Pandemonium Con 2 – Dominic Sherwood Meet & Greet
Dom Meet & Greet
The room we walk into is set up with four tables forming a square. Michelle points out that she really hopes Dom is going to stand in the middle and perform.
Sadly, Dom doesn’t.
Dom: Hello. Where am I sitting? Wherever I want? Well, I’ll sit right here! How’s everybody doing?
(Affirmative mumbling)
Dom: Great! I see a couple of familiar faces. What does everyone want to talk about? Any questions? (points at ‘one of the familiar faces’) You know how this goes. Have you thought of questions ahead of time? No? Well… maybe at your eighth or ninth convention you’ll figure out the rhythm. Does everyone speak English? Yes? Great! That’s going to make this much easier for me, because I don’t speak any other languages. Does anyone have any questions about Shadowhunters? I can’t answer any Penny Dreadful questions!
Michelle: Literally none?
Dom: I mean, I can tell you I filmed yesterday. I can’t tell you what I did. I can’t tell you who I worked with. Or about the script. I can’t tell you what accent I used. Can’t tell you anything about my costume. Wait… Maybe… No, no I can’t. Can’t tell you anything about the show. I can’t tell you any spoilers. It’s not like Shadowhunters. They WILL fire me. They will legitimately fire me if I give anything away so… Can’t do it! Sorry!
Michelle: Can you tell us whether you had a good time?
Dom: I DID have a good time! Thanks for asking.
Fan: When can we expect some promo or behind the scenes stuff?
Dom: I don’t know! They keep sending me stuff and I ask if I can share it cause it’s really cool and they’re like ‘NO’. So.. Shadowhunters questions! Let’s talk Shadowhunters! Any thoughts? (Silence) Questions? (Silence) No? Nothing at all? Sweet. I’m so glad you’re all here…
Fan: You played three different Jonathans..
Dom: Sure did!
Fan: Who was your favourite to play and how did you get into the different mind sets?
Dom: I just copied what they did. Genuinely, when I had to mimic Will, I spoke to Will and asked him how he did it and he said ‘Just think really dark thoughts’.
Fan: Is it hard?
Dom: Yeah, and as much as possible I try and separate myself as much as I can from the really dark stuff I have to do at work. I mean you will… nope! (bites tongue) You’ll see in Penny Dreadful. We have to do some pretty crazy stuff in Penny Dreadful and separating yourself from it is the safest way of doing that.
Fans come in late from the Luke photo and apologise
Dom: No, don’t worry. Come in. It’s your own time you’re wasting.
Fan: It’s Luke’s fault
Dom: It’s Luke’s fault? Did you have a Meet & Greet with Luke?
Fan: We had photos
Dom: He had photos already? That bastard. Selfish is what it is! Anyway. Anyone else? Oh hang on, the other bit! Who was my favourite to play? I like all of them, except when I had to wear the owl mask. That was a pain in the arse. Complete nightmare. It was hot and it was uncomfortable and I couldn’t smoke in it and it filled up with water. It was really awful. And then at the end, they wouldn’t even let me keep it! I asked if I could have it and they said no and I asked why and they were like ‘erm… in case we want to re-use it?’ And I pointed out that it’s my face! Who else are you going to put it on?
Fan: What were you going to do with it?
Dom: Halloween probably. Scaring my neighbours. I have one that’s really loud at the moment in LA so I could knock on her door and go ‘Hi, how’s it going? I’m your neighbour’ but while wearing the owl face.
**
Michelle: In the zombie apocalypse, what’s your strength, and who’s on your team?
Dom: Nobody is on my team. Teams are stupid in the zombie apocalypse! I had a zombie apocalypse dream yesterday.
Michelle: Did you survive it?
Dom: (scoffs) Of course I did! A friend of mine was in my hotel room and literally in the dream I fed my friend to the zombie and I woke up and I rang her and told her about it and now we’re not speaking. But I don’t care. Come the zombie apocalypse, it’s my family and my friends… not even my friends. Kat knows this. She gets in my way I will shoot her in the back of the head. I’ll leave her for them to eat, but she’s tiny, so that will buy me about 6 seconds. And I told Kat this. I told her to her face. If you think you’re going to slow me down, don’t come to me for help, because I will just end you, and go about my zombie apocalypse life.
Michelle: But what’s your actual skills?
Dom: (offended) What’s my skill? (counts on fingers) Tactics. Intelligence. Weapons – –
Fan interrupts: Throwing people in front of zombies
Dom: All of it. I have three different zombie plans for three different cities in the world. I’ve thought this through. You’re all laughing, but you’re fucking idiots. All medical science is, is keeping people alive after they should have died. The zombie apocalypse is well on the way. It’s going to happen. People have already died and been brought back which makes them zombies. All CPR is, is the creation of zombies. I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU’RE LAUGHING! It’s really serious, okay? It’s a serious thing. Rabies? That’s basically zombies, innit? Alright, come up with plans people! If you take anything away from this weekend, come up with a zombie plan! I have mine.
Fan: My plan is to avoid you, cause you will throw me in front of a zombie
Michelle: Yep, stay away from him
Dom: Stay away from me, definitely
Fan: Do you believe in the T-virus then?
Dom: I don’t think the T-virus is a real thing necessarily but… maybe it is… (long pause) Now I can’t get it out of my head. (to Michelle) Thanks for that! I appreciate it. Next: Shadowhunters questions!
**
Fan: If you could chose yourself an ending, what would it be?
Dom: Damn… We were making jokes, and now I’ve got nothing in my head. I think the way we ended it led to the theory that their story would have continued and I think that’s the perfect ending.
Fan: I think the ending is sweet, but I wanted to know how that continued story would go..?
Dom: In my head – and I was suggesting this from season 1 – is that they just kill Clary off and it would simply be the Jace show. They didn’t like that very much and that’s when they asked me to stop coming to the writers’ room. Whatever. It’s fine. It was a good idea and they ignored me, but that’s fine. So that’s how I would have ended it. Kill off Clary.
Fan: But…
Dom: Can you imagine how much easier Jace’s life would have been if Clary wasn’t about? We actually tallied it up at one point. Over the course of three seasons it’s just under a thousand times that I say ‘Clary no!’, ‘Clary don’t!’, ‘Clary stop!’, and she ignores me and then I die. His life would be much easier, if Clary wasn’t involved. And she’s not here, so I can say whatever I want. Ask her in her Meet & Greet. Ask her what her answer is and tell her that’s what I said.
Fan: But what would happen if Clary hadn’t been a mundane. Would the group still meet her? By fate?
Dom: By fate? This is where we get into the deep questions, on whether fate actually exists.
Fan: You wanted questions, you get questions!
Dom: Yeah. I regret that. Does fate exist? Is it really a thing?
Fan: Zombies are a thing, so fate can be a thing
Dom: Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure how I feel that my destiny is pre-planned and no matter what steps I take, I end up bumping into the same people no matter what. But that’s my opinion, I don’t know what Jace thinks.
**
Fan: What was your favourite scene to film?
Dom: There we go! Nice easy question! It kept changing, but the scene in the bar with Alberto, where he glamours himself as Jace was really fun, because we were given a lot of space to do what we wanted to do with that, which was really nice. But as far as actual filming experience goes, the last scene we filmed, the reception of the wedding, and it was by chance that we filmed this on our last day, and everyone was there. My father had come to visit us and it was a really nice moment. And we had everyone on set, even people that hadn’t been part of the team for years. So that was my favourite experience on set.
**
Fan who arrived late after the Luke photo: I watched Penny Dreadful and the first season was very scary
Dom: Sorry. (everyone laughs) Actually, why am I sorry? I wasn’t in that one!
Fan: How was it for you to enter a new show? And what can you…
Dom interrupts: You guys were late, but I can say very little about Penny Dreadful. All I can say is that it’s a very different story from both Shadowhunters and the original Penny Dreadful.
Fan: Is it scarier?
Dom: I can’t really say… I’m trying to think of anything I can tell you… It’s less supernatural than the original Penny Dreadful. It’s more about the dynamics of 1938 Los Angeles and… No, can’t say that. Close tough! Very close! This is going to be a very tricky day for me. Especially because I can’t remember what’s already been announced and what hasn’t. But the transition has been quite hard, my character is very different from anything I’ve played before and definitely very different to Jace. It’s been hard work and there’s piles of research in my house, and anyone who comes over goes ‘WHAT ARE YOU READING?’ and I tell them to not worry about it, not even look at it, it’s not me, it’s a character I play. But you’ll see… it’s quite early on in the script that you figure out what my character’s place is in this world. And it’s very different from anything I’ve done before.
Fan: I will ask the question that everyone wants to know… How’s Dan?
Dom: AWWWWW. He’s great!
Michelle: And you can answer spoiler free!
Dom: Yes! Spoiler free! He’s great. He’s getting really big. He’s very sweet.
Michelle: What tricks can he do?
Dom: Let me find a video of him! He can sit, and he can lay down, he can stay and shake and his new thing is that he likes to walk himself back to the apartment (plays video for us). At the end of our walks he’ll grab his leash and walk himself back to my door. He’s fantastic! Cat fucking hates him…
(Michelle failed to realise that Dom was talking about Raja the cat, and thought Dom was talking about Kat McNamara hating Dan the dog, so imagine if you will going through the next minutes wondering how Kat could ever hate an innocent puppy and what Dan could have possibly have done to make Kat hate him…)
Dom: He pinned her to the floor the other day. Because all he wants to do is play and he’s getting quite big now. He’s 3 months old and the other day he sat on her. I was in the shower and all I heard was this godawful hissing sound. And I came out and Dan’s looking all innocent and I asked him what was going on before looking down and seeing that Raja is underneath him, swatting at him.
(Raja the cat! Everything makes sense now….)
Dom: But yeah, he’s great. That was a nice question, thank you. He’s… the love of my life. I don’t think I’m ever gonna love again. (pauses) I’m genuinely concerned that’s true. It’s a real issue when I go on dates and I think ‘Why am I here? I have a puppy at home! I want to be with him!’
Michelle: No wonder Raja hates him…
Dom: Yeah, bless her! (starts giggling to himself, remembering a story) We had a fire alarm go off in my building the other day, and I was out with Tessa, Alberto’s girlfriend, and I had this fire alarm alert come up on my phone and I said ‘Oh god, I have to get back to the house and get the dog! I have to rescue Dan!’ and Tessa goes ‘What about Raja?’ and I went ‘Oh yeah… Totally forgot. I should probably grab her as well, shouldn’t I?’
**
Fan: If Shadowhunters was to return, would you come back for it?
Dom: Would I be up for it? (pauses) I think my journey with Shadowhunters is done. I experienced everything that I could and I met some of my absolutely best friends in the world on this show and I think… (trying to lighten the mood) if they try and put me in that mask again, I’d be really upset. I think for me, my Shadowhunters journey is done. Tough I did have a dream the other day, that they did… the series… what’s the books where they’re in LA?
Fan: The Dark Artifices
Dom: That one! I think Jace comes into it every now and again? And I thought that would be really cool, if in 5 years or whatever they did that, and Jace could just come in for an episode and everyone be like ‘Who the fuck are you?’ and he’d be like ‘I’m Jace Herondale’ and they’re all go ‘Oh my god, THE Jace Herondale??’ – that would be cool…
Fan: That’s pretty much what happens in the books
Dom: Good!
Fan: This may not be the most popular opinion, but I’m really glad to hear that you’re moving away from Shadowhunters because I feel that the Shadowhunters fandom is really brutal
Dom: I mean, that can be a lot of fandoms tough, not just Shadowhunters…
Fan: I run an Instagram group of 22000 followers just for you
Dom: WOW!!
Fan: And I think it’s good you’re moving on
Dom: Yeah, it’s quite… poor Paco – the director of Penny Dreadful Paco Cabezas – comes in every morning and goes ‘You have some crazy fans!’ and I’m like ‘I sure do mate. I’m sorry’. Cause he posts photos every now and again, and I haven’t been in any of them yet and he keeps getting comments asking when he’ll post pictures with me in, and I’ve said to him ‘Just say I’m in the picture. Somewhere in the background, in the crowd, up in a window…’ because that will keep people occupied for days, cause they will be looking, they will zoom into every single window on the picture, so I told him to do that, as it’ll keep people off his back for a bit.
This was the last question at which point we were told to get in position for the group photo. Dom, as always, ensured that he wasn’t standing in anyone’s way, encouraged everyone to make sure they could be seen in the picture, to huddle up or move around depending on where they stood, only to then realise that there was no staff in the room to take a picture
Dom: Who’s taking the photo? Did he forget the camera? His one job was to take a photo…
The photographer entered and everyone cheered. Dom reiterated that if you can’t see the camera, the camera cannot see you. After the pictures we all went to get our stuff, Dom thanked us for our time and for being here, wished us a good weekend, telling us we’d have lots of fun this weekend, before we were all called back to re-take the photos, as the photographer messed up the first time. So we dutifully posed again and took more photos, before being released from the room.
——————————
Like our content? Please Buy us a Ko-Fi or support us on Patreon.com