TOOO EEEEEEE

I dunno if I'm ever going to calm down now, this is my wish come true, James and Tricia on the same show again <3 <3 <3 and probably a quality show at that!!! I love them so much!!! JAMES AND TRICIA FOREVER!!!!!! *hyperventilates, faints, etc. etc.* I may say something calmer later but I'm not sure. I'm not sure I'll ever be calm again. OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

This is SO exciting! I read about this last night when I was just going to bed, and I wanted to wait until today when I can calmly write about it and say:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE long hair British accent this will be soooo great I love him so much EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Sorta-Kinda-News? Maybe???

2011-03-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

James is being his usual tight-lipped self, tweeting something about opening windows and closing doors. (Which, if I can read him at all, means he's working on something big. But who knows?) Here's something interesting: someone who works for WB had spotted James at the lot a few days ago!

Julie_Gray: Holy FAN MOMENT: Just ran into and spoke with Gaius Baltar here on the Lot! James Callis - IMDb http://imdb.to/gbZu3j

Geez that sounds kinda promising, doesn't it?!!! At this point, I don't really care what it is - movie, tv show, reality tv, whatever. He needs to be seen by the big public again. I kinda love when he does British indies, because that's his roots and it's sweet that he wants to work at that still. But I really want to see him on my TV again. Or even - gasp - at the cinema. I'll keep my eyes peeled and let you know of any developments I can find. Be prepared to wait another six months for any concrete news, though.

Meanwhile, America is premiering in San José, California on the 10th of March! If James is in LA, he might conceivably be at the premiere.

Also, for those googling "James Callis penis", just do a "James Callis" blogsearch and you'll run into this:

Just found are many new naked leaked videos & leaked photos captured of the young sportsman James Callis. James is currently a British actor. James has an incredibly massive penis shown in a selection of leaked pics! ...

Wow. "Incredibly massive", you say? That's great for him. But um, are we really talking about the same guy? "Young sportsman"? He's not old, but as sportsmen go, wouldn't he be retired by now? And did he ever actually DO any sports? I'm not going to click on this link, because it reeks of "this link may harm your computer", but if anyone else is curios enough to test it, please let me know what you found.*Obligatory giggle at the mention of his penis.*

Edit: Yeah, apparently there's nothing about James on that site, other than a truncated biography. What a disappointment! Every time I open my heart! I'm beginning to think we will never see his incredibly massive penis. (Hee, hee.)

James with Children = awwww.

2011-02-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

This is an adorable interview with the America child actors, Jefferson and Anslei Shelton. Overall worth seeing if you like kids. But there's this adorable, very small clip with James Callis that just made me melt.

Jefferson: "One of my most favorite characters is Mr Leverett, really silly and fun." That's James' character. OMG I HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE LIKE BURNING. I haven't seen James interact with children much on screen, and I really want to see it.

Here's a screencap - it's from the America website, so it has that red stuff, but I'm too lazy to take another one from the Youtube video:

How cute is that?! James is saying "This is Star Wars" something, but it cuts off there. Toby suggested they're playing Lego Star Wars on the PSP. James really looks like he's bonding with the child and talking to him on the same level. Which I love. (Also, nice nerdy touches with the hair/glasses/undershirt.)

I dunno if it's my hormones responding to "good Daddy material" or what, but every time I see a man being kind to children it's just awwwwww. And if it's James, it's extra awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww with hearts and glitter. And now I sound twelve but honestly, how cute is he?

That's all I have to say. I know there's no real substance to this post but who cares.

Search And Ye Shall Find

2011-02-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've been bitten bad by the Tumblr bug, and the bite grows bigger and more inflamed by the day.
Um, despite that mental image, do check my James Tumblr. Lots of photos each day.

I thought I'd take a look at the search terms that people use to land in my blog. There have been some interesting ones lately, and maybe I can be of assistance regarding the queries...

"Neha Callis"/ "James Callis wife photo". I get several of these a month and sorry, I can't help you there. There are no photos of her online (in public at least). She's an attorney, comes from New Delhi, India, and that's about all I can tell you. Some fans saw her at a Comic Con in 2008 and said she was gorgeous. She's a little unreal to me, to be honest. Not because I'm so terribly jealous, it's just like someone I hear about but never see, like she exists in another realm. I can't really imagine James' family. Just last night, I dreamt he had put up photos of them - and I totally respect that he doesn't but I guess on SOME level I really want to see them. His boys looked exactly like him and had glasses on. I think one of them even had a moustache, so... :D I'd take that with a grain of salt. (He also had a lot of pets, from ducks to bears and bunnies. I blame Tumblr for these dreams. My subconscious is obviously cluttered with cute animal images and James images, all mixed together.)

I'll stop talking about his family before I sound stalkerish, but just a note - if I saw something on Facebook, I wouldn't share it or discuss it here. I haven't seen anything really personal though. Except for the moustachioed sons and pet ducks. They were glorious.

"Are you supposed to like gaius baltar?" I think so. I mean, it's the weakness, the humanity in all of us, and he does have empathy and guilt. He's not irredeemable. But every viewer has his or her own reading, of course, so I can't put a gun against anyone's head. I do get a bit annoyed when people post something like "I hate that Gaius Baltar", to be honest. I've pretty much stopped doing twitter searches for the character, because I can't convert them all.

"James Callison tractor supplies". LOL!!! I've come up with this a few times on a James search, and it's hilarious that someone found my blog with that search. Oh dear, now that I mentioned it, this will come up in that search. Oh whatever.

"does james callis have straight or wavy hair?" Hmmm. When he has short hair, it seems less wavy, but it's still not completely straight. I'd say it's not curly or anything, but it's quite luscious. Like a lion's mane. A viril lion's. I'm changing topics now.

"James Callis penis". Let's just not even go there, okay?

"James Callis height weight". 5'8'' / 173 cm. If you want more detailed analysis, look at other sites. It's one thing I, for some reason, don't care about at all. (Maybe because I'm 5'2'').Weight, hmmm. It's actually not anywhere online. Maybe he's sensitive about it, or maybe it varies so much he hasn't bothered to give it. Or maybe no one ever asked him. Not that the number really matters, when you can just look at the luscious rounded... ok, changing topics again.

"why didnt they just ask kevin on eureka" - if you mean the timeline change, I guess he was a different Kevin? Like the autistic Kevin sent them back in time but the "regular teenager" Kevin wouldn't know about it.

"baltarstar blog"+"strawberry - ??? Weird, this is one of MY searches. (I sometimes look for specific quotes for the tumblr or something. But strawberry..?) It's really odd that I can't remember.

"Do suspenders go under the vest". Well, judging by Trevor Grant, they do. :D Or at least they did in the forties. Mind you, take that with a grain of salt, it's not Queer Eye for the Straight Guy '47 or anything.

"james callis chest hair" - as far as I know, it's real and it's spectacular. Is this a really horny post? I try to write non-horny posts too. I can totally look at James with an academic, objective eye without eroticizing him. (I think.) (don't ask me to prove that.)

On the other hand, I get a whole lot of "james callis sexy", "james callis shirtless", etc. searches. A lot. So I think all of our minds are in that same gutter.

James Callis birthday. It's June 4th, 1971. See, one query where I could actually be helpful and not get all horny. (Mmm, sexy numbers. No, I'm just kidding.)

James Callis in America

2011-02-17T14:03:00.000-08:00

EDIT: ah, they already have it on Youtube? Embedded.

Edward James Olmos' film America, starring his wife Lymari Nadal, has a website now at americathemovie.net.

If you're interested in the film: watch the trailer. It seems interesting, I'll probably watch this. Someone was complaining on Twitter about the overpowering soundtrack, and I can already tell by the site and trailer that it has that. I'm interested in the premise though. Based on the trailer, it could go a little too much in the "violent husband is evil" direction, although I'm not sure how sympathetic you can make a beating husband. What I like is that the protagonist, America, is trying to change her life.

If you're only interested in James Callis: skip the trailer and go straight to the selected scenes for him. (Edit: it's the same as the above embedded video.) There's a brief interview with behind-the-scenes shots, where you can see him talking to the cast. (And laughing and being adorable <3.) He plays Mr Charlie Leverett - another Charles? -, who he says is a computer nerd who likes comics, and he's the opposite of America's violent husband. Also, you can see him at the piano a little, so I'm hoping he's going to be playing some music in the film too. (In fact, if he's playing the overpowering soundtrack, I forgive it.) He looks boyish, with spiky hair and kinda nerdy thick-rimmed black glasses. It's amusing that he went straight from this to Gabriel McDow, whose hair was very messy and bushy. I guess it's all in the styling. He's in two photos in the photo gallery: 5 and 42. I can't link directly because it's a flash site.

Here's what James says about the movie (and this is why I'm interested in it too):

"It's quite a feminist movie, if I can say that. Women have to stand up for themselves and... seize the power, seize control. And if you're in a relationship that is no good and you can't change it around, you actually have to get out of it and start fresh, start something new."

James Callis? Fuck Yeah!

2011-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

Since there aren't enough James Callis sites out there - despite the fact that I talk about him all over the place - I have opened Fuck Yeah James Callis! the tumblr page. Basically, it's a simple and fast way to upload photos, or link to photos, or post quotes.

They say you haven't arrived before you have a fuck yeah tumblr. (Some truly famous - or truly hated - people even have a stfu hate tumblr.)

There are lots of beautiful images already tagged with James Callis, so I'm going to reblog some for now. I constantly have trouble with photo uploading here and on LJ, so it might prove a good place to do picspams. It's not really a blogging platform, so this blog is going nowhere.

It'll hopefully make a good resource for James photos. Peruse and enjoy!
Edit: I've enabled submitting, so if you have some nice James photos you'd like me to post, feel free to submit!

What Should James Do Next?

2011-01-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

Haven't done these in a while, and since there are no news about James' real roles, it's a good timing for MY ideas.

AGENTS A TO O
TV. Thriller/comedy/detective show.
Agent A (Tricia Helfer) is sexy, flashy and bad-assy. She can whip the crooks into shape, or she can wear a sexy cape. Agent O (James Callis) is a klutz and silly putz. He has failed his agent exam five years in a row, every day he is going "D'Oh!" He's being trained by a reluctant Agent A, and together they get into trouble-bay. But fall in love they may... ;)

F****ED UP
Movie. Comedy/Sexism.
Nicky (James Callis) is just a Regular Guy (tm). He loves his beer. He loves his video games. He loves to watch the game, no matter what sport. He loves to hang out with his manchild buddies and make gay jokes. What he loves the most of all is casual sex. But what happens when a drunken sexcapade in Vegas turns into an unwanted marriage? And then the next morning, the chick (Katherine Heigl) refuses to get a divorce? Nicky is unwittingly thrown into matrimony and all of its expectations. So unfair!!! Written and directed by Judd Apatow.

THE STATUE
Movie. Um... I have no idea.
Albert Alfraudschister (James Callis) has the same dream every night: everyone thinks he has died, and is surprised to see him alive. One day, he wakes up to find his obituary in the paper, and when he calls his parents, they cry out of relief. When a mysterious man appears who looks exactly like him and is dead, things begin to truly unravel. Who is Albert (James), and who did he used to be? Has a part of him died? He becomes unable to know reality from dreams. Then stuff happens that is too weird to even write about. The title is never explained. Written and directed by David Lynch.

Gaius Baltar in "Carol Brown"

2011-01-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Awesome fan video by nicole_anell - Gaius Baltar and all his women, set to Carol Brown by Flight of the Conchords.

I don't have much to add to this, except - damn, I wanna hit that. Hard. I'm note even sure if I mean James or just the fragile body of Gaius frakking Baltar.

Also... There were many beautiful moments in Galactica, weren't there? As in genuinely sweet moments, and really sexy ones, and just visually awesome ones. Despite the fact that most of these relationships were frakked up in one way or another, seeing them in this way is just - beautiful. I love this show so, so much.

James Callis = Enthusiastic Rugby Player?

2011-01-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

So I was browsing through James' Wikipedia entry, and for some reason had linked it to Toby as well. He asked me, "Wait, he plays rugby?" I was like wtf? But yes, it says so here:

In 1993 he graduated with a BA degree in English and Related Literature at the University of York, where he was a member of Derwent College for whom he was an enthusiastic rugby player.

???? This entry has been edited on October 15th, 2010. Up until then, there's been no mention of rugby anywhere.

This was Earth-shattering for me. Could James have an athletic past I had no idea of? My teeth clattered, my brain chattered. (It may have had to do with being drunk, in part, but come on.) Toby laughed his ass off. He couldn't believe I found it anything but hilarious - tiny James in such a tough contact sport, probably getting battered!

Upon further inspection, I found nothing on James and rugby. Other than this: ... wait, where is it now? It was a 2006 interview where he mentioned that his teachers taught rugby wonderfully but weren't as good with science. But this was school, not college, as far as I can tell. I'll um, link to it once I find it. This is all very confusing. Maybe I dreamt up that interview.

There are three options:
1. Random Wikipedia vandalism (like the time his entry read "Callis is Christ" instead of "Callis is Jewish")
2. One of his contemporaries decided to add this snippet of information, which he wants to keep secret (??)
3. He's been confused with Jamie Bamber, who did play rugby for his college.

If we get no clarification, I'm going to assume this is Wikipedia vandalism. Mind you, I could see James doing some sports. He's mentioned horseback riding, swimming, running; I can see him doing any of these. But rugby sounds incredibly rough for such a small guy. Until he was about 30, he was very skinny indeed. So could he have been an athlete? Hmm yes or no... All pictures I've seen of rugby players, they're super muscular. But maybe that's just professional rugby. I really have no idea.

Edit: Robyn informs me that rugby is more of a "gentleman's game" in the UK, rather than a big bloodbath. So it's feasible James would have played. The plot thickens!

I took the liberty of drawing my idea of how such a rugby match might end up. Note James' enthusiastic attitude on the game. (I didn't go to much detail here, but you get the idea.)

(umm, just to clarify, the muscular guys are NOT naked. I just didn't bother to color them much.)

A New Photo!

2011-01-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

I was randombly browsing imdb last night and somehow ended up in James' profile once again. That's when I noticed there's a new picture! It's from Edward James Olmos's film America, which they shot last year in Puerto Rico. James mentioned this in the galactica.tv interview. He's not in a large role, and it seems he's as of yet uncredited, but there IS a picture! James Callis as Mr Leverett. He looks really hot and boyish and is doing the sad puppy eyes. Also: glasses! So maybe it's a brainiac/teacher role or something. <3 I'm not sure if the film is coming to theatres, but if it is, I'm definitely there.

So um, that's all the news I have, but since there haven't been many news lately, I thought people might appreciate it. Now I might as well blather a bit about his imdb page, while I'm at it. I really like the photos, the main one in particular. Lovely head shot. It's especially nice to see his hair and chest hair in such a large image, like you could dip your face into his hair... mm hmm. I'm glad there are quite a few Gabriel photos. It's also nice that his children's full names and ages are there. It's a bit odd, though, how few facts there are. I wonder if it's possible to add some. Hmm. Of course, now that I need to think of good facts, I can't really come up with much. Something about the unlucky theatre tour that inspired Beginner's Luck? "Likes to quote Shakespeare"? It would be nice to have some memorable quotes up there too. Anybody got suggestions for beefing up the page? We should work on his Wikipedia article too.

17 people have apparently seen the elusive Reuniting the Rubins and have given it the average grade of 6.7. Quite a few tens and ones, so maybe the film divides opinions. I'm very curious.

The conversation at the imdb "messageboard" is terribly lowbrow. "SHORT GUY", "he looks like Dr Bashir", etc. Sigh. OK, I won't spam the board, I don't have to dominate the James Callis conversation online. Serenity now! (The SHORT GUY thread is rather amusing though. I'd be all snarky and mean about it, but that wouldn't be James-worthy. Still, bwah!)

One last non-James-related note: I hate how the new imdb lists things for me in Finnish. If it's been aired here with a Finnish title, it only shows that title. I.e.:

"Ester - Persian kuningatar
Haman, the Agagite

2004 Dead Cool
Josh

2004 Bridget Jones: Elämä jatkuu
Tom

2003 Blue Dove - sirpaleinen tarina (TV mini-series)
Dominic Pasco

2003 Taisteluplaneetta Galactica (TV mini-series)
Gaius Baltar
– Episode #1.2 (2003) … Gaius Baltar"

So One Night With the King is called "Esther, the Queen of Persia". Wow. From king to queen! Bridget Jones' Diary 2 is "Bridget Jones: Life Goes on". Meh, but OK. I like it more than the inane German title "Bridget Jones: Chocolate for Breakfast". My least favorite is "Blue Dove - a Shattered Story". I hate double titles like that. Sorry, this was just to give you an idea of my hell when I browse imdb.

Back to Baltarstar...

2011-01-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

I've decided to go back to the original title. I may keep this stylish design though - Baltar loves stylish suits, and he'd like to see his blog done in good style. Also, I apparently can't navigate Blogger's new template options. So um, I'll get back to you on that but don't you love those birds?

When I started this blog, I intended to make it about James/Baltar, pretty much 50/50. After BSG ended, I've realized I'm just going to be writing about whatever role James is currently doing, and James in general. I'm still a big Baltar fan, but since I'm not watching BSG episodes constantly, he fades into the background and James comes into focus in a ripe, delicious... I mean, um, admirable way. I could rename the blog James Callis something, but I'd have to change the url and move it to another location. Plus then I'd be confused with James Callis First Unofficial Website and All Things James Callis.

Baltarstar is a word he coined himself; it sets a silly tone, which is fitting. It doesn't suggest "OMG official James Callis website get your facts here". It's more like "A crazy fan writes about her personal oddities", which is closer to what the blog actually is. As long as Baltar is James' biggest and most varied role, I am keeping the Baltarstar Blog. If and when he gets a main role as something else, I'll reconsider.

The picture in the right margin is apparently either ENORMOUS so that you can't see it at all, or TINY so that, well, you can't see it much anyway. But I'll keep a picture of Baltar there for now.

So let's celebrate our favorite arrogant, alcoholic, nymphomaniac, cowardly.... angel / scientist / farmer /cult leader. He may not always be admirable, but he's at least MANY things!

James Makes Sexiest Men List!

2010-12-16T08:16:00.000-08:00

Buddy TV's 100 Sexiest Men of 2010: James Callis is at 41!

I know it's nothing like an acting award or review for something he's done. But. This list has a lot of men who are super toned and generally considered "hunks", and James seems to divide opinions in this matter. So I'm proud.

Maybe people are beginning to see his appeal, now that he plays more "pleasant" roles? Many people thought Baltar was gross and sleazy and a nymphomaniac, and that affected how they felt about James' looks.

So let us drool proudly, because our man is finally being recognized for the hunk he is!

James Callis = Santa?

2010-12-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

There have been suspicions that James Callis is in fact the same person as "Santa", or "Father Christmas". We have found a picture that seems to be evidence that he truly is...

This photo was taken by an innocent bystander at last year's FedCon Germany. Note the suspicious beard and hat on Mr Callis, and his attempt to not notice the lost reindeer. (Quite cold really, since the reindeer looks very anxious indeed!) Mr Callis left FedCon in a hurry, perhaps to watch over his elves better. He has been known to retreat to India from time to time, but we suspect the North Pole is closer to the truth...

This post is brought to you by It's Office Christmas Party Day And I'm So Drunk. And I may actually remove it tomorrow when I'm sober again. But until then, hahahahahahaaa. :)

Two Years of James Callis Bloggin'.

2010-11-17T05:41:00.000-08:00

So I've been blogging about James Callis for two years now. My visit count is over 16,000. (That's unique visits, not unique visitors, but still. Wow.) I guess I should say something profound. *twiddles thumbs* James' belly... No, that doesn't sound quite right.

When I started this blog, I had no idea I'd write this much or for this long. I like to think of fandom as something temporary, maybe because it scares me to think of how powerful it really is. I may still be here in ten years, or I may lose it tomorrow; I don't feel I have much control over this jumble of feelings. But I'm proud of this blog, and I'm happy I'm still a fan. This was a good year, with many James roles and lots of online interaction. I'm glad I was here to see it. His roles have gotten larger and, in some cases, deeper. My hope is still that he gets his own show sometime soon, something deep and awesome like Mad Men, but maybe it's too early for that.

I feel really touched that people like my blog. I know there are many readers who have been coming the whole two years, and who still check every week to see if I've posted. These are not necessarily people I've spoken to or seen post anywhere. It inspires me to write more. So again, a big THANK YOU and hugs to everyone who's reading. And remember: James loves me, and I love you, and therefore vicariously, James loves you. Happy and merry all around.

There's also the fandom I know personally, and it's been a little quiet lately. I miss our conversations about James' acting, chest hair, and other important aspects. But I also have been quiet myself, so I get it - we are grown ups with our own lives. When I compare this fandom to the Ace of Base fanbase, it seems much more harmonious. I haven't gotten into any fights with fans. I haven't had heated arguments, and most importantly, I haven't been judged. I don't know if it was my tone or the other fans, but I often got attacked in the AOB fandom for discussing the idols' weight (in my eyes, in a favorable way). None of the James fans have accused me of being shallow, rude, or obsessed. James fans are calm about my fat fetish - amused at him as well as me, willing to admit he sometimes has a belly, completely without reproach or disappointment. I tend to think that if weight gain is a taboo, that means fat is an ugly, shameful thing. It obviously isn't to James fans. Even my fat acceptance views have been accepted and, I feel, respected. This may be a small issue to most fans, but obviously it means a great deal to me.

Every James fan I've met has been intelligent, mature, funny and kind. Some are a bit weird - I count myself in this category too - and there's quite a bit of creativity. I know I can't speak for James, but I like to think we make him proud. I think he'd enjoy a conversation with us. (Of course, it depends on what we'd tell him - some things are best kept private. ;)) The fandom is small, and since the end of BSG, it seems to have shrunk further. But this may also be a good thing - no trolls, no troublemakers, no one who's very vocally unhappy with James' choices and isn't scared to say so in every thread.

I've had more contact with James this year than I expected, so that feels.. overwhelmingly exciting and touching. And it's fun that he has Twitter and we can hear a bit of what he's thinking, whether it's philosophy or schoolboy jokes. All of this, oddly, has strengthened the image I already had of him. Maybe I'm a pretty good judge of character? I feel like I've said all of this before. I feel strangely vulnerable talking about this, like something actually happened between James and I, and I'm open in front of him and he can see me, and that makes me bigger and more significant, but also smaller and more breakable, so that my feelings get tangled up oddly. This is why I haven't been posting much. I want to describe what I'm feeling, over and over again, but maybe it's always the same words? There's a certain calmness, though. I worry less about what he thinks of me, and I've stopped worrying that he must hate fat people/gays/any other group of people I belong to. Maybe one day, I'll be able to talk to him like he's just a regular person on my level. I don't see him as a god, really, but I do see him as higher than myself, so it's still a litle awkward. But I haven't told him "OMG I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU", and of this I'm proud.

It's gone quiet on the news front. On Twitter, I still do "james callis" and "gaius baltar" searches almost daily. Usually I find the same stuff over and over, tweeted by different people around the world. Something like this:

"Hey, Gaius Baltar is on Bridget Jones's Diary! WATCH OUT BRIDGET!"
or:
"Gaius Baltar in Bridget Jones's Diary! I keep expecting to see cylons!"

It's weird that so many people are making the same jokes. It's even weirder that so many people are watching BJD - isn't it a mediocre romantic comedy from 2001? Am I missing something? I should be glad that people recognize James and that Baltar is a cultural icon, but it feels more like lots and lots of people know what Gaius loosk like, but have no idea what his character was about. (Or what I think it was about. Which is humanity, and guilt, and compassion, and cowardice, and and. But not evil or conniving. Never those things.)

Perhaps because of this, I dreamt there were ads for Bridget Jones 3: I Am a Bear. (????) In these ads, there was Rowan Atkinson, and under his picture it read: "Mr Atkinson will replace the role of the gay man." I was really relieved that it wasn't James. Not that I hate Tom or anything, but he can do better than that. I don't have any actual news on Bridget Jones 3. But look, I'm a loyal fan. If it comes out, and James is in it, I will see it in theatre. I promise.

Then there are the roles I'm truly proud of. Gaius Baltar, Gabriel McDow, Guy Curran. These roles are the ones that have touched me the most over the years. I think I'll write a bit more about them still.

I've been thinking of making some interview link posts and transcripts and all that, but we'll see. Sometimes I'm too tired to write, but the blog won't die with that. If I can't write, I'll picspam. If I can't picspam, I'll linkspam. If I can't linkspam, I'll write strange and disturbing posts about my James dreams and fantasies. Either way, I'm still here and still Jamesing strong.

James on all of you* too! Especially James himself. :* :*

* = James on you was a phrase I coined with my best friend when we were fifteen. In other words, it has nothing to do with James Callis, but really, how convenient that his name should be James? When I told my family about my fandom, they giggled and said "His name is James?!" So you know.

** = It's true! Ask my best friend.

*** = It means like "blessings on you" or "all the best". NOT "shame on you".

James Callis Brow Acting.

2010-11-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Got a search just now for "james callis brow acting". That's an awesome search. Does it mean the forehead, or the eyebrows? Either way, James sure knows how to brow act, and I feel like I haven't given this enough attention. So here's a picspam of James' Brow(s) in action. Enjoy!

STERN AND SURPRISED BROWS

SILLY BROWS

SAD BROWS

Testcast 3: Learning to Do This Thing

2010-10-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

So the first "actual" James Callis-related podcast is here. It's audio, because I can't make my video camera work properly. And you know, I don't have a lot to say, but it was fun to babble a bit. Am I making it sound really lame and like sth you wouldn't want to download? No, seriously, do download it. I'm really very interesting. It's a necessary companion to this blog.

I'll get back to you on the podcasting later once I have more to talk about.

Includes a few snippets of this column at pursuitdelange.com.

Testcast 2: My Cat Loves James Callis!

2010-10-24T02:53:00.001-07:00

My cat Osku wishes to demonstrate to us how much he loves James. He does this with a piece of fish. This is deeply symbolic and all that.

A Vaguely James Callis-Related Podcast.

2010-10-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

I made a podcast!!! Look how pretty! *beams with pride*

OK, so the quality sucks, and the sound is not quite in sync, which is both Youtube and my webcam. And I didn't really have much to say, which is why this is just a testcast. I may do more podcasts later. Maybe. It'd be fun to make a review podcast of something he's in, so maybe I will do that in the future? Or maybe - James puppet show, with Jameses of various sizes and ages fighting for the mastery of the universe. The possibilities are endless!

I'm surprised at that expression I make, closing my eyes. I didn't realize I was making it. It looks a bit like James' touched eye-closing look, which is fitting.

Oldie But Goldie: The Sci Fi Guys w James Callis

2010-10-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

I know this is an old thing, but I've never claimed that this blog is all about the latest news.

If you haven't heard the Sci Fi Guys interview with James Callis, it's a must-hear. You can stream it here. It begins around 40 minutes and goes on til about 1 hour, and after that they gush over him, calling him one of the most humble guests ever. Someone who will praise anyone but himself. So true. Nothing wrong with tooting your own horn a little, James. But it's totally sweet, of course. He also talks about how human beings are basically animals and in denial about it (I don't remember what the question was but it wasn't that deep :D), and discusses his first roles. I love how he mentions Soldier, Soldier and is like, "I made great friends from that". That's the only positive thing he has to say about it. Hee!

One thing I really love about this interview is how he talks about Tricia Helfer and Lucy Lawless. He gets the usual question of how gorgeous they are and how it is to work with them. He's like, yes they're gorgeous. BUT they are also so talented, and I'm so impressed with them, and I love Tricia as a person. This is one of those very proud fan moments. It's a very feminist thing to say, really. And just a very respectful thing, seeing her as a human being who has a beautiful face and body, but also a lot more. You can tell that the other stuff is more important to James.

I find Tricia to be amazing. I have a connection with that lady, we have a kind of chemistry we play off.. and that takes.. I can't explain,but I think it comes very naturally to her, she is a natural actress, and the things she has to do... if she couldn't do it, I couldn't do it. We are like twinned to the hip, somehow. She's a beautiful lady but she's beautiful in the inside as well. She's generous and kind and sweet, and working with someone like that, it's another gift.

And he sounds SO warm talking about her, really. You can hear in his voice that he means it all and more.

Lately I've thought of Tricia more again. From the beginning, she was part of my fandom, but it's kind of become all about James. I do miss Tricia sometimes, though. She seems like a lovely, genuine person, much like James, and I imagine they're great friends. But I don't know if my heart can handle two equally powerful fangirlisms, so James it is.

Re-uniting the Rubins Trailer!

2010-10-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, a trailer for Re-Uniting the Rubins! (I guess I should mention that it stars James Callis, for this to show up in a Google search. So you know, James Callis James Callis James Callis.)

James' character looks pretty hard and uptight, like he described back at Evening With James Callis. He called Danny Rubin "unpleasant, naïve" and "unscrupulous", and yeah, I do get that from these clips. (Also criminally handsome, but that's just James.) He seems like a lot of fun though, and like he's going to be redeemed a little by the end. I see James' sensitivity coming through a bit there.

"Freak!" "Lesbian!" "Freak!" "Lesbian!" Hee!

Boy: "How much do you earn in hour?"
Danny: "300, maybe."
Boy (empties piggy bank): "Can I have eight minutes?"
Awwwwww! That's just heartbreaking.

I think I'm going to enjoy this film, if I ever get to see it. The trailer is a lot of fun. Other actors include Timothy Spall, Rhona Mitra and Honor Blackman.

Hair: shortish if wavy. Very luscious.

Chest hair: visible at 1:35!
Patented sad puppy eyes(tm): at 1:42.
Donuts: no (this was filmed right after FedCon '09)
Drool factor: very high.

James Callis on Eureka: I'll Be Missing You.

2010-09-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I've taken my own sweet time with this post. Actually, I'm glad I did, because Blogger had some updates in the meantime, and I was able to upload some of these pictures much more effortlessly. I think I had trouble letting go of this picspam, because it will be the last one in a while.

But, sniff. The final episode with James, and yes, it's called "I'll Be Seeing You", but I'm already missing Dr Trevor OR Charles Grant, whichever you prefer (I prefer the name Trevor myself). I didn't expect much of this role, and it turned out to be so much fun. James really acted the hell out of it.

Yet they could have done so much more with this character, so I'm torn. I wish we'd gotten to know him a little more. They had nine episodes, yet it all seems a bit rushed. This episode was disappointing to me, because it should have given the character more depth, but after a promising beginning, it kind of fell flat with trying to save Allison instead. Yet it's an episode with some stellar moments. In the end, my biggest disappointment is that the show seems to tell us, time and again: "This show is about Jack and Allison." And I have trouble caring about those two characters. Maybe it's because they're too heroic to really be interesting personalities. Colin Ferguson and Salli Richardson-Whitfield are both solid actors, but somehow the writers are scared to give them a proper edge. Because of this, characters like Henry and Fargo become more intriguing and fun. I think we can count Dr Grant into that group too - he was so much fun, not being strictly heroic or villainous. But OK, this is a longgggg picspam, so let's get to business.

We open with - James lighting up. Mmmmm. A promising beginning if there ever was one!

Ahhh. I tried smoking, didn't really enjoy it, but it's delicious just to watch someone else enjoy it. Or maybe I just have a James' mouth fetish; anything that's been in there makes me hot. Food, drinks, smokes, various parts of Tricia's body... you name it.

We find out it's 1947, and Adam comes to meet Trevor. I'm going to call the 1947 Grant "Trevor" and the 2010 Grant "Charles", because otherwise it gets too confusing.

Their accomplice comes up. She has a head for numbers, and tells Trevor to buy stocks of Johnson&Johnson.

But the real reason for their meeting is Adam's mission. He's only pretending to be a soldier; really he's a scientist who's going to try the time travel device. The idea is to go and, like Trevor anvils, "stop the nuclear bomb from being built". Well, that's one classic time travel idea. The other popular one is, of course, "kill Hitler/prevent him from being born". We already know they can't succeed, because then the universe of Eureka would be too different from our own. Same town, really big changes.

Here, we see a Trevor who believes in himself and his science; he wants to change the world and he's not afraid to take action. I wish we'd seen more of this.

Adam is all geared up for his mission.

And we come back to 2010, where Adam's daughter Beverly is tempting Charles to travel back in time again.

She says he could do so much with 60 years worth of inventions - "Einstein was a visionary, you'll be a god!" Charles, don't! Look at her creepy smile! She's eevil!

Charles is understandably excited by this prospect. I'd like to think he took some time to think about this, but it's shot like he just decided to go for it. And maybe the temptation is too great, after all. Like he said in the previous episode, he's nobody in this time, a man without a name.

-in between here are scenes with Jack and Allison having sex, and Fargo, Jo and Carter figuring out that the DOD device is still within Eureka, and looking through old files and finding the information that Adam Barlowe had a daughter. Wow. Like I said, a bit rushed.

The funny part is that they find tapes where Trevor describes Jack: "The suspect is a man of average height, weight, and intellect. Actually, scratch that - he seems a bit thick-headed to be honest." He sounds like "heh heh, aren't I clever?!" That was awesome. :D Jack looks furious. "I'm 6'1''. In 1947, 6'1'' was tall!" Jo is quick to soothe him: "You are very big. And.. .smart." (I notice that's a bit of an afterthought, heh heh.)-

Back to Charles and Beverly. He's in his gear again - hat! Vest! - and ready to go. "Let's make history," Charles says. Oh yeah, Trevor said that earlier, but I didn't find that really transcribe-worthy. Maybe because it's TV talk. I wonder why he's wearing the fedora like that, too. There was this amusing article about how James can't wear a fedora right. Here it is

*No one* wore hats in doors in those days. That much is the writer’s fault. The inability to make it look like he’s ever been in the same room with a fedora before, and has only seen them in Gene Kelly musicals, however, that’s entirely James Callis’ fault..

Hahahaa, oh James. I guess I should be fangirlily defending him or something, but I seem to enjoy poking him in the ribs. Or you know, in the hat. That doesn't work. Moving on.

Look at this though:

The bridge device works again! Charles looks nervous, and Beverly is having an orgasm or something. She's seroiusly creepy.

-between here: Allison dies. Yeah. She's totally going to stay dead. I'll be so surprised if they somehow save her. -

Should I expand on that? She's there to inspect the radiation coming from this place, and then the device sends a wave of something and Henry's car is hit. Henry is ok but Allison dies and Carter is, of course, devastated. He shows up just a little too late.

I'll include screenshots of this, because I thought it was kinda awesome:

The shed in which Beverly is working is hidden. It looks like a gorge...

and in fact it's a shed over a gorge. So cool. There's some kind of energy field hiding it - I'm not sure how that would work in reality, but it's sweet in my imagination.

Carter dashes in and gets right to business, trying to beat Charles up.

But then the wave sends them both into the past. Charles seems to amusingly shield himself, instead of fighting back:

Carter is amazed they're back in 1947, but Charles is indignant: "Because of you, I've lost my hat!!" LOL! I know he doesn't know Allison died, but it just makes his petty indignation funnier.

Jack fills him in on Allison, and James does another AwesomeFace(tm).

So many faces in one. Beautiful.

Suddenly they hear - Carter calling out to Henry on the road. It's the events of the premiere! Charles thinks the device made another wormhole. So how do they know another Charles and Jack aren't hiding somewhere in the bushes, watching them? This is the kind of plot I love, because you can go anywhere.

I'm going to call the Jack with Trevor "Carter" and the one with Charles "Jack" because otherwise it's too confusing. If it isn't already.

I stopped to wonder what would happen if they just met themselves and talked to them. They choose not to, but it might be an interesting story.

Have all of James' previous roles been terribly unphysical? It seems like he's never done this much running, jumping, fighting, etc. Feels cool and unusual. Maybe I'd enjoy seeing him in an action role, even if I hate action.

Jack confronts Charles about causing Allison's death. (He probably blames himself too, for being too late, for not being the one who died.)

Charles is all "Who, ME?" He points out, "I'm a man out of time - you have no idea how that feels." Why didn't we get more of him feeling out of time, and missing people he loved, and all that? It might have helped sell this scene. It seems a bit like being in 2010 was A-OK for Grant when the story demanded it, and agonizing when that was needed, and it's all a bit too convenient.

It dawns on Charles that they could still change things. "Allison is still alive here, with you." If they can warn her about her impending death, she can survive.

It all seems a little risky and poorly thought out, although I don't blame them,considering the situation. It's just... how are they going to get to Allison without getting into trouble? How freaked out would she be? Would it really change things? I think I like the possibilities raised by this episode more than the actual events.

They have to get back to Camp Eureka, of course. So a miserable, broken-hearted Charles - awww!!! (L) - sets out to hitchhike.

Soon enough, he gets into a truck. This wasn't a very meaningful scene, so I'll be brief: look at tiny James climbing onto a high vehicle!! (L) He is wearing suspenders!

They talk about baseball player Jackie Robinson, and Charles makes a bet - stupidly, as he won't be able to collect the money. Baseball talk is boring, but it will pay off a bit later, so maybe it's OK.

Cut to Trevor taping his report about Jack, smoking with much gusto while doing it. Mmm.

Just as he's saying how thick-headed Carter seemed, Jack rustles behind the window. But - isn't caught. (It seems kind of pointless to have this scene, since nothing really comes of it. Yet it was amusing, because it's Trevor being all sorts of arrogant and thinking very little of Jack. Heh heh.)

Meanwhile, Charles-from-2010 enters his own study. "There you are," says Adam. "Yes, here I am - again," Charles says wistfully.

Adam says he's all set, and Charles says he wants to abort the mission. It'll have more ramifications than they thought - "trust me".

Ummmm but...
a) Charles knows the device actually works and they could make a difference, and
b) does he really value Allison's life above everyone in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It seems kind of selfish. Human, but selfish and kind of strange.

OR maybe he realizes now that a man out of time can't really find peace of mind, and that changing the past has grave consequences?

He tells Adam they should use it to change the future, not the past. Adam isn't having it; he's been preparing for this his whole life. He asks what happened in these two hours since they last saw each other. Here's where I think he should suspect that Trevor has been taking a joyride on the time machine, and is back to warn him. I would, if I were in that situation. Um, I think. Am I too hard on the characters?

The tongue!! I love the tongue!

Adam storms out, and Charles is left alone and devastated. If Adam is privy to the time travel stuff, couldn't Charles just tell him the truth? Or is he worried that they'll torture Adam and he'll tell them everything? Actually, maybe he is. Hmmm. This is all very complicated.

Back outside, the story continues to unfold exactly as it did before. I'm not including screenshots of that, because it's already a big enough post.

Adam gets hit by a car and Allison starts to resuscitate him, with Trevor looking on. Charles and Jack watch from behind the fence. It's kind of weird with these layers: as spectators, they are in our position, sort of.

Allison calls for starter cables. There aren't any. Turns out Charles stole them. Jack is upset, but Charles thinks this may be their only way to save Allison. How does that work exactly?

This was a strange scene, considering Adam is Charles' best friend. Why would he want him to die, instead of Allison? Even with the feelings he has for Allison - which can't be all that intense after all. You can tell it's a difficult thing for him. But WHY does he do it?

Maybe it's meant to be heroic: he's willing to sacrifice his friend's life, if that saves Allison, who is going to hook up with Jack. So it's a selfless act of love, he just wants Allison alive.

Or it could be that he'd rather Adam died than had to be in prison because of him. He could be making up for what he did before.

Either way, Jack isn't into complex ethical issues like this, and he rushes off muttering "There's gotta be another way." Charles is left watching.

In lieu of jump-starting him with cables, Allison starts to beat Adam's chest, and Trevor is alarmed: "Hey! HEY!" But Adam gasps and wakes up. Charles is horrified. He was unable to change things. Is this time travel going to amount to nothing? (Believe me, the viewers are asking the same question. There should be SOME ripples for it to remain fascinating.)

Jack, who went off on his little hero trip, has managed to get arrested. Here comes Grant - but is it Trevor or Charles?

Could it be Trevor? After relishing the cigarette, he gets all tough and slaps Jack in the face. Oo, ToughJames! (This, too, seems pretty unprecedented.)

"Who sent you, Mr Carter?!" Just then, a soldier comes in to tell them that the prisoners have escaped. (I.e., Jo and Fargo, see premiere.)
He asks the guards to attend to the escaped prisoners, and prepares for a little hand exercise...

..but when they're alone, it turns out to be Charles. Of course. I saw that coming, but I still enjoyed that he got all rough. "I had to play it real," he explains to Jack, untying him.

His face reveals it perhaps wasn't entirely unpleasant for him. I loved this so much.

"You could have not hit me," Jack suggests. Hee. He could have not smoked a cigarette, too. Maybe he really wanted one.

Charles puts on a less conspicuous coat, and they head out.

..just in time to see more of the premiere story. Trevor is ready to send Carter and Allison back into their own time.
As soon as they are out of sight, Trevor digs the device from his pocket. Busted!

Amazing expressions from both James and Colin here.

Jack: "I knew you did that on purpose!"

Charles makes an "omg, not this again!" face. Heee! I love how he, while a nice guy, can be a bit of an entitled jerk too.
"I already apologized to you how many times?" One, if memory serves. Charles changes the subject and rightfully observes that they don't have much time. Jack goes to find Allison.

The singer in the ballroom anvils "I'll be seeing you", and Jack tries to catch Allison - but just as he's near her, Carter and Allison kiss and disappear. (Kissapear?)

Jack comes back to give Charles the bad news.

"Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry," Charles says. This shocks him, probably more for himself than for Jack. Awww:

Jack dashes off, because he has an idea. And now for a bit that annoyed me: they re-show the scenes from before with Allison and Carter in bed, Jo and Carter listening to the tapes. The new thing is that Jack has taped something himself: "Hi Jack, it's me! I mean - you! I'm in 1947 again. 6'1'' is huge!" Hee. He instructs Carter to drive over to the warehouse immediately, lest Allison die.

He gets there just in the nick of time, and Charles - with his hat on still - is all confused at what he's doing there.

..except that a second later, he morphs into his.. later self.. who's back from 1947. It's a little confusing, but I must admit, kinda awesome. I love the hat being used like this to separate between the two Grants.

Turns out Beverly is nowhere to be seen. Hmm. But if they changed something in the past, would Beverly even be there? Would any of this have happened? And if it did happen, and Jack was sucked in, why wasn't Beverly sucked in too? Or maybe she was and met her dad in the 40's and... Head hurts. Again.

Outside, they find Allison alive and Henry pulling her out of the car. Carter and Allison kiss, and Grant looks pained yet relieved: Allison's alive!

"Charles, what did you do?" Henry says.

Jack says he screwed up, but he fixed it.

I'm annoyed again. Whatever happened to saving the world? When did Charles lose his interest in stopping the nuclear bomb? Why isn't he back in 1947, thinking of applications for his awesome time machine? Is Allison's life really that dear to him?

This episode had a great premise, but it's hard to keep so many threads going. Either there are a lot of deleteds that were cut, or Charles just did a 180 and decided to save Allison.

Inside, the gang inspects the DOD and time travel-bridge device thingy. Grant is very sorry for all he's done. Awww, AshamedJames! (L) It's so endearing! I feel like hugging him and telling him it's alright.

Henry says they've all made a mess with good intentions, one way or the other.

Trevor looks very happy and touched by that.

Henry and Trevor really had a sort of friendship going on. I loved that. I love Joe Morton. I'm going to miss him.

Fargo shows up and says General Mansfield wants an investigation, and they all have to talk to him. Sanctions for time travel are looming in everyone's minds. But then Jack points out that only they know Trevor was involved.

I will stop here to whine that James didn't get to do more scenes with Neil Grayston (Fargo). There's a fun guy, just like James. They would have played together so well but somehow they never got to do much. Maybe on another show?

This is the last group photo with the six of them together...

And this is an awesome old-timey photo of Trevor with the 1940's guys:
It somehow makes him look even more handsome.

So Carter has come with Trevor's papers, because Trevor is going away. Um, wouldn't that be MORE suspicious if he leaves just as this DED device thing is being sorted? Oh well, whatever. Logic be damned, because this was a really good scene between James and Colin. I don't care much about Carter, even still, but I must admit Colin's a good actor.

Trevor informs Jack that he bought some stocks back in 1947, and considering the developments of sixty years, "I'm... what do you say... rolling in it." Hee! :D That was really cute. Not as cute as "70's music is off the hook!" but a nice touch. Also, he says he got a recommendation, and listened to it this time around. Was that the "buy Johnson & Johnson" thing from earlier?

Also, this shirt is awesome on him. Chest hair!

They do the whole "character walks away and is stopped by other character", but hey, at least we get this lovely sideview, cheek bones FTW and hairline!

Carter: "Thank you... for helping me save her. I know that... um... thank you." That's really good dialogue, because there are so many unspoken things, things that a man couldn't say to another man in that situation. I loved this moment.

Grant says there's no need to thank him - "After all I put you guys through, it was the least I could do." I love that he turned out to be a good guy.

He shakes hands with Jack and asks him to say goodbye to the others. Boo, no goodbye scene with Allison? Although, in the end - Grant and Allison's relationship kinda went nowhere, but his relationship with Jack did. So maybe this was the best possible goodbye scene there could be.

Before he goes, he turns around one more time, thus revealing his beautiful belly line. Slurps!

Turns out he has a going away gift, "from one baseball fan to another". It's a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson. I could have done with less baseball references.

..Hey, wait a minute. When did he meet Jackie Robinson? And when did he buy the stocks?

Did I, like, completely miss the point of this scene?! O.o That must mean he went back into the past still - and changed some things. So maybe he did set Adam free. Or help him escape. Or have him take apart the nuclear bomb.

OK, I have to sort of admire this clever little touch. I wish we'd been shown that he went back, and that he did all these things, but hinting at it is pretty good too. Well played, Mr Paglia.

"I'll be seeing you, sport." Jack says, "Don't call me sport", but for the first time, he doesn't really seem to mind it.

Sniff! Don't go, Trevor! :(

Surprisingly, and despite all my critisisms of this episode, Dr Grant is one of my favorite James characters ever. I do hope we'll see him again.

Meet Pursuit Delange - Video Clip! part 2

2010-09-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

Edited to add: OMG, he put up the audition tape for Robert Portal who plays opposite James in the film. This is awesome! Watch James struggle to not crack up. And then he eventually does. Portal's reading is really hilarious, and I love seeing how focused James looks there. He's not doing a lot of twitchy stuff like usual - it's obviously very here in the moment, being Pursuit.

You spoil us, Mr Webster! (see his comment at the foot of the post - I won't repeat it as it's the top post this time.)

Old post:

More news from Howard Webster!

"As promised - an update on Meet Pursuit Delange for James Callis fans.

The official movie trailer (no men's bums in this one so you can take your fingers away from your eyes) is now online - here's the link...

http://pursuitdelange.com/meetpursuitdelaa.html

Regards
Howard Webster"

LMAO!!! (I may have mentioned men's bums can, well, bum me out.) Thank you so much :D

Edit: Oh wait - this is the same clip I just embedded. Very funny! :D You can see it in the link, or below:

A new clip from the movie. I'm loving this. It's one of the funniest, most poignant things James has done. There are so many little things here - James' huddled posture and naïvely meek comments for instance (Dalai Lama? Bwah!), or Charles' devilish look. Great writing, great acting. I've cracked up at every scene and outtake I've seen (yes, even the trailer after I got past the initial shock). It's a bit gross-out, but I don't think that ruins the brilliance of the dialogue and the characters.

I see they've chosen to use a really tall actor for the roommate Jonty. (I keep hearing John T., but maybe it's just the British way of emphasizing the t's?)

Here's another clip I loved:

"It was certainly food for thought. I knew that for the rest of the day, my mind would be filled with personal mission statements, Campari-fueled incontinence nightmares, and cocerns about badly wired home appliances."

If that's not brilliant, I don't know what is.

Website for the movie

The director's Youtube channel

The Raindance Film Festival page

James Callis Secrets.. Revealed

2010-09-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday secrets:

This is the end of Sunday updates. Just FYI. (I forget what day it was when I last updated.)

Reminder: You can send secrets by posting comments in this entry. The comments are screened; only I will see them until they're up here. Tinypic or photobucket works for images.

Tuesday secrets:

"I don't think Edward J. Olmos and Jamie Bamber can act. Secret because they're your friends."

"I'm glad you deleted your first tweets. The angry ones made you sound like a jerk, and by deleting them you showed you're not. Oddly, that makes me admire you more than if you never tweeted that stuff."

Monday secrets:

Text only:

"James, its no secret that you should not have made Merlin and The Book of Beasts-really bad..."

James Callis Secrets?

2010-09-13T05:43:00.002-07:00

I've been perusing the fandom secrets community on LJ. And I got an idea.

Would you like to share James Callis related secrets?

Secrets can be

-personal feelings of him / how he affected your life

-other things you wish you could tell him

-criticisms of his acting/behavior/looks

-sexual preferences that feel awkwardly personal

-things about his fandom that delight/irk you

-um, I guess that includes anonymous critique of this blog.. *cowers* No, seriously, you can be honest.

Oh, and obviously it can be just Gaius/Grant/Gabriel/etc. related. (Wow, he played many characters beginning with G!)

The format can be

-anonymous comments on this post

-images posted on tinypic, photobucket, etc. (JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG only, maximum size 8 MB)

* you can post the url in the comments of this post. I'll also make a Livejournal post where you can post it.

* screenshots posted on this blog are all up for grabs if you need material.

I will not edit/comment on the entries.

I may or may not submit some of my own. But I'm leaving that open.

James Callis With a Dog!!!

2010-09-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is so... how can this be? It's like two of my favorite things in the same video. James!!! With a dog!!! I...

I dunno if I can handle this!!!

Also? He's totally hilarious! I love how he whispers to the camera, as if the dog would care what he says. :D And he's totally sweet to the dog too.

Check out the Meet Pursuit Delange Youtube channel for many other outtakes.

This post was brought to you by I Love Cutesy Animals!!! and I Hope I Usually Sound Saner than This.

Meet Pursuit Delange - A Note from the Director!

2010-09-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

I got this in the comments, but I'm going to make its own post because it's very cool. Thank you so much for the info, Howard! :) It sounds like a fun, different project and I'm looking forward to seeing it!

I won't be able to see it, but are there any fans here who will be? I'd love to publish a fan review/report of the film!

EDIT: Another message from Howard Webster! I'm adding it here since the other post is on page 2..

"Dear All...
The official trailer is now live on the www.pursuitdelange.com website and there is also a new YouTube channel for fans to see outtakes and new clips.

We will be posting a new trailer there soon.

Here's the link...
http://www.youtube.com/user/PursuitDelangemovie#p/u/5/lZgi85JaC4c

From Howard Webster - Director Meet Pursuit Delange"

"Dear James Callis Fans,
I saw this blog online and thought I'd let you know that Meet Pursuit Delange starring James will be screened at the Raindance Film Festival (Thursday 7th October - at the Apollo - quite appropirate - given his BSG connection - Cinema London on Thursday 7th Oct at 4.30pm)...here's the link...

http://www.raindance.org/site/index.php?id=520,6279,0,0,1,0

He is quite brilliant in this film - and it is very funny.

You can also see more clips of him and the official trailer - at www.pursuitdelange.com - which is now live - the trailer goes live this week. We're planning a movie version of this 25 min film and are in talks with financiers now.

Regards
Howard - by the way - I am the director!"

James Callis on Eureka: "The Ex Factor"

2010-09-10T02:40:00.002-07:00

Episode 8, "The Ex Factor". This week: James' final episode on the show. Sniff! In fact, it's today (US time) or tomorrow (my time). I'm almost not feeling like watching it because I want to savour this - yet it sounds like a really interesting episode, so I will probably be squeeing tomorrow. I hope.

Grant meets Beverly Barlowe. We're continuing from the same scene that the last episode ended with; Barlowe has been waiting a long time - in fact she says "we have been waiting", so you can tell it's not just her. In the original timeline, she was working for some evil corporation that had infiltrated Eureka. But I'm not sure what to make of her in this timeline. She's played by Debrah Farentino, who can really do that devious "can you trust me or can't you? Either way I'm very tempting" smirk. She reminds me of Marcia Cross.

Grant is not sure what to think - his smile reads kind of like "I want to show you that I'm no fool, although really I believe you and am freaked out." Another layered expression from James here. Awesome.
And here he's beginning to truly believe her and has to show it, because it's so shocking. Turns out Beverly is the daughter of Adam Barlowe, Grant's old friend. They had an ideal together - they wanted to prevent another nuclear bomb from happening.

You can tell Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fresh in Grant's memory. (And they would be, since for him only two years have passed.) This is really good and accurate for a 40's person.

Adam has been dead for ten years, but Beverly is continuing his legacy. Global Dynamics are preparing a weapon that would wipe out all electronics for a whole country - "a weapon of control". Grant can't believe this.

Let's stop here for a moment, because I'm very, very happy with this plot. I've been hoping for something like this all season, and my only regret is that it comes so late. This gives Grant an actual personality beyond "guy from the 40's". We learn something about who he truly was - an idealist who wanted to use his inventions for the good of mankind. I think we're moving away from "ethically gray" and more onto what James was describing - a good guy. Grant really cares about the greater good, and he's willing to work for the vision he had about the future.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the whole "Grant quits smoking" storyline and his indulgent side; I love the gentlemand and womanizer side too. But what I've wanted to see is some kind of deeper essence or history to him, and here we finally get that. Thank the gods. This was also a consistently good episode, which I enjoyed even outside of the James stuff. It's true of only a couple of episodes - Founder's Day, The New World, and Crossing Over, specifically. So I've ended up enjoying half of the episodes so far. It's really much better than I had expected.

Now for Fargo's barbecue. He's jamming to the music, which is hilarious, like almost everything Neil Grayston does:

Grant shows up a little late. Henry and Grace are still being awesome, and now they're totally falling for each other.
..but there's a powerful electricity thingy and suddenly their ears are hurting. Awww, look at James touching his ears!!! They are so cute and mushroomy. (I actually had a discussion about this once with M, and she said they are totally NOT mushroomy. This is the kind of quality discussion fans have about him.)

(Mushroom. Just saying.)
They toast for "new beginnings", like Carter gleefully hollers. Here we have something I'm not so crazy about: Carter and Allison being all lovey-dovey and Grant ... not really even reacting to it? He doesn't look happy, but there's no real confrontation, and I wished there would be. Oh well.

Later, the device is tested. Grant comes to take a look, and when Zane expresses concern, he agrees. Nobody else seems to care though.

Cheek hollow FTW! I think he's losing a little weight here, which.. I'd say it's a shame but he looks so damn sexy no matter what. Um, yeah, I'm focusing on the plot here, totally.

(It looks a bit like he's going for her ass here. Heh heh. Oh god, I'm mentally 12. I also giggled out loud when Fargo's hallucination called him "Farto". Hah hah, farts. *hangs head in shame* Let's move on.)

So the machine malfunctions and flings Fargo at the wall. But he's fine! Totally! There's this military guy present who's in charge of everything, and Fargo doesn't want him to end the project. Because Fargo is a total kiss ass and can't stand up for himself. Until the end of this episode. It was kind of awesome, actually.

Grant approaches Allison. I loved this scene so much. Their dynamic is a bit different than in Crossing Over - now Grant has the moral high horse and she has to respect that and really defend her view.

Allison is preparing a way to make the nanobots that helped him quit smoking - attack cancer cells. Grant could look a little more impressed at that. But he's still thinking of the device.

A gratuitous shot of her great gams. (Which apparently means legs. I thought at first it meant buttocks. Live and learn.)

Grant wants to know about the "weapon" they're building.

Allison: "The DED device?"

Grant: "Well, see you're doing it as well now."

Allison: "Doing what?"

Grant: "Avoiding calling it a weapon."

Allison says this is "a DOD facility". (DOD = Department of Defense"?)

Grant: "Yeah, but it shouldn't be, it's not what I... It's not how we envisioned the place to be."

The pain on his face - is it because his friend is dead, or because he feels so bad about this military Eureka? Either way, it's very touching. Grant is passionate about what he believes in. I love this character so much.

Allison: "I distinctly remember being in 1947 and seeing more soldiers than scientists."

Grant: "That was right after the war! We were trying to get this place off the ground!"

Allison: "So you think we should just scrap the whole project?"

Grant: "I think science should be about discovery, not about who can build the biggest gun!"

OMG, I loved this. There are two points of view here, both presented in an intelligent way. Neither one is condescending; Allison is listening to his views respectfully. The best part: this doesn't read like TV talk, it seems like genuine dialogue. It's a conversation. Bravo!

Allison explains that without things like the "device", they couldn't get funding for things like cancer cures. The nanobots, like Allison reminds him, saved Trevor's life too.

Grant: "I see I'm not going to win this argument."

Allison: "I didn't realize we were arguing."

Grant: "I'll let you get back to your work."

Here's a non-James scene I liked so much that I wanted to include it. Because of an energy surge-whatever, everyone who was at the barbecue is seeing a hallucination. A person from their past life, someone they have unresolved issues with. This is the scene where they realize they're hallucinating.

Allison sees Carter's ex Tess, and Carter sees Allison's dead husband, Nathan.

Vince: "What can I get you two?"

Allison and Carter: "...."

Carter: "Do you see someone sitting there?"

Allison: "I see Tess sitting there."

Vince: "Uh.. huh... eh..." *leaves*

Heee! This was a great scene. I loved this hallucination plot overall. It was well executed and fun.

Looking at the device again, James looks very Gaius all of a sudden. Maybe it's the glow of the screens, or the fact that his hair is beginning to grow out.

He suggests shutting down the whole device, because the risks are too high. But the military guy shows up and tells him to go catalogue some books, since he's just a librarian. Oo, burn. -Hey, wait, there's nothing wrong with being a librarian! I don't seem to have any screenshots of Military Guy, but this post is already so big.. OK, just moving on. I'll mention his name though: General Mansfield, played by Barclay Hope.

Grant meets Beverly Barlowe again, and we get to his hallucination: his old friend Adam Barlowe.

..but when he looks behind him, there's no one.

Barlowe: "I was happy to get your call. You checked out the information we gave you."

Grant: "I did. Seems the department of Defense is calling the shots. Douglas Fargo is a good man, but GD needs someone who can stand up to that."

Barlowe: "Eureka used to have a leader like that."

Grant: "Times have changed. I'm nobody now. I don't even have a name."

Barlowe: "We could give you that voice again, Dr Grant."

I really love the dialogue in this episode. Strong, to the point, dramatic but not overly so.

Adam speaks to him: "We failed to make a difference 40 years ago, Trevor. Now we get a second chance." This is powerful stuff. (He's played by Elias Toufexis. Intriguing name.)

Cheek bones FTW again. (That's the very handsome Niall Matter and the hilarious Neil Grayston next to him. I see I'm beginning to slightly fangirl the other actors on this show too, as the season goes on. Not necessarily a bad thing.)

Grant is left alone with the console, and Adam appears to encourage him to action.

You can tell he's thinking and feeling conflicted - can he betray his friends for the greater good? He can, and he types in the code Beverly gave him.

..and the machine goes boom and he ends up injured. Awww!

Awww, don't hurt my James! :( *tries not to think about real-life painful appendix operation*

"You're lucky to be alive," Fargo says. But he's luckier than that - no one guesses he caused this.

On to another great scene between Grant and Allison. She's healing his hand with some kind of... futuristic Eureka device.

Adam: "Sure, with you she's gentle. Me, she kick starts with jumper cables." Heee! I love that he referred to the first episode. I didn't recognize him as the same guy, actually, so it's a good thing he did.

Allison asks if Grant's hurting, since he's shaking.

"I'm fine," he says in a hoarse voice. "Never better." Aww, 40's macho man.

Adam: "You did the right thing, doc." The other's hallucinations are kinda taunting and haunting, and his is much nicer. Which is a nice departure from HeadSix.

Hallucination-Tess tells Allison: "Look at him! He is adorable. A gentleman and he's safe." In the earlier scene she said, "Seriously, you haven't hit that?" Which is awesome, and yes, the viewers wonder about this too.

Grant realizes Allison is seeing Tess again.

Allison: "What about you? You were at the barbecue. You haven't said anything about who you're seeing."

Adam: "The guy whose life she saved sixty years ago."

Grant: "Tall leggy blonde, slinky red ress." (L)!!!

Allison: "An old girlfriend?"
Grant: "I could tell you about her, over drinks..." but then Carter walks in and his Hallucinatory Nathan goes, "Who the hell is this?" Heee!

I loved loved loved the BSG reference. I was hoping he'd refer to Gaius at some point. What I like most about it is that it was done subtly, and not in a way that shouts "I PLAYED GAIUS BALTAR IN BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!" Very organic and fitting for the episode. Good job, James. And writers.

And look at them smile at each other!

So Carter and Allison go into the woods to figure out what happened - turns out the whole hallucinatory energy surge thingy was a distraction, so someone - or some group, more likely - gets to smuggle the device out of Eureka.

But who could it be? Someone in the inside must have helped them out. Grant looks suitably guilty but nobody notices...

Back at the Depot, he's furious. They used him! All they wanted was to snatch the device.

Beverly admits that they kept some parts of the plan secret. "Plausible deniability, Doctor Grant, that was your mantra."

They needed the weapon for its power source.

"We've rebuilt the bridge device. This is a chance for you to do what you intended to do 63 years ago: change the world. We're sending you home."

Wow. OK. So this could be really good, or really bad. My concern is that they just reboot everything back to the original timeline, in which Trevor Grant never even came to 2010. In that case, his role would have been a bit...null and void? I really hope they will at least remember Grant. Since James said he might do a few more episodes, that could mean he's still in the timeline and in their lives in some way. I'm really intrigured and nervous about the next episode, and can't wait for tomorrow when I get to see it.