Does an actor's demeanor at cons affect your desire to meet them?

I was thinking about this at Dragon*Con. Herbert Jefferson, Jr., from the original Battlestar Galactica was sitting in the so-called Walk of Fame sleeping. Yes, sleeping. At the Mid-Ohio-Con, I saw him reading the newspaper. He was on my "maybe" list until I saw the guy sleeping, then I just passed.

So I ask, does an actor or actress's demeanor at conventions affect your desire to meet them? Would you go up to someone who clearly doesn't want to be there?

 

I say no....unless they are rude to you then yeah. But I mean, people gotta sleep. Also it depends on what level of actor it is to me...like if Hayden Christensen or Ewan McGregor was ever at a Con...and was the rudest man ever, I wouldn't care!

 

Personally, the experience I have when meeting an actor DOES play a part in how I view them onscreen, afterwards:

GOOD: Richard Hatch (original Battlestar Galactica's Apollo) - Swear to the gods, you couldn't find a nicer guy at a sci-fi convention. He was in Cleveland for Twisted Nightmares last fall, and you could just stand around listening him to talk about everything from BSG/politics/events of the day...for HOURS! Add to that how honest and genuine he is to the fans, answers all those questions I'm sure he gets a couple dozen times an event (I asked what kinda person was Lorne Greene really like) like it's the 1st time someone has ever asked.

GOOD: Amy Allen - There's no other way to put it...I love that woman! When she first started working convetions (including a stop in Cleveland where we made her an honorary member of JKOC) she was so kind and genuine to everyone who stopped by. Even at C3, where they had to move her to the bigger waiting area booths, she was STILL taking the time to make everyone feel welcome. Plus, she's been kind enough to donate autograph stuff to us for our charity efforts, that her in-person personality just makes me a bigger fan of her onscreen!

Cast of Farscape: I've had the chance to meet some of the cast (Virgina Hey, Lani Tupu, and others) and they've all been great. I hear stories of Farscape conventions and the polite (yet very more active) relations between the stars and fans and wish we could have more of that in the SW fan experience. I've gotten some autographs through Mary and other Scapers who DO get to go (thanks BTW) and the stories I hear of those celebs makes me want to meet them in person myself!

BAD: Anthony Daniels - After the brush off he gave us (and all the other groups there) at the Cincy Pops concert , my opinion of him just flatlined Despite the "surprise" visit with fans in line C2 Sunday morning, which now I understand was just him hogging the glory when he WANT to...frell him and his little gold jacket!

 

Most definitely! I thankfully haven't had too many negative experiences. Anthony Daniels was so-so when I met him. I think I've been so spoiled by the many great experiences I've had that I have unrealistic expectations most of the time. There's nothing wrong with being a quiet, withdrawn person. Lou Ferrigno (the Hulk) and Jeffrey Combs (Star Trek DS9, Enterprise) were both quiet and I was a little disappointed at first after meeting them. But later I realized that wasn't very fair of me to expect them to be truly ecstatic about meeting me. It's not like they were rude to me. I don't know if any of that made sense, but I tried. Me=sick.

 

That affects me, too, but more with comic artists, than anything. Way back in the olden days, I was at my first in-store comic signing and the artist, his name is Adam Hughes, was talking about how he always seems to be missing his deadlines despite the fact he was "almost working 8 hours a day." And I'm just standing there losing respect for the man by the second. The dude has a job where he can roll out of bed, walk to a drawing table and begin working while I, at the time, had to get up at 4:30 AM and be at work by 6 and he's complaining about working almost eight hours a day? And even then, he wasn't finishing on time.

 

I've only had a chance to meet a few comic artists, mostly those who work on SW comics, and they all have been great people with a good professional attitude. Joe Corroney is great with fans and his attention to detail (especially well known characters) is uncanny...and I just love Jan Duursema's work on Clone Wars and the Quinlin Vos storyline! It's people like that who make me willing to go to the same convention, year in and year out, if only to say "hi" and buy some samples of their work.

However, there are some people I walk past at cons, who I believe consider drawing 2-3 pictures of half-naked women over the course of a month to be "stressful working conditions" .

 

Awww, shucks... thanks Krash! (your check is in the mail!)

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http://www.joecorroney.com/

 

We're getting paid to say nice things about Joe, now? Is this retroactive to his Crimson Dynamo days?

 

I think it does affect my desire to meet them...but that doesn't mean I won't.

Billy Dee Williams: Made everyone at c3 wait for him on saturday just because he decided he didn't want to sign autographs. BAD FORM. But then he made everyone wait til he was good and ready on sunday too, and just wasnt that nice. If not for my triple autograph (vader,fett,calrissian on the same pic) I wouldn't have...ok, maybe I would have just to get it and go.

Ray Park: Ray would let his lines build up, then walk them and take pics with EVERYONE. Just a generally cool guy who seems to enjoy the fans.

Amy Allen: Contrary to what you've all said, when I met her, she seemed to have her focus on everything except for me. It was like, Oh, another fan. I just didn't seem to feel that important when I was around her.

Temura Morrison: Ok, I have the pics to prove it: HE ARMWRESTLED ME!!! It was bloody brilliant, despite me not knowing what was going on and me putting all my efforts into getting a win. Just the coolest experience of my life (though now I can't watch episodes 2 or 3 the same way...well, 2 anyway, he armwrestled me before I saw 3, but I digress). Oh, and on sunday, he sang happy birthday to the staff coordinator over the PA system. What a great guy!

 

I remember that...it was awesome! In fact I think I was in Ray Park's/or maybe his line when he did that.

But most of the people at C3 (except maybe Billy Dee that I can think off the top of my head) was very good about it to me...at least the ones I went to!

 

DarthFloyd - Your experience with Amy really seems out of character for her (not saying it didn't happen)...that's a shame. I mean we all know people have their off moments, but that's so unlike her. If she ever comes to one of the regional conventions, try stopping by again. She's really good at remembering people, like how she remembers Emily and myself from C2 and Colossalcon2 (Cleveland) where we presented her with an honorary JKOC member award.

Billy Dee - ..."and that's all I have to say about that"

 

Yeah, I've seen her do that, too. But in all fairness, I've seen a lot of actors/actresses who are only interested in you if you're about to give them money.

 

I've only met a few actors at conventions. Tom Savini was always real quiet- even around the party crowd. Richard Hatch would sit there and BS with you for hours about politics and current events.

I look at it this way- they're not 10 feet tall and superhuman. They're the same biological life forms with the same biological needs and issues as the rest of us. If an actor's not very talkative one day, or doesn't look interested in being there, or agitated- I don't take it personal. Maybe they're hung over, or had some fanboy drooling down their sweater or got hit by a barrage of annoying questions before I got there. I don't expect them to put on an act for me when I meet them. We all have good days and bad days, and an actor's no different. I've had several ask me questions about the military (I still wear my hair high & tight after all these years just because I'm used to it), and it's interesting to find out they had done a stint in uniform. Some of these folks (especially the B-Movie types) have other jobs between movies, just to pay the bills. But I don't expect them to banter with me, or buy me a beer at the hotel bar in the evening. I go up, get my autograph, pay the $10-$20 fee, maybe get a personal snapshot, shake their hand, and move on

 

I have to agree with CJ. While I didn't meet Amy directly via waiting in line to get an autograph, I went to the "Jedi Action" segment at C3 that featured the background Jedi actors from the prequels. All of the other actors were into it, especially Zach Jensen, that guy is very cool. Amy, however, seemed like she did not want to participate at all. Granted 60 minutes is just a snapshot of someone's life and can't be used to view them accurately as a person, but Amy's attitude on that day was really lackluster.

 

The sad thing was, I was technically giving her money, and she just acted like I was another problem to ignore.

 

I had a good experience with everyone at C2 and C3 with the exception of Peter Mayhew. I had several friends that had bad experiences with him too. Not sure what was up with that.

Other actors and actresses have been really cool too, Virginia Hey, Richard Hatch, John Ryhs-Davies, Tracy Lords, etc, but Adam West, he was just a tad bit arrogant. But I know everyone has a bad day now and then.

 

Jake Lloyd is really nice too. We met him on 2 occasions in the same day at C3 and he was really nice. Actually it was funny he remembered us the second time we saw him.

 

Oh...I have to meet Amy Allen...she's smokin'

 

Oh...I have to meet Amy Allen...she's smokin' As for star demeanors, yes, if they seem to have a bad attitude, why should I drop by and say hi?

 

I met Adam West back in May and he was more than a tad arrogant. I can't say how he acted without being banned. And he was charging $40 an autograph, too. For $40 you could at least look at the people that are paying for your autograph.

 

No doubt, $40 is waaaaay too high for him! We actually met Burt Ward this year, and he was very nice, very polite, and seemed to enjoy meeting his fans.

On a funny note, one of my friends has a really cheesy Robin costume, so he got his picture made with both! Burt Ward thought it was funny, but Adam West acted like he was embarassed and very uncomfortable with it. We were like, "Smile Autograph monkey!" CLICK.

 

This is the kind of stuff I like to see: Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and a bunch of Firefly guest stars showed up for a convention that was actually canceled. I don't know how long ago the show was canceled, but that was damn cool of them to come and just hang out with the fans anyway.