3rd November 2019

Pandemonium Con 2 – Matt Daddario Panel

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 0 Comments

The Matt panel included a lot of pre-organisation due to the fact that it had recently been Matthew’s birthday, and some fans had got him a cake, a birthday book, and planned to spell out ‘Happy 32^nd Birthday Matt’ with A4 paper, with animals on the back.

The plan… mostly worked.

Matt arrives on stage

Moderator: How are you feeling?

Matt: I’m feeling great!

Mod: Good. I’d just like to apologise in advance

Matt looks around the room, scared

Audience starts to sing happy birthday, as fans standing in a row along one wall hold up A4 paper with animals on, and another fan bring a caterpillar cake down the aisle to the stage. Matt hides his face in his hands. As the song finishes, the fans along the wall turn the paper around, to spell out HAPP 32^nd BIRTHDAY MAT, as the Y has gone missing and the T was in the Meet & Greet with Matthew and hasn’t got back to the panel room yet.

Matt: Okay, right away… number 3 and number 2, let’s switch you around…

Matt takes in the cake

Matt: First of all thank you. That was very very sweet. I do have a little thing I want to say… that a birthday is an opportunity once a year where everyone around you gets to just yell at you and you just sit and be quiet. You sit there and you say (quietly) ‘Thank you. Thank you.’, in this moment where everyone is looking at me. That’s what happens.

And I love this caterpillar cake. I assume it is edible? Shall we cut it?

Mod: It’s for you to take

Matt: Oh. I have to take it to green room? Okay. (to audience) Unless you guys want cake?

Mod: I think they want to ask you questions…

Matt: Okay, we won’t discuss happy birthday any further but whoever was responsible for all this… I’ll get you later!

Mod: We do have one more little thing for you

Matt: No, why? No, no… why!?! It’s not fair…

Mod: The fans asked because they love you, what did you want me to do. Say no?

Matt: Okay, okay, okay, fine…

Matt is presented with a gift and his birthday book

Matt: I’m literally sweating right now!

Mod: I hear it’s pretty amazing, I’m sure you’ll love it

Matthew wipes sweat from his brow and sighs loudly

Mod: I’ve not seen it myself but I think it’s –

Matt: Is anyone here actually comfortable on their birthday? Do you want gifts? YES! I deserve these gifts! Also sing me my birthday song right now! Put fire on top of a sugary treat and I will blow it out and then the gods will grant me a wish! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!

Mod: This is from 5 or 6 people..

Matt: 5 or 6? That’s 5 or 6 too many! Birthdays should be spend ALONE. In a cave so people can’t come at you and sing the song! – – Actually it should be a game! It should be that on your birthday everyone just tries to hunt you. So at any given time 1/365^th of the population is hiding. And some percentage of the rest are hunting. Every day would be way more interesting.

Mod: We’ll do that next year! You will hide and we’ll hunt you

Matt: But you know where I am

Mod: Maybe you should wear a disguise or something?

Matt: Ah yes… I’ll be the one with the mask on

Mod: Well, thank you everyone who was involved in this!

Matt: Thank you guys, really, thank you

Mod: everyone who has questions, line up as discussed before please. (to Matt) Did you think that all those people wanted to ask questions when you came in?

Matt: Well, I was like ‘I hate to say it, but I don’t see it happening…’

Everyone starts to get back to their seat. Matt takes a deep breath and exhales loudly

Matt: So that’s done now… maybe afterwards we can do something equally as fun, like getting your teeth drilled…

Fan: If Magnus is angry, what does Alec do to make the situation better?

Matt: It depends on the situation. Why is Magnus angry? …like any other good person, he evaluates the source of the anger, then seeks a non-violent way to discuss what might be the underlying problem, and then they come to a… a… what’s the word I’m looking for?

Audience: Compromise

Matt: …they figure it out. And before you know it, they’re right back to being happy with each other, because what’s the point? What are you going to be all angry about, anyway? I’m 32. Time keeps marching on towards that end. If I’m going to spend any of it angry, (points at audience) it’s going to be with you.

I’m kidding. Some of you were going ‘whoa!’ and I want to make something very clear here. I’m being sarcastic. And I really appreciate the birthday. And I like the song, it’s touching. But you know… I get awkward.

But there you go. Thank you very much. I’ve solved the problem. Next question!

Mod: Can I ask you, while you are talking, can you make sure to look at the right side of the room as well (the question queue is on the left) because they’re saying that this side of your face is really ugly, so they’d like you to turn around

Matt: Aha! I knew it!

Mod: Obviously they’re not saying that, it’s just that the queue is over here, so try and look both ways

Matt: Actually, that’s a good point and very good practice… for… other times I am going to be speaking on a stage. (laughter) Okay, next question. (Matt dramatically turns away from the question queue towards his right and stares at the audience on that side)

Fan: How many dates did it take before AU Malec became a couple?

Matt: How do you know they became a couple? (audience protests) Okay, okay… How many dates would it take? I mean… what really is a couple? When are you really a couple? Is it after the first time you went to dinner? It all depends on what happens in the future! Because the reality is that if you see someone day 1, and then you get married 3 years later, then you were technically a couple from day 1. Unless there were some other things going on. I hope there weren’t! (Matt stops to think about it)

There weren’t! Of course there weren’t! So they were a couple since the first time they met.

However if they take some sort of ongoing break somewhere along the line, then the time starts again, so it all depends on what happens in the future. But in the moment, you would say ‘we’re a couple’ after you’ve been on some dates. Do you know what I mean? It’s like… history is what happened, right?

Fan: So they’re married, too?

Matt: You are looking for iron clad confirmation on whether they are married in the alternate universe? Well… The only constant in the multi-dimensional Shadowhunters universe is that Magnus and Alec are married in every single one of them. (Audience cheers)

And that Clary is difficult… NEXT!

Fan: What is the most anticipated thing on your birthday?

Matt: I really like it when everybody sings the song… (laughter)

I like that on your birthday you kind of get a pass from each person you meet. You can go and steal a loaf of bread and if they catch you, you say ‘it’s my birthday’ and they go ‘In that case this one’s on us!’.

Also in your personal relationships, you also get a pass. That’s the day when no one gets to be mad at you. They have to bite their tongue, which gives you an opportunity to antagonise them. You can go ‘I don’t really like the food you’ve prepared for me’ and they’ll go (through clenched teeth) ‘oh, I’m so sorry’ and because it’s your birthday, they can’t say anything.

You get to be special for one day a year. And the rest of the time you are just… normal.

That’s what I like the most (turns to audience and whispers) THE POWER….

Fan: If you could live as any Disney character for one day, who would you pick?

Matt: I mean… Disney owns half the universe right now. I think they own like 55% of the entire entertainment space right now, so my options include all of the Star Wars universe, which is pretty great. I assume you are talking about the original Disney. The big 6. Lion King, Aladdin, that kind of things… I would be the hyenas in Lion King. They have a dope thing going on. They are completely insane and they seem to be enjoying themselves all the time, laughing, rolling on their backs. So that’s who I would be.

Fan: If you had to give up your bow and arrow, what would be your next weapon of choice?

Matt: I know there’s going to be some objections to this, but if my goal is to kill things and that is my job – if it is literally in my job title, shadow-HUNTER – I would probably move to a more effective version of a bow and arrow. They’ve been around for a little while now. They’re called guns. Alec could probably benefit from having one. There’s some reasoning that it doesn’t work, but Luke has a gun and he saves the day a couple of times with it. I know that it doesn’t really work, because the show is demonic but… a gun.

If there’s a demon, your problem is solved, pull out your gun, just shoot it. Done.

(Fan says thank you and tries to leave, but Matt isn’t done)

Matt: And then we had those anti aircraft guns in Idris! Right at the end. Did you see those? Obviously guns are available and solved some problems, so… guns. Terrible thing, but they are effective at killing.

Fan: If you could transform into any animal, what would it be?

Matt: Any animal? Any animal at all? But I have to choose only one? I mean, there’s an obvious answer to the questions and that’s the killer whale. You have a whole bunch of friends. Top of the food chain. You get to kill sharks for fun. You play around and you’re basically a murderous psychopath but everyone thinks you’re just so cute. (Simpering voice) ‘oh it’s so cute. You see how it killed that seal and played with its dead body? It’s so amazing!’

That’s actually true for most of the animal kingdom. (awed) ‘See that owl? See how it’s tearing that animal to shreds? So beautiful… It’s just beautiful. Nature is just beautiful.’

People go on safaris and they see the reality of what nature is, which is horrifying… I don’t know if this story is true or not, but I like it anyway. Darwin was a religious man and what made him question god was the parasitic wasp. No one looks at the parasitic wasp’s larva crawling out of the paralysed host body of a cockroach and goes ‘AWESOME! That’s so good! What a beautiful thing!’ No, you say ‘Ew! It makes my skin crawl!’

One time I caught a fish and its tongue had been replaced by a type of parasite that latches on and eats and replaces the fishes tongue and I swear I almost vomited. To see it was abhorrent. Then again some people who love parasitic creatures would say ‘aaaaah, what a find! Yes! Amazing!’ And it WAS cool, I mean I’m still talking about it now..

So I guess the answer to your question is that the great thing about being in the animal kingdom is that when you are not getting brutally killed by something, you are brutally killing something and then humans go ‘wow! I want to film you!’ so… killer whale is the answer. I may have gone off topic… Parasitic wasp.

Someone’s going to tweet this and say ‘Matt just really wanted to be a killing creature’. And just to be clear, that’s not what I was saying. I was saying I wanted to be a parasitic wasp. Thank you.

Fan: If you could make your own TV show, what would it be about?

Matt: You all know the answer, so I have to change my answer.. I like the idea of a space cowboy! A  guy who is operating outside the law. The Wild West is now outer space and he has a ship which is his horse, etc etc

Audience: Like Firefly?

Matt: Basically, yes! Same idea. But then again any space show, even Star Trek, was essentially just ‘Here’s a new town’ every episode, and we just use space as an excuse and discuss futuristic topics, which are very popular these days. So yes, it would be something that takes place in space.

Maybe it could be a space nature show. … That goes horrible wrong! And someone gets eaten by a parasitic wasp on another planet. That’s 20 feet tall and drags you off to his lair. (Matt looks at the fan who asked the question) You’re too young to know about parasitic wasps!

Do they still have the Discovery Channel showing animal shows on there? That was my favourite show on TV when I was a kid. But you have a different appreciation for it when you are older, when they stop giving you nothing but Steve Irvin, may he rest in peace, with his alligators. That’s a great show! You should fine that and watch all of it. It’s the best!

Fan: You were great as Pennywise in IT Chapter 2

Matt: Thank you. I know I did great. I was just there for the scenes where he was contorted, not the rest.

Fan: If you could be any member of the losers club, which one would you be, other than Mike?

Matt: aaaaaah man… The answer is Mike. Anything else would be a lie. It would be Mike, cause he’s who I like the most.

I don’t know who I’d be. They’re all so damaged. I haven’t read the book in so long, so I don’t know who I’d be. From the film though… I don’t know… Mike! Or Jessica Chastain’s character. I like her too.

Has everyone seen IT2? You all have to go and see it and support Isaiah. It only made like a billion dollars, so it needs some support.

Fan: I have two questions. What pizza do you like more – Italian Pizza or New York Slice?

Matt: What’s the second questions? I want to see if I can combine them

Fan: Where is your favourite place to get a New York Slice in New York?

Matt: Right. Italian pizza and New York pizza are two different things. It’s like comparing two things that cannot be compared. Do you like apples or oranges? I like both, for different reasons. Same as New York pizza vs Italian pizza. Italian pizza normally has better ingredients and I like the paper thin bread. Not crunchy, but soft.

My favourite place to get NY pizza was on 84^th and Lex and I’d go there constantly and they closed a few years back. They were taken over by another place that actually sells pretty good pizza.

The best place to have a slice of pizza in New York is the place that’s closest to you. The point of pizza in New York is that it is there to feed you. You want food? You hungry? Pizza! There! One slice! Here! Money? Take! Great! Done!

That’s the best thing about pizza. It’s easy and it’s right there and you can eat it while you walk. And if you sit down while you eat it? Then… then… shame! Shame on you! Walk with it! Fold it in half! You get your metro card out and you swipe, still eating the pizza. Got oil dripping out the back? You’re an amateur. You have to be able to handle where the oil goes. You have to hold it really tight and balance it and know when it’s leaky, because you can tell instinctively.

Fan: What if you drop your metro card?

Matt: Pick it up! Why are you dropping your metro card? Ridiculous! Your scenario is nuts. If you drop your metro card, you know what, you’re not taking the subway, you’re walking!

Matt: And by the way, here’s a little tip.. not my most secret tip. Maybe one day I will release that one, because no one seems to know that tip, so that’s something to hold over your heads now. But the other secret tip is: If you see a metro card on the ground in a location that does not make sense, then it has money on it.

Audience: Duh…

Matt: Oh, so people know that? Good!! The key place is outside the entrance because someone went to get their wallet out or put the card back in their wallet, and it fell. And if you are a student in New York or an actor who doesn’t have any work and you have no money, you pick it up.

Now, if you’re a little older it’s no longer appropriate… So I just make sure that nobody is looking.

Fan: If Shadowhunters was the Hunger Games, who do you think would win?

Matt: (instantly) Alec would win! (laughter)

Obviously, this kind of conversation is really frustrating, because everything gets ruined by the god element, which is that the warlocks are     unstoppable machines and Magnus is one of the best one, if not the best, so Magnus wins. It’s not even a close call.

Fan: Would Magnus save Alec?

Matt: I mean, it’s the Hunger Games…

Fan: Would he let Alec win?

Matt: But then you’ve got a problem. Because would Alec let Magnus win. So now we’ve entered into an issue so the only answer is, WE’VE GOT TO DESTROY THE SYSTEM. They have to work together and kill the bosses… I’m guessing that that’s what happens in the Hunger Games?

Audience: Yep

Matt: (big sigh) Surprise surprise…

Fan: Where do you think Malec went on their honey moon?

Matt: Where didn’t they go? They went everywhere! If you are not limited by travel time or financial concerns because, as I made pretty clear, he’s essentially married to a god, so yeah, they went everywhere. In fact for breakfast they went to one place, and then they decide they want to go to a museum in New York and then they want to get some food from a specific place in Hong Kong and they do all of that before 1pm because there is no limit to what they can do.

Like, let’s think about your house. It has various rooms, but if I set up a permanent portal and leave it in a doorway, then I walk from one room to the other and I actually have homes in 20 different places. I walk into the living room and I’m on the moon. I’m watching TV on the moon, I walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water and I’m in New York, I look outside and think ‘huh’ because my bedroom is all the way in China.  You ever read the book Hyperion? It has a similar concept. It’s a good book. The first two, anyway. … End of discussion. Next question!

Fan: What’s the best pick up line you’ve heard, received, and used

Matt: What’s the best pick up line? The best pick up line is ‘Hello, my name is ____, what is your name?’ – That one works in pretty much every social situation.

Fan: Yeah but that’s an introduction

Matt: What is a pick up line other than an introduction? A pick up line implies something. It’s in introduction with an implication of further interaction. And the interaction is of a certain type. So if I came up and I went like so (makes monkey noises and arm gestures) that’s a pick up line, right? It’s pretty clear what I want, I think? Although for some others… like, check out what the giraffes do. It’s weird. Or what the gorillas do. It’s also pretty weird. Every animal has their own pick up line and usually it’s a little bit aggressive.

Now if I come up to you and say ‘Hi, hello, my name is Matt, and your name is, and then you say your name’ except you say ‘you know what, I have no idea where this is going, because you didn’t use a pick up line, so obviously it’s just an introduction. Now we are done. We have been introduced! End of discussion! Goodbye!’

No! An introduction in a setting implies what’s happening so you don’t need a pick up line. If I’m in a bar and I come up to you and I say ‘Hello my name is Matt’ and you say –

Fan: I’m Mercedes

Matt: And then you say ‘Oh this must be a pick up’ but you are wrong, because you didn’t look at the wedding ring!

(Audience goes crazy with whooping and cheering) …but in any other situation the pick-up is implied, and anything other than hello is silliness or cockamamie narcissism.

Fan leaves and Matt shouts ‘love you’ after her.

Fan: You mentioned in an interview that you crashed into a wedding and my question is how did you crash into said wedding?

Matt: I crashed into a wedding? Me? So just to be clear… I said in a public interview that I went to someone else’s special affair and said ‘S’up? I’m gonna eat your food. Looks great. Can I be part of your special day?’ and they said ‘You know what, this isn’t about us. This is about you, random guy!’ – And I was proud of that?

Are you sure I wasn’t making up some sort of humours anecdote like me wanting to be a parasitic wasp? Because I don’t – TO BE CLEAR – want to be a parasitic wasp. Just as much as I would never crash a wedding. Just as much as I would never steal a loaf of bread. These are all hypothetical things that I made up over the course of the day. And maybe tomorrow I will believe half of them. Maybe tomorrow half of your groups of twitter people will believe it because you put it on the internet as fact. ‘Matt says he steals loaves of bread.’ And ‘Matt says he’s a parasitic wasp.’

Just to be clear – we are going back to the situational learning – Anything I have said here is likely untrue.

So no. I didn’t do that. But that’s who I hope to be some day. He sounds like a good guy

Fan: If Alec was a social media influencer what would be – –

Matt: In the Shadow world or the existing world?

Fan: Could be either

Matt: Either way, he’s going to take butt photos.

Fan: Okay, but my question is what platform would he use?

Matt: Ah! I presumed the end of your question and I went the wrong direction with my answer.

What platform would he use? Erm… printed media is doing great. Newspapers. Magazines.

Fan: But what about social media?

Matt: Isn’t a newspaper social media? It’s just really slow… People write their opinion. ‘Last week you said XYZ and that made me angry!’ – it’s basically a message board, just a lot slower. Does social media have to be immediate? On social media nowadays you make friends with someone like this (clicks fingers) and now you’re my friend, because we share interests.

But really, I think things were better back in the old days. Since I’m 82, I don’t know if you know that, but I know this… There was a time when there was no internet. And you weren’t allowed to be friends with someone immediately. It took days! In fact you had to write to the newspaper and check out the situation.

‘John from down the street, I bumped into you at the laundromat. It seemed like you might be a good guy. You like football, I like basketball. Those are some shared interest.’ – And then John writes back to the newspaper and says ‘Yes, those are shared interests, but I am not interested.’ – Seven days wasted! Making friends back then was very difficult.

Anyway… Printed media, that’s the future!

Fan: Are you implying that you would make friends through printed media?

Matt: No, I am implying that Alec is out of touch. But yes, he would make lots of friends and then he’d be… y’know… all over the papers.

Fan: Thank you (tries to leave, but Matthew continues)

Matt: Is that still a saying? He’s all over the papers? Now you just say ‘Ah, he’s on Instagram! And…. he posts photos.’ – ‘Of what?’ they ask – ‘Erm… him? Sometimes him, with something?’

Fan: Okay, thank you (edging away)

Matt: I’m positive that I answered that appropriately!

Last question. Fan talks about the autograph session on Saturday and the message Matt wrote on her DVD for someone and that Kat posted a little video for this person, and she phoned and told the recipient about the messages, who has not stopped crying since…

Matt: The take away is that Kat made him cry!

Fan: You really made him smile, so thank you for that. My question: Yesterday Dom said that his time with Shadowhunters was finished and he wouldn’t come back for a season 4. Do you feel the same way?

Audience collectively groans and grumbles.

Matt: Okay, first of all Dom is doing.. what’s it called?

Audience: Penny Dreadful

Matt: No, I obviously know that! So yes, Dom is doing a TV show called Penny Dreadful and none of you have ever even heard of it. So he’s doing the thing when… what is it called when you say ‘Well, even if the show came back, I wouldn’t have done it anyway’ – what do you call that psychological method?

Audience shouts various terminology at Matt

Matt: Something. Whatever. The point is he didn’t mean it. If he even said that, which I am questioning. And I? Would I come back for season 4?

Fan: If the role was right and the time was right and what was going on in your life…

Matt: The thing is, the show ended… If we’d continued it would have been different and yes, obviously. But the show has ended, so coming back would be strange. I mean, you could see something in the long run, maybe… it would require some thoughts, and it would depend on the material

Fan: Yes, so if the story was right and you felt it was right and…

Matt: Well, if the story is right and you feel it is right, that’s cool, and the budget was 250 million dollars and it’s directed by Martin Scorsese, then yeah. (laughter) But that’s the optimal case.

I would also accept lesser situations.

Fan: When Dom said that yesterday I think it upset a lot of people, so..

Matt: Who? Dom upset people?

Fan: Yes

Matt: Kat made your son cry. Dom upset people. Seems that I’m the only one who saves the day… (laughter)

Look here… You enjoyed the show, right? They managed to wrap it up. We didn’t get hit like Santa Clarita Diet did. So many shows didn’t get what we got. Deadwood? Just done! Rome? Done!

We got an ending. And for that, I am grateful…

——————————

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3rd November 2019

Pandemonium Con 2 – Chai Hansen Panel

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 2 Comments

Once again, we missed the beginning of this panel due to other things overlapping, walking in halfway through Chai answering a question – we presume – on his favourite books, where he explained that he reads a lot of philosophical stuff such as ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, however he is not part of Rosende Reads and hilariously couldn’t understand the fan who asked him, because he didn’t remember the name of Alberto’s bookclub, but we are not allowed to tell Alberto that.

Here’s everything else we can remember from the panel with Chai Hansen

Fan: How are you feeling?

Chai: A lot better, thank you! (to audience) Yesterday I wasn’t feeling the best. I had a stomach bug. But today I feel a lot better. I had a good night’s sleep. Also I travelled from Australia to be here so that’s a 28 hour flight just for you guys… (crowd: AWWWW)

Fan: If you were stranded on a deserted island with one member of the cast, who would you pick?

Chai: Probably Alberto (everyone laughs, because we’re all aware of his huge bro-crush) or Dom, because they’re both quite funny. And as Jordan it would be Maia because… yeah.

Fan: This is for my little sister, who just had to leave to go and see Luke..

Audience: laughs

Chai: Luke, is it…? Riiight….

Fan: My sister grew up with Mako Mermaid and wanted to know how hard it was to work with the tail and to swim with it and everything

Chai: That was the first job I ever got leading… even just acting really. And I was really nervous going into it. I’d had coaching sessions from the acting side, but then I was told I’d be doing all of this in a tail, and we’re just going to throw you in the water. And I was like ‘Oh okay! Cool! …am I going to drown?’ And they go ‘No, no, no, you’ll be fine! We’ve got a couple of stunties there so if you do drown, they’ll get you out, and they know CPR. You’ll be fine!’ – ‘Oh okay. Cool. Okay…’ – ‘Also… mind the sharks and sting rays.’ – – Cause we’re filming this whole thing in Seaworld, so I got to swim with actual sharks and sting rays. With a tail. And you could see the sharks and the sting rays be like ‘What is that?!?’

So yeah, it was daunting to begin with but then it’s like riding a bike. You get used to is and it starts to be really fun, because you could really swim with it. And then for the next season, the tails were made differently. They were a lot more flexible and the movement was more organic. Jason – a friend of mine – who created the tails worked on each tail for about 8 weeks, to get it to be perfect and in the new tails he put a lot more silicon in, which made them flow like it was a real tail. So I learnt to swim really well in it and actually became a better swimmer from having this tail on.

It was a really good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed working on Mako and every season got better than the last one and I hope they do another season now… and ask me back… that would be great.

Fan: Jordan’s life was cut short by the silver poisoning. How do you see his life with Maia going, if that hadn’t happened?

Chai: The thing that he was obsessed with was forgiveness. Not necessarily being with Maia, but being forgiven by Maia. So I think if he got it and felt that he got it from her, he may have left her alone…? I’ve thought about it for a while, and I’m not sure if he got the forgiveness he needed. He got it narratively. He got it in the story, but that’s not the same as actually believing it, and I’m not sure he believe it until maybe right at the end, when he sacrificed himself. To me, that was his penance.

If he had survived, after having sacrificed himself, he may have finally moved on. What do you guys think? Did you want to see Jordan with Maia? (everyone pretty unanimously says no) Yeah, same. He was obsessive about it the entire time. The fact that he ran away from this huge thing meant that he was fixated on her. One of my notes from back then said ‘Why?’ – Why did you do this? Why did you run away? And for me.. you don’t know what you’re going to do until something like this happens. I was talking about ‘fight or flight’ with someone yesterday and it’s either one or the other, but you don’t know which one, until it happens to you. And for him it was ‘flight’. So I think he was trying to prove himself by going back and showing that he could be ‘fight’. So yeah, I remember writing ‘Why did you do that?’ and then trying to figure it out, and some people just react differently in different situations. I read Jordan’s part of the book and he’s a lot more guarded in the book, we know less about him, so I tried to approach this with a bit more sensitivity. I had fun with it but it was also really difficult to be that kind of person, because you actually have to go there as an actor…

Someone said yesterday ‘I wish Jordan smiled more’ and hey, yeah, me too! I wish he smiled more. But he wears his heart heavy on his sleeve and that was kind of my approach to Jordan. I look around at all of you and I think in this situation, probably most of you would have fought, and that’s probably the normal response, but it’s all speculation. You just don’t know until you’re in that situation.

Fan: Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even just in an argument, when you walk away, and then think ‘Damn it! I should have said this!!’

Chai: Oh my god all the time!! Or even after this, I’ll go to the Green Room and think ‘Ah man, it would have been so funny if I’d said this, instead of that. They would have laughed so hard…’

Michelle: Just tweet it after!

Chai: Yes, I will tweet it… so… watch my twitter later.

Fan: What are your goals for your next show or movie?

Chai: I love fantasy and action. And comedy. I’m quite funny … Tough it depends on whether you think I’m funny. I think I’m funny. Sometimes. Anyway. I would like to do more fantasy action TV shows. That’s where I see myself. I also want to play a young Jack Sparrow. (Audience whoops). That would be cool. It’s probably not gonna happen but… shoot for the stars!

Chai: What do you think?

Fan: What do I see you playing? The feeling I get from you in Shadowhunters and you generally is about being protective, so roles in which you’re a big brother, a security guard, you protect and care for people…

Audience: aww

Chai: I feel that that is my nature

Fan: I feel it’s very clear from the way you act, from the way you speak, from the way you talk to people, that you are that person

Chai: *melts*

Chai: Thank you so much! – – I was raised by my mother. She taught me well. I live by empathy. I lead with my heart and I have never gone wrong by doing that. If you give 100% of your heart and soul, you can never go wrong. I believe in that.

Fan: What is it like to play Sun WuKong, a character that is as historically significant as him, in Legends of Monkey and if you could choose another character like that (Shakespearean, Histporical, Roman Gods, something that’s so important and has been adapted so many times) what would it be?

Chai: Some have called him the Asian Jesus… (laughs). I did a lot of research. I am so honoured to be playing Sun WuKong. When I got the audition I was freaking out because I just had to get this. I watched Dragonball Z as a kid. I know all about Journey to the West. I read the book. It’s an amazing book by the way, it’s really funny and dark. So I knew a lot about it before I got the audition. My mum was a massive fan of Monkey Magic, which is what Legens of Monkey was influenced by, so I just had to get this role. I put everything into this audition and then I did a fight scene audition and because of my breakdancing background, I had the upper hand in that regard. And then I ended up getting the role, which I still can’t believe to this day. I was super honoured and I went into study research mode. I re-read the book. I watched all the adaptations. I tried to incorporate Goku and Vegeta in little way in my Monkey, that people may not notice if they watch the show but… I’m freaking honoured. I love this show. And I might… be doing… a second season… who knows. Maybe I’ll tell you later…

If I could do another show like this… (Chai then mentioned a character we’d never heard of, and doesn’t mention what this character is from – grateful for anyone who remembers this bit and has any information) — it’s Comedy/Action. I’m a huge fan of Jackie Chan so anything that puts comedy into action would be a dream come true. So yeah, anything Comedy/Action I would die to do.

Fan: I’m Australian

Chai: Oh! Where abouts??

Fan: Brisbane!

Chai: (over excited) I’ve lived in Brisbane! Jordan’s from Brisbane!

Fan: Me and my friend have this debate… is it data [deɪtə] or data [dɑːtɑː]

Chai: It’s data [dɑːtɑː], obviously! We were talking about this other word yesterday. Do you say Schedule (pronouncing the ‘sch’ as in ‘school’) or schedule (pronouncing the ‘sch’ as in ‘schmuck’)

Chai gets the audience to vote, pretty much everyone pronounces the c in schedule. He wants to know if that means it’s an English thing. Moderator says she’s English and no. So Chai concludes that it’s an American thing. The American in the audience say no. Chai gives up.

Fan: Also, I don’t surf, so I hardly count as Australian…

Chai: Poor you… You’ve got an English passport tough, right? So you’ll be okay. You can come and visit Australia sometimes… (laughter) No, seriously though.. my sister doesn’t surf either. And I.. look down on her, too. (laughter)

Fan: I started watching The 100 because of you

Chai: YES!

Fan: But then you spoiled your death for me… So I was wondering… how long after a TV show is off air is too long to tell someone off for spoilering

Chai: What does that mean? Spoilering?

Audience explains

Chai: Ooooh… Oh I see… Right… I remember when I first posted it there were a few people that were like ‘WHAT?!?’ and I just thought… ‘but it happened like a year ago?’ – Maybe that’s too early? I don’t know! What do you think is a good time? Maybe you should just never post… until you’re a grandfather and then… but then I think I’m going to spoil it for my grandkids, too!

Fan: You’re still one of the best characters in the show tough

Chai: Really? Thank you so much!

It was a really tough role to approach because the first thing was just me killing my parents… oh. Spoiler! (laughter) But yeah, it was really hard. I thought that I don’t know how to do this well… (at this point, Chai brings the microphone to his face properly and is amazed at how his voice sounds actually amplified and realises he’s not been using his mic properly for the entire rest of the panel. He asks if people at the back can hear him with and without microphone. They say yes. He points out that it’s a good thing he’s not at a stadium….) Note to self: Talk into the microphone!

So when I first got the job I was trying to work out how to approach this because it’s so hard. And really I was just… winging it. But it was such a fun role, because it was the first role away from Mako. I went from a kids show, playing a mermaid to killing my parents. Isn’t that the funniest thing ever?

It was the first thing I did was adult and darker material and I had a lot of fun doing it, even though it was hard, so when someone says they really like my character it’s such a relief because as an actor you’re kind of thrown in and hope for the best and then you get this support and you realise ‘I did good’

So yeah, thank you all so much for the support. And that’s with everything that I do but of course Shadowhunters. The #SaveShadowhunters thing – I’d never seen that on any other show to his extend. It is so beautiful and I feel so lucky to be a part of this.

Moderator: That’s a good place to end it. You have to go, because you have quite a lot of things to do

Chai: But I want to stay here

Mod: I know, but the organisers are going to think it’s my fault and I’ll get in trouble

Chai: It is your fault!

Mod: (Gasps)

Amongst the (fake) offence, whooping, laughter and cheering, Chai is eventually persuaded to leave the stage because he did indeed have a lot of other things to do that day. What a kind, genuine guy. Delightful, as always. ]

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26th October 2019

Pandemonium Con 2 – Dominic Sherwood Meet & Greet

Michelle tDiE supporting material, The Descent is Easy 0 Comments

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.

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