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My family and I go to Comic Con Wales every year so I was thrilled when Laurence was announced a few weeks ago (my wallet was not). It was his first ever convention and he is definitely someone I thought I'd never get chance to meet.
I've already shared this on bluesky, but just sharing here again tidier and with a few more details, to those who might be interested!
Q&A Panel
On Saturday he had a Q&A Panel which was great. I got up straight away and was second in queue for questions. This is not verbatim and I have memory issues so it's as close as I recall.
Me: I'm a big fan
LF: Thanks so much
Me: But as a Fannibal
LH: Ohhhhh
Me: I have to ask what was your experience like working on the show, and as everyone asks this of all the actors, would you do a 4th season if it happened?
He said he'd definitely come back if Mads and Hugh were going to do it, and Bryan of course, who he praised as a genius. He said he had a great time working on the show and loved filming in Toronto and in Florence.
Me: Some of us Fannibals went to Florence last month for the tenth anniversary of Dolce.
He was impressed, and when I said that we got matching tattoos whilst there, he was like, woah, you guys are... and I was like, yeah, we're hard core. Lol.
Towards the end of the Q&A another person asked a couple of Hannibal related questions - what was his favourite scene and what was his favourite prop/did he manage to take any props.
He gave two favourite scenes - the Eye of God tableau, which he mentioned was real people and so, with the body heat, etc it got very "steamy".
His second favourite was the fight scenes between Jack and Hannibal.
Props: He loved all the antlers but didn't seem to be able to take any... so instead he took two amber ornaments, an elephant and a horse.
There were so many great questions and answers, as you can imagine, across his body of work that I can't recall them all, but here are some of the ones I remember:
Q: Favourite Matrix film
LF: The first one, he considers it a perfect movie.
He also mentioned when filming that they had to train so hard for all the action scenes and get the choreography completely perfect to pull off the shots that he forgot about the script and the philosophy of it. So when he then watched the film he was like, woah this isn't just an action movie, this is really fucking deep!
Q: Favourite quote from the Matrix
LF: There is no spoon, he loves the philosophical nature of it.
Q: Was he enjoying Wales
LF: Yes! He'd been visiting North Wales before the convention, and he bought the shoes he was wearing from Wales.
(they were very dapper shoes!)
He spoke about being a huge comic book nerd and really being hardcore into DC and Marvel comics - a true believer - and so he enjoyed doing the movies and would definitely do more if given the chance. He appreciated seeing people dressed up and the whole convention vibe.
A lady asked if Laurence could give some filmmaking advice to the students of her filmmaking club. He asked how old the kids were, and she said ages 7 to 18. She got her camera ready and he said, that he'd give the advice he gives everyone in the business:
"Never let any motherfucker tell you no"
Overall, he was very sweet and kind, patient and interested in all the people who got up to ask questions. You could feel that he really appreciated people's questions, thoughts and comments. Very chill, down to earth and with a clear passion for his job.
Photo and autograph:
Continue beneath the cut for more updates...
On Sunday, the spawnling and I went for photo and autograph with Laurence. Again, he was super nice and, as always with Monopoly Events (seriously the best organised cons I've ever been to), there was no rush through photos. So I asked him to hold the Jack Crawford stag man plushie I had made, and he thought it was great.
I told him that it was a gift for him and I would get it to him later and he was surprised and said thanks 🙏🏾
A little later at the autographs, I told him that the Fannibals are thrilled he's doing a convention (and will hopefully do more) and they all say hi. I told him that we talked a lot about him last month at Red Dragon Con, which I explained to him, and who the guests had been, and he thought it was really cool.
I gifted him the Jack Crawford stag man plushie and explained I've made/given them to many members of the cast and crew and theme them to their character. He was really sweet about it, really liked it and said it reminded him of dammit dolls (I'll take it lol!). He was really grateful, I told him Fannibals have a gift-giving culture so it's what we do.
I asked him to sign my copy of The Art and Making of Hannibal and he was impressed/shocked with the amount of signatures on my book and took a little time to decide where to squeeze his autograph in. I pointed out a couple of prime locations near the centre and he was like "I'll squeeze in here" and popped himself above Mads and between Hetty and Gina. His signature is tiny, lol. Or at least he made it so because of the space.
He said he's enjoying his first con. Really super nice bloke! He was very sweet to my spawnling, who amused Laurence by trying to recreate a scene in Hannibal by telling him that if Laurence wants him to leave, he will USE THE LADIES ROOM.
Also...
Earlier on Saturday at Sean Pertwee's Q&A Panel, he mentioned he's been good friends with The Fish (as he called Laurence) since they worked on Event Horizon, and was excited he was doing the convention.
Laurence encouraged him to "go for it" with a lady he liked whilst they were working together. This advice led to Sean asking out his now wife, so he credits Laurence with that. He had a lot of lovely things to say.
For those also interested in Neil Marshall (British writer-director who also directed an episode of Hannibal - The Great Red Dragon), Sean mentioned that they were meant to be filming Dog Soldiers 2 this year (originally planned as a trilogy). But sadly, at the last minute the US based funding pulled out and the project went under. He said Neil was so upset about it that he probably won't revisit it again, which is very sad :(
On Sunday, I grabbed an autograph with Sean, and oh my word, that man can talk! He was so nice, he is so generous with his time! In the end I was like... I have to go as my spawn is about to be in the cosplay parade lol.
I mentioned that in Lawrence's Q&A he said his favourite line from The Matrix is "there is no spoon", and I thought it would be funny if Sean's fave line from Dog Soldiers was the same (lols). He had a good chuckle and said it's such a quotable movie. He said again he was so glad the Fish was here and had a laugh that he was suited and booted all weekend. He said that when Laurence arrived in the green room the first day of the con he looked around and saw everyone was dressed casually and said "why the hell am I wearing a suit!?". Sean found this very funny lol.
I said I was a huge fan of Neil's and as much as I love Doomsday, it is a bit of a stretch to buy him (Sean) as a scientist. He thought that was hilarious - I was like, I mean, a soldier I could buy... He agreed and said that one was a stretch but he had to do it because Neil loves to kill him off (he referenced on his panel the day before that he and Sean Bean are always being killed off). He told me that the one male role in The Descent (who gets violently killed almost immediately) Neil had written for him, but he wasn't available so Neil had to cast someone else. Loads of other fun stories from the set of Neil Marshall movies and what it was like at their Horror con Dogs Soldier reunion a few years ago (which sadly I wasn't able to get to). But then I was like... Sean I have to go and he cut himself off, chuckled and shook my hand. Honestly could have hung out and talked him all day, it was like talking to an old mate. What a lovely guy! Glad that he and the Fish get to hang out for the weekend.
All around another great con from Monopoly Events, they always have great guests, game/cinema rooms, lots of great indie traders and set pieces you can take pics in/with.
[guess what we went dressed as on the Saturday lol]
This is my secondary blog where I will be reblogging/interacting and perhaps posting.
My primary blog is @hartfeathers which is where I am slowly posting my analyses and album covers.
If I follow you it will show as hartfeathers because it is my primary blog. When I set up this tumblr I only intended to use it as an archive but with Twitter changing I decided to create this secondary blog so I could interact with Fannibals here. You can still find me on twitter with the handle 'hartfeathers'
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