James Callis at Galacticon Five: Panel 2 Transcript

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.

Oldie But Goldie: The Sci Fi Guys w James Callis

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.

James Callis at Comic Con: The Eureka Panel

And the panel is online! The Youtube direct links are in the titles ("Part 1" etc) so just click on those if the Blogger frame doesn't allow for a wide enough view. The problem won't go away if I switch layouts, unless I take a layout that is so wide the text will be unreadable. But I want to embed when there's a James video, godsdamnit!

You can also go into my favorites page and watch them there.

So I'm going away for the weekend and I have to make some preparations today, and I may not be able to write much anything about this until Sunday. I have watched the panel; James is very sweet, very cool with the others, the panel host is squeeing over him. (And does a pretty good Tricia impression with "Gaius"!) He doesn't answer that many questions, but he's very animated and listens carefully when the others talk. Lots of great expressions too. (And he takes sips of Coke!)

They didn't ask my question about James' accent, but I don't mind because he answered that so well in the interviews. I will probably provide a transcript with commentary after the weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy the videos! :)

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

James Callis at San Diego Comic Con, 2010

Last updated on Thursday, 29th of July, 11:15 PM Finnish time.

Thursday update 2: Ooh, PanelJames x 4!!

We've got the entire panel up on Youtube! Yay! (Syfy seems to be posting full panel videos also, so probably soon, we'll have it in one piece.) I've embedded and linked in a separate post, because I want to transcribe and comment when I come back home. The post is here.

A couple of new photos as well: photo with a fan here - James was especially friendly, apparently (L) - and two more from the Syfy party here. Is he wearing the party suit with the cap in that fan photo? :D It's a lovely cap but come on.

Aand that's about it. I'm going away tomorrow and will be gone the weekend, so if there are updates during that time, I won't report them until Sunday. So if you're still hungering for more James con goodies, you're gonna have to hunt yourselves. It's possible the updates are done for now though. I didn't expect this much video footage - I'm very happy with what we got. A good con coverage online is almost like you were there, but without the crowds and lines and high prices.

Thursday update 1: Ooh, PanelJames.

Photos from the Eureka panel here!

His Coke can does seem sugary - also, it has some kind of soccer theme. So we can assume that in his life, James has seen the picture of a soccer ball. (Ehh?? How would he live in the UK without ever seeing one? That one was a bit strange even for me.)

I've decided that I love this cap. It's my favorite cap ever. It's cute, tiny, and makes him look boyish. Aww, CapJames. (that's Jaime Paglia next to him. His face looks even thinner than James'. That's quite unusual.)

Can't see a lot of other updates.. *skims thru Google search* Haha, someone's spelled Baltar as "Baltzar"... That's hilarious but I don't think there's anything worth noting in that link. Frankly I'm getting lazier as the days go by. It's almost been a week, after all. I will be away this weekend, so today's updates are the last ones for a while.

Wednesday update 4: One more for Wednesday.

A couple of photos of him here! Hee! I thought first he must be drunk, but I think it's just a silly pose, because he looks sober in the last one. And very stylish. I'm liking that black coat better than the white ones he had on. Somehow it goes well with his hair color/general look.

There have been quite a few updates today, haven't there? We'll see what tomorrow brings. If it doesn't bring anything new, I'm still happy with how much we got, especially the two interviews. Con time is always good, I get a whole new energy tracking down James updates.

Wednesday update 3: Another Interview! Yay!

Direct link here. It's not quite as long and squeeworthy as the other one, but he's adorable. The interviewer is a little fangushy, and James seems to take it in stride and be very nice. He's also a bit hot and touches his neck and/or hirsute chest a few times. Drool! (What is he drinking? I thought in the other int it might be ice tea, but it looks more like another Coke. I should have some myself, it's a hot day.)

My favorite bit is when the guy asks if Grant sees people that isn't there and James admits that does happen once, but not like on BSG. Hee! Well, Eureka has had ghosts and androids and god knows what, but I don't think they will have angels sent by god(s).

James mentions, as he did in the other int, that he's been Gaius for five years, so it's understandable that ppl write "I don't like him doing that", or "I didn't expect him to do this". Interesting. I mean, I've seen those comments, mostly on Twitter, but I didn't know he read that much. Maybe that's because I'm tired of reading the comments already, and prefer to look at what the James fans are saying, because we know him from other stuff too. He sounds confident though, and it seems like he thinks about not only the comments people write, but the reasons for those comments. It's a pretty empathetic way of dealing with criticism. I would probably be a little pissed off by now that so many people said my accent sucks.

In other news, Flickr seems to have some kind of tracking system for links, because well, check out the comments section again. :D Sorry about the crappy camera comment; I totally understand if it's the SCREEN that's distorting.

I almost feel like apologizing to Lomara for saying that his/her picture was the worst ever taken of James. I did get a good laugh.. and it's not thier fault the screens were bad. But it's a bad, bad picture still. So I'm not aplogizing.

Wednesday update 2: Random Thoughts on the Interview.

Some very cute panel pictures in this post.

Also:

James conducts an orchestra.

This looks like a cool look, but the camera is too crappy to tell. (I can relate. I, too, have a crappy camera.)

James at the... is this at the panel? I thought it was at the Eureka screening. I also thought that was Salli Richardson-Whitfield, not Erica Cerra. Not to nitpick. But James looks cool either way. I love the way his hair falls over his ears. (L)! That's a very sexy shape.

I don't want to discuss the interview below (under EEEE!) in more detail yet, but it touches me how much he really thinks of the characters. "I had two days", and then he talks about watching 40's films, wanting to be a man's man, and how, after World War II, people had seen the best and worst of mankind. O.o

Cue this conversation on LJ where we talk about how cool it would be to have a James con - but instead of panels and autographs, it would be all... "what do you think of deep topics?" We'd just sit and listen as he talks about this stuff, and get an intellectual education. He has the intellect and that warmth behind it and it's just irresistable. I really think that I'd like a good conversation with James more than anything else - and that includes validation for my blog and general James kindness.

Wednesday update 1: It's already Wednesday in Finland.

Nothing big has shown up during Tuesday, after the *sparkle happy joy joy* interview. But a few nice photos:

James introducing the Eureka episode, here. He looks so happy and so does Salli R. Another view of the same situation. I love his expression here but it also kills me because I don't know what he said that was so funny.

And here's Salli talking and James looking on, looking attentive and kind.

Eureka panel! Setting up, the cap on, and fiddling with his microphone (to take it lower, hee). Why do I love it so when he has downcast eyes like that? It makes him look humble, and sensitive, and somehow very boyish. Awww.

And Nicole's not-at-all stalkerish picture of James' back (and some other people's) in her blog comments, here. (And I managed to squee at it too.) (What is he carrying?! What does his cap say in the back? Ah, mysteries and questions abound.)

There are so many aspects of the interview below that I want to discuss, so I will probably make a separate post about it soon. But it's so hot in here that I have to flee into airconditioned places and I don't always have internet there. So you know, I hope you can enjoy a James interview without my unique observations. ;)

Tuesday update 2: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Sorry for the screaming but there's a 7-MINUTE JAMES INTERVIEW HERE!!! So beyond cool! James talks about the accent - he's been reading people's responses and says it's funny that they don't "believe" him to be from the 40's but they do believe he's travelled in time. :D

He would have loved to keep the hat on all season! :D We all would have loved that, James.

I think I'll make a transcript of this later, because it's all really cool. Awesome.

Edit: ah, it's also on Youtube. So this is Maureen Ryan talking to James.

Oh, and look into comments, there's a note from the person who took the photos I linked to last night! James was apparently laughing, not trying to pose for the camera. And he linked me to this photo - LOL!! Watch out, Neil - James will eat you!

Also - this is not con-related but James is apparently in LA doing post-production. So here's a picture of him, re-recording lines in the studio. A man of sorrow? I think he must just be posing.

Tuesday update 1: The mystery of the cap - revealed.

Two new photos. Thoughtful, smiley boy. The smile looks almost a little overdone, like he's specifically posing for someone. But I always love his eye-squint when smiling. (L)! The color in these pictures is very good, so I'm assuming this photographer was sitting near James. (lucky bastard.) Also: chest hair!

The cap says IRONHEAD! But why? I googled "ironhead" and came up with nothing but motorcycles. Is James into that stuff? I knew Tricia and Katee are, but I didn't really associate that with James. It could be the caps are completely random, of course, but I'm curious.

The can of soda looks specifically sugary to me, being red at least at the top. Which is good, because I hate diet Coke. Um, not that I pick my soda simply based on James' preferences, or anything.

With these two mysteries unraveled, I'm about ready for bed.

Monday Updates 2: Quiet day.

Yeah, not many updates are coming in. It could be that, since he wasn't giving autographs or photos this time, there may not be a lot.

But he's being quoted from the panel, regarding why he joined Eureka. This site has a transcript of the answer. He wanted to do the role because of the challenge - the whole 1940's time travel thing. Which is also why I'm happy he did it. It's something new and exciting for the fans also, to see him like this. (Even if some people are - insert eyeroll here - already saying he's soo much like Baltar.)

And another version of the Twitpic we earlier saw: James posing with some other Eurekans, in this gallery. He looks happy and relaxed, like he loves these people. I'm glad. There's a positive energy about him in all these photos, and it feels good to see that. I feel like telling the Eureka people a big thank you for welcoming James like that. A few of them are on Twitter... OK, I just did it. I hope it's not odd.

Monday updates 1: Love you Nicole!

There are no updates. Except - a really big one in my LJ from Nicole_Anell who was there! YAY! So I've decided to use her whole response. (It's in public, so I'm sure she won't mind. -Right?)

* I guess you've seen some Saturday pics already - yellow hat, chest hair, drinking a soda (diet coke?), looking good. (I like him skinny, grr.) Also looked friendly with the other people on the panel, occasionally talking on the side to them and stuff.

LOL, I like his face skinny too! I just miss the belly. ;) Hmm, if it was diet soda, maybe that would explain the weight loss. I think he looked positively glowing with the Eureka people, and it felt good to see that. Like he feels right at home with them, friends already, something like the BSG cast. I suppose I didn't expect it yet!

* First of all, the moderator of the panel (Allison Scagliotti of Warehouse 13) was adorable and a total Callis fangirl. She introduced him with "You knew him as sexy Dr. Baltar on Battlestar, and now he plays sexy Dr. Grant." XD

:D :D!!! Honestly, so weird to hear so many people suddenly admit he's sexy! Have I ventured into a parallel universe where everybody loves James? I think I like it here.

* And again the first time she addressed him, she joked about "geeking out" that he was there and said, "There's something I've always wanted to say to you... (lowers voice, doing a Six imitation) Gaius... (normal voice) That's it!" LOL.

LOL!!! :D :D That is awesome.

* Let's see... he was asked a question about the fact he's doing another sci-fi show, and he said he wasn't looking to do sci-fi again but he really liked the character and the idea of him coming from the 1940s into the future.

That's the same reason that I like him doing it. That's awesome! (James and I are totally on the same wavelength about, well, everything. This just proves it.)

* The cast was asked something like "if you could change something about your character's reality, what would it be?" James was totally befuddled by the question and made a series of hilarious "...?" faces. The other panelists started joking about wanting to look younger, have more hair, etc. and he was like "I don't get this question at all. Like, for our characters?" Eventually he kinda realized that everybody was just giving silly answers, so he made a joke about wanting to keep his '40s car.

LMAO!!! :D :D Poor James, he always overthinks things. (I can relate.)

* The most he talked during the panel was a long riff he went on about the tone of the show. He admitted he used to look at the show as "simple" in the way the plots moved and stuff? But he has a lot more appreciation now for how they're all so quick and funny and it really is hard to do that kind of tone while also showing emotions, etc. And then in this Jamesy way he started talking about how the show is not just fun but kind, and it has this homey atmosphere of people being good to each other. And then he ended it like "unlike something else I've been involved in." (Which left me going UM, DID JAMES CALLIS JUST INSULT BSG? for a minute or two, but I think it came out a little worse than it was intended, lol.)

Awww. :D Kindest guy in the world wants to be on a kind show. I don't think he meant to insult BSG. Probably he meant that on BSG, people were petty and showed their most negative sides. (Which I'd call realism in that situation, but if the show were set on Caprica before the fall, they may not be that way.) Or he could even have meant that Baltar often wasn't nice to others, or others to him. He had to play a universally hated character for a few seasons, after all.

I wonder if James has a much more rosy view of human nature than Ron D Moore. He probably does, coming to think of it. That's fascinating. Maybe he should do more "feel-good" shows, because he probably has that kind of sweet-yet-naïve side that wishes we could all just be friends.

* Funny moment I'm not sure I can really explain: They were mentioning a story about the actor who plays Zane (who wasn't there), and Jaime the show creator joked that he wasn't sure whether to believe it or not because he heard it from Gaius Baltar. The guy who plays Fargo confirmed it, and James did a comically snotty voice: "Yeah, now you've heard it from Fargo" and stuck his tongue out at him like a five-year-old. Heee. It got a big laugh.

LOL!!! :D :D Don't worry, it sounds really funny.

* As you already heard, yes, he revealed that his "name was in the mix" for Eleven on Dr. Who, but he implied he was reluctant to do it right after BSG. Wow.

Wow. O.o In one way, I feel like saying DO IT JAMES DO IT!!! On another level (;)), I dunno. If he does BSG-FlashForward-Eureka-Dr Who, that's a lot of sci fi for one career. He should really do something else in between. But Dr Who is, I hear, a solid show, and it would probably be a good choice in that sense. I know he'd rock it - oh DO IT JAMES DO IT!!!

* A little moment but you'd probably appreciate it. A bunch of the Eureka writers were standing in the room and the creator was acknowledging them by name. When he was trying to remember if he was leaving anyone out, James jumped in with another name. I thought it was sweet that he JUST joined the show this year but he knows all the writers' names. :D

Awww!!! :D :D He really cares about the people he works with. *Snuggle*!!!! Kindest Guy in the World.

* Lots of "on that level", "in some sense", etc. XD

LOL!! :D :D He didn't use them so much in the latest interviews so I thought he had kicked the habit! Maybe it's creeping back in, like addictions tend to do. ;)

Sunday updates part 3. Slim pickings, slimmer James.

OK, this LJ has the WireImages in bigger size. Very stylish indeed. Mmmm. I still can't decide if I like him better with or without glasses. And - hmm. Maybe he's actually lost some weight since the Eureka pictures, because his belly doesn't look at all remarkable here. He's not skinny but he looks more like last summer. It's a good look, but... Oh well, I'll always have Eureka. (I reserve the right to call him James Cuddles though, unless he's completely skinny.) This is my last word. I won't go back anymore. I promise. :D

From the press roundtable. (We can probably expect some interview snippets soon!) He looks a bit depressed here, but maybe it's just the effort of trying to hear what they're saying. That room was noisy. I know because I tried to watch a Colin Ferguson interview, and the background noise was pretty distracting.

Sunday updates Part 2: Slim pickings.

WireImages has two pictures of James here, but you apparently have to purchase them to see the bigger size. Anyhow, in the thumbnails: stylish in black, and we've got English gentleman glasses! (I wonder about those glasses. Does he really need them? If so, does he wear contacts most of the time? I'm an all-glasses kind of girl, but I know many people prefer contacs.)

I must say his con getup was all stylish this time. Even the cap looked new and good. No too-tight boy next door shirt; no trucker chic. I'm impressed! I love his "white shirt with rolled-up sleeves" panel style, as well. Kind of between casual and formal wear.

From the panel: James talking. You can see him twice in this picture but both angles are a bit off. But still, he looks happy and kinda wistful. Oh James. (L)

The updates are simmering down now. Live tweets and twitpics are pretty much done for, and the con people will be sleeping for some more hours. I think I'm off duty and going out for a good con-celebratory meal. If I can pry myself off the comp. *pries*

Sunday Updates Part 1: Con hangover. (And I wasn't even there.)

This will be the last time I stay up til 4 looking for updates. The last time! Ever! It wasn't worth it since the updates don't come that quickly. I dissolved into a puddle of stupid jokes in the end. Here's one: James Callis walks into a bar. The bartender says "What will it be?" James says: "As Shakespeare once said - a beer please!" ..Yeah. I was that tired.

So the updates. There are some beautiful, beauitful photos on Flickr. But before that - and I thought I'd never say this - a remarkably UGLY picture of James. He looks so bad in this one, horsefaced and...unnatural. I know what happened here: the photographer was watching a screen, and was in a slanted angle to it, and somehow that made his face look odd. But I mean, is this really worth sharing? He looks positively EVIL. I showed it to my girlfriend and she laughed and laughed and then linked to this. So you know it's bad. Sorry, James. You're not remotely horsefaced in reality.

OK, onto the actually good pictures. The Eureka screening - James apparently got on stage. Charming smile, standing in the back. Looking very stylish indeed. (And chubby. Why was I worried about that? James Cuddles! (L)) Anybody know what he was saying?

A couple of panel pictures in this stream. Swoon, he looks dreamy! And friendly and happy. Plus chest hair! His cap seems to read... something HEAD. (Union head?) Hee - and also what? I wonder why he chooses to wear caps for cons. It's a fascinating part of his image.

A photo from the goodbye party! James with @BambolaBambina aka Alessandra Torresani (from Caprica): dapper in a black suit. With a really tall guy next to him. It always emphasizes how cute and tiny he is.

Nabbing a few tweets from Sproing, because she seems to adore James and is thus sane.

Will James be on Doctor Who? - not sure! #eureka

1. James: hanging out with these guys is like hanging out with a bunch of comedy writers. #sdcc #eureka
   
2. James and @neilgrayston wondering what's making so much noise in 6A behind them. #sdcc #eurekaabout 9 hours ago via txt

People asked him about Doctor Who again? ...but he said "not sure" instead of "no"? O.o Maybe he will be on the show! Wouldn't get my hopes up just yet though.

LilFerret: @gatedialer OMGOMG He was asked about Dr. Who, and he said he WAS approached...

O.o!!! He was approached! That's... What if he really does it? wow. I've never watched the show but I hear it's GOOD.

Also - lots of people are loving the way he looks! It feels new and unexpected, yet exciting. There are some comments about how as Baltar, he wasn't sexy at all (what?) but now as Dr Grant, yum!

No real details aside from those yet, but there seems to be a buzz that James will stick around for a while - and that may be very, very promising. As in 20 episodes rather than 10 promising, but then not everyone knew he was doing more than a few eps. *trying not to get my hopes up* This sounds good though:

James Callis is sticking around for the rest of the season of Eureka. I’m happy about that! The show runners emphasized that they don’t want to change the world back, which personally I’m glad.

Yay!! That might mean he's there for good. :) And I can honestly say after seeing some - I'm happy, and he really fits the show well.

On a less James-related note:

They had to drag Colin off the stage. Wow!

I was hoping Colin would have been drunk or stoned and there was some drama. But in fact, the panel was just ending. Sigh. (My girlfriend was particularly disappointed. Can you blame her? She listened to my increasingly sleepy/ditzy comments about James updates with remarkable patience.)

Saturday updates

A new photo: the panel is starting. James is ready with his cap (a new one!) and his sunglasses and chest hair. And what appears to be another Coke can! Hee!

And.. he looks thinner to me again. Damn. See, I keep going back and forth and I have to stop doing this. Someone once said to me that I pester him with pictures of the fat guy in Ace of Base like, "Does he look thinner or fatter? I must know. These photos were taken five minutes apart." I'll try to focus on other aspects. (Chest hair. Coke. Hair. Mmmm.)

I may have to give up and go to bed, because LA time is so far away from Finnish time. So don't expect panel details just yet.

Jaimepaglia Tweeted a few photos from the "Café Diem" at Comic Con:

http://tweetphoto.com/34627289Hanging at Cafe Diem with Allison Scagliotti from WH13, James Callis and Neal Grayston.

And here's the other one, where James seems to be something funny to Neil! (He can stand still for a photo, but not TWO of them! ;)) He looks like he's having fun and feeling at home with these people. Aww. Also: the white shirt and coat (beige? off-white?) look pretty stylish. Not a bad con look!

Just a few things, not real updates:

-James has been spotted circulating the floor in "various disguises" but the source didn't specify WHICH ones and now I've lost the link. He could be anyone! This is too exciting! Edit: oh, there it is! We want PICTURES of James in disguise!

-If you want to send a question to the Eureka panel, you can do that on Twitter: Use the hashtag #ScagsEurekaPanel.

I asked how James came up with his accent, although I want to ask so many more things. "What were you eating at Café Diem just now?" Or... "Do you always have your cigarette in the left side of your mouth?" Or some other, censored questions... :D But really, I won't bombard them with silly question ideas. I'm not sure how many people are going to ask stuff, so they won't have time for everyone.

Two photos posted by SyFy on twitter. These are from last night.

James waiting for the screening of episode 3, All the Rage! He has such a mischievious look on his face. Hee!

Other observations:

-His hair is longer.

-He has the trademark sunglasses on his head.

-I think he's still chubby. Yip yip yip! OK, I'll try to be really calm about this. Really really calm. *tries very hard* Ooh he's so cuddly! He's like James Cuddles! I'd love to cuddle with him! Eeeeee. :D :D :D

And the Eureka cast eating at Café Diem. Looks like James has Coke again! But what is he eating? Something orange - and high... Looks mysterious. Others are having soup and salad, so I'm guessing this is the starter, not the main course. So it's probably not a strangely orange hamburger. If you have any guesses, please post in comments.

Either way: he is wearing suspenders!!! :D Why so! It's just unbearably cute.

James Callis on Eureka: Various Updates

In the video: clips of the first two episodes; interview snippets with James, Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Neil Grayston, Erica Cerra and Niall Matter.

So as you can deduce from that long list, it's not a particularly long interview with any one actor. But James is wearing his 40's garb, only his hair looks like it's about to burst out of that do! How cute is that? And he really didn't say anything notable other than recap the first couple of episodes. So I'm just staring at him and drooling. *stares; drools*

News: James IS booked for Comic Con, San Diego, Saturday the 24th of July! So that's next week, and he's going to be at least in the Eureka panel. No word on autographs or photos so far. I will be posting any links I find. It'll be fun with some con stuff, and I hope people ask something more in-depth about James' character and the show.

Colin Ferguson and show creator Jaime Paglia were recently asked about working with James, and they had such words of praise for him. This does the fan's heart good:

Can you talk about working with James Callis?

Colin: Sure. Way back when "Battlestar [Galactica]" and "Eureka" were on the same lot, James was one of the first and definitely most vocal people to come forward and be so supportive and encouraging and helpful. So it was really fitting that he was the one who gets to come on our show and do 10 episodes. And we were really, really happy about that. Working with James--it's sort of preposterous how nice a man he is.

He's like the sweetest guy in the world. He just extends himself so above and beyond for everybody. So that alone is a pleasure. And then it's nice to get a different energy on the set, because he's such an actor. He's always digging ... to come up with different angles for things.

(Transcript here)

Paglia calls James "the consummate actor" and says it's exciting to have him play your character.

I mean, wow. As a fan, you have to accept that not everyone sees your idol as a hero like you, but with James, especially people who work with him... kinda do see him that way? It's confusing yet delightful, every time. And you can really tell that James is an asset to work with from a professional viewpoint too, because he really cares about the character and wants to find new ways of doing it. (L)!!! (Yeah, I'm kinda beginning to like Colin Ferguson, considering all this. Just kinda.)

I forgot to link to this interview: James Callis suits up for Eureka.

"I've got well-cut suits," he says, "but they haven't given me the British accent."

Hee! :D Yet I feel like there may have been more of that answer and they only gave us this bytesized bit. I don't know why it feels a bit lacking. Maybe because, if he really wanted to do the American accent for Gabriel McDow, it would seem more likely that he wants to do it for Dr Grant also, right? I'd imagine he's ambitious to try the accents he knows. The article says "Win some, lose some" and moves on, but I'm not sure if that was James' idea. Hmmm. This is why I prefer video/audio interviews, because you hear the context in which he said something.

This is lovely though. What happens when Grant comes to the present?

"Imagine a reset button," says Callis, "that you don't press but you kind of twist round. 'OK, you thought you were like this, but you're not.' Everything is up in the air. It's a bit like classical writing, where the end of the story is exactly like the beginning of the story, but it's slightly different.

Umm. :D I'm trying very hard to imagine how you can twist round a reset button. I'd think you can only push it? But okay, I get what he means. Everything doesn't change completely when Trevor Grant is taken out of the past, but some of the things in Eureka have changed. I didn't really comment on them in my last post, because I don't know the other characters well enough. But Allison has a son who is autistic, and when they come back to the present, he is not autistic anymore; Jack Carter had broken up with someone and when he comes back, the woman is back with him; Henry Deacon is suddenly married, and so forth. It's intriguing, but obviously it would be more so if I had actually watched more before. It's not a hard show to get into, plotwise, but the emotional impact of such events isn't really there for me.

Edited to add: OK, in a rather strange twist of the reset button - hee hee! - there's a new interview of James today, and he mentions specifically wanting to do a different character. An American character. That's what I thought - actors want to do different things, not keep their own accent. (It's possible James jokingly said he got the suits but not the English accent though, but it just goes to show that you can't take what he says too seriously. He is usually joking.)

"The show is very funny," he said. "It's kind of smart, and it's light and is good-natured. I felt like, just, I needed a change, wanted to be a different person, and this character is American, and it's a chance to be somebody else. The character is clean-shaved. God, that makes a difference to me!"

LOL! .. but wait, why such a big difference? Because it's so unlike his everyday life? Because his beard grows freakishly fast and it takes more work to maintain? Because he looks more handsome in his own opinion without a beard? Very interesting.

I prefer "kind of smart" to "very smart" like he said earlier. I don't think it's always smart; it's sort of smart in a Gilmore Girls kind of way, not smart in a Mad Men kind of way. Mainstream smart, not smart smart. But maybe I'm just a snob. I definitely did enjoy the first episode of season four, so maybe more positive surprises lie ahead!

(End of edit)

There was something cute in an earlier interview that I never commented on.

As an actor, you're always coming to something that started without you. It's tough. Even the most open and generous family is still a family by themselves. It's like Tetrus. They have walls up and you have to get through those things.

What is "Tetrus"? All I found were typos of Tetris. (I was thinking it might be some Shakespeare thing. :D) So I'm guessing James said Tetris and the journalist misspelled it. But - that is so NOT how you play Tetris! It's not about getting thru walls, it's about building straight lines out of angular pieces. Right? Actually, it sounds more like he's talking about Snake. It's amusing that he'll bring up these things he doesn't actually do - like when he used to be all "The casting process was a bit like Elimidate!" and the interviewer asked him if he actually watches the show, and he said no, "but it's self-explanatory".

Tee hee. I love picking apart the things he says! I've missed this. More interviews, please.

Eureka Unscripted, the writers' blog, is having a Q&A. So if you have questions about James or Dr Trevor/Charles Grant, ask away! Questions answered on Friday by the writers.

Lots of reactions to James on Eureka all over the place, most notably on Twitter. Most of it is delightfully positive, and amusingly, James' popularity is up over 200 % at imdb. I don't think I need imdb pro to know why! However, perhaps since Twitter only allows 140 characters, the comments are mostly pretty bland - "James Callis is on Eureka?!" or alternately "Gaius Baltar is on Eureka?!!" It annoys me, maybe because I've known for four months now that he's gonna be on the show, or maybe because it's so hot and everything annoys me. But come on people, doesn't anyone else use twitter search but me? Easy way to find out that yes, it is indeed James Callis and you're not the only one who noticed. His accent is loved and hated, but like I said, I declare it good and end of story. (I think many people don't consider that it's a 1940's accent, not a modern American one.)

In two days, we'll see how Trevor Grant changes the town and perceives our time! This Saturday I will be at a family thing all day, so don't expect any posts about the new episode until Sunday the earliest. I still maintain the right to stop posting if I'm exhausted or depressed, but it feels like the Facebook/fan crisis clusterfuck may finally be over. I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.

I guess that would be all - but if more comes up, I might want to edit this post instead of making a new one. I'll notify on Twitter in such case.

*While I was writing this post, the cat under my care almost went out the window. (I live in the third floor.) I had to pull him in by the rump. James fandom can jeopardize your pets!*

James Callis Interview at Galactica.tv!

This is something I've been waiting for, because Galactica.tv does awesome interviews. Here's their article on James Callis, interviewed by Marcel Damen last month. I talked to Marcel about a year ago, and he worked hard to get this interview. I also see he snuck in his question about the glowing spine! Hee!

Firstly, some good news: he has a small part in an Edward James Olmos movie tentatively called America, and he's got many other things lined up for this year as well. He just can't talk about them right now. Whew!

There's quite a bit about James' background as an actor, which is not something that comes up in most interviews.

I left school, I went on a gap year and I actually went touring around Europe with an amateur theatrical company. The person who was directing that is now actually my best friend, but the play that we did was a disaster. It was really... A lot of people don't do this stuff anymore. It was like taking a play around Europe in one of those Volkswagen campervans. A lot of people didn't get on, we were young and we didn't have audiences. It was tough as all hell.

Aha, that must be the Beginner's Luck backstory! Maybe it's a remnant of older theatre tradition - theatre groups travelling Europe and such to put on plays, when cinemas and TV weren't around yet. It sounds like a pretty difficult way to engage an audience these days. I'm not sure if I'd try that out. It just sounds like the recipe of a disaster, a bunch of people you don't know traveling around doing something really emotional for no money. Beginner's Luck certainly didn't make it look like fun.

And apparently they took him into university because of that experience? Hee! He doesn't sound that excited about what he did at university, which feels like an odd sort of relief. I didn't do that well at university myself. (Well, I did get high grades, but I dropped out of some courses and my thesis was a disaster.) I'm also interested to hear he was working at a kibbutz for a while.

A bit about his family:

I think my mother had done some acting before and my grandmother was going to be an opera singer, but when my grandmother was younger it wasn't correct -- in my family -- for a young lady to be on stage. That was like a disaster. Things had changed a lot by the time I came around, so they were very supportive. I think they knew it would make me happy.

That's really interesting. It must be where his performing/singing talent comes from. It's also really sad - if his grandmother had lived now, she could have pursued the career she wanted. My grandmother was a great writer, but she couldn't afford an education and never pursued a writing career. Sometimes I think of her and how I can carry on that legacy. I can get my words out, she couldn't.

I tend to glamourize James, I think, but it sounds like he's seen a rougher side of life with the theatre group, and he's seen the ordinary life. Maybe his life is still pretty ordinary everyday life - kids, taking them to school, going to the supermarket, what have you. Considering that he's been through all that, maybe that's what makes him so humble. (Yes, even his ordinariness makes me put him on a pedestal, I am hopeless.)

About the threesome bed scenes:

Tricia is beautiful, Lucy Lawless is beautiful and I'm not! What I mean to say is that when we were there lying in bed, it's just a shot (snaps his fingers) and then it's: "Get up, get out."

Yes you are beautiful! Oh James, always so self-deprecating. It's interesting that he doesn't seem to find those scenes that sexy. As a viewer, like he says, you're always imagining more to it than they're showing. I know I've thought of it several times.

I'm trying to not quote the whole thing, but I found this really interesting:

Every other day you'd finish and there was this thing and I'm like: "Oh my God. I'm covered in blood and grime and shit and tears. I've got a headache, my head hurts from those cigarettes we had to smoke, which had some really strong tobacco -- they were nauseous things." So I was like: "Yeah, I'm on Battlestar Galactica."

It sounds like it was a really tough experience on all levels. The reality of it all really came through, I think, and he played it for real, so I'm not surprised it was hard to do it.

(Also, he mentions smoking, which I'm kind of obsessed with since I kinda took up smoking and am trying to quit. Mm, smoking. I wonder how strong the cigarettes were, doesn't he chain smoke anyway?)

It's always a surprise that they had so much fun on set, after all that. He mentions telling Lucy that her body double had a spot on her butt, which made her give up the body double. Hee!

Most importantly of all - why didn't Baltar notice Six's glowing spine when they had sex?

(laughing) I just don't know about that myself. I imagine on some level in the relationship that she was always on top. That's about all I'll say.

Hee! :D Yeah, on more than one level, probably. You know, I've seen a lot of interviews and this hasn't come up before, surprisingly.

("on some level" count: 6. He also says "at an early age" twice and "a really young age" once.)

Also - he doesn't plan on appearing in Law&Order UK. I'm a bit disappointed, it doesn't seem like a half bad show, and Jamie's on it. But I'm glad he feels like I do: that it's hard to find roles that... oh sod it, I'm quoting again.

Then you read other stuff and it doesn't come anywhere close to the moral complexity, ambiguity, tarnished nature of the human soul. So it's hard finding things that for me have the integrity that this show had. I think that will be a problem for everybody who was involved in Battlestar Galactica essentially.

It's like that for the viewers as well, I think. I hope he can find something that lives up to Gaius Baltar, but I might forever compare his every role to that. It's great he was involved in that, but it's also a disappointment to see him in a role that isn't as demanding or giving to the audience.