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Sorry the DragonCon reports have been slow coming. I’m still a bit wrecked from the con, mostly because I think I might have picked up a bit of concrud. However, I have to talk about the OUaT boys before I can get back to more LOTR boys.
The OUaT actors in attendance were Raphael Sbarge (Jiminy Cricket), Tony Amendola (Gepetto), and Lee Arenburg (Grumpy). The actors didn’t have a moderator for their session, so they ran it themselves and wanted it to be all fan questions. Like the LOTR boys, they spend the beginning of the session thanking the fans for loving the show, interacting with them on Twitter, coming out to see them at things like the con. Honestly, I was surprised how empty the room was for them. It was maybe about one-third full. This was their second session, so there might have been more folks at their first outing.
In looking over my notes, I realize I didn’t always jot down the questions being answered. So there will be some Q&A bits and other parts that are just recaps of what was being said.
Question: What did they think of the finale?
Lee: It was bold, dangerous, and a gutsy play. The curse has been lifted, people have their memories back, but they didn’t go anywhere. They are still in our world.
Question: Any thoughts about where the characters are going?
The consensus is that can’t really tell.
Raphael: Even if I could tell you, you wouldn’t want to know. It would spoil the surprise. It’s like the Olympics where they were giving away who won the medals before the event aired.
Lee: That’s why we’re on ABC.
Question: I think it might have been about the characters’ attitudes.
Lee: You do your worst, and I’ll will always do my best.
Tony: Keep work through the pain.
Question: The little necklace thing on Jiminy when he’s a cricket, is it a translator, something so that they can understand him when he speaks?
Raphael: They haven’t yet revealed it on the show, but he can say that yes, it is a translator, so he has a voice as a cricket.
Question: Someone asked about August being turned to wood and if it will be reversed now that magic has arrived in Storybrooke. The answer was, “Wait and see.”
Lee: The characters that are the most together in the fairytale world are the most messed up in the real world. “I keep telling Josh (Charming/David Nolan) that he has a hard job, because he’s this heroic character in fairytale world, but a total tool in Storybrooke.” When people chuckled, he said, “Come on. We all know he is.” He said that when the curse broke and he and Snow found each other on the street after they got back their memories, he texted Josh and was like, “Dude! The tool belt is finally off!”
Question: What were your favorite fairy tales as a kid? Most didn’t read them.
Lee: He reads them now to his 5-year-old son, and they’re dark, twisted shit. The real ones are. They’re morality plays. Not tales for children.
Question: Who would they most like to be in cast if not character now playing?
Le: Rumplestiltskin because he is bad ass.
Raphael: The Queen. She has beauty and power. Not sure how he’d look in the gowns.
Lee: “Raphael, is there something you’d like to tell us?”
Raphael: Seriously though, Rumplestiltskin.
Tony: Rumplestiltskin
Lee: All three of them are stage actors, but he prefers film/TV to theatre. It’s more like catching lightning in a bottle. It’s new every day. The challenge in theatre is to make every show seem like it’s your first when you’ve done it day in and day out for months. Keeping it fresh.
Question: Who would they like to see have a role on OUaT?
Raphael: (Answers immediately.) Meryl Streep.
Lee: The show has gotten a lot of interest and acclaim and it’s only going to get bigger/better. As that happens, it’s going to start attracting bigger and bigger stars who want to be a part of it. We have an ensemble cast and one where people are friends and hang out even when they are off set, and audiences can sense that in the acting. It’s one of the things that makes the show special.
Question: What do they think of the show’s costumes?
Raphael: His mom is a costume designer, and he is constantly impressed by what the costume department does. He says he wishes the audience could see the intricate details (embroidery and beading) on the costumes. He said a lot of costume designers turned down the job. They said that it was too big a production, too hard.
Tony: He stressed how putting together a production is such a collaborative effort between actors, crew, writers, etc.
Lee: “The show has great writing. People still remember me from the few eps I did of Seinfeld because of the writing. You remember me and my character because of that. I’m the straw stirred into the drink of creativity.”
Raphael: Lee is underplaying what he does.
Lee: “I tell people I get paid to stand around and wait on the set. The acting, I do for free. Actors have to remember to take their roles, not themselves, seriously.”
Lee: In school, only two sorts of scenes for an actor: power and seduction. Different aspects and being on different sides (seducer/seduced) but only two sorts of scenes, just like limited number of stories.
Raphael: They overfilm most episodes and have to cut them to the 42-43 minute time window. On one they had over 20 minutes of additional footage. Sometimes they don’t just cut out bits between scenes, they’ll trim within speeches. Some of this content has been added back in for the DVD release.
Tony: As an actor, you want a role that has humanity to it. That reflects the complexity of what it is to be human, both the dark and the light.
Raphael: He thinks that’s a strength of the show. That even characters like Lana’s, who do terrible things, have aspects of their characters that make you care about them. It would be terrible to play Regina if she was one dimensional and just evil.
Lee: Actors like a challenge. One man’s scary challenge is another man’s opportunity. Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.
Raphael: His son was young and going to school, he dropped him off one day and his son’s teacher asked him what his father did. The boy thought about it for a little and then said, “He auditions!”
Eps shoot in 8 days.
Lee: He talked about the history of acting. How it was a religious expression/experience at times, reviled and thought wicked in others. When you’re watching something and the story/acting is good, you feel uplifted, empowered. You tingle. “I like to make you tingle.”
Tony: As actors, we are your surrogates in the story. We play out your hopes and fears. This is why there is such a primal attraction to actors. Why you feel that you know us and we’re familiar even though we’ve never met.
Lee: Acting isn’t always comfortable. You frequently expose nerves and raw emotions in intimate moments.
Clearly, there was some kind of wank that went on perhaps at the Walk of Fame, because Lee then commented about how fans should let him know if another actor is acting the ass, and he’d handle it, because he wasn’t ever going to be “that guy who charges $85 for an autograph and won’t fucking look you in the eyes when he signs it.”
Unlike most of the other actors, the boys hung around after the panel to chat with fans and give pic ops (and yes, possibly autographs) for free. However, I had to scurry off for the LOTR panel that was right after this one.
ETA: There was also much love given to Robert Carlyle, who they all admired the heck out of. Love was also given to Jaime Dornan, who they miss and hope to work with again. They said that they all knew coming in his role was going to be a short one in Storybrooke, and they were sad to see him go.
The OUaT actors in attendance were Raphael Sbarge (Jiminy Cricket), Tony Amendola (Gepetto), and Lee Arenburg (Grumpy). The actors didn’t have a moderator for their session, so they ran it themselves and wanted it to be all fan questions. Like the LOTR boys, they spend the beginning of the session thanking the fans for loving the show, interacting with them on Twitter, coming out to see them at things like the con. Honestly, I was surprised how empty the room was for them. It was maybe about one-third full. This was their second session, so there might have been more folks at their first outing.
In looking over my notes, I realize I didn’t always jot down the questions being answered. So there will be some Q&A bits and other parts that are just recaps of what was being said.
Question: What did they think of the finale?
Lee: It was bold, dangerous, and a gutsy play. The curse has been lifted, people have their memories back, but they didn’t go anywhere. They are still in our world.
Question: Any thoughts about where the characters are going?
The consensus is that can’t really tell.
Raphael: Even if I could tell you, you wouldn’t want to know. It would spoil the surprise. It’s like the Olympics where they were giving away who won the medals before the event aired.
Lee: That’s why we’re on ABC.
Question: I think it might have been about the characters’ attitudes.
Lee: You do your worst, and I’ll will always do my best.
Tony: Keep work through the pain.
Question: The little necklace thing on Jiminy when he’s a cricket, is it a translator, something so that they can understand him when he speaks?
Raphael: They haven’t yet revealed it on the show, but he can say that yes, it is a translator, so he has a voice as a cricket.
Question: Someone asked about August being turned to wood and if it will be reversed now that magic has arrived in Storybrooke. The answer was, “Wait and see.”
Lee: The characters that are the most together in the fairytale world are the most messed up in the real world. “I keep telling Josh (Charming/David Nolan) that he has a hard job, because he’s this heroic character in fairytale world, but a total tool in Storybrooke.” When people chuckled, he said, “Come on. We all know he is.” He said that when the curse broke and he and Snow found each other on the street after they got back their memories, he texted Josh and was like, “Dude! The tool belt is finally off!”
Question: What were your favorite fairy tales as a kid? Most didn’t read them.
Lee: He reads them now to his 5-year-old son, and they’re dark, twisted shit. The real ones are. They’re morality plays. Not tales for children.
Question: Who would they most like to be in cast if not character now playing?
Le: Rumplestiltskin because he is bad ass.
Raphael: The Queen. She has beauty and power. Not sure how he’d look in the gowns.
Lee: “Raphael, is there something you’d like to tell us?”
Raphael: Seriously though, Rumplestiltskin.
Tony: Rumplestiltskin
Lee: All three of them are stage actors, but he prefers film/TV to theatre. It’s more like catching lightning in a bottle. It’s new every day. The challenge in theatre is to make every show seem like it’s your first when you’ve done it day in and day out for months. Keeping it fresh.
Question: Who would they like to see have a role on OUaT?
Raphael: (Answers immediately.) Meryl Streep.
Lee: The show has gotten a lot of interest and acclaim and it’s only going to get bigger/better. As that happens, it’s going to start attracting bigger and bigger stars who want to be a part of it. We have an ensemble cast and one where people are friends and hang out even when they are off set, and audiences can sense that in the acting. It’s one of the things that makes the show special.
Question: What do they think of the show’s costumes?
Raphael: His mom is a costume designer, and he is constantly impressed by what the costume department does. He says he wishes the audience could see the intricate details (embroidery and beading) on the costumes. He said a lot of costume designers turned down the job. They said that it was too big a production, too hard.
Tony: He stressed how putting together a production is such a collaborative effort between actors, crew, writers, etc.
Lee: “The show has great writing. People still remember me from the few eps I did of Seinfeld because of the writing. You remember me and my character because of that. I’m the straw stirred into the drink of creativity.”
Raphael: Lee is underplaying what he does.
Lee: “I tell people I get paid to stand around and wait on the set. The acting, I do for free. Actors have to remember to take their roles, not themselves, seriously.”
Lee: In school, only two sorts of scenes for an actor: power and seduction. Different aspects and being on different sides (seducer/seduced) but only two sorts of scenes, just like limited number of stories.
Raphael: They overfilm most episodes and have to cut them to the 42-43 minute time window. On one they had over 20 minutes of additional footage. Sometimes they don’t just cut out bits between scenes, they’ll trim within speeches. Some of this content has been added back in for the DVD release.
Tony: As an actor, you want a role that has humanity to it. That reflects the complexity of what it is to be human, both the dark and the light.
Raphael: He thinks that’s a strength of the show. That even characters like Lana’s, who do terrible things, have aspects of their characters that make you care about them. It would be terrible to play Regina if she was one dimensional and just evil.
Lee: Actors like a challenge. One man’s scary challenge is another man’s opportunity. Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.
Raphael: His son was young and going to school, he dropped him off one day and his son’s teacher asked him what his father did. The boy thought about it for a little and then said, “He auditions!”
Eps shoot in 8 days.
Lee: He talked about the history of acting. How it was a religious expression/experience at times, reviled and thought wicked in others. When you’re watching something and the story/acting is good, you feel uplifted, empowered. You tingle. “I like to make you tingle.”
Tony: As actors, we are your surrogates in the story. We play out your hopes and fears. This is why there is such a primal attraction to actors. Why you feel that you know us and we’re familiar even though we’ve never met.
Lee: Acting isn’t always comfortable. You frequently expose nerves and raw emotions in intimate moments.
Clearly, there was some kind of wank that went on perhaps at the Walk of Fame, because Lee then commented about how fans should let him know if another actor is acting the ass, and he’d handle it, because he wasn’t ever going to be “that guy who charges $85 for an autograph and won’t fucking look you in the eyes when he signs it.”
Unlike most of the other actors, the boys hung around after the panel to chat with fans and give pic ops (and yes, possibly autographs) for free. However, I had to scurry off for the LOTR panel that was right after this one.
ETA: There was also much love given to Robert Carlyle, who they all admired the heck out of. Love was also given to Jaime Dornan, who they miss and hope to work with again. They said that they all knew coming in his role was going to be a short one in Storybrooke, and they were sad to see him go.
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From:
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But I don't blame you for rushing from the sounds of the first LOTR panel it sounds fantastic.
Thanks for Postin! ♥
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From:
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I love the fact that they are all for complex character roles. That makes me very pleased.
I am glad they all seem to be very laid back guys.