By B&TF

Photo shoots

I decided to get all my photo shoots done on Sunday morning. The staff and stewards were very efficient and I was able to get everything done in a short time. I got my habitual group photo and one with each guest.

DAY 3 PHOTOS PART 1

Day 3 PHOTOS PART 2

The Q&A’s were next and here’re some of the Q&A’s summaries from the Sunday sessions. Same as before, I’m only posting the answers as much as I can remember.

 

Q&A with Mei Melançon

 

– Mei enjoys rock climbing but she hasn’t done it much lately. If she would have to pick out any building in the world to climb, it would be the highest building in Hong Kong that she thought was featured in one of the “Mission Impossible” movies.

– Mei didn’t really know what she was expecting when coming to her first convention because you never know how you’re going to feel when you walk up on stage. She was a little nervous when Sean told her there were about a thousand people present. She shared a story about her aunt who was running a pizza parlor when she was younger. The robbers came in to rob her and instead of crying she fell on the floor laughing. She laughed so hard, she couldn’t open the safe. These are kinds of feelings you experience when you’re nervous and don’t know how to react. Everyone was really down to earth and welcoming, and Mei said she really appreciated it.

– Mei’s favorite scene to play was a short scene at the end of the dance episode, when Alice asked Jamie if she was in love with Tasha. It was fun acting with Leisha, who played her role so emotionally that Mei felt that she really wronged her.

– Mei was growing up in Japan until the age of 12 and then they came to the States. She already mentioned before that she had a big family. Someone asked if there was a time when she wanted to tell her parents to stop having more children. Mei said that after there were five or six of them, each time her mom would come and tell them, “Guess what guys, you are going to have another brother or sister,” they all would start crying because they would have to help taking care of another baby, especially when everyone around them only had two or three children at the most. Everyone in her family has such a different personality and it teaches you how to get along with people.

– Mei played guitar until the age of 12. When she was a kid, she was in a band and thought she was going to be a musician.

– It always changes what she wants in life, but in her career she wants to play roles that break stereotypes and open people minds. She’d like to leave a thumbprint on the world in a positive way.

– Mei would love to direct one day, even if it’s going to be a challenge because a director, who’s also acted, gives a different direction than the one who hasn’t.

– Mei prefers honesty in a relationship even if it breaks her heart. As of now, her career is really important and she would like to find a balance between relationships and her career.

– Mei started her career as a model and then transitioned to acting. About eight or nine years ago she had an opportunity to read for the “Memoirs of the Geisha”. Mei really liked the book because she grew up in Japan and some of the experiences were familiar to her. She had never done any acting before. This is one of the experiences, way before she moved to Los Angeles, which helped her decide about acting. Mei didn’t have dramatic training and she started with some commercials before moving onto the movies and television. It’s easier to play a character than being yourself.

– A dream role for Mei is to play a mom again. In her latest movie “Shockwave Darkside”, she’s playing a mother who abandons two girls to be a soldier and it was very challenging to play. She also wants to play a historic figure, Tokyo Rose, whose real name was Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American who was convicted of treason but was innocent. There are a few scripts going around that she is interested in. Ultimately, Mei would love to play something biopic.

– “The L Word” had a great impact on Mei, just as any job does. From every job she comes out with completely different perspectives. On the set of “The L Word” she always saw the respect for each other and respect for women and it made Mei feel very proud of being a woman.

– Advice to those who want to do acting: study, work as hard as you can and don’t give up.

– If Mei would have dinner with famous people it would be: Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy, Joan of Arc, Katharine Hepburn, and Iva Toguri.

– To add to her superpower of reading mind, Mei would also like to have the power of healing.

– Doing things for people makes Mei happy, also being outdoors.

– To enrich herself Mei likes to read and she reads a lot.

– Mei just got on Twitter; you can find her here @MeiMelancon

Q&A with Leisha and Kate

 

One thing has to be said about the cast members doing Q&A’s together – it’s always more fun and entertaining than the individual Q&A’s, especially if the guests are well paired, like Laurel and Jennifer at L5, Pam and Rose at L6, and now Kate and Leisha at L7. We laughed a lot during that session. Kate and Leisha did impressions of each other, made jokes when someone told them that she had two turtles named Kate and Leisha, and they themselves had a lot of fun.

– Kate’s second dog is a rescue dog and he’s a mutt. Leisha also has two dogs. She had lost her favorite little dog, Bandit, a couple of years ago. She has Hero (both of them are in Jennifer’s L Word Book) and about five months ago she got a new dog. According to Leisha, she’s a little white dog who looks like Bette Midler.

– Kate did a movie with Judi Dench (“The Shipping News”), and though they were not in the same scene together, she showed up on set when Kate was there and they had met. Kate’s words were, “They don’t call her Dame Judi Dench for no reason.”

– If they were reincarnated, in the next life Kate would be a gay man in Paris and a painter; Leisha would be a straight man in Spain and a painter.

– Things they like about each other: Leisha said that Kate is really, really loyal, she’s always there for her friends, she’s non-judgmental, she’s a great cook, Kate’s home is always cozy, and she’s funny; Kate said that Leisha is one of her best friends and she can tell her anything, she’s non-judgmental, they always laugh together, and Kate admires her talent as a painter, musician, actor and every time Kate sees something that Leisha created it’s mind-blowing.

– Kate is learning to play drums and Leisha would have her in her dream band, along with Axl Rose.

– One of Kate’s favorite episodes or the one that stood out was the brownies party when they danced to a Michael Jackson song. It was so much fun to film and it took 12 hours to do. Kate was really sore at the end of it and the brownies were really good. One of Leisha’s favorite was the Dinah Shore episode because it was still so new and this is when the show found its place with friendships.

– Kate and Paris Hilton sort of hung out at the Season 5 Premier party in L.A. a few years ago because Paris and she had mutual friends and Paris just showed up for the party. This is how they ended up hanging out together. Paris is nice but they are not actually friends who hang out all the time.