#hvff 2018

[fyeahsupermanandloislane]

Tyler Hoechlin (Superman/Clark) talks Lois Lane at Heroes & Villains Fan Fest

We don’t know exactly where Clark and Lois are in their relationship in the crossover. I’m trying not to guess what we’ll have together. I’m just excited for how we present the relationship.

[glitterybuttercup-blog]

I took this pics during the Gotham panel at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in London. Please give credit if you want to use them thanks 

Glitterybuttercup

[thekiaramoon]

Tyler Hoechlin and Colton Haynes at Heroes and Villans Fan Fest NJ

[deangirlsince07]

I finally got to meet my celebrity crush! Tyler Hoechlin is my man. I crushed hard on him back on his 7th Heaven days and Teen Wolf! He was such a sweetheart ❤️.

[thegreatescape]

me + hugging smaylor (◡‿◡✿)

[julpux]

so this is what happiness feels like.

- me meeting robin & cory at hvff 2018, london ♥︎

[seriouslycromulent]

OK. I originally started this post a week and a half ago. But between 2 trips out of town and the Hell in a Cell PPV, I’m only now getting around to finishing it. So I apologize if it sounds dated or odd. But I did want to share what I learned and experienced at HVFF, especially since it was so close to home.

Anywho … here we go:

I wasn’t planning on going to the Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in New Jersey, but lo and behold, on the Saturday night before, I realized I just might be able to go and spend a couple of hours fawning over some fandom favorites. Especially since they were so close to home (I live in Newark), and the last time Matt Ryan was supposed to come to HVFF, he cancelled at the last minute. 

I can now officially forgive him. He didn’t know we were fighting, but I forgive him nonetheless. ;-)

Anyway, since I could only go on Sunday, I had a very specific agenda:

Enjoy Q&A with Ray Fisher

Meet Matt Ryan and get him to sign my Dangerous Habits graphic novel

Meet Ray Fisher and just bask in his awesomeness! (J/k I got his autograph too!)

Walk around and check out the vendors and artists at the show

Buy nerdy things for a reasonable price

Well, this post is only going to be about item #2 because for the brief time that I got to chat with Matt Ryan, I learned some interesting things about him and what may be on the horizon for his Constantine on the CW.

I’ll try to be quick. Well, I’ll try to try.

Matt Ryan is very chill and took his time talking to people for as long as they wanted while the rest of us waited in line. Some people were aware that others were just as excited as they were to talk to Matt, but a few took a really long time to chat with him. And at no point did I see Matt look bothered, frustrated or tired. He seemed very engaging and interested in everything everyone had to say to him. It could be an act, but even if it is, it’s still a nice thing to do. 

He wore all black, but none of the different shades of black matched, which I kind of liked because that’s just something that Constantine wouldn’t care about either. Just add a leather jacket and you would get Mucous Membrane vibes.

I was surprised by the number of people in line who weren’t talking to each other. Sure, friends who walked up together talked to each other, but I’m used to fans who are willing to stand in line and meet one of their fandom favs just striking up a conversation with one another to pass the time. In Matt’s line, not so much. Or maybe it was just me. It didn’t look like anyone wanted to talk to anyone they didn’t already know.

Matt had a lot of headshots and images to choose from if people wanted an autograph, including some from the NBC series. I really wanted the one with the 4 main cast members (Manny, Zed, John, and Chas), but I had to stay focused.

When I finally got in front of Matt, I fell into this weird thing where I suddenly decide I’m going to overcompensate for my nerves by talking way too much and too fast. But I didn’t want to take up too much of his time and knew others were waiting so I forgave myself for being so effusive. I hope he picked up on my nervous vibes and didn’t hold it against me.

I told him that he was the representation of 2 worlds colliding because I’m a huge Hellblazer fan and a theater geek. And as a matter of fact, when I moved to the East Coast 3 years ago, his play, Therese Raquin, was the first Broadway play I had ever attended. He laughed at that and apologized. He said that that’s a rough one for a first-time Broadway experience. I said it was OK, and I enjoyed it. 

I told him as a matter of fact, I was a part of the preview audience that he talked about in an interview that was deathly quiet after the play ended. I said I remember feeling like, “Oh shit! Was that it? Should we not have laughed at the things we laughed at throughout the play?” For those who don’t know, Emile Zola has a sense of humor, but the play is dark, and it involves a murder and 2 suicides. The lighter moments are needed to release some of the tension in the play, but that performance did not get  a typical audience reaction to the end, I’m guessing.

Then, Matt launches into the story about how it’s interesting to learn what American theater audiences laugh at compared to British audiences. He had previously performed on Broadway in Hamlet a few years earlier, but it had transferred from the UK, and there weren’t any previews, just regular performances. He said there were times when the American audiences were rowdier or laughed at dialogue or scenes where British audiences didn’t. I recall a few other actors mentioning this before in interviews, but it was always in reference to movies or TV shows. So I thought it was interesting to hear that these differences also show up in the theater, especially since you get the benefit of having that immediate reaction on stage. Also, I think he may have just had some rowdy audiences for Hamlet.

I couldn’t tell if Matt liked or hated the differences in audience reactions, but I could tell he did find it strange and interesting. 

He also told me about the differences in the previews process for theater in the UK is different. Now, I studied theater in London (academically), but I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to learn more about it from an actual actor, so I listened intently to his details. Apparently, in the UK, previews are for a very few performances, then the show is set and runs for X number of weeks. On Broadway (but perhaps not everywhere in the US), the previews can last up to 3 weeks, depending on the producer and theater company. I told him that I think the Off-Broadway theater productions may operate more like the UK theater industry. And the multiple weeks of previews seems more like a commercial Broadway thing, but I couldn’t be sure.

Then, I mentioned that I actually studied theater in London, but I immediately regretted it. Not because I’m ashamed or anything, but because I think he thought I was trying to impress him. So it just made me feel and look foolish. So I quickly moved on.

I told Matt that I really loved the NBC series, and I was devastated when it was cancelled because Hellblazer is my favorite comic book, and I thought for network television, NBC did a good job capturing the spirit and tone of the early John Constantine from Vertigo. To this, Matt frowned a little and said he understood, and that he’s happy to get a chance to play the character again. He knows it’s not quite the same on Legends as it was on the other series, but the role is such a pleasure to play.

Now this is the part that really stuck with me: Matt said he’s trying to work in a little more darkness to the character to make him more like the John from the comic books. It’s a bit difficult because the tone of Legends is very different, but he is working on it.

He also said that the hope is that if the season goes well, and fans really respond to Constantine, the CW hopes to relaunch the solo show on the CW network. That way, John can be more like the Constantine from the comics. 

To this, I was beyond ecstatic because I wasn’t sure if I could make myself watch Legends of Tomorrow just for Matt. The show is just a little too “high” for me. That is, it feels like all the other Berlanti-verse shows, where it has this very light, every show has a message, after-school special feel to them. I wouldn’t say “camp” but it treads a bit close to it at times, and I like my comic book TV shows with a little more grit to them. I am a DC comics fan after all. 

To that end, Matt quickly signed my copy of Dangerous Habits graphic novel. When I first set it down in front of him after walking over, he said, “Ah, my favorite one!” And I said “I know. Mine too.” I also let him know I wished his LoT Constantine could be darker, but I understood why he wasn’t.

While he was signing, I noticed he had a tattoo on the inside of his left arm, near the elbow joint. So I asked him what it said. He quoted the Polonius line from Hamlet: “This above all: To thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

It caught me off guard at first because I wasn’t expecting him to say all that. The tattoo is long, but I didn’t think it had that much text. Apparently it does. But when I said, “Excuse me” and leaned in because I didn’t catch all he said, he repeated it and explained where it was from. Of course, I recognized where it was from after I caught all of what he said. but I’m sure in his mind, I lost all credibility when I said I studied theater in London. sadly, the noise of the convention hall combined with years of headphones blasting music is starting to take their toll on my hearing. But it’s still a cool tattoo. 

Btw, if you have trouble reading his autograph above, it says: “Candy, Lovely talking to you, Big Love” 

OK. That’s it for now.

[ravenwald]

Omg Robin was so sweet and someone gave him a deadly cupcake!!