Syndicon '97
Saturday, May 10, 1997
Q&A #1 with Peter, Jim Byrnes, Elizabeth Gracen & Stan Kirsch
Transcribed from videotape. Photos by Dianne Smith.
SK: How's everybody doing? How was Adrian's Q&A? Did you guys actually
learn anything? Tidbits of information? Did he say anything mean
and nasty about us?
Audience: Nooo...
SK: Well, at least say he did so we could sort of get back at him
anyway. He said we were all what?
Audience: Crazy!
SK: He's such a liar.
EG: Is my friend Tim in here?
SK: Tim, are you in the room?
Audience: I'll be Tim!
Stan, do you often play characters younger than yourself?
SK: I have yet to play a character that's remotely close to my
own age.
JB: He's 65 years old!
SK: How old am I? I'm 28 years old. Twenty-eight. Twenty-eight
— soon I'll be 29! I'm like 28 and three-quarters! In the beginning
the character was really supposed to be 17 years old. And it's just
a little limiting to have to keep the character so young. For one,
why would Duncan MacLeod hang out with a 17 year old kid?
PW: [snicker] I can tell you.
SK: So within a year the character sort of grew up. Or actually,
the character still hasn't grown up. I don't know what the hell
I'm talking about! One day I really look forward to playing an adult.
JB: In an adult movie.
Any words of wisdom, old timer?
PW: Aaaaah—
SK: That was my line.
PW: Aaaaaaaaaah. Nope.
This question is directed towards the men — nothing personal,
Elizabeth. Some of my friends are disappointed we didn't get autographs.
That's okay, but you would make it up to us if you all took your
shirts off and posed sexy.
SK: If Elizabeth does it, I'll do it.
EG: I've already done that.
PW: Not with us, you haven't.
To all, are you going to be on HL next season?
EG: I don't know. Probably, but I don't know.
SK: I don't know, but I don't think so.
JB: We really don't know yet.
PW: I would like very much, but I don't think I am.
Nooooo!
JB: You gotta understand, it's negotiation. It's all business.
SK: Suffice it to say, though, that if you want to see something,
you should write Bill Panzer and Peter Davis [the producers] and
express how you feel. And I think I speak for all of us when I say
we've enjoyed our time on the show, and we'd like to continue in
a capacity that would be mutually acceptable to the producers and
ourselves.
JB: Stan's going to be running for Congress, you see.
SK: [I just want to say that I'm] innocent. But seriously, maybe
your wishes will come true.
JB: I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it may
incriminate me.
SK: I'm entering the witness relocation program. So I don't know
where I'm going to be next year.
PW: Or who he's going to be.
My question is, are you always tired of Adrian Paul taking all
the credit on the show?
SK: What do you mean, "taking all the credit?" What do you mean
— as in the character or as Adrian?
As its star.
JB: The show is "The Highlander."
SK: I don't think that Adrian takes all the credit. I think that
Adrian is very — You know, he's got a big job. He's got a lot
of pressure — He's very — Everybody has their moments
when you're working, and it's tense. But it's a great working environment.
We all have a lot of fun. As you can see, there's a pretty good
camaraderie between the group. And no, I don't think that Adrian
takes all the credit.
I think you're aware of the Marina Bailey connection with Marina
and Richie Redstone.
SK: Somebody who waves a flag. That's all I know. She waves a flag
in South Africa. [Marina
Bailey is a Stan fan who belongs to an Internet fan group called
the Richie Flag Wavers.]
Did you have as much fun with that as we did?
SK: I'm sorry...?
There's a connection between the character Marina and Marina Bailey
in South Africa.
SK: Oh! You mean the girl in the show?
JB: Duh!
SK: I never really made that connection, but that's... that's [giggle]...
that's... that's interesting.
After last night's bloopers, when can we expect to see the new
"Adam and Amanda" show?
PW: [Covers face] That was a very bad day.
EG: Have you seen the blooper reel? The most unprofessional I have
ever been — and it's all his [Peter's] fault.
PW: Like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
Can you tell us about some of the things you're doing outside
of HL. I've seen you in USA movies, Jim, and Stan was on Friends.
JB: I'm working right now on [a TV movie] The Treasure of Los
Santos.
PW: Jim Byrnes — the hardest working man in showbiz.
JB: I've got this movie for CBS....
EG: I'm doing all sorts of little things.... I'm shooting a documentary
with some drag queen friends of mine who compete in pageants....
So I'm in the middle of that.... Travelling around... studying...[shrug]
I do mosaics. If you guys go to my booth, you can see some of them.
And some paintings...
SK: I've been on a bit of a vacation. But hopefully, I'll be working
soon. I'm writing a show with a couple of friends of mine. Who knows,
maybe one day it'll be on the air. It's a sitcom.
JB: Starring Jim Byrnes.
SK: There's a part for Jim. Of course, it's loosely based on my
life, which very much mirrors a sitcom, so...
This is for Peter. What is the difference between filming a British
show and one made for American audiences. Technically?
SK: Everybody speaks with an English accent.
Do they film longer days? Do they film shorter days?
PW: D'you know, it's so long since I've worked in England, I don't
know. The main thing so far is I'm getting to rehearse the show
I'm about to start working on, which is unheard of. I mean [with
HL], we get the script in the morning, we film it in the afternoon,
and it's on the cutting room floor [giggle] in the evening. Occasionally
on Highlander, we actually do a read-through and talk through
stuff. But having time to rehearse and go through the script before
you even start — that's a major difference. In terms of filming
days, it's about the same. The place you really notice it is in
France where they do actually work longer hours, but they get less
done, because they're French.
SK: [with a French accent] Zat is not my problem. Talk to somebody
else.
PW: Jim has this thing — the French don't have a way of saying
"sorry." The word desolé just means "you've got a problem
there."
I collected these all day. This is for Peter, a token of appreciation.
[Fan goes to stage and hands him a bunch of plastic friendship bracelets
that the PW Fan Club was handing out at the con.]
JB: You know what this means, don't you, Pete?
SK: You gotta wear them all day, Peter. Gotta wear them. [Peter
takes the bracelets and starts sharing them out among the panel,
wiping the grin off Stan's face.]
PW: [to fan] Thank you.
My sister and I are from Minnesota and we have a couple of gifts
for Stan and Peter.
PW: From Minnesota, huh? That's in the States. [Takes bottle.]
What? Are we sharing this? [Stan gets his own bottle.]
SK: Is there alcohol in this?
PW: [Reading card] "From Liz and Katie." [Laugh] There's an address!
They think we're idiots.
SK: And a phone number.
PW: Thank you very much.
Was it by chance, or was there a purpose in Methos being cast
in the role of Death?
PW: Ah, I don't know. You'd have to ask the writers about that.
My question is—
PW: Tell me what you're getting at.
The significance of Death — he's the merciful Horseman. He
ends suffering. He doesn't discriminate. I wonder if there's some
underlying significance because Adam's nice, but he knows there
are some times when you have to bloody some noses.
PW: Yeah, I think that's absolutely right.... I think the intention
was that Methos was the baddest of all bad guys, and he was specifically
the end of the line.
But death is not necessarily bad.
PW: No. It's just the end.
Everyone else up there has got one of these except Liz. Peter
got these from me at Anglicon, but I have a couple of bottles....
[To audience] By the way guys, sorry, don't applaud, but you can
buy these from me—
PW: Hey! This is not a commercial break!
I have a couple of bottles of Tahitian coconut oil.... [gives
sales pitch]
SK: Is there alcohol in it?
Don't worry, Stan. You can't drink it, but you can do all sorts
of interesting things with it. Peter, could you explain to them?
PW: I drank it! I didn't know [better].
You weren't listening!
SK: What's a Highlander convention if you don't pickup some
new bath oils?
I have a book that I got for Peter. It's a novel by Lindsay Davis
called Silver Pigs. I didn't write it; I am not promoting it. But
the main character in it looks like you... I think you ought to
read it.
PW: Okay. Terrific... [looks at book cover] How do you mean it
looks like me? It's the back of someone's head!
SK: But he's got brown hair.
I'm not responsible for the artwork but... just read it.
PW: Thank you.
SK: She means the "essence of character." [Audience "ooooohs."]
Elizabeth, are you dressed in character as Amanda, or are you
dressed as Elizabeth?
EG: [Clutching her head] I'm not sure anymore! These are my clothes.
You know Amanda wears fishnets, but I put them on her.
SK: I'd like to see that.
My question is for Peter. All other things being equal —
pay scale, time commitments — would you prefer to be working
on stage, television or a major film?
PW: Film, yeah. It's a long time since I've been on stage, and
I'm starting to feel like it would be good to go back and do stage
work. But it's such a massive time commitment. And there are very
few plays, very few stories, that I actually want to get up and
tell again and again. [The] great joy about doing film work is that
you can get deeply immersed in something, but you can then move
on from it. And in theater, all your mates come and see it in the
first week, then they go off and have a life, and you carry on telling
the same story for nine months. It's tough, so I like film work.
It is very tough. It's very hard to do a performance that reads
honestly to people who are this far away [extends arm to indicate
the front row] and also to people out back. It's incredibly tough,
and you have to make more compromises. TV is very hard in terms
of schedule. There's no time, so — Doing big features when
you've got more time so you can work at it — So there you go.
EG, JB and SK: "Ssshed-yule."
SK: Peter, you make us sound so ignorant.
PW: But you are. [Beat] The gloves are off now!
On the show, they cut your hair a lot, and change the color a
lot, and change your makeup a lot. Is that to cover up the aging
process? [Panel breaks up laughing.]
EG: Security! [Points to the exit.]
You guys look great — all of you.
PW: [deep voice] How dare you!
SK: I don't understand — cover up what?
For example, Richie used to have this cute little baby face, and
now his face has thinned out, he looks very mature, and they've
trimmed his hair down to nothing — all his beautiful curls
are gone. Is it an actor's choice, or do they tell you they need
something different?
SK: Was that a question or a statement? I think we pretty much
made individual choices about hairstyles and whatnot.
JB: I'm getting older. It's no problem for me. As we speak, I'm
getting older.
Elizabeth, in 1982 you were a Miss USA. What was your hair like
at that time?
EG: [Holding hands out wide] Big. Very big... like a helmet.
Was it the color that you are now?
EG: I can't remember....
And what did you do for the talent portion? [The men kill themselves
laughing.]
SK: Excellent question!
EG: I sang... stuff by Judy Garland....
SK: Okay, let's hear it. [EG shakes her head.] We want a re-enactment.
[At this point, the con organizers announce that the panel is
over — just in the nick of time for Elizabeth!]
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