Meet and Greet - Friday Night by tbsaver
For the first 200 people to purchase tickets, the evening was far from over. We had been promised that we would get the opportunity to talk with the cast members, and talk we did. We crowded into one of the meeting rooms awaiting the cast’s arrival. The room still buzzing with excitement at the appearance of Laurel Holloman, who it transpired, had literally just arrived in London, Husband and baby Lola in tow.
If she was overwhelmed by the reception she received during the opening ceremony, then the Meet and Great must surely have been an eye opener for her. The sea of people in front of her briefly parted for her entrance, quickly closing around her as all were anxious to get “their moment” with the star.
Of course Laurel “owned” the room, and we all gathered round her, some to thank her for coming, some to just get the chance to see her up close, and touchingly, some to tell her that seeing her character in the show, and identifying with her, gave them the courage to come out and learn who they really were.
Laurel told me that they hadn’t finished shooting the show yet, and that they had rescheduled the timetable. She told me that Jennifer was shooting scenes on her own on the Monday, but that she now wasn’t required to be back on set until Wednesday. She didn’t find out until the last minute, but made arrangements to come over for the convention as soon as she knew. “Coming here is something we do on our own. I told my manager that I really wanted to do this, I always wanted to come over, and I told them that if I wasn’t shooting that I would be coming here. I am so happy to be here, when I walked out and saw all these people and their reaction and I just thought “Yeah!”
I commented that Laurel looked a little overawed by the reaction
“I had no idea, I was like Wow, I’ve been to a lot of charity events in the states, and I have seen a lot of this in San Francisco and New York, and in LA but not in London. And you know I came over here when I was 19 and went to school here for 6 months, and studied, and then did a play over here, and was with this programme called RADA which was sponsored by Yale university. So I feel that when I decided I wanted to act I did so over here, when I was really young. It’s neat to come back to the place where you have a lot of dreams, and you’ve seen them fulfilled.”
Interestingly when asked about whether the other cast members would be interested in coming along, Laurel answered “I think we tried to get Leisha last minute, but she was going away with her partner. I think if she could have, she would have come, and you know, Kate would love this. I think the hard thing is that our schedules are really crazy, and this weekend is an American holiday, but if we do this again then who knows.”
Rachel Shelley was delightful, warm, and friendly and clearly touched by her reception. She admitted that she was a relieved that she was so well received. She had been concerned that after playing “the Baddie” for a season, she wasn’t entirely sure how happy the fans would be to see her. “ I can remember looking on the discussion boards after my character was shown for the first time, and after seeing what people were saying about me I couldn‘t believe it. I have never looked again.”
After a chat with Rachel we found out that the last two episodes haven’t been filmed yet, and indeed, Rachel had only received the script for episode 11 (of 12) the previous day and hadn’t had chance to look at it yet.
Meredith was completely engaging, and had an enthusiasm for her character that I think many found difficult not to match. Of course the question of the event for her was did she kill Mr Piddles, and I for one would much rather believe her version of events. Meredith explains that Tonya was terribly allergic to cats, but just wanted to do anything that would make Dana happy, so agreed to give him his medication, even though the thought of doing so freaked her out. “The simple truth is that she just couldn’t face the thought of popping those tablets down his throat. Tonya didn’tthink it would be a big deal, and that Mr Piddles would be ok with that. Of course when he passed away, she couldn‘t bring herself to tell Dana the truth.” And so there you have it, Tonya didn’t Murder Mr Piddles!
Meredith was full of revelations about Tonya during the course of the weekend, that made myself and many others question our perception of her character. I for one have gone back and revisited her scenes in season 2 viewing them from a whole new angle. (But more of that later). Meredith told us that Tonya wasn’t the only Lesbian role she had played on TV, and in the early days she had played the part of a Topless lesbian boxer.
Meredith admitted that she felt so lucky that they kept writing more and more for her character, as she was originally only due to be in the show for one episode. When she was asked if it was scary for her to play a Lesbian she replied that she thought it was scarier to consider not taking the role. She said that she would hate to be the kind of person that didn’t want to take this kind of work based on the sexuality of a character, and commented that we are in the 21st century now right?
Meredith did reveal that she felt sad that the end for Tonya was written to be funny. She had invested so much energy into her character that there were times that she got really angry with Erin’s character. So much so that she wanted to shake Dana and say “Hey look at me, what’s so wrong with me” on behalf of her character. Meredith also admitted that when the end came, she really wanted her and Dana to have a real conversation, but that it just wasn’t meant to end that way, and so both she and Erin talked about it a lot and that they agreed both tried to make the ending as emotional and true to the characters as possible.
Anne Ramsay captivated the room. She was cool, collected, and amazingly friendly. Her enthusiasm for her fans was apparent from the moment she walked into the room, regaling all with stories from her career, and joking about whether she would sing or not during the course of the weekend. Asked at one point if she was happy with the changes made to Robin for season 2 Anne commented that she did not see Robin as the clingy type that would become obsessive, but that she felt that Jenny’s character needed to move on so that she could begin her journey during season 2, and in order for that to happen, her relationship with Robin would have to end, and she understood why it happened that way.
Eric enjoyed a lively debate with many of his fans not only about his character in the L-word, but also talked about many of his roles in the 25 films he has completed to date. Top of the list being his role as Matt in resident Evil. Eric enjoyed the banter in good humour, and stayed after the meet and great to enjoy a few (too many) drinks with the fans in the bar.
All too soon the time with the cast was over. I know that some fans in the room had not had the chance to talk as they would have liked with the cast members, but overall I think we all agreed that day 1 of the event had been a tremendous success, and we couldn’t wait for Day two and our chance to be photographed with the stars!
Next Up… Saturday with the Stars
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