Submitted by: Nora

Spending three days surrounded by 45,000 people in temperatures over 100 is usually not what you would call fun, but throw in celebrities and Stormtroopers and fun is exactly what you get.  This past Labor Day Weekend, Atlanta played host to trekkies, steampunkers, and sci-fi fans alike for the 25^th Anniversary Dragon*Con.

To a first-timer like me, Dragon*Con was pretty overwhelming. The huge event is spread out between five downtown Atlanta hotels and had non-stop events.  Days at Dragon*Con are filled with panels ranging from Anime to Tolkien, and at night options include raves, costume balls, a night at the aquarium and even a superhero burlesque show! I spent the weeks prior to Dragon*Con carefully plotting my schedule, which turned out to be pretty useless! Once I was in the middle of the chaos that is D*Con, my schedule went out the window. I had 15 panels on my schedule, and ended up seeing only 5. I was okay with that because I was able to soak in all the costumes, check out all the vendors, and generally just be at the Con.

Speaking of costumes, costumes are second nature at Dragon*Con. It was nothing to see R2D2 roaming beside a Sookie cosplayer.  The restaurants, bars and trains were filled with people in costumes that ranged from the extremely elaborate to the almost non-existent.. I saw a multitude of Merlotte’s waitresses, Captain Americas and there were Dalecks everywhere! Steampunk was also very popular, and they ranged from Steampunk Ghostbusters to even a Steampunk Dexter! Costume watching is definitely a fun part of Dragon*Con. To see a gallery of costumes from Dragon*Con 2011, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/dragoncon2011/ .

Dragon*Con gives fans the possibility to run into their favorite celebrity . The #dragoncon twitter feed was full of fans that had just walked past or were  sitting across from William Shatner, Wil Wheaton, Colin Ferguson, etc.  For those of us that were not so lucky, there was the Walk of Fame, where fans could pay a small fee for an autograph and/or have a photo taken with any of the actors. Celebrities in attendance ranged from stars from Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, and True Blood.  I was totally star struck walking past James Marsters ( Spike, from Buffy and Angel) , and the stars of the highly popular web series, The Guild.  It was surreal being in a room filled with people that I have seen on the small and big screens. Most of the fees were reasonable, $10 for picture, $35 for autograph. Some were higher, but for the most part, that was the average. Aside from Wil Wheaton and Tom Felton (Harry Potter), the lines to meet your favorite celebrity were short. I waited 10 min to meet Kristin Bauer van Straten (True Blood), and it was well worth it. She was so sweet and patient with the star-struck fans.

It wouldn’t be a Con if you weren’t standing in long lines and Dragon*Con was no exception. Standing outside for two hours waiting on a panel was not my favorite memory, but once seated inside for Q&A with Felicia Day and cast members of the Guild, it was worth it. It was a great way to meet new people, as we were all standing there for the same reason. At one point, one guy in line ran across the street and brought back an armful of ice cream for his fellow Con-goers.

Another thing that separates Dragon*Con from other cons is that most panels had several showings throughout the weekend. If you missed a panel one day, there was another chance to catch it. That really helped, because we tried to get in to the True Blood panel twice before getting in the last day. And that panel turned out to be my favorite part of Dragon*Con 2011!

My husband, my friends and I dragged our sleepy butts out 2 ½ hours before the panel started Sunday morning because we were not missing it this time! We waited for over 2 hours before they opened the door but once they did, the wait was absolutely worth it. We had perfect seats in the third row. The wait for the panel to begin was softened by the hilarious videos broadcast on the big screen. Dragon*Con TV was filled with parodies aimed at helping con-goers have a safe and fun time. You can check out these videos at http://web.dragoncontv.com/tag/2011/ .

Once the huge ballroom was full the moderator introduced the panelists: Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pam), Jim Parrack (Hoyt), Joe Manganiello (Alcide), Denis O’Hare (Russell), and Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse series). As Joe came onstage, he teased the audience by lifting up his shirt like he was going to take it off. The crowd went crazy and I’m sure if he did take off his shirt there would have been fangirls and boys falling out all over the place (I might have been among them!)

The moderator asked the panelists some questions and then opened the floor up to the audience. They were all very careful about spoilers, but did say the last couple of episodes would be crazy.  They all seemed happy to be there and graciously answered all the questions.

Kristin and Jim seemed to be passing notes back and forth, which I thought was so cute! Every time Joe answered a question the hall exploded with screams and clapping like they couldn’t help it (I wouldn’t know anything about that )

I found Ms. Harris to be surprisingly charming and funny. One of the questions asked was how she thought the show stacks up to her books. Her response was that she thought her books “were perfect”.  She did think that the addition of Jessica to the show was a good decision (I agree!). She liked that it gave Hoyt someone to love and gave Bill the opportunity to be parental, which she really enjoys.

One theme throughout the panel was morality. Kristin was asked about Pam’s loyalty to Eric and she said that she really struggled with the scene where Pam accidently betrayed Eric by telling Bill where he was. Kristin wanted to make sure that it was organic and really believable that she had just made a huge mistake because she knew that Pam would never betray her maker. She was also really happy to see the scene that followed showing how much pain it had caused her. Denis talked about how he felt his relationship to Talbot kept him grounded and showed him the lines of morality. When he was killed, those lines went away.

Joe talked about how growing up he was a lot like Alcide. He felt like he never fit in with any of the groups in school, like Alcide doesn’t really fit in with the wolf pack. He also said Alcide decided to give Debbie another shot because he thought Sookie was dead. Now that she is back, things are different. He said that we will see that a lot in the last couple of episodes.

We were all sad to see the panel come to an end and agreed that this was our favorite part of the con. We can’t wait to see them next year!

Overall, aside from the heat, I loved Dragon*Con. It still had a fan feel to it, despite how commercialized the world has become. It is a place where fans go to be together, have fun, possibly meet celebrities, and express their creativity with all kinds of cosplay. I have already purchased my badge and booked my hotel for Dragon*Con 2012 and plan on making this a yearly trip. I think every geek and/or fan of the genre should definitely make the trek to Atlanta. Where else can you see Darth Vader pushing a baby Yoda?

Here are more of Nora’s pics from the True Blood Panel:

According to Digital Spy, the character we all love to hate, Russell Edgington will be back!

That’s right!

Denis O’Hare has announced he’ll be reprising the role  in the fifth season of True Blood.

Kelly

Here’s a clip from the True Blood Season 3 DVD — which will be released on May 23rd — featuring Stephen Moyer, Denis O’Hare, and a few of the furrier actors from the season:

(scifiwire)  

With True Blood‘s huge season-three premiere headed our way Sunday on HBO, we talked with three of the show’s stars: Rutina Wesley (who returns as Tara) plus new regulars Denis O’Hare (Russell Edgington) and Lindsay Pulsipher (Crystal Norris).

While creator Alan Ball recently gave us some sizzling spoilers, the actors shared some spoilers of their own regarding their characters and their storylines. Wesley chatted about Tara’s sexy/scary entanglement with bad boy vamp Franklin Mott (James Frain), O’Hare dished about becoming the Vampire King of Mississippi, and Pulsipher talked about NOT getting naked for the series … yet.

“There’s so much blood and sex! It’s so gory sometimes, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, what am I watching?’ But it’s so engaging because you just see this small community affected by all these different things,” said Wesley. “We all get mixed up in a bunch more stuff coming up in season three—like it doesn’t stop. We keep getting ourselves into these places, like between a rock and a hard place.”

For O’Hare, who plays one of the new bad guys on True Blood this season, he feels that “the story lines and the episodes are a mixture of great plot and great physiological exploration. You have whole storylines where nothing is happening plot-wise but the characters are developing, learning about themselves. Jessica, the vampire from last season, I feel like you are watching a young woman awaken, and I feel like vampire Bill’s trajectory has been a trajectory of discovery.”

Well, Bill’s trajectory is actually one of being kidnapped, at least as of the end of last season’s cliffhanger. “When did that happen? Oh yeah. I wonder where he went?” he said casually, sounding a lot like he knows exactly where Bill Compton went.

It looks like Tara has more challenges ahead than just grieving for her dead boyfriend Eggs when a mysterious vampire named Franklin Mott comes into her life. “I can’t say whether or not this relationship is by choice, but it’s definitely a very interesting storyline that you’re about to see. I mean, I think he sort of comes in and saves the day, and then she gets wrapped up in this thing with him,” said Wesley.

“I think she’s trying to find herself. I mean, after everything with Eggs, she’s gotten knocked off her feet a bit, and I think she’s just trying to find her feet again. And yet she gets mixed up with this vampire, and he knocks her back off her feet, and I think you see her really kind of want to have the will to live life and enjoy life and just realize how valuable life is to her. And she’s going to really come into her womanhood and find herself, hopefully. It’s a huge struggle, because she does have this relationship with Franklin Mott, and, like I said, it’s either by choice or not by choice.”

“She’s a pretty colorful character,” said Pulsipher. “She comes from a sad background. She was raised in the sticks in Louisiana, with lots of meth … she cooks meth. She happens to run into Jason Stackhouse in Bon Temps, and she’s like immediately taken by him.”

The girl from Hotshot, the other side of the tracks, is smitten with Sookie’s brother, said Pulsipher. “Crystal sees Jason as a way out of her lifestyle. She’s been kind of trapped in this horrible lifestyle. So they have an amazing kind of a magical connection, and it’s really a struggle for her to see if she can escape the life that she’s always known.”

Those familiar with the Charlaine Harris novel series know, at least when it comes to the books, where this is all going to lead. Crystal has a secret, and in the books challenges abound for her character when it comes to her attempts to leave the past behind. How close her story is to that of the books, “I am not able to say,” said Pulsipher. She’ll only reveal, “She’s kind of a slow reveal. She unfolds slowly throughout, and then she really starts to pick up towards the end.”

“Russell is older than Godric. So he’s actually the oldest vampire,” said O’Hare. “I’m a research freak. I love to research and the ability to go ahead and delve into the past. What Alan [Ball] and I finally realized is that this guy is probably an ancient Celt and the Celts actually came from somewhere east of Italy, probably across the Carpathian mountains, so present-day Romania.”

Russell lives in a mansion in Jackson, Miss., when we meet him, with his boyfriend of 700 years, said O’Hare. “Russell’s very charming. He’s incredibly instinctual. He survived millennia of different vampire fads, and he is ruthless without being rude. He’s never rude.”

With over a dozen new characters this season, the world of True Blood is growing. “What they’ve done really well is they’ve managed to keep all the original characters completely in play, and those characters also continue to develop,” said O’Hare. “It’s not like marking time. They’re still upfront and center, and they are still vitally important. The new characters aren’t taking over in any way. They’re integrating with the old characters and intersecting with them. It’s a really deft marriage, I think.”

“I’ve called her a ‘hard flower,’ meaning she’s got this kind of rock on the outside, but as the seasons have gone along we’ve sort of been chipping away at the rock, and you can see these beautiful petals starting to show through. She’s got incredible vulnerability. She’s incredibly fierce. She’s also incredibly defensive and annoying to some people, but I also think those defenses are earned,” said Wesley.

“I always say Tara is the truth, … Whatever comes out of her mouth is the truth. She’s very observative. She tells it like it is,” she said. This season the actress believes “I can really trust myself with Tara, that I finally have found my feet as an actor with her and I really know her. I really feel like she’s in my heart, she’s in my body, my mind, my soul. … I really feel like I’m hitting the ground running this season.”

If you’ve read the books, you may think you know Crystal’s story. But don’t count on anything when it comes to True Blood. “It’s always hard to tell what Alan is going to do, because he sticks pretty closely with the books, but he definitely gives it his own take and makes it his own,” said Pulsipher. “Which I think is partly for creative reasons and also to kind of comply with the timing” of the series.

Of all the characters, Tara on True Blood is a very different and more important character than Tara in the novels. “I wasn’t familiar with the books until I was cast in the show, and then I did read the first book or two, and then when I knew they were going to change Tara drastically, I decided to stop reading so that I could just create her on my own along with the rest of the writing team,” said Wesley. “I mean I’m actually excited about that, because it just gives me much more to do in the show, and I was just like, ‘Thank you for writing me … you know, writing more for me.’ I lucked out with that.”

Pulsipher admits she enjoys working with Ryan Kwanten, who plays the oh-so-hot Jason Stackhouse. “It is so funny, because he is this kind of a sex symbol for a lot of women, and he really doesn’t have that personality. He’s one of the most humble guys I’ve ever met. He’s really, really sweet, and it doesn’t even faze him.”

However, Ball hasn’t been shy about graphic sex scenes, and working with Kwanten may just lead to some sexy moments of her own. “I haven’t done nudity before, and it hasn’t come up yet, but the people that run the show … I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’m not too worried about it,” she said.

“I think it’s like every actor’s dream get to work with Alan Ball and play such a colorful character,” said Pulsipher with a laugh. “Kind of being the nerd that I am, like getting a script, I read it as a fan as well as my character study, and every time I get a script I’m just like … I can’t wait to read it.”

“Alan Ball … Alan Ball is, I think he’s one of our great creative minds in TV and film, and I think Six Feet Under is one of those watershed TV series that pushed the form with the credits alone,” said O’Hare. “The opening credits alone of Six Feet Under, I thought, changed credit sequences. I thought that then True Blood did the same thing again, changed credit sequences again … Just wanting for me to be around the mind of somebody who does that.”

“I’m a fan of the show,” he said. “I never intended to be on it. I never sought the job out. I was a fan; I’d been watching True Blood since it came out and I was in Budapest doing a movie. I was doing a Roman movie last fall with Channing Tatum and Donald Sutherland, and I got a call from my agent, and he basically said, ‘How would you like to be the king of the vampires on HBO’s True Blood?’” O’Hare said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I said, ‘My boyfriend Hugo loves, loves, loves the show,’ so I knew he would flip.”

So are you ready for some Sookie Stackhouse action in season three?

(By: Rebecca Murray/About.com) Have you started filming True Blood?

Denis O’Hare: “I have shot two episodes of True Blood. ”

Are you as evil as they say you’re going to be?

Denis O’Hare: “No! I’m charming. I’m not evil – I’m charming. I’m the Vampire King of Mississippi. And I actually got my fangs today.”

What did they feel like?

Denis O’Hare: “They do a mouth cast, you know what I mean, and then they make them. And then you get rubber fangs, and then you get hard fangs. Hard fangs hurt and rubber fangs feel great.”

Are we going to see you sucking on people?

Denis O’Hare: “Definitely. Yeah, definitely.”

Okay, but they say you’re the big villain…

Denis O’Hare: “No. I have a point of view. I’m for vampires and I want them to get their rights. I want them to be preeminent, and I’ll do what I have to do to make that happen.”

And it doesn’t matter who you kill to do that?

Denis O’Hare: “It’s not about killing, it’s about persuading. I’m very charming.”

How easy is it to say, “Oh yeah, I’m playing a vampire”?

Denis O’Hare: “You know what? It’s a riot. It’s a total riot. But it’s great to say, ‘I’m the Vampire King of Mississippi.’ That’s much better.”

Is that the accent you use?

Denis O’Hare: “That’s the accent I’m going to use. It’s a good one. I have a great model, a guy down from Meridian, Mississippi – a good guy.”

Okay, everybody else in the cast gets naked. Are they going to make the King of Mississippi get naked?

Denis O’Hare: “I hope not. I mean, you know what? I’m not ashamed of my body but I am 48 and it’s kind of like I’ve managed to go this long without doing that, you know? I mean, my sisters will be really unhappy – they’d be grossed out. I just think it’s better for everyone.”

You’ve already filmed two of them… Have you been terrible in those or are these good scenes? [and no, I didn't mean his acting but the actions taken by the King in those scenes] What are you doing?

Denis O’Hare: “They’re fantastic scenes. The writing is unbelievably good. You know what’s great about it is that even though you’re a vampire, you’re human. And so I had this great scene recently with Vampire Bill [played by Stephen Moyer] and it was a scene between two people talking about the people that they love, and what you do with that love. Because my boyfriend in the thing is 700 years old…I’m 2300 years old and we’ve been together for 700 years. And I have this great line where I say, ‘Spend eternity together – that’s commitment.’ But, you know, the script is deep. It’s not just frivolous, and I love that about it.”

Did you watch the other two seasons?

Denis O’Hare: “I did. I was a fan, I was a fan.”

Did you read the books?

Denis O’Hare: “I read a couple of the books, just to kind of get background. You know what? They’re a different thing. I think what Alan [Ball] does is incredibly unique, and what Charlaine [Harris] did was incredibly cool because she created this world. And then he takes that world and he changes it.”

It’s still the same basic world.

Denis O’Hare: “Same basic world, yeah.”

It’s almost an alternate universe, in some cases.

Denis O’Hare: “Yeah. But in the books, I’m like 22 and have brown eyes. I’m not 22 and I have green eyes, so…”