Fantasy Events: Night Ita Con 2012 (Report duet!)

We had decided not to attend this convention. And that’s basically what we did. Ultimately, we just bought a daily pass.. and we were happy.

Why would Gale be at a Fantasy Convention, with "The Secret Circle" not having been picked up for a second season, is something we still can’t understand...

Felicity:
Already a week before the “happy event”, I started buying presents and writing a letter to Gale. I wanted him to have something that represented the place where I live.. two typical products of my town..

Klaudia62:
Everything happened so quickly: I didn’t have time to prepare myself because I had no idea I’d attend the event. I’d have liked to give Gale a gift, but I wanted something with some meaning.. luckily, I was able to go to a shop and buy something that had made me think of him already the first time I’d seen it, a long time before.. the most difficult thing was writing him a letter.. I’m not very good with words..


FRIDAY August 31th, 2012

We arrived at the train station in Bologna at 8:20 a.m. where we met a friend who gave us a lift to the hotel. Once there, and after meeting with two girls from our forum, we started queueing for our pass.. long queue!! (basically, just us....) While we were waiting, we chatted with a few members of the staff and they were really helpful and nice.

Since we had bought a pass only for Saturday, we had all day free of activities so we decided to wait for Gale and we sat in the waiting room near the conference hall. He was scheduled to arrive for the opening ceremony at 1:30 p.m.

Felicity:
The first person who saw Gale was Ilaria (one of the girls from the forum), she said he was wearing a blue shirt...(actually it was a green one! LOL!). I understood he’d arrived watching Ilaria’s face because she went from pale to paler; that was a good moment... I admit it.. "He’s here!" I told the others... we went out to try and see him but he had already entered the little room-jail that was about to become his safe haven for three days and kept him away from the crazies.

They were way behind schedule and people were allowed in only at 2:30 p.m. according to their passes (Vip, Bloody, Standard) so we stayed back in the waiting room all alone. Meanwhile they told us that Gale asked to buy a pizza. In the room the panel started very late so we weren’t able to get something to eat.

When Gale passed by us, we went dead silent... like we were in contemplation and were holding a respectful silence. To be honest, we had no idea that all the actors would be arriving at the same time so, when we saw them all, we didn’t immediately realize that Gale was among them. We recognized him by his typical gestures: he was pleasantly conversing with a girl from the staff, he was leaning towards her (he’s very tall) and had a hand in front of his mouth.. but we’re sure you all know how he behaves.

He was surrounded by many people (besides the bodyguards) and he was incredibly thin...He definitely needs to put on some weight.. but whatever...we love him as he is!

Gale didn’t enter the room immediately, he stayed outside for 5 minutes, leaning over the desk where they were selling passes and extras, chatting with his PA and other people. He could not be still, he was agitated and kept moving.. we could only see his back, though. He was wearing jeans and the same military green shirt he was wearing at The Grove (February 2012).. his pants were horribly rolled up at the ankle (LOL!).. and he was wearing dark shoes.

As soon as he entered the room, a few screams were heard but not as many as there were for the other actors.. that was our impression. Everything lasted only 5 minutes and, surprisingly, Gale came out of the room immediately. While he was walking out we were the only one present and we were very surprised to see him outside.

Klaudia62:
While walking he threw us an uncertain look (we were the only ones there) almost like he wasn’t sure we were there for him but, when we smiled to him, he smiled back and when Felicity waved at him he immediately waved back at her (with his left hand, should anybody care), while walking away. Going in the room he had appeared really tense, but at that moment, going out, he appeared relaxed and relieved.

Felicity:
It was so good to see him move and talk while he was waiting to enter the conference room.. he crossed his legs.. then his arms.. then he leaned on the desk with one hand and stood straight. He was agitated, very agitated.

When he came out of the auditorium he walked towards us.. I raised my hand to wave hello and he waved back and gave me a beautiful smile.

Later we were told that during his 5 minutes at the Opening Ceremony he was asked if he knew one Italian word and he had answered with: ‘cazzo’ (literal meaning is ‘dick’ but it’s used the way English speaking people use ‘fuck’)!

We roamed the corridors of the hotel for a while, then we went to take one of our friends at the bus stop. We starved until 4:50 p.m. until our hero Marco, the waiter, (Felicity: “I miss him sooooo much!”) was so good to find us a toast (we paid 6,00 € for it)..but we don’t think you’re interested in hearing about this ;-).

Gale wasn’t there anymore.

Later he came back to the Aemilia Hotel for the Welcome Cocktail that was scheduled at 5.00 p.m. but started way late (like everything else). We were sitting on the yellow chairs in the hall on the side of the hotel booked for the convention, when Gale walked in with his bodyguards and his PA..

Felicity:
I said “Hi”, he replied with a “Hello”..

Klaudia62:
No comment about finally hearing his voice up close and without it being filtered by a microphone.. *is dead*!!

Gale popped in the little room-jail to leave there his bag and his PA (?!?!?), and to change shirt: he wore a light blue one that was more elegant. He passed us again while he moved to go to the Welcome Cocktail booked in the hotel’s restaurant room.

After a while, we were in the corridor looking for Pat, the organizer of the con, and we saw security walking towards us.. Gale, holding a little package, passed right by us.. we weren’t expecting it so we almost had a stroke.

Later we caught a glimpse of Gale in the little room-jail while he was showing what was inside the package to his PA and his manager. Someone from the staff told us that it contained a T-shirt of the team Juventus that the whole team had autographed and Del Piero had personalized.. like any man, Gale was like a 12 years old with that shirt.. he looked like a fan boy.. in an endearing way, obviously..


SATURDAY September 1st, 2012

We were about to meet Gale so you can well imagine how nervous we were that morning!!!

Felicity:
Sleepless night.. :)

Klaudia62:
Felicity had a sleepless night.. I slept fine.. LOL!

We dressed up and then we went downstairs to leave our bags in the deposit and to pay for checkout.. and all the time Gale’s PA was there waiting for him. The staff in the hotel was extremely nice, but very slow (luckily) so when we were finally done and were able to go where the convention was held, we spotted Gale (always surrounded) ..”OOOPS”!

He took the stairs, we took the elevator.

We entered the room where the panel with Allan Hyde (True Blood) was taking place because we wanted to be sure to have good seats for later and be able to take nice pictures, but we ended up loving the panel. He’s a very nice and fun person, especially when he had to remind to the translator that she actually had to translate.

Once the panel ended there was a bit of chaos when they started letting people in and assigned them their seats for Gale’s panel going by the tickets they owned. Luckily no one asked us to leave our seats.. we were worried they’d put us at the very end of the room.. but we were lucky; however we were assured that we weren’t stealing seats from the people who had the more expensive tickets.

When Gale came in everyone applauded and cheered. He seemed surprised to see all those people there for him – surprised face - (Klaudia62: “I think he had a stroke”) then he went to sit at the table near the translator.

The rules for his panel were different: questions had to be written down and put in a box from which the host had to take them out and decide if they could be asked or not. These rules were dictated by Gale’s manager and his assistant, and no one could ask about Queer As Folk.. This, obviously, limited the questions a lot.. plus the host was’t familiar with Gale’s career so maybe it would have been better if someone from fandom had chosen the questions..

Gale wasn’t very relaxed. He seemed scared and really tense, almost as if he was going to take a test. He was so agitated that he was constantly moving his hands, playing with his pen and with every single object he could find.. this constant moving made taking pictures very difficult for us.. but it was so good seeing him move around without the filter of a TV screen!!!!!

Klaudia62:
During the panel I tried to take notes (between pictures), but my English isn’t perfect so I apologize for any mistake!!

Q: Do you have a favourite role among the ones you played?
A: No, I don’t.. they’re all favourites, I couldn’t choose one without feeling bad for the others.

Q: You said you’d like to work in a comedy, in theatre or movies?
A: In a movie because theatre is very different, it’s more engaging (his actual words about theatre were “all another animal”)

Q: Can you talk about “Home In the Morning”?
[He was confused for a long while then asked “what in the morning?”]
A: I read the script and was at the table reading. I think it’s a great project, but it’s not MY project.. I’d like to be part of it.

Q: How was the Sundance? Did you meet interesting collegues? (this was our question!) [the translator said Sundance Festival so Gale had to explain to her that he took part to the Workshop not to the actual Festival.. and then he started to explain how the whole event works, I believe, for the same reason.]
A: Directors work on the script, then they get to work with the actors, after that they have their rewrites and in the end they start filming. It was an amazing experience that allowed me to meet 20 actors and 8 directors I hadn’t met before.

Q: What was your best experience as an actor?
A: Having the chance to work, to earn, to find a drive for my energy and see how people reacted, either positively or negatively.

Q: When you were a kid did you dream about having Charles’ powers?
A: Well, not really like Charles –everybody laughed- but I’d like to be able to control people’s minds. For example, if I were to look straight ahead now and think [he spoke to the translator] “give me your pen” you would be forced to give it to me [the translator gave him her pen] and then I’d think “give me your birthday gifts” or “give me your house” [the translator looked at him unhappily and everybody laughed again]. [At this point, from the audience, a girl with no respect for rules or other people yelled “Just like Rage!“ (she kept repeating it thee times) and in the end Gale asked “Rage who?” without really acknowledging the whole thing..]

Q: How was it like to die with your face full of worms?
A: Worms were the phisical manifestation of the demons, they weren’t real. Like Santa, you know, when your parents buy you gifts but they tell you it was Santa, but he’s not real.. oops, sorry, was that a spoiler about Santa? [everybody laughed].. It wasn’t real, having worms on my face was actually just like having a facial [but the translator had no idea what facial meant so Gale had to explain her that it was something you have done in a beauty farm, mani, pedi....you know?]

Q: Is there a book you particularly enjoy [I think the question was actually about “The Dress”, but I’m not sure] and that you’d like to see on the screen?
A: It would be a dream, maybe it could be a short movie. It’s about a man who escapes from prison and is looking for a place to spend the night. He finds a house with a beautiful woman and thinks he’s finally found his place, but everything ends quite brutally. You all have to read it. [The translator still didn’t understand so he had to explain it to her again saying “Escapes from prison-beautiful woman-bad ending.” Translator asked “do they die?” and he answered “well, it ends badly for one of them”.]

Q: Why did you become an actor?
A: To be able to come here in Bologna [everybody laughed and cheered]. I wanted to tell stories, different stories, truths and lies.. and Mark Twain.. and also “The Muppet Show”

Q: Charles was more troubled by Nick’s death than by Amelia’s. Do you think it’s because he used magic to kill the latter?
A: I’m happy to talk with you about Charles. The characters in the series were introduced very dramatically and then they kind of went backwards [as in, afterwards they showed us their reasoning, I believe he meant]. It’s not that Charles wasn’t troubled by Amelia’s death, but he had to make himself believe he didn’t mind. One thing is to kill your daughter’s friend’s mother, another thing is killing a boy, friend of your daughter, with your bare hands and look him in the eyes while the light goes out in them.. it’s horrible.. both things are, actually.. I’m not going to kill anyone.. but to answer you, no, I doubt the difference was in the use of magic.

The PA told us that we only had time for one question before Gale had to leave the room for the press conference.

Q: In Fertile Ground and Desperate Housewives you played the role of a painter, do you paint in real life?
A: No, not that kind of paintings.

(Felicity: Questions about this intelligent question?? Sooooo many!)

Gale was wearing jeans and a blue/grey short-sleeved T-shirt with a V neck ..awwwwwww!!!

We weren’t at all satisfied with the translator.. No offense, of course, but she really wasn’t able to give Gale’s words justice. Especially when he was talking about Dylan Thomas’ “The Dress”.. Gale was so animated while he was talking about it, it was almost like he was inside the story. Listening to him was a pleasure.. and the translator just said two words about it.We’re not entirely sure she understood him, to be honest..

The panel ended and we had once again missed lunch..

We saw Gale again early that afternoon, while everybody else was queueing for the autograph that we hadn’t bought, so we were once more sitting in the yellow chairs of the hall and he walked right by us.

After a while we started queueing for the photoshoot while Gale was inside the little room-jail.. everything was really late. At some point they changed the program and the room where the photoshoot was scheduled to happen so we had to move the entire queue… plus you could not stand in the space that Gale had to use to come through.

They told us that pictures had to be taken one by one “in private” and that it wasn’t possible to requests poses, hugs and so on. We also were to leave our gifts for Gale to the staff so we couldn’t give them directly to Gale.. we were so not happy about this: what did they think we could do?? We were there just to see him!!

Felicity:
I think I’ve never been so nervous in my entire life. The feeling of having him close it’s very intense. At that moment I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. I looked into his eyes for a few seconds.. then I had to look away.. I gave him my hand.. I told him I was an admin of the Italian website about him.. He frowned and squinted like he was trying to remember about the website.. then, surprising me greatly, he said that he knows it well and that he likes it (I’m not sure about the words he used.. it all happened so fast... and I was so nervous.) I remember him saying: “The good one”... I could not believe it...I couldn’t wait to tell Marcy. He put his hand on my shoulder and I put my arm around his waist... the photographer (????) took the picture and then Gale... “See you tomorrow” he said...but there wasn’t a tomorrow for me at that con...

I had placed my bag and the gifts for Gale (with the letter) on a table along with my pass. I went to take back everything.. but I couldn’t really think. I’m happy I was able to avoid showing him how nervous I was, though. Gale was very relaxed with me.. his smile warmed my heart...

Klaudia62:
Before I went in, to mask my nervousness, I started joking with a security guy. Once inside I saw on the left the girl who had to take my pass and my card with the extras. There was also a table where people had to put their gifts for Gale. I gave the girl my card, put my pass and my gifts on the table, and my bag on the floor. I turned to look at Gale and he was looking at the table.. I think he was puzzled by everything we had to do before getting close to him for the picture.. he didn’t look uncomfortable or bored while he waited.. I think he felt like a kid whose parents didn’t fully explain what was happening.. it was so obvious that all the gifts were for him.. I really don’t understand why we couldn’t just give them to him, maybe he would have liked to personally thank everyone. Anyway, I got close (feeling awed) and he extended his left arm to put it around my shoulders for the pic (no hugs.. but he put his arm around everyone).. I remember I stared at the camera for a moment to understand if the photographer was taking more than one picture.. the guy was taking pictures from a low perspective and I didn’t like that choice at all. I wasn’t able to say a word to Gale.. I was too emotional to speak.. When all was done I went to take back my bag, the organizer gave me back my pass and she asked me why hadn’t I given my present to Gale during the autograph session. I told her we hadn’t bought autographs. I thanked her and.. that’s when I realized I hadn’t thanked Gale!!! I turned around and extended my hand to him. He walked towards me and gave me a handshake.. I said “thank you” and he said it too almost at the same time.. and this is it.. when I left the room another bodyguard (a really nice guy) kept teasing me for a while :-P

After the photoshoot, we waited in the corridor (a space that, along with the yellow chairs in the hall, felt like home at that point), hoping to see Gale again.. a few crazies kept walking in front of the door yelling and jumping hoping to catch a glimpse of him throught the glass.. and security didn’t ask them to stop. I have no idea if Gale heard their screams and, if he did, what he might have thought.

Funny note: a couple passed through the corridor and, seeing all the people and the security, stopped in front of the room. The woman asked “who’s inside the room?” and the man, after taking a peek inside, replied “no idea, there’s a guy reading in there”..LOOOOOL

Klaudia62:
I can’t remember where I went, but I know I was going back through the corridor to reach my friends.. suddenly I looked through the glass of the little room-jail and I saw Gale: he was getting back inside from the balcony but I don’t think he was outside for long.. since it was raining cats and dogs,anyway he was wearing a jacket, he was carrying his own Ipad (with a bordeaux colored cover) with his left hand and he had something else in his right hand..

Felicity:
How I wish I could have seen him, too :(

Before the Meet&Greet, that took place in the little room-jail, Gale asked security to escort him to the bathroom so they all exited and passed (both coming and going) on the corridor just by us..

We don’t remember when Gale left the hotel.. but we remember hearing the bodyguards saying: “Finally the pope left.”

Meeting Gale was amazing and touching, and it confirmed what we always thought: he’s very ironic and, in his own personal way, very funny.. he doesn’t answer immediately, he likes to think things through. He’s very shy and he’s visibly uncomfortable if he’s the center of attention of many people at once.. he’s smart and interested in the arts (we love this!).. He’s very available if people aren’t too demanding.. and, allow us, he likes all the right websites on the net :-P (Sorry for joking but it was so good hearing him say that he appreciates our work).

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