SHORE LEAVE 24, BALTIMORE 2002

I honnestly don't think the shore leave convention ever had that many visitors, especially first timers who don't even know what a Klingon is. Ok, I do know what a Klingon is, I just don't watch those Sci-Fi shows. But James Marsters brought with him such an impressive crowd of hysterical girls that Shore leave organizers where soon overwhelmed.

The convention itself was surprisingly fun. Of course, the fact that they showed Once more with feelings on giant screen helped making it fun. They also showed Andromeda and Bad eggs. There was tones and tones of Buffy stuff to buy. People in amazing costumes. Really nice actors that I could actually remember seeing and who were making themselves completely available. Alcohol, Karaoke, DJs, rave... With all that, it couldn't be that bad. But of course, you had to forget the idea of ever getting your beauty sleep (4-5 hours a night, not enough for me!).

We're gonna see James in the morning... isn't life grand or what!

James was there saturday and sunday, both days giving a Q&A at 3pm, and signing autographs at 4pm. There was tones of stupid rules about this autograph session. Well, they were probably not that stupid if you have 1000 fans coming for different reasons. But if you have 2000 desperate James Marsters fans... you're screwed basically. So saturday was a complete MESS. Some people were just about to physically hurt each other. Some were very mad because they came for one day only and didn't get an autograph. I saw kids crying. But all I could worry about was the poor guy sitting at a table who managed to sign his name 700 times (officially, but some people were paying for extra autographs so it's actually more). It would have all worked out fine if they had stuck with their first rules of no pictures with him, no dedications, and one per person. But an hour after it all started, some idiot came up with the idea of making people pay for extra autographs, up to three. 10$. Would you pay 10$ for an extra 20 seconds in front of James? I know I would. So what do you think happened? Everybody asked for two or three autographs, which is the reason why some people went back home without even getting close to him.

James during the public signing

I can't tell you guys what happened or what was said during the first day of Q&A because I wasn't there. I'll tell you later why.

Sunday. Some very nice girl named April (Hi April!!) warned us that people planed on waiting for the Q&A at 7am (remember, it's a 3pm..). So we figured we had to be there early in order to get in. See, it was a first came first served basis, and you couldn't even leave your seat. Someone would have to sit on it or you were screwed. There were about 300 seats, and like I mentioned earlier, about 2000 James fans. So no need to say that everybody was quite anxious to get in! And the more people were cutting into the line up, the more bitchy everybody got. I even saw a girl almost punching another girl for cutting in front of her! But we got in alright, got our front row seats, and waited. And waited. And waited again.

SOME OF THE STUFF HE SAID

very cute picture of James receiving the shore leave bunny

Obviously, I can't tell you everything he said, for the very good reason that I was busy looking and taking pictures, and also because I didn't have a pad to write down everything. Since it was a public thing, I guess it's pretty much ok to put it on the net.

James is just the nicest person ever. I've read it before from people who had the chance to meet him. But he was even better than I imagined. A hundred times better. Even when some girl asked a stupid question that visibly upset him, he managed to be sweet about it and try not to make the girl feel bad for asking. And by the way girls, don't ask questions about the episode "Seeing red", that's not something he likes to talk about.

I was actually very surprised by the quality of the questions asked. Seeing the attitude of the people attending, I was expecting questions like do you have a girlfriend or are you wearing any underwear. But surprisingly enough, we heard none of that. Lots of questions were about Buffy, some about his music, his career, basic stuff like that.

Yes, he did receive the first script of season 7. And us Spike/Buffy shippers wont like it. He tried to put it nicely during the public Q&A, saying that Spike doesn't want to be with Buffy for some deep psychological reasons. But we'll see what happens cause that's only during the first episode, and there is 21 more after that. And like he said himself:"Joss is a cruel man. He'll never give us what we want no matter what. And if he does give us something, he'll do the exact opposite just before in order to throw us off. Just like he did when Buffy and Spike were fighting, and a second later, they were having sex. That's our Joss.

I know the questions were supposed to be for James, but he asked us one: "Why the hell do we want Buffy and Spike together? Is there anything good about that relationship? Name one thing, just one... Oh, yeah, the extremely hot sex I guess..." (whoohoo, James said the S word, everybody scream and faint) Sorry for the sarcasm. And then he told us:
"Girls, repeat after me: If a man is mean, he'll be mean to me."
*sigh* Good thing you're not mean James...

*Sigh*

When asked if he preferred the romantic Spike, or the Big Bad, James said: "Hummm, wait a sec" He looks at his right hand "Kissing Sarah?" looks at his left hand "or hitting Sarah? Tough choice" But then he got more serious and explained that he liked it better when he was a clever mix of both. The monster with a romantic twist to it. The Drusilla era. But he actually wanted Spike to be redeemed. That's why even when he acts evil, he tries to do that thing with his eyes that makes you go: "Awww, poor Spikey, it's not his fault if he did this or that..."

When asked what was going to happen to him in season 7, he said he had no clue, but he was probably going to suffer a lot from the guilt because he wasn't a killer when he was human. He said:"Joss was telling us how season 7 was going to be a happy season... light, fun, every characters happy shiny. Then I received the script and I'm like... Ok, THAT is not happy." So yeah, everybody's gonna be happy, except Spike. At least for now.
To the question: What are you gonna do this season?
He said: "Season 7?.. I'll probably be selling cupcakes"

Laughing at his own joke...

The famous question about "Seeing red" was how he managed to do it. He answered that he really didn't give a shit about the acting in that hellish bathroom scene. All he cared about was to protect Sarah. We're talking psychologically here. Acting a rape scene can be pretty nerve wracking. He said he was making sure she'd remember it wasn't him, it was his character. He was trying to stay away from her in between two shots. He said:"I was so upset at the end of that day, I went back home crying, locked myself in the bathroom repeating: I'm not a rapist, I'm not a fucking rapist!. I really love that writer usually, but that day, I hated him deeply."

someone asked a stupid question that upset him (about seeing red)

Someone asked if he'd like to write someday and he said that he already did. He wrote a script for Firefly just for fun and gave it to Joss. But he said Joss will never use it because he has real writers that he pays.

He also said that he'd like to produce a movie sometimes.

When someone asked him about Andromeda, he got very embarrassed and managed to say, in a very diplomatic way, that he thinks that show stinks and we will hopefully never see him in that purple outfit again.

He has two singles coming: Valerie, and David Letterman. And he hopes that next year, if Sarah can't make it to the Letterman show, he'll invite him instead. (If Mr. Letterman is a smart man, he will)

singning at the Q&A

He did the voice for a book on cd called Storm front. He said he did it just to get an experience in that field, but ended up really liking that book. It took them only two days to record the eight hours cds. (I bought it! C'mon, listening to James voice for eight hours?! Who wouldn't!! It will make my trip to work a little less painful in the morning...)

To go back on the Buffy questions, at one point during an answer, he said that he promised NOT to be another Angel. Do I have to describe the reaction he got? Seriously, he looked very pleased with the crowd's reaction. People started screaming, applauding and standing up... And he blushed as if he just realized that to those people, he's bigger than David Boreanaz. That was really cute.

He doesn't like to go on the internet because after only an hour on that thing, he feels his head getting bigger. And since it's very important to him to keep his feet on the ground, he'd rather avoid it.

James got into acting at a very young age. His first play was Winnie the pooh. Getting into acting was a way for him to escape his crazy family life.

He thinks his performance in School Hard is the worst of his life. He said he used the same technique he would use for theater and it came out pretty bad. Personally, I never noticed it was that bad, but I'll have to check. Anyway, I don't think Buffy's producers would have kept him if it really was that bad.

He thinks it's not fair that all the naked scenes we had this year were: him naked, Sarah fully clothed. Do I have to mention the crowd reacted strongly to that too....

So that's about as much as I can remember. It's actually a really good subconscious memory test, because I wasn't all there at the time. Some of the things he said, he already told us during the private signing, so I was more focusing on trying to get good pictures rather than trying to remember every single words he said.

NOW ON TO THE GOOD PART