kaaatie | Armageddon: Day 2 - His Hotness (The Mighty Joe Flanigan)

I'm typing these up exactly as I wrote them during the trip --- so 'today' is now yesterday!!

14th October 2007
The Short Version: Today = Completely and totally amazingly awesomely brilliant!

The Still Sort of Short Version: Today I met His Hotness, otherwise known as Joe Flanigan. It was wonderful! He was incredibly interesting, nice and intelligent --- and also very hot! I got his autograph and a photo with him. It was a perfect weekend!

The Long Version: Day 2 of Armageddon --- the day of the Flan! I'm writing this on the plane on the way home... I must warn that it'll probably be a blow-by-blow account!!

I woke up at about 7:30am, packed and checked out of the hotel, then met

garneteve at the coffee shop. We had a small squee at the guy in the shop who had Jason Mamoa hair, and then we headed to the exhibition centre.

We arrived at about 9am --- just as it was opening --- and then went straight to the autograph line. Joe wasn't due to start autographs until 11am, so it was a long wait! Luckily the people in the queue around were lovely! We met

mcalex22,

yokiem,

kirei_seimei and

derry667 again, and I also befriended a nice chick (who's name I can't even remember) and a great guy with a professional style camera. There was so much chatting and squeeing in the line that it didn't feel like 2 hours!

Shortly after 11am, Joe finally arrived and he looked simply amazing! As hoped, he had stubble! He was also wearing jeans and a checked (Flan in Flannel) shirt, with the top buttons undone!

Eventually the line started moving, and we found ourselves standing right in front of Connor (whilst waiting for the autograph line to move). He again did the "rrrawrr" for us! (That's his Wraith impersonation!) We also admired his wedding ring, so he took it off to give us a closer look. We also stood in front of Alan for a while waiting! A part of me wishes that I also got autographs and photos with Alan and Connor,...

Rrrrrawrrr!

This one is a little blury, but I just love the expression on his face!

Again, not the greatest quality, but he's just so pretty! How can someone look so hot in a flannel shirt?!

Whilst we were waiting, Joe went and spoke to Connor for a few moments.

derry667 has the funniest version of this picture!

Oh Joe!

Then he walked back smiling! I wonder what they were talking about!!

Joe signing again!

Anyway, soon I was there, standing right in front of Mr Joe Flanigan! I smiled and said hello, and he smiled back (looking right into my eyes --- his eyes are amazing!) and shook my hand! I asked him if he'd make the autograph out to Katie, and I spelt it for him, just in case! He said "T. I. E.?", and I responded "yeah", in an American accent! I didn't mean to, I just have this thing about imitating accents --- I hear an accent and I can't stop myself from doing it! Luckily it was one word, so I don't think he noticed!

Whilst he was writing I asked him how long he was in Australia, and he said he was here for about a week, and was then going to New Zealand. He told me he was going surfing "up North", and I said that would be great. I made some comment about being from Adelaide, saying that I'm sure he wouldn't be visiting my city (or something like that). He said he'd "love to though", and yes, he was obviously just being nice, but I love him for that!.

I then asked him if he'd mind posing for a photo with me, and he said he would (I think he said "sure", but I'm not certain!), then the great guy with the massive lensed camera took a photo of us! (He's going to email it to me!). I didn't want to hold up the line anymore, so I turned back to Joe, looked him right in the eyes, smiled, and touched him on the upper arm, saying "thank you very much!" I think he said "thank you", but I was a little distracted by the fact that I'd just touched his biceps, so I'm unsure!! After that I walked off with a stupid big grin on my face!! :)

Soon after that

garneteve and I decided to go upstairs to the main stage. The Flash was on from 12 till 1, and at this point it was still before 12:30, but we figured it was worth sitting through The Flash to get a good seat for Joe's talk! We got a pretty great place in the 4th row!

Joe arrived just after 1pm to a massive round of applause. I recorded the first 25 minutes or so with my camera --- hopefully it'll turn out ok!

Joe was everything that I hoped he'd be and so much more. I must admit that before his talk I'd never appreciated just how intelligent he is. He really is a very smart man. He's quite serious, but at the same time, he's very sarcastic and dry.

Guh!

One of my favourite parts was

garneteve's question: she told him that she'd asked Connor to do an impersonation of a Wraith, and asked him if he'd do one for us too! It was hilarious!! I'm hoping the video of it works out!!

He also gave us an interesting story of how he got into acting. He explained that it was the last thing he thought he'd be doing --- in college he had been incredibly shy to the extent that he'd dropped out of courses if he had to do any public speaking. He said that if he thought back then about where he'd be now, he would have imagined being a hermit, writing poetry, wondering why the world hated him.

He talked about a few of his jobs --- one of which was a 'planner' for the White House... He told us he didn't like the people he was working with, so he knew he couldn't do that. He tried to make a living writing, but couldn't, and he had friends next door who were actors --- they were doing well, and working far less than him, so Joe decided to try it. I guess you could say that the rest is history!!

He told us another interesting story about Farewell to Harry. Someone asked him how he got involved in that movie, and at first he sarcastically implied that it was purely for money. Then he said he had to be less sarcastic (whilst hitting himself on his head with the microphone), and told us that he actually really loved the script. The director was very young, and Joe thought that he had a great story, but unfortunately he didn't have confidence in himself, so he kept changing the story. According to Joe it would've been a far better story if he stuck to the original script.

Another answer that I loved was his response to a question about whether he'd ever strongly disagreed with the way his role was written. Joe explained that he sometimes felt that they wanted to put too much emotion into his role, and Joe had often argued, explaining that he didn't think John would react in that manner. He emphasised the importance of underplaying emotions, which is so true. He said that it can be far more powerful to see someone fight back emotion than it is to see them actually show it.

I completely agree with Joe in this, and its something that I think he does really well. His reaction to Weir's state during 4x01 is the perfect example. In that scene I really buy that Joe is incredibly upset, and he literally looks like he's fighting himself to hold back the emotion. It emphasises to me that Joe is actually a very good actor, and a very smart actor. I just love that its a conscious effort on Joe's part to play Sheppard in that way, and I was literally nodding my head like a crazy person whilst he explained it!

[side note: Ha! They just served lemon chicken on the plane!!]

Joe also wants us to send bottled water to production!! He explained that he was supposed to direct an episode this season, but they didn't let him (which was a "bummer"). A crowd member suggested that we should start a campaign, and he said "Yes! Write in! Send bottles of water to the production studio, saying go drown yourself if you don't let him direct!". I wonder if he was thinking of the Hewlett postcard thing!! He knows the power (and commitment) of fans! Sending bottled water might be a little impractical, but maybe we could send postcards of bottled water!?!?

[side note: The flight attendant just commented on my writing. Apparently "it's so neat and lovely and small". 1) Dude, this writing is very messy, and 2) stop reading over my shoulder whilst I write my fangirly squee!!]

Joe also gave us a few spoilers for future episodes. I won't go into detail here, since I know a lot of people choose to avoid spoilers, but let me just say that I think this'll be a great season!!

After Joe's talk

garneteve and I rushed back downstairs to join the photo line. After more waiting, it was my turn to have my photo taken with him. I smiled and said hello, and he smiled back, and said "nice to meet you again" (he remembered seeing me before!!! I made more of an impression than a blank face!!! *massive grin*)

He also shook my hand again (he has a good strong handshake, which I think is very important in a man!). I stood next to him and he put his arm around me, over my shoulder. At this point I had my arm next to my leg, and I had that moment of wondering whether I could get away with putting it around him!! I figured 'why not?!', and so put my arm around his waist!! [note: I'm grinning like a crazy person writing this now!!]. The guy took the photos, then I thanked Joe again --- I actually can't remember what I said to him at this point --- I was far too caught up in the fact that I'd just had my arm around Joe Flanigan's waist, and he had his arm over my shoulder!!!!

[side note: The plane is either coming into land, or about to crash. Let's hope its the former! Either way, the rest of this entry will have to wait, which is actually slightly irrelevant, since I'm sure I'll type this all together anyway --- which I'll have obviously already done for you to be reading it!]

It's later now, but I think I've written the main stuff... The rest of the day really fades into insignificance!! We found a guy dressed just like David Tennant's Doctor Who, which was pretty cool, so we took many photos of him with K9 (and the other Doctor Who stuff he had)! I bought an Atlantis sew-on badge and a t-shirt, and had a lovely late lunch with the girls.

Then I headed to the airport, and back home (where I found my case was even more destroyed during the return flight --- the wheel has almost fallen off now!)

So, overall, I loved and adored it, and I'm so glad I went!! I'll probably post more later!! And I may edit this post and add more detail if I remember more.

I just remember that he tried vegemite! They gave him a tube, and he opened it and tried some on stage. That stuff should not be eaten on it's own! Poor Joe!