Do you have a recap of the panel from the earlier day that you posted pics from as well? Or only the last day? (No rush to post it if you do, just want to know whether itāll be coming).
The Saturday VIP panel was awkwardly run, and not as good as the Monday Panels. I did take some notes after I left just for myself so I would remember what they talked about. They arenāt as comprehensive because I hadnāt yet realised people would be as interested in knowing.
I have had a few people ask about the first panel so Iāll put my notes below for those who are interested. I havenāt edited these so if thereās any spelling or grammar mistakes forgive me. And just to note, a lot of what was said was repeated again in the Monday panels because people asked similar questions.
My favourite Michelle story was her saying when she pinned Peter to the wall and kissed him and she held her other hand back behind her and Jenna just took her hand and held it in her own and she turned to Jenna and said youāre weird.
She auditioned for a different role got it had to turn it down because she was working on something else at the time, wouldnāt say what, but told Moffatt that if anything else came up to give her a call because she really wanted to do Doctor Who. Then she got a call from her agent they asked if she was sitting, so she sat down, and they told her that Moffatt wanted her to play the master and she asked her agent is Moffatt new she was a woman, her agent said yes and the rest is history. Also a number of answer were similar to the main panels because people asked similar questions between the panels.
It was Moffattās idea for Mary Poppins to be the most terrible villain in the universe, which she thinks is great. And she gave props to the costume designer for bringing the outfit to life.
In SVU her first scene was with Mariska Hargitay with 4 pages of dialogue and at the end of it she walked off and in character shoulder tapped her, that wasnāt in the script or directing, and she walked around the corner and freaked out because she realised she just shoulder checked her boss, and she heard Mariska go⦠who is that? And she thought oh no I just got myself fired but Mariska loved it.
She had a crush on Peter back in the day⦠long before Doctor Who. She remembers him like a Scottish David Bowie when she was up and coming as an actress
Her first job out of school was playing David Bowies girlfriend in a movie.
She talked about if wanting to pursue acting be ready for rejection and understand what parts youāll be able to play. That she found success later in life because she couldnāt really pull off the girl next door but once she got older and grew into her face and could play villains and witches she was able to get more parts, but that can take time and lots of rejection and you need you push through and not let it get you down.
One of Michelle Favourite episodes is when she turned up to set with her 8 year old son and there were daleks everywhere and she put her son in one and stayed in all day he was so excited (she wasnāt sure the episode name but maybe itās The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar?)
She didnāt adlib much in doctor who because Moffatt was very good at writing in her voice so when doing the scripts nothing ever felt off.
When asked about where is like in NZ she said she had only gotten in the morning before so sheād have to come back to that but she was planning on doing some sight seeing after the con.
My favourite Sacha story was saying he had to send in an audition tape to Chibs of his interpretation of the Master and Chibs was like, great but could you take it down a notch, because the Master isnāt on drugs. Could you imagine a more unhinged Master? That could have been epic! 5 episodes was not enough of my little SpyMaster.
Sacha said itās easy to get caught up in acting and getting jobs but make sure you make time for life because all those lives experiences go into your acting and if youāre so caught up in acting and finding work youāll miss out on that. Michelle agreed.
Sacha talked about how when he was in Sherlock he was doing a fight scene with Ben and it ended in a pool so there kept having to go to a heat unit between takes and strip down out off the wet clothes and while they were in there talking he told Ben he had audition for the marvel show iron fist and Ben made a phone call and told someone there to make sure they took a look at his tape and he got the job. Then at a convention he saw Ben there so went up and said hi, and they had a quick chat and as he left he say I love you, and Ben said it back but he has no idea why he said it. But obviously they love each other.
Name dropped Ray Holman asking if that was who design Michelleās costume too, but Michelle just looked at him like āI donāt knowā so he didnāt say any more. Lol.
Mentioned that lots of people talk about who came first him or Missy, and this was new information to Michelleās and she was like āreallyā, and he explained because her arc was a redemption arc some people wanted her incarnation to be the last master.
Sachsās favourite moment is the O revel, when they did it in rehearsal and the cast and crew got to see how he did it there was such a positive reaction he knew it was something special.
When asked about ad libbing he talked a bit about the fact that the shooting schedule being really hectic so there wasnāt a lot of time.
*The impression I got was that he wasnāt able to do much ad libbing because of the hectic schedule there probably wouldnāt have been time for multiple takes.
When asked about favourite place in NZ Sacha mentioned his trip to Hobbiton but that sadly he was returning home on Tuesday so didnāt have much time to explore.
They both said they would be interested in doing a multi master story together.
They only just met yesterday here in New Zealand when they did a radio interview together
Both were honoured to play the role.