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Ring*Con 2010 - Press Conference

Here you can find a transcript of the Ring*Con 2010 press conference (or rather those parts in which Mark Ferguson and Craig Parker are talking, the rest is just summarized).


Guests are announced one by one and enter the room. They take a seat.

Question: Hi everyone. My first question goes to Mark. First: Congratulations to your new job.
Mark: Thank you!
Questioner: My question is - how did you prepare for it? [Mark laughs] Do you have to prepare at all?
Mark: Do I have to prepare at all?
Questioner: Yes. You know Ring*Con so well!
Mark: Ah, yes, I'm well prepared, I bought a suit, I bought a clipboard for my information and basically I am now working on my MC attitude. Which won't be any different from my normal attitude. Basically I came about because I was asked and I said, because I was in a crazy mood, and I said yes, and really, at this stage I am feeling a mixture of being very excited about it and being utterly terrified, so they are sort of fighting between each other. I think just as I go on, I will be more excited than terrified. But, no, I am absolut looking forward to it and I think I know it reasonably well by now [laughs] and it should be a huge amount of fun.
Questioner: Don't be terrified, you know we love you.
Mark: Goh ... Look, my terror's gone. Thank You.

Question: I have a question for Craig Parker. Hi Craig. Just a few minutes ago, we learnt from Mr. Stefan Servos that there's a lot of turmoil about what's going on in New Zealand regarding filming and regarding filming The Hobbit of course. And we learnt that you are directly involved in this thing. So would you please tell us what's going on from your perspective.
Craig: Ahm, very briefly. There have been things going on in New Zealand, but right at this point there are discussions going on between all parties and hopefully will be sorted out very soon. I think we all want this working, to make sure the films happen and I fully hope and believe they will. So stay tuned for two fantastic films coming very soon.
Questioner: Thank you.

Pavis from RTL has a question about the success of vampire movies, what makes them so successfull, why are so many people dressed as vampires and such. It might be the idea of living forever, Kyle says. Leah things it might be because of the Twilight saga being utterly romantic, being a metaphor for everlasting love. Gil says that she's leaving out the werewolves in her answer.

Question to Kyle Schmid and Dylan Neal, they talk about a possible successor of the Blood Ties series and then something about a new CSI Canada.
Craig: Because the world needs another CSI, doesn't? There's not enough of it out there.
Dylan says that there are enough shows to keep that part of the Canadian business busy.

Question: This is a question to all of you. Those who have been to Ring*Con before, what made you come back, and those who are new here - what do you expect?
Kyle: All of you guys made us come back.
Jed: I just missed you all, deeply. I have to come back because I am really bad with names and I only got a third of names down, so I thought if I come back, I could all of them. That's why I am here. You're like a new family. Thos of us from New Zealand, it's a very small country. We don't have any friends. [laughters] We're prone of make friends outside our country so it's good to come into a lovely country.
Craig: We actually have the National Museum Te Papa, our place, it's cool and what we've all done, we take photos while we're here and we've got cardboard cutouts of all of you in this big room and pretty much we spend most of our time trough the rest of the year in this room, pretending we're here. This is our chance to actually to really be here, so this is why we come back. But there's some fantastic newsbies down this side.
Dayna is excited to meet everyone, especially the fans of Legend of the Seeker who work so hard to bring it back with a third series. Allan Smith agrees. Jason thinks that fans who watch such shows are the best and he's looking forward to play here. Gil, Charlie and Leah also answer the question. Leah also says that he feels like the first day at school.
Lori Dungey: I've been here a few times, so [Everyone laughs] it's really nice to come back and sort of takes an hour to get to the elevator [...]. So - that's really nice, you know, you just spend your time playing around, having a chat and I sort of missed like being on a plane for about thirty hours, every year, so I had to get back to get that again and it's also a fantastic opportunity to work with other New Zealanders I wouldn't see, except at Ring*Con. [laughters] So thank you for giving that opportunity to spend so much quality time with Mark and Jed and Craig and we also want to get some pen pals for Jed as well, so if anyone would like to volunteer.
Kyle says that Dirk didn't really give him the choice, there had been threats involved and photographs. Dylan says that he has contractionally to follow Kyle around the world, he has promised it to Kyle's mom and that he has to keep Kyle out of trouble.

Question to Kyle about his new project Three Inches. Size does matter, he says, then talks a bit about the movie.

Question to Charlie, that it's his second time in Germany and what he has seen so far, maybe from Bonn, too. He then talks about soccer.


[Silence, then Craig asks a question]
Craig: Is the octopus still alive?
Answer: Yes.
Craig: Where does it live?
Answer: In an aquarium [Laughters] [Craig laughs sarcastically]
Craig: Is it in Berlin or is it ...
Answer: No, it's in Oberhausen, 80 kilometres far away
Craig: Oh, it's 80 kilometres from here. Brilliant. Okay, will see that on my home, thank you. [Laughters]
Mark: And Paul knows you're coming.

Question: A question for all of you. If Oscars were for sale, how much would you pay for one? [Confusion about what an Oscar is, someone mentions that it's the Academy Award. Jed offers 2.50$ as starting price].
Craig: Sorry, I missed the question. Was eating a gummibear. Gummibar. Oh, an Oscar. [to Jason Manns] How much would you pay for an Oscar?
Jason Manns: Being a musician, I would pay about 75% of what I can sell it for. So ...
Craig: [chews on gummibear] Actually it's illegal to buy or sell an Oscar. They are the property of the person who wins it and any trading is dealt very firmly by the academy. And even asking that question puts you at risk of serious law suit. So I think we should all just pretend the last five minutes did not happen and move on rather quickly, as there are a lot of recording devices in this room. Thank you very much. [Does some kind of tune, eats another gummibear then]

Question: A warm welcome to all of you. And I have a question to the bad guys of you. What’s the real fascination of playing an evil and brutal and power hungry character? Like Darken Rahl.
Craig: [Listening, then looking like 'Oh, she meant me', looking for a microphone] Ah, this one works. I think bad guys are cooler, really, basically, aren't they? You get to do stuff. You don’t have to be good, you don’t have to be nice, you don’t have to brush your teeth and floss before bed. You don't have to wipe down your sheets each morning because they are full of wolf hair. That's annoying Gil, right? The bad guys are cool, we all love the bad guys. We can do many bad things, get to wear cool clothes generally and, yeah, who really likes the goodie? Who? Frodo? Pah! Ha! [Laughters, then 'Ooooh'] No, that was a joke. I was just in character, playing a bad guy. I actually love that little guy. Yeah, I think you get to do the things you'd love to do in real life, like buy an Oscar. See - as a bad guy, I could buy or sell an Oscar without fear. But as me, I wouldn't dream of doing that. Charlie. [hands over microphone]
Charlie: I'd say the best thing is that you have more creative license in a bad guy, you can do anything and many different layers of bad.
They go on talking about bad guys.

Question: Speaking of bad guys, Darken Rahl is quite quick to get in rage. Is that all pretend or how do you get in this mind set, to play it so convincingly
Craig: Oh, rage. Arrrrgh! [looks for microphone] [shouting] Give me that! [Laughters] Ah, no, I think as Charlie said, you have much more license when you play a bad guy and it is a joy to someone ... you can't have a trantrum on set, actors are always accused to having tantrums and generally actors don't, they're actually sort of well behaved on set. So it's quite nice to be able to scream and [...] and hit people and slap 'em round and the script says they can't slap you back, which is really good. It's fun. You get it out, you go home and you're happy.
Questioner: So it's like therapy.
Craig: It's like therapy, it is. Acting basically is therapy, I think, for most of us. That's why we're so balanced and well together in real life. [grins]

Another question for the Kiwi actors that they know each other and that they often work together, what is it like if ou're working with people you know, more difficult or easier?
Jed says it's easier because you're already having a relationship and there's no need to pretend that you like the other one. He lives in Wellington and there's no chance not to work with the same people because there aren't that many actors. Lori agrees.
Mark: Ah, no, it's wonderful. Because you do continue your relationship on them, obviously. It could be interesting, sometimes, obviously, if there are love scenes or other things involved which can be a little ... open. Sometimes. If you know someone quite well in any particular capacity. Craig!

Question: Another question for you, Mark. What's going on on the film front. Are you up to any projects, any ideas, plans.
Mark: I've recently done a film called Boy Meets Girl where I played a, thanks for asking this, I played an has-been old actor [cringes, sad, Laughters from the audience] who basically rails against the fact. And it's a student film they're trying to make, so he's playing a creature that is half snake, half vampire [Laughters] and he is doing because he needs the cash and basically halfway through it, because they keep screwing up the takes he basically has enough, so basically what's up with me being dressed half man, half snake, half vampire, is that more than two halves? [Laughs] A Snampire! That's right. So basically anything looses and the next pretty much ten minutes, I rail against the unjustices of being an actor in this situation. So that was fairly, that was autobiographical pretty much, so now you know where I'm at. Craig?

Craig: Yes, I play a half man, half snake. No, erm, we're just about to, I think some of you would probably know that Andy Whitfield, who has been playing Spartacus brilliantly in the series one, is unwell and is going for treatment, so unfortunately series two is going to go ahead, which is fortunate, but with Andy's blessing, they're recasting the character Spartacus. That's been looked into at the moment. I think casting is up around the world, and at the moment it looks like we'll start shooting again in January. But at the moment they're just about finishing a prequel to series one which brilliantly allows John Hannah and Lucy Lawless to return to the series, so that's gonna be fantastic. Six episodes, I think? [looks to Dayna Chiplin] So that will be coming out beginning of next year, I think, and then all going well, we'll be into series two beginning of the year and Andy, I know, is the production adore him and as does everyone who worked on the show, he's looking after himself and hopefully somewhere in the future there is some way to bring him back. Let's see what happens.


Question: Thank you! Another question for Mark. Sorry. You have a lot of experience as a business man and as an actor. Have you ever thought about producing or directing a film and what film would that be?
Mark: Well, erm, I'd like to get to the second point, because I have been involved in producing a television series once and that was enough. [laughs] [Laughters] I mean, it was a great challenge and it was one of those things were you say 'I'd like to do that!' and I did do that and I won't do that again. Because it wasn't a lot of fun, really. It was really interesting. When you're on the actor's side, you look at the producers and say 'Maaan, they're terrible, they're really ruining our lifes, nonsende and stuff, it would be much better if I stepped over and I'd do a much better job. The second I stepped over, they were looking at me 'Man, you're ruining our lifes here, you're really screwing us up' so I thought 'Now, I'll get back on the other side, it's safer there'.
Questioner: Thank you.

A question for all the Twilight actors, do they think they'll get new jobs easier because they are quite famous because of the Twilight saga now? They answer, someone says that he works as an actor for about fifteen years now.

A question regarding the technical possibilites, that so much changed the last years, like Green Screens and such, did it influence their work? They say that it's sometimes difficult to act when your partner isn't there and is just cut in later or such.

A question to Dylan Neal about a sort appearance in a movie. And yet another question to Dylan Neal, about a movie called Ice Road Terror, a movie with really bad CGI. Dylan talks about Ice Road Truckers and this project based on that with monsters, Traveller, which will hopefully not been released. He said he flipped out twice, one time here and almost got into fist fight with director. Excellent questions from this side of the room, he says, you know my dark secrets.

Question to Dylan, as he hasn't seen much of Germany now, what does he think of the German beds? Dylan's suspicious that she's trying to pick him up.

Question: How many guy actors have kissed another guy in a movie?
Dylan has also kissed a man, a lovely man actually.

Question: A quick question for all of you - which is the role or work you are most proud of in life?
[Everyone's thinking]
Craig: Ring*Con! [shrugs] [Laughters, Applause] For all of us, I think? And that guy! [points towards someone in armour] What armour is that? [Answer sounds like Mmmh, ghh, mmh! because of the helmet] Ah, hmm, mwuaha, mwaa [puts hand in front of mouth] mmh, mmmmh gggh mmmp? [raises three fingers, twice] [thumb up] [gets microphone, again puts hand in front of mouth] Mmmh, gmmm, mmmpf, mmmmh. [Laughters] Das ist sehr cool! Sehr fantastisch. Genau. Glucklisch. Kugelschreiber.
Question: Any more German you know?
Craig: A few more words I don't want you to know. [laughs]
Questioner: So if you'd actually want to impress me, you'd tell me to come to see you at Ring*Con, that's what you're most proud of?
Craig: Pretty much [grins] Yap. It's always the next job, that's the one that's gonna be the best. It's like the next relationship, that'll be working really well. [looks at Mark, who's newly wed] Just jokes. Good questions.
Question: And who wants to ask the last question?
Craig: [points] On this side.

Question to Dayna and Craig, if they have any contact to Bridget or Craig or Bruce and if they do know about any new projects.
Craig: You can ask him when he arrives, I think he is getting in today. But, erm, I'm not sure actually. They ... Bridget was back in New Zealand for a while and she's just left, just gone to the States Dayna sagt, dass eigentlich alle eine dritte Staffel eingeplant und sich dafür Zeit freigehalten hatten, Einwurf dass fighting for, worth it, fingers crossed. [Dayna talks a little] I was just saying before, this is ... Dayna is looking so beaufitul. But pretty much for two years, I#ve seen her in the Confessor outfit and [giggles], sorry Dayna, cheap off, and I saw her this morning going 'You look fantastic, but you look so different, I was trying to work out what it was. And ... you can't see her boobies! [Laughters] Because - the Confessor outfit, for two years, I was 'Hey Dayna' and she was right Aaaaah! [pushes up imaginary boobies, Dayna's doing so, too] And she's dressed like a nun today. Very sexy, fashionate one, but it's lovely to see you finally covering up. Not dressed provocatively all of the time. [laughs] [is about to put microphone away] Sorry I mentioned boobies. Sorry. [Laughters, puts away microphone]

One final question to Dylan and Kyle about any new projects which they answer.

End of press conference