Movie Ideas For James...

Now that James is done with BSG, he's free to do just anything, and I have a few good ideas on how he can spend the rest of his career! These movies will surely make him the shiniest star in Hollywood or wherever. I have another idea which is a bit longer, so I'll make another post about it later.

Farmyard Follies - Depressed Dorset dairy farmer Willy Kunkel (James Callis) suffers from women troubles, money problems, cow ennui and unbearable ear itches*. He finds new meaning for his life when he expands his barn and gets sheep, pigs and geese as well as cows. The mysteriously sexy and likeable vet Emily Estrogen (Tricia Helfer) helps matters considerably. But just as things are turning around for Willy, his alcoholic uncle (Michael Hogan) and fussy aunt (Mary McDonnell) decide to come for a visit - that lasts the entire summer. How will the animals get their revenge..?

*= I love James' ears and this would allow for lots of dramatic and non-gratuitous ear closeups!

He's Having My Baby - Timmy Twat (James Callis) is an ordinary guy - except for one little detail: he is pregnant*. How will he explain this to his kind and incredibly sexy girlfriend Lucy (Lawless)? Before he can tell her the news, she has news of her own - she's pregnant too! How will they handle the pressure of twins and two simultaneous pregnancies?! Hilarities ensue as their doctor (Robin Williams) turns out to be a complete buffoon. From Russia*.

* = You can say what you want but this is NOT a rip-off, Junior attempted to explain away the male pregnancy in a scientific way but this time there'll be no explanation, he's just pregnant and no one questions how/why... Basically it'd be hilarious to have a fake belly on James, so this will work well.

*= You can say what you want but this is NOT a rip-off of Nine Months. You can have more than one Russian buffoon gynecologist, right?

The Chest Hair of Justice - the Honorable Conrad Conscience (James Callis) always knows how to rule - until his ample chest hair starts to behave in a very strange way indeed! Sometimes, when he acquits a criminal, the hair stands on end, piercing through the cape. And each time, the criminal ends up breaking the law again. When a mysteriously sexy and likeable young woman (Tricia Helfer) is tried for murder, Conrad really wants to acquit her - but his chest hair suddenly stands on end (as do some other, unmentionable body parts). Who will he listen to - his conscience, his chest hair, or some other body parts?

The Man With No Cheeks - Jimmy Jerkoff (James Callis) is a normal guy, except for one little detail: he has no identifiable cheeks. His chubbier-than-thou friends mock him, so he goes on a bet that he can gain half a cheek per week eating nothing but enormous burger meals.* Jimmy fails to gain weight and is depressed, but he's rescued by the owner of the burger place, a mysteriously sexy and kind woman (Mary McDonnell). As they get married, it turns out she's the richest woman in the world and thus Jimmy has something better than cheeks: money.

* = Say whatever you want, but this is not a rip-off of Super Size Me because it's not a documentary.

These are just some ideas - there's more where that came from! The best part is, I'm not greedy. I'd happily sell any of these ideas for only $ 5,000 - and write a full script for any of them for only $ 10,000! Anything to further James' career.

Inside the Secrets of the Behind the Making of the Music of Battlestar Galactica Revealed

So, I have obtained the Bear McCreary mockumentary, full title in this post's title. It. Is. Brilliant. It's on Youtube, but might be taken down soon. Watch it now. James appears at about 8 minutes and on.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I might have whined here about how little of it was on Youtube earlier, and how I craved to see the rest. I was a bit worried though. When you wait for something so long and build up expectations, it's often disappointing to see the whole thing, no matter how funny it is. But this time, the whole video was better than I had expected. It's so much funnier than the Youtube clip, which was already hilarious. Even the Gaius Baltar theme song is funnier when you see the whole thing. So now I'm glad I wasn't spoiled more than that. I cannot praise this thing enough. Funniest. Thing. Ever.

Bear McCreary himself blogged about it here. You can tell he had a blast filming the James bits!

So here's my transcript of the James part with commentary. Special thanks to M for all the awesome screenshots!

The basic premise of the video is that no one knows who Bear McCreary is. Throughout the "documentary", Bear tries to get invited into the BSG wrap party, with no success. Some writers and crew members are interviewed about the music, and there are many confused "there's no music on BSG" comments. The insanely long title shows up on screen one word at a time, to the rhythm of drums. There's also a nice parody of the "one year later" cut in the season two finale. It's all hilarious, but I will only transcribe the James bits.



James appears with his real name, but he's really playing a role here. Basically he plays Gaius Baltar - completely arrogant and rude, self-obsessed, childlike in a bad yet amusing way. And no, this isn't his real house either. While James pretends to be super rude, Bear plays the James part, being uber-nice and accommodating to his whims. I'm not sure how much of this was scripted and how much was improvised, but it's awesome. They have a great comedic timing together.

Also, I have never heard James swear this much. Just for the record: he says "fuck" 9 times and "shit" 6 times within ten minutes. Awesome.

Bear: (rings the doorbell) We're at James Callis' house, we're gonna talk to some of the cast and find out what...
James (through the door): Who is it?
Bear: James, it's Bear!
James: What?
Bear: It's Bear!
James: Who?
Bear: Uh, McC...
James (opens the door angrily, wearing sunglasses and a black bathrobe. Tries to control himself when he sees the camera.)


Bear: Bear! Bear McCreary! We, uh, we're doing the interview today about the music.
James (takes off sunglasses and stares): Music of what?!
Bear: Battlestar! (points to a Battlestar logo on James' chest)
James (looks at logo, then looks around annoyed) Umm...
Bear: We spoke on the phone about an hour ago?
James: (calm but threatening voice) How did you get my address? (forces a grin for the camera) Who gave you my address?

I must say, the captions make it look like a "serious" documentary, which makes me laugh even more. James really sounds threatening with "who gave you my address". He has this forced grin on that gradually fades off his face. I'd be scared to go in after that, but Bear's pretending to be a gleeful optimist here.

Cut to: sunny back yard, James' face as he looks incredibly bored. He's changed to his now famous suspenders outfit. Hee, suspenders! That certainly adds to the comedy.




Bear (setting up, walking around him): I'm actually quite a big fan myself.
James: (uninterested) Are you. How long is this gonna take?
Bear: Um, I'm not sure...
James (inaudible)
Bear: I really appreciate you taking a second to do this, James.
James (annoyed): Mmyeah.

Cut to: both sitting by the table. James tries to sound a lot more chipper and interested in Bear, but it comes off as fake. (Of course, he's only pretending to be uninterested, so uh.. this is gonna get really meta before I'm done with this transcript!)
James: OK, so it's Beer?
Bear: Bear.
James: (emphatically, to the camera) Bear. Bear. And you have something to do with the music of, mm, this show. You're involved in some...
Bear: I write the music of the...
James: YOU actually..?
Bear: I'm the guy behind the music, yeah!



James: Shit! (removes sun glasses to take a closer look)
Bear (nods proudly) Yeah!
James: Who'd have thunk it? You don't, uh, you don't look musical at all, do you? (chuckles) Isn't that funny. It's funny only because I actually, um, I think that that would be something I would be very good at.
Bear: I didn't know you played an instrument.
James (smoking): No, I don't play an instrument.
Bear: You must read music then.
James: Why would I bother with that shit?
Bear: What's your musical background?
James: I have no musical background. (leans closer) When you've got something inside of you, something...primitive, something... atavistic, your tubes are banging together, you've got something to give out, haven't you?



[cut]
James: I was in bed with Tricia, and I thought of this great theme that would be (looks at camera) just... a knockout...
Bear: Wait... A theme for Battlestar?


James: Fuck Battlestar! -Actually, why not Battlestar! Why not! When you... Why not Battlestar, because you've got another... (lights cigarette) ...six or seven episodes to do, and this is (looks at camera) killer, I mean you would love it! (gets up) No, listen, listen!
Bear: You know what, I... (grunts)
James: Stop, listen! It's gonna change your life! Come on! (walks inside)
Bear: Aghh...



"So it's Beer?" Why would it be Beer? :D Nice little touch there, showing how little the meeting means to him.

I heard "not Battlestar" but it's apparently "fuck Battlestar", which is a lot funnier and works well with "James"' attitude. Who cares about Battlestar, he's so much better than that show! Great touch.

I remember James saying before that if you told Gaius, "I was in a car accident", he would reply with, "Actually that happened to me..." He has to relate everything to himself, and James is clearly doing that here. Of course, he's the natural talent in composing, nevermind that he never did any of that. I think he's also mocking the idea that art is all about inspiration and no hard work or training is necessary. And of course, as soon as Bear asks if it's a theme for BSG, he takes it as an offer.

The casual "I was in bed with Tricia" kills me every time. I'm not sure which is funnier:
a) that they were supposedly in bed outside the show, or
b) that it was as Gaius and Six, but the "egomaniac James" thinks it was real for her.
Maybe b), coming to think of it.

He even smokes cockily here. As usual, I'm fascinated by his smoking, and it seems like a pack of red Marlboro there. That felt really cosmic and meaningful when I first saw this late at night.

Also: atavism. Thank you, professor James. I love that even as he plays a clueless arrogant ass, he still defaults to big words.



"nnngaaaius baaaltaaar..." He both looks and sounds like he's having indigestion. It's... :D

Cut to: Inside, Bear is playing chords on the piano, James is "singing".
James: OK so... (terrible-sounding falsetto) Gaaius Baaltaaar... and then something really strong.
Bear: Like..? (plays a strong chord)



James (screams like a madman): HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!! HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!!!!!!! (pumps his fist)


Bear (shocked): I...really don't think you can... say that on TV, James.
James (leans head on hands and looks pissed off): Motherfrakking shit, how about that, again. So start over here. (forces Bear's finger on a key) That's the one, that's the one, do that one.
Bear: Oh, OK. (plays a chord in major)
James: That's like, that's far too happy. I need it sad, tragic!
Bear (plays the same chord in minor)
James (looks at camera excitedly, points at the keys) That... that's it there! Whatever it is. The black notes... they're sad notes.
[cut]
James: (testing the keys) What's... Why are the low notes down here... What kind of a fucked up piano is this? The high ones... Well how are you ever gonna do anything like that?

Bear: James, look. The bottom line is, your theme is nice. I mean, your theme is very pretty, I don't mean to, I just, I just, I just don't think Ron would ever let[?] something like that in the show.
James: Ron loves it! I've already spoken to Ron!
Bear: You what..?
James: Ron is gonna put it in the show! Ron is gonna, Ron is definitely gonna put it in the show! If not this show, then another one of his shows when I change the lyrics! Cos I just made up these lyrics cos, you know, cos you're here, you know. But let's just try it one last...
Bear: It's gonna be...on the show?
James: Yeah. Yeah.

I think James has a childlike quality to him, and the "James" he plays here does as well. It's a different kind of childlikeness though. The real James is amazed at the world and curious about things. The fictionary James here thinks everything revolves around him and that he can do anything he sets his mind to, with minimal or no work at that. And just as soon as he comes up with a theme (and all by himself too!), Ron already loves it and is totally willing to put it on the show.



[cut]
James: Let me get my pitch, please?
Bear (plays the chord)
James: Stop messing around there!
Bear (stops)
James: (focuses hard) Thank you. (falsetto) Aaaa... OK.
Bear (plays the sad, tragic chords)
James: (falsetto) Gaaius Baalt..aar..
(shouts) HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHI... You're too late, your time's out...
Bear: Oh, alright.

James: Gaaius Baalt..aar.. HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIIITT!!


James and Bear (in unison):
Best president since Jimmy Carter,
Banged more blondes than JFK,
Well not that many since they're all the same!

´
"Best president since Jimmy Carter"

"Banged more blondes than JFK"

"They're all the saame!"

James (forces Bear's hand to another key) Saame.. saame... That one!! Whatever that one is. For fuck's sake!




Heee! I've seen this so many times now, and the song and James' facial expressions still crack me up. It seems like they used slightly different footage for the final version, and James' crazy expressions can be seen better here. The second time he sings "Gaaaius Baalt...aar", his voice falters a bit, as if he's about to laugh. I do wonder how they got thru this and how many takes it took! On the other hand, it could just be that his throat was tired from screaming!

In reality, James actually composes music and plays the piano a lot. So this is just two talented guys fooling around with the worst possible song ever. I find it hilarious that he would have a piano, but never have used it enough to know that the low notes are to the left. I can see why the distance between high and low notes would be a problem with a song like this - his voice jumps an octave lower within "Balt...aaaar".

Bear: You know what, actually I think that works pretty well.
James: (bored again) Getting somewhere, okay. That's uh...
Bear: And Ron has heard this already..?
James: Ron is in love with it! Ron actually listens to this to get himself to bed...
Bear: In that case, I...
James: ...and to motivate himself in the morning to go running.
Bear: I think we've got a hit.
James: We've got a hit in our hands. Great, well... (glances at watch) Uh...
Bear: Now if you don't mind, can we talk about my music for a second?
James (looks at the camera)



Cut to: James pushing Bear out the door.
Bear: Well, sure, but I also wanna say...
James (to the camera) You as well. Thank you.
Bear: ...on a personal note, what a big fan I am of your work, I really appreciate what you bring to the show...
James (rolling eyes, closing door): Yeah, yeah.
Bear:... and I look forward to seeing you at the wrap party, my friend!


James: (shocked) What, you're going to the wrap party?
Bear: Yeah!
James: (rolls eyes) Right. Uh, yeah, I may see you there.
Bear: Great...
James (slams door in his face)
Bear: Uh... (excited, to the camera) James Callis, everybody!!


Bear is still so starstruck after James treated him like crap. James really nails the "arrogant actor" thing here with the eyerolls and looking at Bear with such contempt. Basically he has two moods: grumpily bored and childishly excited (over his own genius). Brilliant.

In the next segment, James walks around with a handheld camera and tries to interview other cast members, who all pretend they never heard of Bear McCreary. In this part, he's himself again - he's friendly, he's got that smile in his voice that he always does in interviews, and is very polite and calm with people. It's sort of in contrast with the other part, but it doesn't disrupt the "reality" of the mockumentary that much. It's a different comedic role - James goes from being the funny one to the straight man.

First up is Jamie Bamber. Their names are confusingly similar, but I hope it's still readable.

James: What do you think of the music in the show?
Jamie: We don't really have any music, do we? We've got those drums..
James: No, there's like a soundtrack all the way.. all the way htru.
Jamie: It's like documentary style, we don't do score.
James: Bear McCreary.
Jamie: Um... Irish bear.. big Irish bear.. McCreary.
James: Um.. he's, he writes the music for the show.
Jamie: Music? Mu...
James: Yeah.
Jamie: Oh, the Bob Dylan thing.
[cut]
Jamie: So pretend like I met him..?
James: Like you really love him...
Jamie: So this is gonna be shown at the concert to all the six people that come?
James: Yeah, actually it's sold out, just so you know.
Jamie: Small venue?
[cut]


James: And here we go! Jamie, go!
Jamie: (awkwardly) Bear! Bear, Bear, Bear! Listen, congratulations on the concert. You rock! You rock! Love those drums. (waves) Hi! God, I can't, I just don't know what to say.
James: (with contempt) That is just fucking pathetic. That is like...
Jamie: Let me try again. Bear! Thank you for all your hard work on Battlestar. We love... you, we love this show, you make this show, uh...thank you Bear. How was that, did that work? Oh, breakfast, lovely. Thank you. God, I'm so hungry.
(camera pans to "Troy Scott, 3rd assistant director" - it's too dark to really see his face though.)
James: Hello.
Troy: Hi.
James: You good?
Troy: I'm awesome.
James: Okay.
Troy: What is this for?
James: Um, this is for Bear McCreary.
Troy: Who's that?
James: Yeah, exactly!

I'm not sure which one of the guys says that last line. Both are off camera and both are British, so... I can usually tell apart their voices, but I had trouble with it here. Edit: Both M and Nicole hear James, so I'll go with that.
The Jamie bit seemed awkward in the brief Youtube clip, but it actually makes sense in context - he's just naturalistically pretending to be awkward, which actually works well.

Next, a brief bit with Mary McDonnell.


Mary: What is his name, Bear?
James: His name is Bear, and he is gonna do a concert.
Mary: He's doing a concert?
James: Yeah, I just wanted you to give like a little message to him and say you know, 'great concert and have a great time' and...
Mary: Okay. I want to wish you a great.. concert to... (puts her hand in front of the camera) I'm sorry, what was his name?
James: Bear, his name's Bear, yeah.
Mary: Bear... (smiles charmingly) Bear! I... I just hope it goes well. Is that enough?

I love how everyone keeps forgetting his name, even if Bear should be easy enough to remember. Actually, rewatching this, I've come to wonder if James isn't playing a role here also - a well-meaning, but bumbling guy who has no idea how to interview his castmates.

Katee Sackhoff is having makeup done (apparently that tattoo in Starbuck's arm isn't a real tattoo, they seem to be painting it on). James can be seen in the mirror, holding a camera. She laughs and points at something, I'm not sure if it's the camera or James' hair (which is cutely scruffy on top).

James: Wanted to ask you about um.. the music in BSG.
Katee: (confused) Oh, the drums? The drums!
James: Well, the I mean...There's more going on than just um, the drums..
[cut]
James: You get into character listening to those drums...
Katee (looks confused)
James: Um... Basically, just lie. I mean, in that sense, I can cut out this...
[cut]


Katee: (smiling sweetly) I love Bear's music. He's great, his music is fantastic. He's been such an instrumental part of this show for five years that we couldn't... We couldn't do without him, I love him. (blows a kiss at the camera) I wish I was there.
James: That's beautiful, that is, that is beautiful. Thank you. Happy, happy birthday...
Katee: Thank you. It didn't look too much like I was lying on that one?
James: No no no, I mean listen, none of us have heard the music, none of us care.
Katee: Cos in all honesty, I thought it was just Eddie, like, beating on shit on set.

I think "Eddie beating on shit on set" is one of the funniest lines in this video. I do wonder about EJO, because he seems like such a character. I don't know if that line would work with anyone else. And no matter how many times I see this, I still crack up at "basically just lie, I can cut out this..." and the cut there. :D Like James, Katee's really good at this sort of naturalistic mockumentary style (see the first David Eick video blog).

There's another camera in this bit, so you briefly see James walking with the camera. Jamie is having makeup done now.

James: That was pretty good, but I mean I'm just gonna.. you know, that's kinda got a bit more ... that's real here.
Jamie: You know, it's fucking hard talking about shit that you don't know...
James: You're supposed to make it up! That's what we do as actors, you're just making up, isn't it! You know...
Katee: It's really putting people on the spot, asking everyone to do this!
James: Well, I mean, but you know...
Katee: No one knows who the fuck this guy is!
James: I know! But that's whatever... Listen, it's just a favor to me, you know who I am, don't you, for fuck's sake?
Katee (looks at camera with disdain)
Jamie (unenthusiastically) Yeah...


I love how they're pretending to not even really like him. It's like "yeah, we know who you are..." You can tell James has a great chemistry with both Jamie and Katee though.

Edward James Olmos - who I will refer to as "Eddie", because everybody else does and it's contageous - and Michael Hogan are standing around an empty stage. Hogan is smoking. They're not looking particularly busy.

James: Guys? Guys, hi! Hi! Um, Eddie, Michael, um... Uh, sorry to bother you, um.. I'm doing, um, a little...
Michael: What?
James: Bear McCreary...
Eddie: Excuse me, who? Who's that?
James: Bear.
Michael: Bear Curtis?
James: The music of Battlestar Galactica.
Eddie (laughing) There's no music on Battlestar Galactica! Enough of you, get out of here!
Michael: We don't need no frakking music!
(James lowers the camera)
James: (in a low voice) There's a guy called Bear on the show. There's a guy called Bear, he does the music for the show.
Eddie: There's a guy that does the mu.. (empathically) There's no music in the show.
James: No there is, Eddie, there is!
Michael: Can I get a toke of what you're on?
Eddie (laughs)
James: (laughs) Yeah, very good. Listen, no, listen, OK? What I mean to do... He's doing a concert, this guy, and..
Michael: Oooh, I've seen his picture on the album cover, Bear. He's that... bluegrass guy.
James: OK, he's doing a ...


Eddie. But the guy's name is not Bear. What is it spelled, B-E-A-R? Is that how you spell that, B-E-A-R?
James: All I need you to say is like, Bear's doing a concert, you love this guy, and...
Eddie: Hah! (laughs)
James: ...good luck with the concert, Bear.
Eddie: Hey Bear! Rrrrrr! All the best at you! Rrrrr!
Michael (laughs)
James: (laughs) Uh... yeah.
Eddie: If there's anybody seeing this, you've been taken for a ride!
[cut]
James: Genuinely, you've never heard the music on the show?
Eddie: I'm sorry man.
Michael: There's sound effects.
Eddie: There's sound effects.
Michael: Like kshhhhhh! [imitates shooting a gun]


Eddie: You know, once in a while there'll be a radio, there'll be source, but...
Michael: Yeah, yeah. There's radio, like...
James: No, cos there's like...
Eddie: Does he look like one?
James (laughs) You know he's...Yeah...
Eddie: He's like seven foot, rrrr! Like a grizzly?
Michael: Anyway, man, we were talking here so if you...
Eddie: We were doing stuff, alright? Get out of here!
James: Thanks. Sorry, man. Thanks. Thanks very much. Thanks.

Eddie's just hilarious here, especially when he does the bear impression. Also - "You've been taken for a ride"? Hee! I love how James is politely trying to keep this on topic, while the two guys keep going off on tangents and laughing, like they can't focus on such a simple thing.

The following bits are from the credits. These are obviously stuff they cut out. First, we see James and Bear at the piano again. This would be from the "can we talk about my music" part.

James (mockingly) Bear! Bear, go on Bear! Show us what you got... let's see, let's see...
Bear: You wanna hear some music? I'll play you some music!
James: Whatever.
Bear (plays the cylon baseship theme, sways to the rhythm) You hear that James? Yeah! This is music!
James (gives camera a hilarious look of utter disdain)


James: That is awful.
Bear: Awful?!
James: That is like dog poop being stuck down my ears. Don't put that on the show mate, nobody's gonna want to watch the show if you put it in...That's awful...
Bear: (incredulous) That's already in the show!
James: What?!
Bear: It's in your scenes! Have you ever watched the show?!
James: (puts hand on face) Oh god almighty, this is getting worse and worse by the minute. I could, whatever... I've worked with more musical cats!

Dog poop *dies* Actually, looking at the picture, he looks like he's about to laugh. And when he says "dog poop", it sounds a bit like that too. I wonder if they burst out laughing after he said the last line, and that's why there was a cut. I do think it works better the way it's cut - "can we talk about my music" - cut to James walking Bear to the door. But it's still fun to see this little bit here too, especially with James so proud of his poor taste in music. Incidentally, this theme is one of my very favorite pieces. I'm not sure if it's because I love Baltar and the cylons, or because it's just so beautiful and atmospheric.

There's another very brief clip in the end, where James points the camera at himself and says, "Yeah, I was gonna tell them that I was..." and then suddenly breaks into this incredibly cute giggle like he's being tickled: "ehehehehehe... no!" The camera shakes and you can see a few brief clips of him laughing. M was able to get these screenshots from those couple of seconds (Edited slightly by my girlfriend) :


You can see Michael there grabbing him. You can hear Eddie saying, "He's just frakking with you guys! There ain't no Bear! There's NO BEAR!"

Every time I watch this, I just get so happy. I was just incredibly happy all week because I've seen this. I'm so glad it's on the US DVD's (also booo to the Euro DVD's for not having it). I'd like to thank Bear, James and everyone else involved. This was just awesome.

Dragon*Con Panels, Part 3: Dradis Contact Is Made

Sunday Panel

"Dradis Contact Is Made"

I'm sorry for my tardiness with this post. I had a big job thing come up, and I was really engrossed in that for a week. This was actually my favorite panel with the best James quotes and cutest photos, and I wanted the post to be well thought out and not just a quick transcript.

As usual, the videos are courtesy of MrBamberrific/transplant42. You can also find the two other panels in the link - Tahmoh/Richard and Edward James Olmos solo - but those don't have James, so I will not be transcribing them. The photos are courtesy of Bamberrific and can also be found at the James Callis Appreciation Thread at the Sci Fi Forums. Thanks again guys!

Dianora's writeup of this panel, with pictures, here.
Nicole_anell, who asks the torture question in part 3, also has a writeup of the panels and the two times she met James here, here and here. Well worth reading. (I hope I linked to the right things - I don't know LJ as well as I know Blogger. Just scroll up and down the page to find the BSG related stuff if it gives you something else.)

Part 1

It's the day after the Colonial Fleet Party, and everyone looks tired and hung over. James still manages to look gorgeous though.

Drool!!

Michael Hogan, who apparently got very drunk indeed, comes in on all fours (as a joke, he's not drunk anymore), to much laughter and applause from the audience. Tahmoh's a no-show today - he was at the Dollhouse panel and apparently very sick from the party. Edward James Olmos didn't show up either, after having two panels - one with the others and one solo - the previous day. Colin Corrigan was there, but he didn't talk much, and to be honest, I don't care about him. I don't care if he is a good friend of Aaron Douglas, he doesn't really belong in the panel. One of my pet peeves with BSG is that there are too many military characters, and I just can't keep track of them all.

"Do the microphones work?" says the moderator.
"No," James says.

Aaron quips, "One of you motherfrakkers put booze in my drink last night. When I find out who, and I will, it's heavy Raider all over your asses." Hee! The audience cracks up.

Richard Hatch says some guy lost his beer to Aaron, and asks if that guy is there. He doesn't get as much of a response, though.

James takes out plastic mugs and starts pouring water in them for everyone, which I thought was sweet and considerate. OK, maybe I should save my squees at this point because there's a lot of goodness coming in this panel.

The first question is about the craft of acting, and how they approach that.

James: "Yeah. This comes up a lot, this kind of question, actually, and my response to this is that you know, the craft is very important and on set, um, craft service [laughter] is actually even more important. To those of you not in the industry, that's like the food they give us so we don't fall over. [laughter]

Um, I kind of... There's lots, there's no one way. It's like there's no one mantra about being an actor. It's really horses for courses - the demands of the scene, or the demands of your character. I was actually telling someone yesterday, one of the things I learned at drama school, which I found really important, was um... being experiment... Experiment, and allow yourself to get it wrong, rather than right. If you're imposing a mantra, "this must be my definitive performance, I can only give this, see", you've imposed something on yourself that .. You've made a vacuum, it's less interesting, so that you allow yourself to get something wrong, you might get something right."

I think this makes sense for life in general, as well. If you have your mind set on "I can only be this", you won't even try to do other things. I also learned a new phrase, "horses for courses". BSG must have had an awesome craft service, this is not the first time I heard it mentioned. I also think it's cute how James pronounces it "crahft". Yeah, I know, it's probably just regular British accent thing.

Hogan and Richard Hatch seem to agree with James on this. Hatch goes on for a while, but I don't think he really adds anything to what James said. He talks for about five minutes, and people applaud him, but I must say I drifted off. I'm sure it was very deep.

part 2

Question from the audience: "We all enjoy the Battlestar universe for different reasons and characters", so what aspect of the BSG universe do the actors enjoy most or what would they like to see in real life?

Aaron: The communal showers. [laughter]
[James seems very amused at this one.]

Michael Hogan says it's the flashbacks, and he waxes poetic about one particular flashback in Unfinished Business: "Me with Ellen, just laughing with each other, and I had both eyes, I was young and healthy, and she was beautiful, and I was telling her how much I love her." He talks like it's a real memory from his own life, which was sweet. He doesn't talk in a Tigh voice or anything, but obviously he's talking as Tigh here.



James: I really like the... I really got switched on to it not by the sci fi, but by the kind of dark, political, edgy.. for me, because Baltar and his position, it felt like being in some kind of spy thriller. You're all spies, you can't tell secrets, you don't know who you can trust. I find that really exciting and I think there's a lot of... We use that currency a lot on the show, and I'm glad that my own reality isn't anything like that at all. [laughter]

I thought this was an interesting answer. I haven't really thought of it as a spy show, but Baltar is a character who's very much alone with a secret. Episodes like Six Degrees of Separation might read like a spy thriller, although Baltar definitely lacks the composed manner agents usually deal in. Maybe the original Baltar was more like a spy, because he knew what he was doing, while the new Baltar is more a victim of his own weakness who never meant anyone any harm. Which elevates it above a simple spy thriller, because there's moral conflict.

Richard Hatch wishes they brought back the "social aides" from the original show. Which I guess means hookers. Eh. He says the closest to that is "Trish, the cylon". I might have heard that wrong - does he mean Tricia? James doesn't look very amused. I don't think I like the idea of Tricia being a "social aide". If I'm wrong, please correct me before I start hating Hatch. He goes on to say that on the show, life is precious so you need to live every day to the fullest. Which is actually a good point.

Hogan is asked about the BSG movie, and he starts about that, but then ends up discussing the BSG directors - Michael Rymer shoots a lot of footage, and Hogan likes that and loves his episodes. He also talks about Exodus I & II, which he thought was one of the best episodes ever, and how different Felix Alcala, who directed that, was because they used basically all the footage. I'm not sure what that has to do with the BSG movie directly, but it was a nice detail.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

Aaron: I'd go back to the time of Christ and say, "Really?!" [laughter]

Michael: I'd go back to last night and to the party you guys threw. [laughter, applause]

I was hoping James would answer this question, but he didn't. I have a feeling he would have had something interesting to say.



Asked about their plans after BSG, "and does anyone know what Eddie's plans are as well?"

Hogan: I don't think Eddie himself knows what his plans are. Eddie has two cell phones going and texting with a third one while shooting a scene...

Aaron does his EJO impression - which is indeed impressive, see part 7 - and says Eddie can be talking on the phone while he's directing: "Hang on a second. - James, get over here.-OK, anyway, so I was saying..." [laughter and applause] Back to his own voice: "I am not kidding!"

James: I'm gonna do a television movie about Merlin, in actually Vancouver again, which I'm really excited about. It's one of the most beautiful places to be ever, with the most wonderful people. Funnily enough, I finished BSG, and relocated back to London, and then got a job back in Vancouver. If I'd actually waited two weeks, I could have saved myself some money. [laughter]

Michael: Are you playing Merlin?

James: I am playing Merlin.
[the audience cheers; the panelists applaud]

James looks psyched and sort of humbly proud that he gets to play Merlin. The audience is very excited for him. News about this spread online on the day of the panel, but there was no mention of it being in Vancouver, so everyone assumed he was going to be in BBC's Merlin. I've heard from someone who heard from someone else that James had confirmed it's a Sci Fi movie on Merlin. He doesn't like to talk about projects before they're confirmed, so we can be pretty sure this is going to happen. Awesome!

part 3

Richard Hatch talks about a misunderstanding that happened when he was confused with Richard Hatch on Survivor. "This has caused me deep pain," he says. James cracks up, as does the audience. I've tried, but somehow I can't focus on anything Hatch is saying. Does anyone else have the same problem?

Nicole Anell asks her question about the torture scenes. This is awesome. Firstly, because it's an awesome question, and secondly, because she asks it without sounding fangirlish in the least, and just comes off as really intelligent and makes James fans look good. James is so eager to answer that he barely lets her finish the question.

Nicole: Hey.

James: Hi. [inaudible, but you can see him mouth it, which looks cute.]

Nicole: My question's for James. I was wondering... The season previous to this one, basically every other episode, Baltar was getting tortured or trying to kill himself, and there was a lot of [?] darkness [unintelligible] I was just wondering, was that kind of difficult to go through as an actor, compared to the lighter stuff earlier?



James: Truthfully it was really difficult to go through, um... This is with all of us in the show, it's something that we bring up. We...we...[can't bear to ? this thing] all over... Well, we're trying to hold the mirror up to nature, so there's this thing while you're doing it, and you're just on a television show pretending, but you know that there are people who are being tortured. And uh... That's really troubling and really sad, you wanna get yourself in a state where it looks like you really are, because in some way, if you don't, it's almost like slandering people's memories who really are going through this kind of thing.

The lighter moment... I was going to bring this up in the panel yesterday, the lighter moment about that was actually that it was directed by Eddie, who had even more insane ideas than we actually filmed. So I mean, the first thing he said was like:[EJO voice] "How are you with sharks?" [laughter, applause] I was like, what are you talking about Eddie? And he was,[EJO voice] "In the psychotic episode, I've been speaking to the Vancouver Aquarium, we're gonna put you in the shark tank. How are you with the sharks?" [laughter, woos] I'm like, Eddie, don't be ridiculous. You know, when you go to Vancouver Aquarium, you can't spit in the water, you get pulled out, it's like, you know, "don't infect the animals". I'm like, how are they gonna let you in the shark tank with me?


Visualizing the head brace and the clips in his eyes. So cute.

And then he's got this thing about, when my head was in that brace and this thing, they brought in this special doctor to absolutely... What's the word, this thing where they keep your eyelids open with special metal clips. And the producer Harvey is watching them on a tape[?]. This is, like, the week before we're gonna shoot and they're putting it in... I can't remember... it was like, "This one really hurts", and "Yeah, that got broken in my car."[He mimicks twiddling with a small clip; laughter.] I'm like, "Just to be really honest, I'm not being paid enough to have metal clips." [laughter] Eddie's like, [EJO voice] "We really need that", I'm like, "No you really don't, and you don't need the sharks either." [laughter] So that kind of kept me going, it kept the humor going in my mind, about also, as well...

But I also think it's really important, you know, there are lots of people who want to see this guy get his just desserts. He's done so many dreadful things, and then he... We're asking the audience again: Do you really want to see another human being suffering, just because he's caused some suffering? Is this justice or is it punitive? And at the end of this very thing, one of the reasons I got rid of my hair and shaved it all off was cos, as I've said to lots of people, I looked in the mirror every morning and was like, "I feel like Gaius Baltar." [laughter] And when I shaved it, it was like, "No, I'm just an actor, I'm James Callis." [applause.]

How does he make something funny out of the torture question? I don't know, but he does, and it's awesome. During the EJO impression, he does this frown that's as spot on as the voice. The audience is in stitches - he even has to pause for a moment to let the laughter die down. It's especially cute to see Aaron cracking up at everything he says, especially the EJO impression (see above). I love that the others in the cast seem to have a similar sense of humor, and they're obviously listening to James very attentively every time he speaks. As for the torture scenes, they were very painful to watch, and I haven't been able to revisit them, Taking a Break in particular with the mental torture. Somehow that was much worse than the physical torture, because Baltar's mind is so important for him, and even Head Six abandons him there. Heavy stuff. I think the torture scenes were the only time that I wished James weren't such a good actor, because it really felt real.

Is it just me or did James and Aaron look exceptionally close in the panels..?



James: "I'm just an actor, I'm James Callis."
Aaron: "James, I love you and I want to have a hundred of your babies."

Aaron is asked about The Bridge, a cop show he's starring in. He sounds very excited about the show and its politics, and compares it to The Sopranos, which sounds good.

Part 4

A question to everyone "but especially for James": do the actors influence their characters or do you have to do it the way it is on the page?

James: I'll kick the ball off then. There is a lot of freedom to experiment and change with, uh, with the show, and that's not just my character, it's everybody's character. Everybody has had a hand in creating their characters as far as I'm concerned. And I think the reason... I've never been involved in a project where so much floor is given to the actors and, "You know the character, how does it feel for you"? But I feel that the reason we're in that forum or in that milieu, is because the people who write and the people who direct have so much innate confidence and a lot of generosity, they're not micromanaging us at all, that would be ludicrous.

So for me, it's... It's just, it's special that the writers allow us to find certain things. That makes me think of them as terribly confident, and very very smart, and like I say, really generous, uh, so that you... Because we're trying to make the best of the best, everybody wants to do the best thing. It's not about, "Oh, I don't want to do that cos that's your idea." I mean, that would just be insane. But I've certainly been in a lot of projects where they did that thing, it's like, "No, I didn't write it, no. And you must say "and". [laughter] So, you know, that's kind of pathetic and that's what I think [chuckles]. So we all, I think, have a lot of... freedom to experiment and like I said, I think that comes from the confidence of the team behind us.



I didn't get that "and" bit until I was listening to the Roundtable podcast last night, and he expanded on the idea there. I'm going to act as the James Callis-English dictionary here for those who aren't as familiar with this metaphor.
James: "And you must say 'and'."
English: "In the UK productions, they expect you to say things exactly like they are in the script, so they complain if you leave out an 'and'."
Seriously, James, elaborate. The way he said it here, I took it to mean that if they tell you, "I didn't write that", you must reply with, "And?"

I've been amazed at how much of a role James apparently had in creating his character. If it weren't for him, Baltar would have signed that death warrant without putting up a fight. If it weren't for him, Baltar wouldn't have said, "What have I done?" in the mini. I mean, seriously. James obviously made the character more relatable and human, and I love the creators for letting him do that.

I should totally write that thing. I'd title it "What The Frak Is He On About - A Concise James Callis-English Dictionary For Noobs".



Michael says James basically answered the question for all of them, and he's lucky to be Tigh, because the writers love the character. "Sometimes they love it too much, because I am a hardass.. and they kind of think that I am a redneck right wing, just because I say the truth, so sometimes I have to pull them back." He talks a little about the others in read thrus - "James will take it and ad lib, what's he doing now?" - and then continues about Tigh.

He mentions a line that is pretty disturbing: "We've been chasing these slit-eyed black bastards for years now." Wow, that's two racial epiteths in one, and since there's an Asian and a black cylon, it gets a bit too literal. It's meant to refer to the centurions, but I'm not sure if that's everyone's first connotation. Hogan calls this "overwriting". While he thinks it's in character for Tigh to say it, he feels that it maybe shouldn't be said on TV. Gotta agree there. Hatch, who at first can't find any working mikes, asks him if they left that line in, and Hogan says yes, and it's in an episode that's in the coming season.

James listening (?) to Hatch and looking adorable.

Hatch gets a question from the moderator about his character, and playing a terrorist oir something. Hatch thinks Tom Zarek is "a pretty gutsy, courageous guy" for standing up to the president after 25 years in prison. He compares that to Nelson Mandela, who "came out a better human being. How many of us would come out that way? I think most of us would come out damaged." So - Zarek is like Mandela? I think that's a bit of a stretch. He goes on to say that Zarek came out having lost his family, his faith in the government, and so forth, so there's a lot of anger. Hatch makes the same point that James makes later: in this show, "good people do bad things. Sometimes who's judging you is violating the constitution..." I think the point is good, but again, I find myself drifting off even if I agree with what he's basically saying. James and Aaron are talking to each other, but leaning away from the microphones so you can hear nothing. I wonder if they're talking about Hatch or something else.

Hatch gets back on topic and says, "This is a very rare show that recognizes opportunities, does not lock themsleves into a box. When they see something interesting, they're willing to capitalize on it." James runs his hand along his chin. Aaron stretches. They both look like they drifted off in there somewhere. Hatch says that someone has six of the final episodes with them in this convention, and Hogan says it's Eddie, and then everyone laughs. To be honest, I didn't really get this bit. He had the episodes with him? Uh - maybe someone who went to the con could tell me what this was about.

part 5

A man from the audience asks how it feels to be a part of Battlestar, because it started out with such low expectations and grew so quickly into something that has a huge impact on other shows.



Aaron says that these conventions are the only time he feels how big the BSG phenomenon really is. He hates on the Sci Fi channel, who "couldn't market water to a guy in the desert", and says he feels that the network has completely ignored them, no matter the accolades. "I'm sorry, ten episodes is not a season! Twenty episodes is a season," he says to much applause. He thinks it's a disgrace that people have to wait so long to see the rest. This is where the infamous "no new episodes until April" rumor started. You can hear a collective gasp and some "no"s as Aaron says "you might not see it until April now" - I'm not even sure if he's being serious, or just exaggerating, or giving disinformation on purpose. Either way, Sci Fi was quick to nip those rumors in the bud, thank gods. Aaron tells an anecdote about how he was walking down the street with a friend of his who's also an actor, and two people came to them: "They walk past me and go, 'French's mustard, right?'" Ouch. "Nobody watches BSG," he says. "Thank you for watching BSG."

Hatch says that it sucks how Battlestar's success is measured with the Nielsen ratings, because TIVO'ing it doesn't count. If you like a show - he mentions Dexter, which gets applause - you want to see it again. The only thing they care about is if you saw the commercials, which does indeed suck. "People don't want to watch 20 minutes of commercials anymore," he says. Word, but when did they ever want that?



James: "They do a thing in London, and maybe they do it here as well. Somebody pays money and sponsors the show, and one of the things is they sponsor the show so that there are no adverts, so you get like, say like... I don't know who the sponsors are, but like say it's a car, it's whatever... Ford or Chevrolet, it's like "Chevrolet sponsors Battlestar, and is happy to tell you there are no adverts." So you pay money and... There's a few shows like that in London, and it's really crazy that adverts pay for the thing, and possibly pay for us to be on television, but in a show like Battlestar where you want to be glued into the box, because that's where the drama is, as soon as you know, it's like "Hey, brush your teeth with this!" [laughter], you've lost a lot of attention and the story that we want to tell. So I think it screws everybody up. It might just be a necessary evil, I don't know."

It's cute how James calls them "adverts" rather than "commercials". I sometimes wonder if he notices that he's using a different word than the others, or if he just uses the word that's more familiar to him without paying attention to it. But on topic - I was lucky enough to see the whole show on DVDs, which means no commercials. In Finland, you at least get a sign when it goes to commercial, so there's a transition between "OMG, Starbuck's viper just exploded" and "Does your stomach feel cranky after a stressful day?" We also have four channels with no commercials at all. Of course, these channels are paid out of a fee called the "TV permit", which most countries don't have. Nothing's perfect.

A woman tells Richard that he inspired her brother to become a viper pilot. Richard is very moved and asks her to come up after the panel, so he can get the contact information. That was a sweet moment. James applauds with the crowd and seems appreciative of this.

Awesome question for James, part deux: "Who do you find more challenging to play: the atheist Gaius or the God-loving Gaius?"



James: I definitely find the god-loving Gaius to be far more challenging. That's just because of where I, uh, I come from... I was given a book about two years ago by Aaron Douglas, called The End of Faith by a man called Sam Harris. And it's this... It's quite brilliant, it, it disseminates all of the cultural, political...I would say, problems that are going on in the States and while 9/11 happened. Anyway, one of the things I found so fantastic and interesting about it, he says that we call the people who, you know, blew up the twin towers, we call them fanatics. And what does it mean to be a fanatic? He's like, the only thing that these people are fanatical about is their faith. And in a world... I'm like basically paraphrasing some of his tracts, but he's like, if you asked, if you resurrected a man from the 13th centruy, he's like: what would he know about child care? Zip. What does he know about geography? Not very much. What does he know about technology? Zero. What does he know about God? Just as much as you. Because the concept of God hasn't changed in over 500, 600, maybe over a thousand years. And this adherence to this ideal is actually clipping the wings of our common sense.

One of the others things he said that's very funny is that, you know, a man can stand up in a pulpit and say, "God spoke to me last night in a dream", and the congregation is like, "Oh did He? Great, that's very interesting." But a similar man could say, you know, "I wired myself to a toaster and I spoke to God." And we're gonna stick him in a mental asylum. So I find the concept of God-loving on that level really, really difficult because of my own beliefs. [applause from the crowd and the other panelists]



Awesome question, awesome answer. I'm not really sure what James is saying here, though - that fanaticism is bad, or that religion itself is bad? It's a bit hard to tell just from that quote. He discussed religion in a negative way in the AV Club Interview, but somehow that didn't give me a totally anti-religion impression. Let's dig out that quote and see what's in it.

On a personal note, myself, I find religion—I can understand it, I can understand why we have it, as a kind of force on the planet. And I also at the same time think it's ludicrous. My Latin education teaches me that religion comes from religio, which means, "to bind." To bind with rope. And that's all it means. So whenever I hear somebody go, "I feel so religious right now!" I'm like, "Well, you're tying yourself up in knots, are you?" There's no spiritual connotation to that word whatsoever. And while it binds you to a rope, because it's about belonging, it alienates you to others. That can't be part of God's plan, if there is a God.

I think he sounded more like an atheist in the panel, but more like an agnostic in the interview. Coming to think of it, I think it's more in character for James to be an agnostic than a full-on atheist. He seems to take a diplomatic stance on many things, and despite the negative tone about religion in both the panel and the interview, I think it's a diplomatic way of putting it. I imagine Aaron is more of an atheist, giving James the book and also judging by his comment on Christ earlier in the panel. I also wonder if the original example in the book had "plug himself into a toaster", or if James is drawing from the available BSG metaphors.

It's interesting to note the differences in audience response. While he was talking about commercials, there were some "yeah"s and "uh huh"s in the audience. When he talked about religion, on the other hand, there was just silence, and then applause. The other panelists, likewise, were listening attentively and applauded him in the end. It speaks of the respect they have for James. Aaron applauds the most, of course. Those two must have pretty in-depth conversations.

Part 6




Question from the audience concerning how three-dimensional the characters are, and how you end up loving characters you hate and hating characters you love at times.

Aaron: When could you hate the Chief? When could you possibly hate the Chief?
Laughter and applause. That's actually a good question.

"As an actor, how much fun is it to jump over the line between likeable and reviled?"
That's a great question! It's also one of the things I love about BSG. At first, some of the characters seemed a bit too heroic, but I think as the seasons go on, it would be very difficult to pinpoint the perfect heroes vs. the evil villains. BSG really has people who are human (as well as some who are cylons, of course) - they're not always perfect, they make mistakes and do things that you might despise, and they're imperfect and just real. I love that about the show. I think it's quite rare on TV, The Sopranos is another similar show with very unlikeable characters on that level.

Aaron makes a growling noise into his microphone. James says something that I can't hear - I'll edit this if I hear it when I listen to it more.

James: Actually, I've... Well, one of the things I thought was interesting about the show and one of the things I wanted to bring into it was genuinely not to be likeable. Cos I see that all the time on television, people just like, [smiling and cocking his head back and forth as if he's posing] "Hey, like me, I've got a pretty smile! Hey, isn't that cool? " Like no, that's like... excuse me, BS! And I think that's... yeah, BSG. [laughter, applause] One of the things I've always said about the show and the thing I thought about it was that it's the end of the world, and if you can possibly do your neighbor a disservice you will, cos we're that petty.

And uh, I love the idea of people... this actually came to me when I was in drama school, I was with this guy who was pretty raw, and he walked up to this guy in a pub and said, [angrily] "Where is my five fucking quid? Where is it?!" And I was like, God, I would never do something like that. If I wanted the money that I'd given to somebody, I'd take them aside slightly and, you know, not say it in front of the whole pub. And then I realized that that's, what he did was like really real, because he doesn't care, it's not about on camera, it's not about, [grinning and posing] "Hey! Where's my five pounds?" [laughter] He really wanted it, it's important[?], you get your fingers dirty, and it's gritty. So on that level, I think it's um...

I think we're all trying to do that kind of thing, it's kind of a bit more fun to be... Somebody came up to me yesterday and they said, "Everybody was so unlikeable, why was I watching you?" Cos actually that's kind of one of the reasons why I became glued to this series, because everybody seems so human. And then you can't... when you despise them, then you'll find things in them that you do admire, find things that you [think more of it?] [applause]

The way he says "fucking" is kind of snipped, like he doesn't properly say the vowel in between. So careful about swearing, maybe because he has small children. When you hang around children, it just becomes a habit. Or around a mother who doesn't like swearing. For a long time, even after I moved out, I swore with initials. "oh ef!" But yeah, it's one of my favorite parts of the show too. What I don't get about the anecdote is - what is his point? That ultimately it's OK to be rude to someone because that's real? It's not how he operates and I doubt it's what he's really saying, but it does come off like that.




Aaron says that to "look Eddie Olmos in the eye and tell him to Frak off, or get me off your frakking ship... It feels good sometimes."

A question about Bear McCreary. The fan mentions the video with James Callis. Now that we're on topic: if anyone knows where to find the full thing, I don't care in what quality, please comment or email me (swanjonasAThotmailDOTcom). I'm desperate to see it. The above is the only file I've been able to find, and James is so funny in it. For those who haven't seen the link yet, do check it; it's from the mockumentary James made for the Bear McCreary concerts. Everyone pretended to not know who Bear is (for the less hardcore fans: he's the composer for the show), and hilarity ensued. Also James made his own, terrible theme song for Gaius Baltar.

The question is about people's relationship with Bear McCreary. "Who?" James says. Hee. For a moment there, he's acting again, looking genuinely confused. Then he gets off the role and laughs. "I don't have anything to do with the music," says Aaron jokingly, but then goes on to say that the music on BSG has touched him more than on any other show, especially the bagpipes at the end of Flight of the Phoenix, "I can't help but to cry." So what does he think of Bear? "He's a genius." Applause. "But he lives in a little room and just creates." Gotta agree about the music, even if I can't think of the bagpipes offhand.

I love Aaron. Not as much as James though. I love Aaron like a brother, or something.

Part 7

Question: Who is your favorite actor to work with, "and I think I know James' answer". The audience laughs, but James actually looks a bit confused and whispers something to Michael Hogan. Hogan says something inaudible to the audience, and James leans back in his chair laughing. It's very cute. I'm not sure if this is referring to Tricia or to his "I want to be Tricia so I can be with me" comment in the roundtable podcast.

Aaron says Mary, and he loved the last scene of Dirty Hands, "I'll take it away with me forever." He also says that Michael Hogan is the least like his character, "and to watch him outside going ehehehe, having a cigarette, laughing at you..." The laughter imitation is pretty delicious. Hogan suddenly goes into angry Tigh mode, "Gaius Frakking Baltar!!!", gets up and walks towards the exit, but then returns calmly. Everyone's laughing. Aaron says it's "bizarre" how Hogan turns into the character, "thats' a real treat for me." Applause. And after seeing these panels - word. I would have never thought he's so unlike Tigh.



Hogan brings up Dean Stockwell, who plays Cavil. He does a pretty awesome imitation. Apparently, when they met for the first 3rd season episode, Stockwell said: "Hey, man, whoa, man, shit, last year I was here, I was doing a gig. But I've watched the episodes since then, wow, we're on to something here man! Whoa, this is good!" It really sounds like Dean Stockwell. Laughter from the audience. James, who's resting his head on his hands (hangover?) nods in this cute way. Hogan continues that they did the interrogation scene, "and he was good, you know, it was good to work with him on the second season, but he was on board for that third season. He was amazing to work with." Hogan says he's Canadian and doesn't often work "with these American actors with names", complete with finger quotes. He says the actors come in excited, with respect for the show, especially in the last few years. Applause.

Why do I feel like this was the best panel, not just for James, but for everyone? When Hogan speaks, everyone goes quiet and attentive, and he has the same effect on me as well. Maybe it's because he hasn't been on these panels so much, or maybe he's just a really engaging speaker. James applauds him with the audience. The respect between the actors is great to watch.

Last question: Everyone has their imitation of Edward James Olmos - the audience bursts out laughing - but who's the best? Loved this question.

Hogan says that when they do read thrus, and EJO isn't there, "Guess who reads Eddie." He points at Aaron, who pumps his fist in the air a bit.

Aaron: "It's great when I have a scene with myself." When Chief and Adama have a scene, "I have like two full pages where it's just me talking, it's great." [laughter] "I feel like Callis." James loves this, and he applauds and laughs.




Aaron: "I feel like Callis."
James: "Aaron, I love you and I want to have a hundred of your babies."

That's about all for this panel. They get ready to leave, and Aaron says something con-specific that isn't of much interest to me. James puts on his sunglasses. Hee. He loves those sunglasses. They really should get a nickname. But I haven't even nicknamed his chest hair yet, so that'll have to wait.



The crowd starts to spontaneously chant, "So say we all!" So as a final favor, Michael Hogan indulges them and shouts back "So say we all" three times. Awesome panel.