Bad encounters with cast members

[wayoung]

Got Takei's signature, along with Christopher Lloyd. I was iffy about spending the money on his but thought whatever, he was the main villian in a feature film.

My normal process (autograph, character, date) didn't happen for either. When I said what I wanted Takei to write the volunteer turned to Brad and he said that was OK but to stop letting people have personalizations, George is having problems and gets cloudy easily. When George saw my poster he got excited over Sean Kinney's autograph, although I'm not sure why, as he actually was talking to the person beside me and was confused when that was told to him. The request (autograph, Captain sulu, date) was written on a post it note on the poster and he wrote his name, looked confused, wrote out the date, and asked if that was all right. I told him that was great, thank you very much, and moved on. I'm happy I got his signature at al, didn't want to push the guy if he was off. He has a Q&A scheduled for tomorrow, I'm not quite sure how well it will go.

Lloyd, I went to his Q&A first. It was at noon. He seemed half asleep and bored. He argued a bit with the moderator / questioners about what movies he was in (which, fair enough when you've been around as much as him) and was pretty uninterested. We left partway through. When I got his autograph I started to ask him to write Kruge and today's date and the handler yelled "NO PERSONALIZATION" at me. It's like, dude, you couldn't have told me that when I handed you my cash? Takei I fully understand if he's having a bad day not doing personalizations but Brad was making sure people knew before they got to him, not when they were already with him.

I also got Marc Okrand because he was there and signing for free, so why not - he's contributed a ton more than a lot of the people whose autographs I have.

I brought my Serenity poster since State, Tudyk, and Baccarin are here but I'm running out of desire to wait in line, I may not bother.

I did get Maurice Lamarche and Rob Paulsen to sign a Pinky and The Brain 8x10 and writey wifes favourite "Are you pondering?" Exchange on it. Paulsen even does voicemail recording go for free for you so we got one for our cells and one for the house. They did a live reading of the Ghostbusters script with 4 other voice actors, alternating between all of their different characters. It was awesome. Highlight of the weekend.

 

[The Old Mixer]

He argued a bit with the moderator

Infraction!!!

 

[Trekfan12]

This one, got it from All posters. I've had a lot of convention goers ask where I got it, including a few cast members. One had her photo took signing it for her Facebook page.

oh this is a gorgeous shot

 

[JohnHUK]

I met Frank Gorshin and Grace Lee Whitney at cons in southwest VA back in the early 90s. He was so far up himself it was unbelievable. He would, in my opinion, outdo Shatner in that respect.

GLW was fine when she first arrived, posed for photos etc but then she upset a fair few people. She thought it was ok for her to lecture attendees on how they could 'improve' themselves. Things like lose weight, get a haircut. Stuff like that! Put people right off!

 

[JeffinOakland]

I met Frank Gorshin and Grace Lee Whitney at cons in southwest VA back in the early 90s. He was so far up himself it was unbelievable. He would, in my opinion, outdo Shatner in that respect.

GLW was fine when she first arrived, posed for photos etc but then she upset a fair few people. She thought it was ok for her to lecture attendees on how they could 'improve' themselves. Things like lose weight, get a haircut. Stuff like that! Put people right off!

GLW has always been a bit flaky. What canya do?

 

[JRoss]

Any word on How Takei went yesterday?

 

[Porkie]

It seems that most cast members come across as good people and are friendly at things like conventions or autograph signings. Has anybody ever had a bad encounter with one? This doesn't mean that they're a bad person, you may have just caught them at a bad time.

To be honest I've never been that interested in cast members outside of their on screen roles. They're just people at the end of the day.

 

[wayoung]

Any word on How Takei went yesterday?

I didn't end up going. Wife needed a break.

 

[Jedi Marso]

As they say, sometimes it's far better never to meet your icons in person.

Chuck Yeager is a great case in point. The hero of young aviators the world over, meeting the man in person could be a totally shitty experience. Never met him personally myself and never wanted to after hearing the horror stories from other pilots who had.

 

[eobard]

Met Gates and Brent way back in the 90's... They seemed really enthusiastic and fun. When Gates got on stage, I asked her to pose for me. She did this, way over-the-top, super dramatic pose, and everyone was cheering and roaring.

During the end of Brent's panel on stage, he took one last question, and luckily for me, he picked me. I asked him (re: The Naked Now), "What, exactly, happened in Tasha Yar's room?"
Brent replied, "I can't tell you what happened, but I can say that I have two speeds: fast and faster!" The audience just lost it.

 

[wayoung]

As they say, sometimes it's far better never to meet your icons in person.

Chuck Yeager is a great case in point. The hero of young aviators the world over, meeting the man in person could be a totally shitty experience. Never met him personally myself and never wanted to after hearing the horror stories from other pilots who had.

I dunno - it might be a good thing to have your illusions shattered. If you're idolizing someone, having them brought down to a human level is a good lesson - everyone is flawed and putting someone on a pedestal rarely works out well for anyone involved.

 

[eobard]

Other notables: met Walter Koenig once in a vendor's room, back in the nineties. He was just wandering by himself, and seemed really quiet (sad?), so my then-girlfriend and I went up to him to say hello. He was really cool, but seemed down. This made my gf and I feel a bit awkward. We were like, "umm.... ok, it was nice meeting you!"

We also met Nichelle Nichols once on stage. She gave my son a hug, and called all of us "beautiful." We were floored.

 

[eobard]

Not really Trek, but my wife once met Jake Lloyd, about 8 years ago. My wife said to him, "Jake! You used to be so cute! What happened?!" Jake embarrassingly replied, "I know, I know!"

To this day, my wife can't believe she said that. She was so excited for that moment, that those words "just came out"!

 

[Jedi Marso]

I dunno - it might be a good thing to have your illusions shattered. If you're idolizing someone, having them brought down to a human level is a good lesson - everyone is flawed and putting someone on a pedestal rarely works out well for anyone involved.

Yes and no. Realizing that 'every man who ever had a statue made of him is some kind of sumbitch or another' is a valuable life lesson, true. But you don't want it to completely overshadow the things about the person that made you idolize or respect them in the first place.

That's why I've always said that it's sometimes better to have fictional icons rather than real ones- they never let you down. You can never actually meet Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker in real life (I mean those characters, not the actors who portrayed them), so no disappointment there is possible.

 

[retroenzo]

I'd love to be able to tell a good or bad convention story about Jonathan Frakes by the way. When he actually does make it to a UK convention without cancelling, I'll let you know...

Yes and no. Realizing that 'every man who ever had a statue made of him is some kind of sumbitch or another' is a valuable life lesson, true. But you don't want it to completely overshadow the things about the person that made you idolize or respect them in the first place.

That's why I've always said that it's sometimes better to have fictional icons rather than real ones- they never let you down. You can never actually meet Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker in real life (I mean those characters, not the actors who portrayed them), so no disappointment there is possible.

Good way of looking at it I suppose. Even though the likes of Frakes and Jennifer Lien have gone down in my estimation recently, I still like Riker and Kes.

 

[wayoung]

Not the best photos, but the poster with new autographs

 

[Cyke101]

I met Takei years ago, after the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner. Thankfully, no Brad there. Takei was giving a talk at my campus and I had the good fortune to meet him one on one. He was friendly and nice, but he said that he felt the roast was just as much about insulting him as it was about Shatner, even though it was Shatner's night. Can't say I disagreed with him.

Lloyd, I went to his Q&A first. It was at noon. He seemed half asleep and bored. He argued a bit with the moderator / questioners about what movies he was in (which, fair enough when you've been around as much as him) and was pretty uninterested. We left partway through. When I got his autograph I started to ask him to write Kruge and today's date and the handler yelled "NO PERSONALIZATION" at me. It's like, dude, you couldn't have told me that when I handed you my cash? Takei I fully understand if he's having a bad day not doing personalizations but Brad was making sure people knew before they got to him, not when they were already with him.

When Lloyd came to Wizard World Chicago, he seemed aloof but overall pleasant. There were a couple times when he just outright dodged his handlers, maybe seemingly for shits and giggles, but he always seemed to stop and chat with anyone who stopped him; that is, if they recognized that they were in the presence of a legend. He didn't draw attention to himself, but he didn't stop anyone, either.

As for the panel session here, the moderator was Michael Klastorin, who worked on the movies, so it was no surprise that maybe they got along better than Lloyd with other moderators.

 

[retroenzo]

Has anyone had any issues with Dominic Keating? I haven't personally, but then I'm a bloke so I wouldn't have had the advances on me that a couple of female friends have reported.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I met Frank Gorshin and Grace Lee Whitney at cons in southwest VA back in the early 90s. He was so far up himself it was unbelievable. He would, in my opinion, outdo Shatner in that respect.

GLW was fine when she first arrived, posed for photos etc but then she upset a fair few people. She thought it was ok for her to lecture attendees on how they could 'improve' themselves. Things like lose weight, get a haircut. Stuff like that! Put people right off!

Advice is like any other gift: you can keep it, or you can throw it away. Who wouldn't want personalised tips from an International Celebrity on how to improve themselves - when most are desperate to avoid making eye contact with Trekkies? That's sweet!

 

[Admiral Bear]

Not the best photos, but the poster with new autographs

I'm afraid the following only seems fair play. . .