That was my experience as well, thoroughly charming and accommodating. He didn't have a line so we chatted for quite a while.
Bad encounters with cast members
- Thread starter indycar
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Will Wheaton's blog post on goodreads explaining why he is only attending one convention this year. Relevant to the topic as he relates his frame of mind at the last few he attended...even though he didn't want to be there he did try to 'make an effort'.
Will Wheaton's blog post on goodreads explaining why he is only attending one convention this year. Relevant to the topic as he relates his frame of mind at the last few he attended...even though he didn't want to be there he did try to 'make an effort'.
^He forgot the part where he would rather make rules mistakes in board games with his D-list friends.
Hmm... I can't think of a personal bad experience with cast members I've met in person. Online may be a slightly different matter (Hi, George!) but even then there wasn't anything horrific or newsworthy about it. They've all been very professional, at the very least, or extremely gracious. No regrets on any of it.
I think the closest I may have come was with Bill because I was doing a favor for Melissa on a project and he came in to haze me briefly. It was like a four minute exchange on Facebook... The man is very , very dry, and do not play poker against him. Or Fizzbin, for that matter.
The weirdest encounter was with Gene, but that was due primarily to his rapidly failing health and the ... parasites, frankly... that were hovering all over him. There wasn't much chance for a conversation, though. But as much as I criticize him for other reasons, he was very friendly and giving.
I think the closest I may have come was with Bill because I was doing a favor for Melissa on a project and he came in to haze me briefly. It was like a four minute exchange on Facebook... The man is very , very dry, and do not play poker against him. Or Fizzbin, for that matter.
The weirdest encounter was with Gene, but that was due primarily to his rapidly failing health and the ... parasites, frankly... that were hovering all over him. There wasn't much chance for a conversation, though. But as much as I criticize him for other reasons, he was very friendly and giving.
When I was 17 or so I met Stephen Collins in the subway (Twelfth-night was rained out in NY's Shakerspeare in the park) he was nice, but I made the classic mistake of saying Captain Decker, ....Noooo I played Decker, he signed my copy of Twelfth-night, which was cool.
Brent Spinner was a bit of a jerk, I introduced myself and said that my friends say I do decent initiation of Data, did a line and just dripping in sarcasm, said wow, like a recording of me.
Shatner was nice, did a photo session w/ the family and he was all please but the boys in front...I asked a Quesiton about my Shakespeare coach, who claimed to teach Shatner, said he never heard of him...)
Met Kim Catrall as an extra on Sex in the City and she was just mean, I standing in her way ...
DId a group photo with Gerorge, Nichelle and Walter
Gerorge Takei was wonderful and his hubby Brad was so nice, I think he was still coming to terms with so many people knowing him, I made mention to something that happened to him in the documentary and he really perked up.
Nichelle Nichols was very nice, when I got an autograph for a friend
Walter Koening was very neutral, but his booth was empty while George's was packed and Nichelle's had a few people
Brent Spinner was a bit of a jerk, I introduced myself and said that my friends say I do decent initiation of Data, did a line and just dripping in sarcasm, said wow, like a recording of me.
Shatner was nice, did a photo session w/ the family and he was all please but the boys in front...I asked a Quesiton about my Shakespeare coach, who claimed to teach Shatner, said he never heard of him...)
Met Kim Catrall as an extra on Sex in the City and she was just mean, I standing in her way ...
DId a group photo with Gerorge, Nichelle and Walter
Gerorge Takei was wonderful and his hubby Brad was so nice, I think he was still coming to terms with so many people knowing him, I made mention to something that happened to him in the documentary and he really perked up.
Nichelle Nichols was very nice, when I got an autograph for a friend
Walter Koening was very neutral, but his booth was empty while George's was packed and Nichelle's had a few people
Walter should have show up as Bester. 
I've heard things about Brent but I didn't speak to him for more than a few seconds.. he was 'distracted' at the time. Not much to get an impression of him, unfortunately.
Never met Stephen Collins, which may have been for the best, in hindsight. :S
I never considered Kim Catrall a 'crew member'... but I've NEVER heard a nice thing about her. She did nearly get her ass fired from TUC, after all...
I've heard things about Brent but I didn't speak to him for more than a few seconds.. he was 'distracted' at the time. Not much to get an impression of him, unfortunately.
Never met Stephen Collins, which may have been for the best, in hindsight. :S
I never considered Kim Catrall a 'crew member'... but I've NEVER heard a nice thing about her. She did nearly get her ass fired from TUC, after all...
In Montreal for comiccon. Brent Spiner was great, even after some guy ran up, cut the line yelling his name, took his hand and shook it after Spiner told him to go to the back. The guy left before security got there. He took time and chatted with everybody. Had me name each signature on my poster (he made a joke about how the only bit player I had sign it better have been for free). He wanted to sign right above the bridge so I had to tell him that was reserved for Shatner, so he signed off to the side.
Next was Nichols. Her line was much longer. She took a long time to come out and was blowing her noise and sneezing. I think there was a walker / wheelchair there for her too in the curtained off area. Reminder how old these people are now. One girl had a painting she had made of Uhura and Nichols spent a long time chatting with her and taking pictures. She even bought the painting. It's nice to see good things like that even if you are not involved in them. For me it was brief, I told her I was fan and hoped she felt better as she was blowing her nose. She signed big right below the enterpise, biggest sig on the poster which is appropriate since she's one of the originals.
Finally was Shatner. Line moved fast. Some people he talked too (tended to be women or kids) others (adult men) he just signed and moved on, no conversation. Fair enough. I had him sign in his reserved place.
Shatners Q&A was great. Lots of fun. Not much Q (3, maybe 4 questions) but some very funny rants, stories, self depreciation, and lots of Montreal anecdotes. My wife is not a Shatner fan and even she loved his performance. He even made a dig at the JJ Abrams films, about how they have no story and are nothing but a CGI rollar coaster ride - but that they made a hell of a lot more money than his story based treks, so who is he to say if that's bad or not. People have to decide what kind of sci fi they want - thoughtful and story driven or CGI rides.
Honestly, if he wasn't 86 I would have said he was high at the Q&A. Maybe he was and I'm being ageist.
Next was Nichols. Her line was much longer. She took a long time to come out and was blowing her noise and sneezing. I think there was a walker / wheelchair there for her too in the curtained off area. Reminder how old these people are now. One girl had a painting she had made of Uhura and Nichols spent a long time chatting with her and taking pictures. She even bought the painting. It's nice to see good things like that even if you are not involved in them. For me it was brief, I told her I was fan and hoped she felt better as she was blowing her nose. She signed big right below the enterpise, biggest sig on the poster which is appropriate since she's one of the originals.
Finally was Shatner. Line moved fast. Some people he talked too (tended to be women or kids) others (adult men) he just signed and moved on, no conversation. Fair enough. I had him sign in his reserved place.
Shatners Q&A was great. Lots of fun. Not much Q (3, maybe 4 questions) but some very funny rants, stories, self depreciation, and lots of Montreal anecdotes. My wife is not a Shatner fan and even she loved his performance. He even made a dig at the JJ Abrams films, about how they have no story and are nothing but a CGI rollar coaster ride - but that they made a hell of a lot more money than his story based treks, so who is he to say if that's bad or not. People have to decide what kind of sci fi they want - thoughtful and story driven or CGI rides.
Honestly, if he wasn't 86 I would have said he was high at the Q&A. Maybe he was and I'm being ageist.
Met Marc Alaimo when he came into a hardware store I was working at back then. He seemed pleasantly surprised that I recognized him and was exceptionally friendly. I wish I had asked for his autograph but I was too pleased with his politeness that it didn't even matter, I didn't want to bug him. 
Got Kate Mulgrew's autograph today. Pretty long line, she was nice and professional. No chatting, sign and move on.
Not Trek but also met Summer Glau
She had her baby with her. She required you to give your name for the autograph which is disappointing as I've been avoiding that but I suppose it helps cut down on resellers. I'll survive She was very nice.
Not Trek but also met Summer Glau
She had her baby with her. She required you to give your name for the autograph which is disappointing as I've been avoiding that but I suppose it helps cut down on resellers. I'll survive
She was very nice.
My experience with real life ST personalities are rare but all good, my online activities less so. Let's just say one writer was a particular asshole to others and I called him out on it, it got to the point where I even complained to several of his writer and artist friends about him. I've never done that before or since.
BTW, the response I got was basically: "yeah he's an asshole, but that's who he is"
RAMA
BTW, the response I got was basically: "yeah he's an asshole, but that's who he is"
RAMA
I read Kate Mulgrew's autobiography. I was unimpressed. Doesn't mean I won't watch Voyager but it was probably just as well to get a healthy reminder that Mulgrew is not Janeway and expecting her to be is silly and weird. Most fans who get treated rudely are the ones who want to quote lines & carry on about the actor's movie/tv show and confuse the actor w the role. Brent Spiner is notoriously sensitive about being pestered into "doing" Data. Watch the show or the movies if you want that stuff. Otherwise, just be gracious, ask politely, follow simple rules & say something boring like, "I'm a big fan".
I can't imagine it's particularly interesting to have to go and talk about minutiae from a job you did fifteen years ago, or have the entire body of your work reduced to one role you did a lifetime ago.
I went to several "Q&A's" this weekend. Most of them were great, lots of fun - but they weren't really Q & A's, mostly the actor doing a set speach/jokes/anecdotes. A performer doing what he / she does best: performing.
The only disappointing Q&A was an actual Q&A - the entire hour spent with people asking questions the like The Simpson's makes fun of - "in scene 3, episode 7, season 2 of (a TV show you were in fifteen years ago for three episodes) there is a big event that I don't spoil for those who haven't seen it. What were you feeling and how did you find the motivation?". Ugghh.
The performer was sincere in the answers, gave the fans exactly what they wanted - solid answers to all the questions asked and I'm sure a lot of people were happy to have an actual Q&A instead of a comedy routine, but, imo, it was pretty dry and boring. Again, not the fault of the performer.
I much preferred Shatner "answering" 3 questions and spending the rest of the time making us laugh, or Manu Bennet running on stage waving an imaginary sword, shouting his lines, threatening Batman, and stroking an audience members hair while speaking orcish before pretending to throw him across the room and not taking a single question.
I remember someone asking Elijah Wood why he tilted his head a certain way during the final scene of The Return of the King. Yes. For some reason, that one tiny movement was ingrained in this fan's memory and she had to know why he made that choice.
To his credit he took the question seriously...and I'm afraid I don't remember his answer because the question was so....dumb that it overshadowed everything else.
To his credit he took the question seriously...and I'm afraid I don't remember his answer because the question was so....dumb that it overshadowed everything else.
I have to say this is one of the reasons why I haven't been to a convention since 1995. Trekkies seem to expect celebs to be fans, and although sometimes they ARE, the expectations are unrealistic. The celebs themselves, doing their own thing are usually very entertaining.
I don't think it's possible for an actor to be a fan of a project they are in, at least not the way an audience member is. You can be an advocate of the work, loving the art of the project and the response it has generated, like say Nathan Fillion is of Firefly, but I don't think they can ever be a "fall into the fantasy the program is generating" fan like those who are simply watching the project. Because they are watching themselves. They are watching their coworkers, friends, jerks they had to work with. Good and bad days they had that had nothing to do with the project. I'd think it would be impossible to seperate yourself from the fiction being presented, which is probably why a lot of actors don't watch their own shows/movies (or music, or books, etc.). I know there are some professional authors posting on here, like Gregg Cox. It would be interesting to get his thoughts on this - maybe I'm totally off my rocker.
Experiences with cast members? Okay here goes. I'll start with some of the bad experiences as that's what OP asked for, but there are some lovely stories which I'll get to afterwards. Some Star Trek, some otherwise.
The worst experience I had was with Jennifer Lien. She turned up at a con just after she'd filmed 'Fury' but she seemed completely out of it. Yes we'd heard the drug rumours at the time, but we didn't know if they were true (we still don't to be honest). However, she seemed incapable of answering questions either in the panel or in the autograph sessions. She was there with her mother and she kept batting some of the questions onto her, or saying "Oh you'd have to ask the producers of Voyager about that". I have lost that autograph I had, but based on recent news stories, I'm not inclined to get it replaced.
Manu Interaymi: Saw him twice at the SF Ball. First time was shortly after Voyager ended and he was a complete self important asshole. Sweary, opinionated, aggressive and not a pleasant guy at all. Second time was last year and the first thing he did when he came on stage was apologise for his attitude at the previous event. He'd grown up. Yes he was still sweary and opinionated, but this time, he was very down to earth and funny.
Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who): To be honest, this wasn't a bad experience as such as I've seen her at different events over the years and she's always been lovely. However in 2014, I saw her at the SF Ball and she was suffering from flu-like symptoms. I must have caught them from her and I spent the next seven days off work sick. I was already on my last warning so that ended up with me losing my job.
And now the lovely experiences I've had with cast members:
Norman Lovett (Red Dwarf): My first ever convention: Trek/Dwarf Leicester 1994. It was in a hotel based convention and I was headed down in the lift to see him at a panel. The lift opened and guess who stepped into that lift? I was completely star-struck and managed to blurt out, "It's you", to which he dead-panned "I hope it is!" That was a weekend for lift encounters though as when I was leaving the lift to check out, Willie Thorne walked past me and into the lift.
Virginia Hay (Farscape): If you've ever met her, you'll know she can talk for Australia! Really really nice person but I was stuck in a unique position of having to try to get away from her talking as I'd booked a photo session with another guest. When I went to get her autograph I was second in the queue but she pulled me and my friend in so she could talk about Farscape with all of us rather than one at a time.
Max Grodenchik and Ethan Phillips both came out from their signing tables to talk to us as we were there in Star Trek uniform.
Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who): He loves kids! We were queing for Nick Blood in Milton Keynes last year and Sylvester kept my friends' little boy entertained by pulling faces and doing little magic tricks. At another event I was stewarding, he was returning from a lunch break and saw a queue already forming for his autographs. He walked up to the back of the queue and started loudly moaning and complaining about the speed of the queue. The guy in front of him was stunned when he turned around to see the person moaning was Sylvester himself. I also saw him at an SF Ball and he came along to the parties in the evening. One night, he danced to Doctorin' the TARDIS with Sophie Aldred and Robert Duncan McNeill.
Someone mentioned earlier in the thread about talking to actors about other works and not their most famous. I got Nick Blood (Agents of SHIELD) and Samuel Anderson (Doctor Who) talking about a guilty pleasure of mine, Trollied. They were both keen to talk about something other than their famous roles.
Also had some great chats with Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf - "Why don't you pronounce your surname the Welsh way?" "Because I'm about as Welsh as a croissant" - Great answer), Erin Richards (Gotham/Being Human - she wanted to know if I spoke Welsh. Admittedly not much but enough to say "Siwmae" to her when I saw her again at the photoshoot later, and she remembered me), Michael Sheard (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Grange Hill, etc - thoroughly nice guy and sadly missed on the convention scene) and Walter Koenig (at a convention in 1996, he came down and sat on our Star Trek group's table during the party, contributing to the pile of pint glasses steadily building up in the middle of the table.)
One other unfortunate encounter was with Hattie Hayridge (Red Dwarf). One convention I went to, I kept appearing in all the same places she was. No I wasn't stalking her, they were all accidental. Eg she'd go to the bar, I'd be there already, I'd go to hotel concierge to find her already talking to the staff, etc, etc. Monday morning, I was sat in the lounge area with my suitcases ready to go home and she came down to the lobby to check out. She saw me and I could see her visibly deflate as if to say "It's him again!" Fortunately it didn't seem to stick in her memory as I saw her at a comic con last year and we had a good chat.
The worst experience I had was with Jennifer Lien. She turned up at a con just after she'd filmed 'Fury' but she seemed completely out of it. Yes we'd heard the drug rumours at the time, but we didn't know if they were true (we still don't to be honest). However, she seemed incapable of answering questions either in the panel or in the autograph sessions. She was there with her mother and she kept batting some of the questions onto her, or saying "Oh you'd have to ask the producers of Voyager about that". I have lost that autograph I had, but based on recent news stories, I'm not inclined to get it replaced.
Manu Interaymi: Saw him twice at the SF Ball. First time was shortly after Voyager ended and he was a complete self important asshole. Sweary, opinionated, aggressive and not a pleasant guy at all. Second time was last year and the first thing he did when he came on stage was apologise for his attitude at the previous event. He'd grown up. Yes he was still sweary and opinionated, but this time, he was very down to earth and funny.
Sophie Aldred (Doctor Who): To be honest, this wasn't a bad experience as such as I've seen her at different events over the years and she's always been lovely. However in 2014, I saw her at the SF Ball and she was suffering from flu-like symptoms. I must have caught them from her and I spent the next seven days off work sick. I was already on my last warning so that ended up with me losing my job.
And now the lovely experiences I've had with cast members:
Norman Lovett (Red Dwarf): My first ever convention: Trek/Dwarf Leicester 1994. It was in a hotel based convention and I was headed down in the lift to see him at a panel. The lift opened and guess who stepped into that lift? I was completely star-struck and managed to blurt out, "It's you", to which he dead-panned "I hope it is!" That was a weekend for lift encounters though as when I was leaving the lift to check out, Willie Thorne walked past me and into the lift.
Virginia Hay (Farscape): If you've ever met her, you'll know she can talk for Australia! Really really nice person but I was stuck in a unique position of having to try to get away from her talking as I'd booked a photo session with another guest. When I went to get her autograph I was second in the queue but she pulled me and my friend in so she could talk about Farscape with all of us rather than one at a time.
Max Grodenchik and Ethan Phillips both came out from their signing tables to talk to us as we were there in Star Trek uniform.
Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who): He loves kids! We were queing for Nick Blood in Milton Keynes last year and Sylvester kept my friends' little boy entertained by pulling faces and doing little magic tricks. At another event I was stewarding, he was returning from a lunch break and saw a queue already forming for his autographs. He walked up to the back of the queue and started loudly moaning and complaining about the speed of the queue. The guy in front of him was stunned when he turned around to see the person moaning was Sylvester himself. I also saw him at an SF Ball and he came along to the parties in the evening. One night, he danced to Doctorin' the TARDIS with Sophie Aldred and Robert Duncan McNeill.
Someone mentioned earlier in the thread about talking to actors about other works and not their most famous. I got Nick Blood (Agents of SHIELD) and Samuel Anderson (Doctor Who) talking about a guilty pleasure of mine, Trollied. They were both keen to talk about something other than their famous roles.
Also had some great chats with Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf - "Why don't you pronounce your surname the Welsh way?" "Because I'm about as Welsh as a croissant" - Great answer), Erin Richards (Gotham/Being Human - she wanted to know if I spoke Welsh. Admittedly not much but enough to say "Siwmae" to her when I saw her again at the photoshoot later, and she remembered me), Michael Sheard (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Grange Hill, etc - thoroughly nice guy and sadly missed on the convention scene) and Walter Koenig (at a convention in 1996, he came down and sat on our Star Trek group's table during the party, contributing to the pile of pint glasses steadily building up in the middle of the table.)
One other unfortunate encounter was with Hattie Hayridge (Red Dwarf). One convention I went to, I kept appearing in all the same places she was. No I wasn't stalking her, they were all accidental. Eg she'd go to the bar, I'd be there already, I'd go to hotel concierge to find her already talking to the staff, etc, etc. Monday morning, I was sat in the lounge area with my suitcases ready to go home and she came down to the lobby to check out. She saw me and I could see her visibly deflate as if to say "It's him again!" Fortunately it didn't seem to stick in her memory as I saw her at a comic con last year and we had a good chat.
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