Angel

Welcome to the Hyperion a 3-Day Event for the Fans of Angel

Although the Angel Investigations team may have closed the doors on the true and original Hyperion in favor of the plush ivory towers of the new Wolfram & Hart offices, Starfury made no such defection as the 2004 Angel event took place in the very familiar confines of the Thistle Hotel near London’s Heathrow. Although just under half the size of its successful 2003 predecessor End of Days, the event that managed to sell out 13-months before it even took place still managed to play host to close to 900 conventioneers. Once again the stage in the Main Hall took on the semblance of the reception of the 1920’s Hollywood hotel with the welcome sight of Smile Time’s puppet Angel taking the role of receptionist. What was to be another fun-filled and exciting weekend for all, providing fans with yet another insightful look into and behind the scenes with the actors and crew of their favorite series, did not disappoint. With events scheduled throughout the weekend of Autograph and Photograph sessions, the Fancy Dress competition, three nights of disco partying until 3am along with a plethora of question & answer talks, auctions and merchandise to fill that one vacant spot in any fans collections. Welcome to Hyperion, check your bags at the door and let the festivities begin!

WELCOME TO HYPERION

With Glorificus herself, Clare Kramer once again acting as MC, she introduced the waiting crowd to the impressive list of Angel guests. First on stage was a man who was perhaps one of the most interesting people to attend End of Days. As key props man on Angel for five years, Ed ’Sparky’ Servaites has lots of fascinating behind-the-scenes insights to share on what exactly goes on in the making of Angel. He was followed on stage by Emmy award winning make-up artist Dayne Johnson who over the past year or so has intrigued many fans with his make-up demonstrations but amused even more people with his on-stage antics with our favorite green demon. Brody Hutzler was a revelation in 2003 or rather his lean well toned body was a revelation and as he graced the stage on opening night, it was clearly his well defined abs and pleasing habit of revealing his fine physique that had the ladies in the crowd shouting "Off, Off, Off..." before Brody even said a word. The great thing about Starfury cons is the knack event organizer Sean Harry has of bringing actors over to the UK for their first ever convention experiences and for Hyperion, Sean managed to break in not one but two familiar Angel faces into the convention scene. For some, the addition of werewolf and Angel’s love interest Nina Ash a.k.a. Jenny Mollen to the guest list had been a welcome surprise but it obviously proved to be quite a daunting experience for Jenny herself, "I’m so nervous right now," she confessed as she caught her first glimpse of the Angel faithful. Unable to say anymore she quickly ran off stage to seek comfort amongst the friendly faces behind-the-scenes. Nerves didn’t seem to be a problem for the other con newbie as Sarah Thompson (Eve) happily smiled and waved and soaked up the plaudits of the Hyperion crowd. "I’m so excited to be here," she told everyone, "It’s my first time in England and I love it! I’m looking forward to having a fabulous weekend."

There are some guests who no matter how many times they attend UK events, it is always a pleasure to welcome them. Julie Benz is as gracious as she is beautiful and to see her each year is like saying hello to an old friend. She has been part of the Angel family for so long that it is no wonder she is received with warmth. "I have to say," she begins once the noise has died down, "there is nothing like a British fan." No wonder the Brits love her so. During the final season of Angel, the familiar face of Angel’s son Connor made a welcome return for a couple of episodes and at Hyperion the young man behind Mr. Broody Jr. Vincent Kartheiser happily matched that trend. His welcome on stage was loud but personal wagers between fans and friends were being made prior to the start of the opening ceremony as to which guest would raise the roof so much that an aircraft could pass by and not be heard either landing or taking off at nearby Heathrow airport. The vote was split between the big-hearted Andy Hallett and the ever-so-sweet Amy Acker. As most are aware, Andy has been suffering some pretty serious health problems recently and the fact that he was even in attendance is a testament to the kind of man that he is. Never one to let his fans down, the recent enforced cancellation of a US con meant that Andy, more than ever, was determined to be the ’life of the party’ and the fans showed their appreciation of his inspirational presence the only way they knew how, with cheers, applause and the occasional burst of high pitched squealing. Everybody but everybody loves Amy Acker. Whether it be on DVD commentaries, in magazine articles or at conversations in an auto queue. Family, friends and fans alike all recognize Amy’s engaging spirit and she was the last guess to be announced as her short-lived attendance at Hyperion was greeted with such an ovation that we’re sure that was a Boeing 767 just quietly sneaking overhead. Amy, with her engaging duel performance of both Fred and Illyria this season, solidified herself as the reining Texan favorite of Starfury conventions! With all the guests on stage for one last welcome from the audience, everyone was ready to begin the first party of the weekend.

JULIE BENZ (Darla)

Saturday afternoon in the Main Hall was filled with much excitement and laughter as Julie Benz and Vincent Kartheiser took the stage together to spend a full-hour with the fans in what was to become the most interesting talk of the day. Julie is always emphatic to state what a wonderful and rich history her character of Darla has had over the course of 8-years in the Whedon-verse, but she herself has compiled quite a history with the attendees of Starfury and once again, all the fans where very happy to see her. Dressed in a beautiful, off-white, hand-knitted poncho, which she designed and knitted herself, Julie was as radiant as ever as she greeted and teased the fans, "How are you today? Did you get really drunk last night? Anybody hook up, no?" she questions laughing, "Anyone looking to get lucky tonight, maybe? I wish you luck."

The audience wasted no time in getting to the field of questions in their minds and with the appearance of ’mother’ and ’son’ before them the first question centered around Darla and Connor’s relationship. "I feel really young to be his mother," Julie states with a laugh, and explains that she and Vincent had actually met prior to Angel, "We were auditioning for a movie together, and neither one of us got it. I was actually very excited that they cast a good actor to play my son. I remember when David Greenwalt said, ’Oh, we got this really wonderful actor, do you know Vincent Kartheiser?’ I was actually really excited about it." In this final season of Angel, although Darla was ’officially’ dusted (for a second time), Julie’s character got to make a reemergence in a flash-back scene in the Italian episode, The Girl in Question, "We had a lot of fun filming that, I definitely would have liked to have had more time with the four of us working together," referring to David, James Marsters and Juliet Landau, "It was always a treat when we did work together but it was so rare when all four of us were there." And what about this Immortal guy? "Yeah, who knew about this Immortal? All these years I never knew and then there’s this other guy! It was great to be back but it was a little bitter sweet though, it was the end and we knew this was it and it was a little hard. David and James have really great chemistry together; they have a lot of fun working together."

But when you are working on a show with the same people for so many season, there inevitably are a few embarrassing moments that occur and the fans, being fans, want to know all about them. "It was one of those flashback scenes," recalls Julie, "and for some reason in the middle of the scene I went completely brain-dead while we were filming, I said a line and I thought I was supposed to exit and so I exited. And the scene continued and I’m standing by camera and I’m watching and I can’t figure out why everyone’s looking at me. Then all of a sudden I realize, ’Oh my god, I have the next line,’ and I wonder back on the set and David was like, ’ Where’d you go?’ I went, ’I have no idea.’ Nobody stopped me; they just let me embarrass myself." On another occasion, the embarrassing moment came after the fact, "In the one of the love scenes, I think you guys got to see a little bit more then I thought I was revealing at the time. When we saw it on television there was a backside shot that I didn’t realize was being filmed." Jenny Mollen confessed later in the weekend, that this event led to Julie writing on her person, ’If you can read this, you are too close!’ Good lesson learned by the DP. But not all embarrassing moments happen on set as Julie tells the tale, "I get recognized when I’m doing something I really don’t want anybody to know I’m doing. I was throwing a bachelorette party for a girlfriend of mine," she begins, "and I was in The Pleasure Chest, which is a store in L.A that sells all sorts of... yeah. I was putting together a funny little gift basket and this guy came over to me, ’Oh my god, I love your work,’ and I’m like, ’What work?’ as I’m holding something..." laughter prevents Julie from clarifying but the audience gets the picture, "He goes, ’On Angel, I just think you’re an amazing actress. Wait ’til my dad finds out I met you.’ And I’m like, ’I’m throwing a bachelorette party!’ to explain the paraphernalia that is in my basket and that I’m holding and he’s like, ’Yeah, sure you are.’ It always happens at the most inopportune times, it’s never when I’m doing something descent and ladylike. It’s always embarrassing."

A serious moment pauses the side-slipping laughter sessions as Julie opens up to her personal ambitions, "I’d love to continue working as an actress but I have some other interests as well, I’d like to start my one line of knitwear. I’d like to start a family, I’d like to retire in Tuscany and drop out completely with my husband. I hand-knit everything, I was approached a couple of years ago because I had designed these really, great little sweaters for my two nephews, they were American flag sweaters and it was right after 9/11 and I was approached by a kids store. They really loved the sweaters and they wanted me to be their resident knitter. But for me it’s a hobby," she confides, "it’s my therapy, it’s the way I deal with life and it’s what I do on set, I knit a lot because there’s a lot of downtime on set. So I wasn’t sure at that point I wanted to turn it into a business, but since I started designing ponchos every time I wear them I get 6 or 7 people who want to buy them and I feel like I enjoy it so much at this point. I’ve never ventured into that side; I don’t know anything about the fashion industry so I’m trying to educate myself at this point." Aside from attending conventions this summer and getting to spend some quality time with her husband John as well as a little traveling through Italy, Julie has keep busy with various TV and film projects. "I just did a movie for HBO which will be out in February and it’s called, Rock & Roll Blues, and I had a movie out on Hallmark which I think will be coming here at some point and that movie’s called, The Long Shot. Other than that I’ve been working on other television series in the states, Navy, NCIS and Oliver Bean and I’m plugging away, working hard."

"It’s sad because we’re losing amazing television programming... and it’s dumbing down our society!" Julie on Reality TV shows

Sunday afternoon found Julie on stage with another Buffy alum, Clare Kramer, and the girlfest began. There was no pause in the laughter as Julie answered a question regarding the many deaths of Darla and emotions involved, "By Season three when I finally did die, it was like, ’Alright, see ya next year,’ and I was all sad because, ’No, I poofed again.’ I didn’t think you can poof twice and come back and they’re like, ’No, trust me, you’ll be back.’ I’m like, ’No I won’t, it’s goodbye,’ I was so sad and crying and giving everyone hugs. And David wouldn’t even say goodbye to me," she stated, "he was like, ’Don’t, just don’t. I can’t go there.’ And of course they had me back the following year, then the following year. People kind of got jaded towards my character, except for me. Each and every time I thought this was it." CoA stepped up to ask a few questions and informed Julie about the forthcoming Angel Score CD that is in the works with Fox and EMI; Angel composer Rob Kral had released the first version of the track list and it boasts a 4-score Darla suite which was a testament to the character as the fans were the one who chose which scores they wanted on the CD. "That’s really cool, during Season three I got a CD of the music from Season two and you don’t realize how much music plays a part in your experience watching of a movie or a television show and how much it’s part of the character," Julie states, "I really feel musically they’ve captured Darla and it helped, in an unconscious way it affects you as a viewer when the character appears, the music that’s going on behind it. I think they’ve done an amazing job and I’m very flattered and honored. I thought you were gonna say they were going to make me sing again, I would have been like, ’God no!’" she laughed. There were indeed a lot of requests for Ill Wind, "No, I couldn’t do that again, they’d have to use what’s already there."

In a final show of respect for her craft and the viewers who understand excellence in the medium, Julie responded to what the mass production of Reality TV shows vs. quality television. "It’s sad because we’re losing amazing television programming because of reality shows, they’re cheaper to produce, they don’t have to go through the union, and they don’t have to pay residuals, it’s a cheaper format and it’s dumbing down our society!" To this the audience broke out in a loud round of applause and cheers. "All I can say is turn off your television, don’t watch those shows, don’t make what we do obsolete. Eventually, you’re not going to have scripted television and your not going to have shows like Buffy and Angel and then you won’t have this community. I mostly watch cable programming; they’re the ones doing the amazing shows right now with Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex in the City, that’s what I watch." Fortunately with Joss Whedon still in the house, viewers may have hope in the very near future.

VINCENT KARTHEISER (Connor)

Vincent Kartheiser is an intelligent, talented and astute young man who has the ability to enwrap you with intellect one moment only to have you laughing in the aisles at his off-the-wall and slightly weird antics the next. On stage with Julie Benz on Saturday, Vincent displayed both these traits and helped to contribute to a very entertaining if not exhausting hour. Vincent played the role of Connor throughout the whole of Season 4 and for two episodes in Season 5 and during that time, fans witnessed Connor transform from a lonely, vengeful and hurting teenage boy to a well-adjusted teenager, Vincent truly enjoyed playing the two sides of Angel’s son. "It was fun. I actually like playing the happy Connor more because generally I get roles where I’m a psychotic murderer or a drug-somatic syndrome boy or a nice kid who every once in a while goes out, gets hammered and rapes a woman. So it was nice to play a role that [cared] about other people." Vincent muses if he would have liked to have continued playing the new and improved Connor if the plug hadn’t been pulled on Angel and there had been a Season 6. "I think I would prefer to see him come back but I don’t think he would. I think they decided to do those episodes once they realised this was going to be the last season. I think they wanted to tie up loose ends and try not to leave too many things unresolved so if there was a season six, I don’t think I would have snuck in at the back end of season five. But I would love to played light-hearted Connor more than I did because I played the other one for a year and a half."

Considering Connor had his memories returned and the impact that Cordelia had on him, Vincent pondered why Connor did not enquire after Cordelia, "I don’t know, I think Connor probably has someone young and sweet at college," he joked, "He probably got his memories back but the last time he saw [Cordy] there was virgin blood on her belly that was blown open by a seven-foot tall black woman. Maybe he was a little turned off by that." At this point a audience member reminded Vincent of a lady that a year previous had tried to put makeup on him at End of Days. The lady in question was the gentleman’s wife and after looking forward to Hyperion for so long, she was disappointed that illness had prevented her from coming and partying with her favourite actor. Being the dutiful husband, he asked Vincent if he would mind signing a ’Get Well Soon’ card for her and of course Vincent agreed. While he was doing this Julie offered to field all questions including those aimed at her young companion on stage, so when she was asked whether Vincent wore Boxers or briefs, in the interest of staying true to her word, Julie leaned over towards Vincent, pulled the waistband of his trousers back and treated herself to a quick looky-loo. "Boxers!" she replied with a cheeky smile. Of course this answer would please most ladies in the audience, but the men didn’t want to be left out and Vincent was asked if he should return the favour and check out Julie’s preference. "No!" comes a shout from the back of the Main Hall as Julie’s husband John Kassir made his feelings known on that particular subject. "Let’s just say they’re small and pretty," Julie said hoping to divert World War III. "Very small," John confirmed. "Very pretty," Vincent smirked, destined to have the final word but quickly gave way to John, "I really have no idea!"

Once the subject of cats reared its furry head during this session then the feline topic kept cropping up all over the weekend. During his solo Q&A session the following day, Vincent actually divided the audience and had a meowing competition getting half the audience to meow like a ’happy cat’ and the other to meow like a ’hungry and angry cat’. "I actually bought my cat for my ex-girlfriend," he confesses, "and when she broke my heart and trampled all over it like a rhinoceros over a rice paddy field, I stole the cat." Vincent then goes off into one of his unique commentaries as he continues, "I swear it was like 1941, it was raining out and we jumped in the car and went 100 miles east to a little motel. We stayed down for three days and finally I go into my house and she’s there [dramatic gasp], she’s going to confront me. She walks up to me and she’s like, ’So I guess you’re keeping the cat?’ I go, ’Yeah,’ and she goes, ’I don’t give a s*** as long as I don’t have to see you again!’ So I still have the f***ing cat." When Vincent goes off on one of his eccentric ramblings, there is nothing anyone can do but sit back and go along for the ride yet when he gets like that, how does anyone get any work done? "Actually on set I’m very, very focused and very quiet," he says quite clearly not taking himself seriously, "and I spend a lot of time meditating, getting in character, I do exercises..." Behind Vincent, Julie is pulling all kinds of faces at his words and starts to mime that perhaps he smokes something that makes him delusional. The crowd responds with laughter.

"I think Connor probably has someone young and sweet at college." Vincent on why Connor never asked about Cordy

As Vincent is so good at ridiculing himself sometimes in rather a self-deprecating way, there can’t be many moments when he gets embarrassed yet he quite easily recalls a moment from the second episode he ever appeared in, "I was wearing those leather pants with a seam from my navel to the top of my behind," once again he transforms into dynamic voice mode as he tells his tale, "I remember I was doing the scene where a young lady had been taken hostage in a car and I leapt onto the car grabbing a demon and slamming him down. In rehearsal I leapt up on the car like so and my pants ripped from the butt to the front and I looked down and I saw Jimmy! And I’m like it’s your jimmy Vinnie, you’ve got to put him away!" Although there was a lot of joking and fooling around on stage, there were some moments where Vincent actually gave a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Being in films from a very early age, Vincent was asked if there was any one film where he thought he could break away from the teenage angst roles and found his chance at being an adult actor. "There were probably a few in a row that I was really psyched about and I was like, ’This is going to be the one that is going to propel me into an adult career,’ but it’s funny, throughout my career ever since I was 11, it’d be ’you know this’ll be the one kid, after this you won’t be able to walk into a bar anymore’ and I always looked at them and thought they were complete idiots and I was always right. So I get a lot of that even now and they’re always wrong. Regardless of what film it is or who it’s with I always find a way of helping it bomb," he joked.

Vincent’s last film Dandelion played at the Sundance Film Festival yet he admits that there are no projects on the table at present other than appearing in Angel reruns. "I have a theory on this, which really pisses off every person that I know as it is exactly the opposite of what they all believe," he explains when asked about his ambition, "I have this idea that life is meaningless and everything in life is meaningless and pointless and that helps me sleep at night. I have this theory that we basically come into this world with everything we have and leave this world with it and regardless of how much money or how many projects or what you create in this world, it’s all gonna go to dust and the only thing that really matters is the way that you treat the people you love and so I’m really abusive. No, seriously, ambition for me is to love the people I love. I’m not really interested in too much anymore. When I was young I wanted to star in a movie but then I did it and I realized that it didn’t really fulfil me. It was fun but it’s like the goal is never enough. If you’re in a cycle of want or if you’re in a cycle of ambition, you will always be there."

JENNY MOLLEN (Nina Ash)

As the grandfather clock in the Hyperion lobby magically struck noon on Saturday, the attendees in the Main Hall were all expectant for the very first UK appearance of Jenny Mollen, also known as Angel’s love interest of Season five, werewolf girl Nina Ash. Jenny, being a longtime fan herself of both Buffy and Angel, was well aware of the loyal and faithful followers of the soul mated slayer and vampire, so she was a bit apprehensive about meeting the fans, for she so wanted them to like her. It didn’t take long for fans to realize that Jenny was one of their own; a true devotee to the characters as well as her craft, she brought laughter and fun as well as intelligent insight to her talk. Having met fans the previous night and earlier in the day at her photo session, Jenny’s shyness faded as she greeted everyone with a huge smile and the proverbial question, "Was everybody out to 4 in the morning? Raise your hands, how many people? Yeah, I didn’t sleep at all," Jenny admits. "I’m excited to be here, I’m a little bit more relaxed; I’m not as nervous as before, I promise I won’t run off the stage this time. I was a huge fan of the show from the beginning, so for me it was quite a humbling experience to be a part of Joss’ brilliance." A particular audience member who has yet to see the final season of Angel wanted a recap of Jenny’s character; and as Jenny said it best... "Well, I’m a girl who gets bitten by a werewolf and she sort of develops a crush on Angel because he is sort of her white knight, and she starts hanging out around the office trying to get his attention; he turns into a puppet, things get a little bit more complicated, they have breakfast, and then randomly they’re in bed together," she laughs. In regards to being in werewolf makeup, Jenny had only one complaint, "The contact lens kill you, they’re like this big and I don’t wear contacts, and you can’t see anything, so that was difficult." In preparation for the role, Jenny shyly admits that she did watch American Werewolf in London.

Most every fan will agree that Angel ended all too soon, and with new storylines such as Illyria and Nina and Angel’s relationship fans wanted to know if there were plans for Nina had there been a Season 6. "We never really discuss it but I think that it would go further," Jenny explains, "Steve DeNight [Angel writer] and I have talked about it and we kind of felt they would continue the relationship in some capacity." But an eager fan raised the fact that Angel went off to Italy to rescue Buffy, "I thought it was funny because it was like I’m the rebound girl, but I felt that Nina sort of idolized him too, he was the night in shinning armor and pretty much the only person that she could relate to and find comfort in. So I think they were both using each other in a way," she explains, "I feel that Nina thought, ’I’m in love this guy,’ but I think in reality it was more like an idealized, ’Oh, this would be so perfect,’ type thing. For Angel it was let’s move on, let’s make an effort to close that chapter and I think that was what the whole union came down to." Yet, there was a moment of self respect as Jenny well knows, and Nina’s lack of providing Angel with a moment of true happiness. "I was reading through this before I got [to the studio], the scene with David and I, thinking about Nina and her character and development of the relationship and my sister [Sam] walks in and I’m reading it for her and she’s like, ’Dude, I don’t know how you guys are going to have a relationship when he’s so emotionally unavailable.’"

Before she can recover from laughing the question is raised about being in bed with David. "I had been working with him for awhile at that point," Jenny candidly begins, "and we didn’t really have to do any scenes like that, certainly it’d been suggested that maybe we had been busy. But it was weird, because I talked to Joss the night before - Joss actually wrote both of Nina’s scenes in episode 21 [Power Play] - and I said my dad saw Smile Time and then he went on the internet and reads, ’Did you see Nina’s nipple?’ and my family’s like what’s going on? And don’t think these look bigger on screen, but it tripped me out a little bit, so I said to Joss, ’I don’t want to be naked again, I don’t think it is necessary.’ He called over there and they typed in, ’They’re naked in bed together,’ and then it said, ’She is wearing a camisole,’ so I got to wear a little tank top and I felt a little more at ease." The ladies in the audience were waiting for the next part of the story, "But when David took off his shirt and I had to lay on him, I felt as if maybe I was being presumptuous and too forward, but I’m trying to get into it, so I was playing with his skin. There was a line, ’And now the brow is back’, and the first shot we did I grabbed his head, but he made me feel so comfortable because he knows that I speak German and French and he would say things to me with a think French accent to make me laugh." There were other interesting moments on set, as in the Smile Time episode and working alongside fellow actor who went by the name of Puppet Angel. Jokingly Jenny grumbles, "Everybody else got to laugh at him and have a comedic reaction when they saw the puppet and then I read the script and I have all these weird, intimate talks with the puppet. The puppeteers were so crass, I don’t know if I should even tell you..." of course this prompted cheers of encouragement from the crowd and Jenny continued, "I’d be sitting there and all of a sudden I’ll feel a little puppet hand on my boob, ’Hello?’"

After a pause in the laughter, Jenny eagerly begins, "I’ll tell you a funny story, in episode three [Unleashed], you know the end where David drives me home, back to my house? I guess he got called into work two hours early and he was upset because he had been sitting in his trailer, and when we got there they weren’t ready for the shot. This is the second day I had ever worked with him, I didn’t really know him it was sort of just a working relationship, and I’m sitting there in the passenger seat and he’s upset with the AD, ’Why did you guys call me in so early, I’m just sitting here doing nothing.’ He gets in the driver’s seat of the car and he takes off, and I’m like, ’Where are we going?’ We’re leaving the camera crew and everything, we’re driving through Pasadena, ’I’m just going to make them wait for awhile,’ and I’m thinking, ’I’ve been abducted by TV’s Angel and I’m never going to see my family again.’" Fans never realize that the actors can also be fans themselves as Jenny reveals when admitting to her favorite character, "I really like Darla, and I’m not saying that because Julie’s behind stage. It’s so funny because I didn’t meet her until I was on the set for the Italian episode [The Girl in Question] that they were shooting. I had worked with this director [David Greenwalt] in Colorado and he was a mentor for kids with disabilities. He called me and we relayed one of his kids one night and I was talking to him, he was an Angel fan so he was out in L.A. and I never get any contact with fans. I’m so excited and my sister was laughing at me because I tried on a million outfits, ’I have to impress my fan, what do you think he would want me to wear?’ And I picked him up and took him to the set. James was there, Juliet Landau, Julie and David and this kid was flipping out, but I was flipping out too because I love Darla, and I didn’t want to tell her, ’Hey, I’m a really big fan of yours,’ So they were signing things for him and the whole time I’m trying to play it cool, ’Yeah, I’m on the show too,’ but the whole time I’m, ’It’s Darla!’"

"I’d be sitting there and all of a sudden I’ll feel a little puppet hand on my boob." Jenny on Smile Time Angel

While endearing herself to the fans with her passion for the series to match their own, now Jenny had the chance to show the deeper side of her talent and interests when fielding a question about her one-woman show, of which she entirely wrote, produced, as well as performed. "It’s basically about my family and my childhood and different characters in my life and I take on all of them. I think it was hard because my parents divorced when I was two and they both have different versions of what happened and I took those and meshed them into one. I remember I was playing my mom in this scene in front of all of UCLA and a bunch of people in Los Angeles and my parents were at the same show, in the same room and my mom was on one side, my dad was on the other side and I don’t know how it happened but I ended up delivering it to my dad as my mother. It was really intense," she confesses, "the show was definitely a catharsis but I think afterwards my parents were about to kill me because I took liberties. It was darker than people had expected from me because I was perceived as being cheerful and my show was really dark. I think that’s what I was really trying to say, I’m not a pretty girl, there’s so much more that you are not seeing." In light of the fact that Jenny has had the writing and producing experience of her one-women show, it was asked if she could impart to the writers regarding her character on Angel. "I think that’s why I was such a fan of the show because I do write and I think the writing on the show is just superb and there is a level of excellence that you don’t find in even film that Joss tries to uphold. Several times I would say, ’This doesn’t feel right,’ but I didn’t have to do that on this show, I was thrilled." Jenny laughingly admits, "I did this horrible independent film that I hope you guys never have to see and the writing was horrible so I went home and rewrote mot of my dialogue myself and they read it the next day and said, ’Okay fine.’ On Angel I didn’t have to worry about that, I was in very good hands." Her preference to writing or acting caused her to reflect a moment before admitting, "They are so different, the thing with writing is that it’s so tangible and you can have a purgation of emotion and hold it in your hand and as a an actor, when things can be so ephemeral - just work in general - it’s nice to have that as a foundation. I don’t think I could choose between the two, but I think that I’m probably better at acting. Drew is a genius, and I was embarrassed to show him any of my work because it’s intimidating, but I think the acting is what I do best."

Her personal interests as to what projects she would like to try next ran the gamut from her own work to classic heroine and comic book super hero. "I have a script right now, it’s called: Let Her Eat Cake, and it’s just not ready yet. I feel when you write, especially when you inevitably write yourself into the script, as an actor sometimes the best things to do is say, I shouldn’t play this because I don’t have enough distance from this to really approach it correctly. I hope this script will get made, I don’t know that I would want to play a major role, I think it could be dangerous, (laugh) you can sometimes be too close to the work." In response to the now-in-demand Angel movie Jenny replies, "Definitely, I would hope that she would come back and kick some ass, personally. I don’t know if they would be together but I think she and Angel would be cool with each other and be allies of some sort." Offering the fans a little bid bit she confesses, "There’s actually a pilot on the WB that’s not out yet that I have my eye on, but I don’t know if it’s even being made but it’s based on the comic book, Global Frequency. I may be completely wrong, I don’t know what they have in mind but I’ve been hounding them about that." And of course an invitation to the British boards of the West End would not be out of the question, "I would like to do maybe Desire Under the Elms, I would love to come over." As to what fans can see Jenny in next, "We’re working on post-production for this film called, The Raven, which is an adaptation of Poe’s The Raven and then also - which you’ll probably see sooner - is D.E.B.S.. I play a German schoolgirl-slash-spy; you know those German schoolgirl-slash-spies, I like to go for all those realistic roles, werewolf I’ve covered." And covered it well, as by the end of the weekend, most everyone attending Hyperion was begging Sean for another appearance of Jenny Mollen with the Starfury list of regulars! Buffy who?

BRODY HUTZLER (Landok)

The memorable body and handsome face of Alaskan born Brody Hutzler once again graced the convention scene for Hyperion. Fast becoming one of the ladies favorites it was nice to see Brody again, albeit fully clothed this time. Brody, a fan of the UK, admits he loves spending time with the Brits and would have liked more time to tour about, Cornwall being one place he would like to visit. It became known that he is also a fan of Britain’s sacred game of football or as we in the states know it ’soccer’ and he has an extensive collection of soccer jerseys. On finding out more about the man himself Brody admitted if he could play any cartoon action hero it would be Captain America, "I would love to have my own action figure," he laughed, and when asked about Spiderman he teases, "Tobey Maguire is like 5ft 2, he is too short for Spiderman." He pauses and grins, "I should have been Spiderman." When it comes to what he likes to watch 28 Days Later, The Big Lebowski, Rushmore and Gladiator feature in his home DVD collection. Actors, he admires, include Jeff Bridges, Jude Law and Claire Danes fields the actress of his choice, although he would love to work with classic actors Robert De Niro and Sir Ian McKellen. Voiceover work is another avenue the Alaskan would love to explore mentioning Finding Nemo, however he admits to having a slight annunciation problem and feels this would hinder him not that anyone noticed it.

When asked about his own most challenging role he explains it’s more the auditions for parts then the parts he got. He entertains the audience with his funny tales of audition experiences from juggling to the part he did get for dancing about with a bucket on his head. Brody is also questioned on the hot topic of Reality TV and if he feels that viewers have been saturated by it to which he replies, "There is a place for Reality shows. I do watch The Osbornes, he admits." Luckily the increased reality scheduling hasn’t affected him directly. When referring to his time on Angel, Brody mentions how different Landok was as a character to play and the added experience of makeup. At one point, he incurred an ear infection when makeup remover was left in his ear, although he is quick to point out that fellow guest Dayne Johnson was not the responsible party. He laughs as he continues to tell the story of how he once saw Charisma Carpenter in a local car park months after his appearance on the show. He recalls going over and tapping on her car window to say, ’Hi,’ Charisma, it’s me,’ only to have Charisma think he must be a strange fan and not realize who he was. Brody laughs that he wasn’t able to explain that he was Landok without makeup and how Charisma probably to this day still doesn’t know who it was. Brody is currently in the Days of Our Lives soap opera playing the role of Patrick Lockhart with a work schedule of 6 hours a day, 3 to 5 days a week, Brody needless to say is enjoying his current 3-year project. However his many credits include the Batman franchise Birds of Prey, Ally Mcbeal, 7th Heaven and even Charmed to mention a few. Brody confesses he likes playing the bad guy, "Girls don’t like good guy’s right?" he asks with a devilish smile. Although on Ally McBeal he did play a sexually harassed employee "Story of my life, happens all the time." This prompts the question of stalkers and is it a concern for Brody; he flashes a broad smile and then goes on to joke about how he was quite disheartened that even after adding his name to the local phone book he got no stalkers. Even though many attendees were happy to offer their ’stalker’ services for the weekend, and who could blame them, with his piercing blue eyes and melting smile he is a firm Starfury favorite.

BE ONE WITH THE QUEUE

For Hyperion, this Mantra was well and truly a thing of the past. Throughout the course of the weekend the Autograph sessions were separated into 2 groups; the first featured Amy, Julie, Sarah and Claire, and the second Andy, Vincent, Jenny, Dayne, Brody and Sparky. Amy also tried to get in as many fans through her autograph line as possible before she had to leave on Sunday but they were not rushed by the duel-role actress as Amy had pleasant greetings and a giggle for everyone she met. The sessions were held each evening, and with effective use of ticket numbers and white boards, the queues moved along at a reasonable pace. At this, a relatively smaller (by Starfury standards) event, the guests each took the time to say, ’Hi’ and have a small chat with each of the attendees. Julie Benz’s husband John Kassir was also on hand to chat with attendees. Happy to share what he has been up to, he told CoA that he’d just completed work on a new TV film entitled, Reefer Madness. The movie is a musical satire of the 1930’s film that told of the evils of smoking marijuana. John plays the part of Ralph and along actors Alan Cumming, Steven Weber and Neve Campbell who gets to show off her dancing prowess for the film, John boasts it is probably the most fun he has ever had on a set. Some of the chitchat which passed between fans and guests while going through the autograph queues ranged from Sarah Thompson’s partner mentioning that they had done as much as they could touring wise in England considering the short time they were there, Clare said she enjoyed her recent visit to Paris and then asked how they knew she had gone to Paris and it happened she bumped into someone in the toilets at Manchester airport after Fusion. Julie was told it was always a pleasure to see her in the UK, that an event wasn’t the same without her and that all the girls hated her because she is so beautiful; Julie joked back that it was all a mask, that she just slips it on in the morning other than that she looks really rough! Jenny had brought along her sister, Samantha, who was happy to be her personal steward for the weekend when she wasn’t off shopping in London, but also keeping Jenny company was a photo of her dog, safely taped to the top of her autograph table so she could keep a watchful eye on her much missed pup.

As with Fusion, Photo tickets went on sale promptly at 3pm at the start of registration with sales continuing through until Saturday night giving attendees ample opportunity to get a snap with their idols. The sessions were also well-organised if not a little busy and with the one-off opportunity to have a group shot of all the assembled guests, who can blame attendees for queuing up nearly an hour in advance. The Photo session, as always, ran well even though Vincent’s ever present ’cup of coffee’ was a continual moment of distraction as it was taken out of frame. Of course, the group shot was not the only opportunity to get a permanent reminder of your time with the guests. The shoots ran through both Saturday and Sunday morning offering single shots and parings from Pylean duo Andy & Brody and mother & son (Darla & Connor) with Julie & Vincent. All in all, throughout both the Autograph and Photo sessions, the guests were ready with a laugh and smile. Special consideration and appreciation should be given out to fan favourite Andy Hallett. He really gave his all in his various appearances, which only helped more in making this event another truly memorable experience. On particular attendee had quite the experience with the ’Boys of Hyperion’, as CoA met Sonya from Cardiff in Wales at her first Starfury Convention. "Day 2 has been brilliant, my feet are really aching," Sonya confessed, "I’ve never queued so much in all of my life. Favorite guest, I think, was Vincent Kartheiser because he’s totally bombed, very-very funny, very entertaining. And all the girls have been really sweet as well, Julie Benz was lovely, she had personal comments for everyone who was queuing." Sonya had to take her group photo twice due to a little distraction, "All the girls were laughing at me because I was told to stay still and I looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights apparently. Brody was just out the corner of my eye, leaning over these chairs with his shirt slightly undone and his hand in his jeans, " she explained, "and I really didn’t know where to look, what to do. I was very, very side tracked from what I was supposed to be doing, but it pleasant."

Hyperion, as well, was no different than any other Starfury convention by providing the quantity and quality of their Dealer’s Room to the fans who could take a break from the action of the Q&A talks in the Main Hall, or queuing for photos and autographs and peruse the mass amounts of Angel and Buffy merchandise on sale, as well as other favorite sci-fi series that were on hand. Anything and everything was available by the Vendors presents: The Who Shop International, StarFeatures.com, as well as TV & Film Memorabilia at CultTVandFilm.com just to name a few. Products ranging in every spectrum from Angel action figures, t-shirts, sculpted busts of Buffy characters, novels, magazines with the latest articles and interviews, trading cards and mouse pads, to DVD’s, tapes, collector albums, autographed photos, coffee mugs and the favourite Spike posters. But CoA had a few items we were eager to part with for a price of our own while being able to spend some quality time chatting with the fans and allowing them to partake in a little CoA fun over the weekend with the, "Hmm, Bite me!" Raffle. Prompted by this famous Darla quote, although by the end of the weekend we perceived we should have chosen, "I’ve been hitting the half-breed. He makes noise," fans were required to hunt-down and seek-out members of the CoA staff and repeat the infamous quote. In return, they received a handful of free goodies that included: Inkworks Trading Cards, Darkhorse Comics pop-out character, CoA stickers and lanyards (which found their way around attendees necks all weekend), and more, plus a raffle ticket (oddly, also free) which put everyone in a drawing for Sunday morning. The winning ticket numbers were announced during the Q&A talks and 7 happy fans walked away with the Angel series finale and 100th episodes shooting scripts, 100th episode celebratory t-shirts and the new Angel novel, Monolith autographed by John Passarella.

Hanging at the bar with fans Saturday night found the CoA staff belly up with Angel fan, Brett Walker from Walsall who was happy to share with us the fan response to virgin Guests: Sarah Thompson and Jenny Mollen. "I was really looking forward to meeting Sarah as I’d seen her in ’Cruel Intentions 2’," Brett began, "and when I met her in the signing room she was a very nice lady and very polite. But Jenny was just the best ever; she was really funny and great. When I met her at her signing table there was a little confusion about the photo of her dog; it looked a little like a mushed-up hairy thing," he confessed, "so she explained to me what it was and how much she loved him. It was real cute, the things she was saying about him, so I thought Sarah was a great guest but Jenny just ruled." Brett even offered up a great story about Jenny, "It was on Saturday and we were dancing when Jenny came up and started dancing with us. She did a little sexy back dance with Brody and Al (EDno.2) and then carried on dancing with Jamie, my other mate, who was with us. Then we were all smoking and she wanted a ciggie so I gave her one, then we started talking; so now the convo turned to ’Donnie Darko’ and she was saying how much she like Maggie Gyllenhaal and that they were good friends," Brett recalled. "Then we were talking about ’Kill Bill’ and Quentin Tarantino, me and Al were just loving it because we love QT, he just rules. We were chatting and dancing and having a laugh, it was a great night and I came away loving Jenny, she’s great. My mate Jamie came from the Con with a new obsession with her, ’tis so funny. I think that every one loved jenny, I mean everyone I spoke to over the weekend told me they would like to see her at more Cons. Jenny really was one of the best guests that weekend, and she made the Con that little more special, she rules," and Brett confessed he, "would love to meet her again!"

FANCY DRESS COMPETITION

After months, weeks, and days of preparation we were all once again treated to the amazing talent of the Fancy Dress on Saturday night. With the standards of Starfury attendee entries being high we all sat waiting for who would enter first. We were not disappointed with the fantastic efforts and with "Stars in Their Eyes" style the entrants came through the doors. With Illyria & Knox, X-Wing rebel fighter pilots, Smile Time Angel puppet, Doyle, Merl, even Jhiera & the fugitives from Oden Tal to name a few. And with even a Wolfram & Hart appearance (of robe-clad lawyers of a Wolf, Ram, and Hart) it was going to be a hard one for the VIP Guests to judge as they comprised the judging panel. The crowd cheered all the entrants as they were introduced and many comments of, "Wow, that is great," and "How clever," could be heard from attendee’s and guests alike. After all had paraded their hard work in front of the judges, they went out to make the tough decisions and after a short break they returned with the results. It was no shock from the reaction of the crowd that Smile Time Angel took First Prize: tickets to both next years’ Starfury’s Quor’Toth Angel convention and Serenity the first Firefly convention. Second Prize went to Illyria & Knox who also received entry to Quor’Toth, although not literally we hope.

Jheira & the Oden Tal

Illyria & Knox

Wolf, Ram & Hart

Illyria Entrant: Laura from London told CoA that she, "loved the character of Illyria simply because it was so different, it was just such a good opportunity to do the costume as well, it’s so outrageous. You don’t get to wear that stuff everyday," Laura admitted, "so that’s why I sort of wanted to go for it." Amy Acker saw Laura in her creation and commented, "’Oh my gosh,’ it seems to be the reaction from everybody. Andy Hallett actually screamed at me which was a bit bizarre," she laughed, "but he was nice and he taught me how to do the head tilt, apparently you have go, dush! but there ya go." Dayne Johnson had also seen her, "He was amazed that I did it so cheaply as well, the whole outfit cost me 10-pounds ($17.00 dollars) but 60-hours work." Laura’s right up there with the professionals in regards to the amount of time to complete an outstanding makeup application. "It’s painstaking," she admitted, "but worth the results. I did it all myself, so I had to use a sight in the mirror; you just build it up in layers and then put a sealant on it." Laura tries to attend all the Starfury Conventions, "Especially the Angel ones, because that’s my favorite show." In regards to an Illyria spin-off idea, Laura enthused, "I hope so; I think she has so many possibilities. She’s such a great character because she’s so old, and she’s seen so much. It’s kind of like the vampire characters as well; you have so much back history. I think it was an absolute crime that they finished at Season 5, it’s too early."

Coming in a respectable joint third were Doyle and Merl, who will also receive Quor’Toth tickets. There was a special final fourth place for Wolfram & Hart, was it fear that made the judges add them? No, just great creative talent. When asked what he thought of the Fancy Dress entries, Dayne Johnson exclaimed that he has, "Great admiration for everyone who walks through that door," and that, "There’s a lot of time and effort put in." He also commented on entries involving makeup where he joked that Andy was, "Hoping that they were in agony like he thinks he is!" As the competition came to a close the entrants were swamped by fellow con goer’s and guests for pictures and praise. And well deserved it was too. And it seems some plans are already in the making for Starfury’s The White Room convention in October! CoA spoke with First Place winner Jon Bayliss about how long it took his to create the Angel puppet and he confessed that, "I made the costume the Saturday of the contest. I had sculpted a foam head but that all kind of went wrong (as it often does) but I managed to resurface the foam with a sheet of very, very thin foam. I bought some trousers and shoes then I basically painted it, stuck the eyes in and added hair." Jon also confessed a trade secret, "The body of the puppet was foam that I lashed together with gaffa tape, the greatest invention ever. I had the nose stuck on with magnets so you didn’t get a nasty line down the middle of the face and I stuck rods in the back of the shoes to work them. Claire [who was Dayne’s makeup-demo model for Illyria on Sunday morning] sewed the sack out of scraps of cloth I had and that’s pretty much it. You have to understand the costume wasn’t properly finished and probably wouldn’t have been without Claire and her trusty sewing machine."

AMY ACKER (Fred/Illyria)

If it is at all possible Amy Acker has won over an even bigger army of fans during her impressive performances throughout Season five. From the touching final moments of Fred to the intimidating presence of Illyria, Amy has graced the small screen with assurance and quite rightly has been commended for her dual role. During her only Q&A session of the weekend, Amy took to the stage with long time friend Andy Hallett and the subject of the demon goddess was a topic everybody wanted to talk about. The look of Illyria is very different from that of physicist Winifred Birkle, as Amy explained about the transformation. "I didn’t mind it as much as Andy," she explains purposely ignoring the outrageous ’liar, liar pants on fire’ look that Andy is giving her, "sometimes I’d complain just to make Andy feel a little bit better. The contacts were the worst part because they’re just so hard to see out of. I don’t really like getting up early in the morning and so if I had to be there at 5 o’clock in the morning it was really hard but other than that it was fun." The blue coloring was a bit of a problem initially though, "At first they had my hair and they were spray-painting it and I would go home but then I wasn’t allowed to sit on any furniture because even after I washed it like seven times everything was still blue all over our house. Then all of a sudden I couldn’t sit on set anywhere because they were like, ’You keep dying the whole set blue.’ I was about to really dye my hair blue and then they cancelled the show the day before I had that appointment so I was kind of glad that I found that out before I actually did that! Then they ended up making a wig."

Not only is Illyria’s image very different from Fred’s but also the whole tone of her voice seems to drop an octave lower than usual. In order to do this, a little vocal training came in handy. "Not really, just from theatre school," Amy begins but just as she is trying to answer the question, under his breath Andy starts to chant, ’Do it, do it,’ in an attempt to encourage Amy to give a demonstration of her ancient demon alter ego. Feeling a little embarrassed Amy is reluctant stating, "It doesn’t exactly have the same effect if I don’t have the makeup on." Thankfully for Amy, Andy then gets sidetracked, as Andy often does, and begins to talk about the day Amy (as Illyria) had a scene with a massive speech with Angel and how it was so long and boring that he ended up giving the big zzz’s. "Yeah that always makes me feel really good when you have a two page monologue," Amy admits, "I was walking in a circle around David doing this really long monologue and I kept hearing a noise that was like [demonstrates a snort] and I was looking around saying, ’What, is there air leaking?’ or ’Is the air conditioning on?’ Finally, on my third time around the circle, I just started laughing and I knew since I stepped over Andy that it was him snoring!" At the recollection of his faux pas Andy apologized explaining to all that on that particular day he had had an early call-in at about 2am in the morning. With the combination of the early start, the extended dialogue and being told to lie on the floor and play dead, Andy fought a losing battle to stay awake. As rueful as he was, Amy took it in good spirits although Andy felt truly awful.

In order to answer the original question about her voice, Amy took a step back and explained how she was told about the role of Illyria. "Joss told me in October," she began, "he called me and said, ’Can I come over?’ or ’Where are and will you meet me for coffee?’ And I was like, ’Sure,’ and so I ended up meeting him for coffee some place. We’re standing in line about a quarter in and he says, ’Well I’ve decided to kill Fred’ and I was, ’Oh I see,’ and he didn’t say anything for a minute just to play a mean joke. Then he was like, ’You’re still going to be on the show but I want you to be a blue demon goddess’ and I was like, ’Okay.’ Joss continued, ’I want you to be Queen Elizabeth meets The Terminator,’ so we had a couple of months and we were actually doing something together that weekend and I said would you write a scene so that I could know sort of what in the world you’re talking about and something to think about before we start doing it. He wrote the scene where Fred dies with Wesley and then actually the last scene of [episode] 16 when she goes into Fred’s office. He gave me those two things in October. He had Alexis and I over to his house one Saturday night, made dinner and we were there for three hours and we just tried to figure out the character, the voice and the movement and everything." While Andy is listening to Amy you can almost hear his mind whirring and when she finishes he goes back to encouraging Amy to demonstrate Illyria. After searching for a line of dialogue Amy stands and speaks with that, now famous, voice, ’You are not unpleasant to my eyes’, which completely freaks Andy out.

As a character, Illyria has a superiority complex as big as Wolfram & Hart’s connections in the world of evil. She has neither the time nor the inclination to bother herself with the emotions of mortals and yet during the finale, we witness Illyria by Wesley’s side through to the end. It was a touching scene yet it is no surprise that Illyria has succumbed to the most vulnerable of feelings - love. "Actually Joss came to set that day, that was Alexis’ last day on the show and it was the last time we saw Joss on the set and it was a very emotional day anyway. After the scene, he came up and said, ’I just now realized that this whole time I thought the scene was about Wesley being in love with Illyria but it’s really about Illyria being in love with Wesley,’ so he wanted to take that further. He did it a couple more times and that’s what he was going for I think." The ending of the finale itself is a matter of interpretation as the outcome of the final battle in the alley can be left to each viewer’s imagination. Amy doesn’t believe they all fall victim in the end and giving hope to fans for more adventures to come, "I don’t feel that way. I’m not exactly sure if this will ever happen or not but they (the writers) have talked about maybe doing some movie of the week on each person on their own, like fighting and what’s happened since then so they didn’t have the feeling that we all died."

"I just started laughing and I knew since I stepped over Andy that it was him snoring!" Amy on mysterious sounds on set

The final season of Angel brought new faces and new opportunities to the set. The addition of James Marsters to the cast met with some trepidation from fans initially but the dynamic between Spike and Angel has been one of the highlights of the year. Amy found working alongside long standing fan favorite Spike a joy, "I really enjoyed working with him because at the beginning Fred and him sort of hit it off and I got to have some one-on-one scenes with him. I got to know him pretty quickly once he was on the show. I think I was the only person in the cast that hadn’t met him before. And then doing all the stuff with him as Illyria, when he would fight he was just so funny because he loves getting beat up and he would say, ’Spike’s gonna have a crush on Illyria because she’s beating him up, Spike loves girls who can kick his ass,’ he was like, ’When do you think we’ll get together?’" For four years Amy has been used to acting opposite lead man David Boreanaz but she was surprised by his brief jaunt behind the camera during his directorial debut in the episode Soul Purpose "I thought that was great. Obviously we were all scared to death as we thought it was going to be a real weird experience but it ended up being great. He’s never directed and we didn’t know what was going to happen but he got there and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He just trusted everyone, the crew and the cast and just really made it fun and easy. Then when we were having directors that weren’t so good," Amy jokes, "we were always like, ’David just take over.’" Amy’s time at Hyperion was sadly all too brief. She had been scheduled for the full weekend, as well as making a jaunt up to Scotland the following weekend for Starfury’s Prometheus convention, but her time was cut short because happily Amy had won a role in a new film. Before she left Amy was asked to tell all a little bit more about the project, "It all happened very quickly so I don’t know that much about it either," she admits, "it’s an Independent film called The Novice. It’s basically a love story about this guy who’s training to be a Jesuit priest and he goes to work at this mission and meets this girl. He ends up fighting whether he wants to continue being a priest or get married and how he decides." As Amy and Andy departed the stage a huge round of applause came forth for this lovely, young talent from Texas, certainly a now and forever fan and convention favorite.

ANDY HALLETT (Lorne)

After hearing of Andy Hallett’s recent ill health fans were amazed at the dedication he showed by appearing at Hyperion. Andy seemed very tired and found the strange London heat wave at times a little unbearable but just like his character the show must go on. Andy’s first guest talk was with fellow star and friend Amy Acker. Before a question could even be asked, Andy shared a story of a little humorous drama he had experienced earlier that day, "James Carpinello, who is my dear friend and Amy’s husband, saved my life this morning," he declared after spotting Amy’s partner and his own mother sat on the floor in front of the stage, "I was swimming in the pool and I’m not supposed to be doing any exercise because I have this thing [pointing to his heart] but I was in about two and half feet water and I guess I was dramatically saying hello and he thought I was drowning so he threw me a lifeline. So thank you James." He then plugged James’ new film, The Punisher before moving on to his first question which was about the possibility of an Andy Hallett music CD, something that fans have probably been longing to see since his debut in Season 2, "I was told that there is talk of an Angel soundtrack and I just remembered that..." he laughs trying to avoid an answer, "Next question!" Although no one can doubt the talent of Andy’s singing voice, the same cannot be said about his on-screen boss David Boreanaz so just how painful was the ’Mandy’ experience, "It’s horrifying! It was bad; it was really, really bad." Andy admitts painfully before Amy interrupts saying David is always insisting that Angel has a bad voice but he himself actually has a good voice. "He sang it once and they said, ’Well we didn’t mean you had to sing it that bad!’" Andy continues, "then he sang it again and he actually sang it too well and so they said, ’No go back and find a happy medium,’ so he found a happy medium but he did lots of different takes; he rapped it a few time and threw a few of his twists on to it but it was fun and he really did a good job."

As Amy and Andy sit on stage together it’s wonderful to see that even after the show has ended the bonds built have not faded away. As the questions come the Lindsay McDonald storyline invariably comes up and Andy was asked his opinion as to Lorne’s involvement in the Mob-esque hit on the Senior Partners and his involvement in the death of Lindsey. Now despite the fact a relatively serious question had been raised, Andy brings the audience’s attention to a little giggle that Amy and how every time he hears it he is powerless to do anything before finally sharing his thoughts on the new physical Lorne, "The finale was certainly quite different for me," he confesses, "it was definitely quite different for my character but I enjoyed it. But I wished I’d got to play Illyria." Amy jokingly counters with, "0h you want to be blue now, you’re tired of being green." Andy admits the first time he saw Amy in her full on makeup he was completely freaked out and if that wasn’t enough he also explained the eerie way she would tilt her head at him in scenes just wigged him out much to Amy’s delight. "Do you remember the first time you did a piece of dialogue, the head went too and I was like, ’Argh!’" Amy laughs as she recalls, "Yeah, we made up a whole back story that was never caught on film that Lorne was terrified of Illyria and so I’d look at him in the back of scenes and he’d be like, ’Egh!’" Andy and Amy hinted that the only evidence fans might find of this teasing come is in the episode The Girl In Question where Lorne mentions his favorite Sea Breeze tipple in front of Fred’s parents so that is something to keep an eye out for. Now that the shoe is on the other foot and Amy must experience the daily ritual that is hours in the makeup chair and early morning calls to the set Andy laughed as he indignantly dismissed Amy’s claims that she didn’t mind the time it took to transform into Illyria. "The first day she was in the chair for the makeup test for Illyria," he says providing evidence for his argument, "she called my house and went, ’Lorne, I know you have alcohol in your trailer!’"

The transformation of Fred to Illyria and Amy’s performance during the character change is something Andy is clearly impressed with and loves watching. "I was going through old tapes and I was making a general reel," he explains (incidentally interrupting a question that wasn’t aimed at him), "and I was watching the Fred that we first met in Pylea, kind of a nutty genius writing on cave walls and then bringing her to L.A. and adapting in to that environment, still writing on the walls, then taking over the lab at Wolfram & Hart and just really kicking ass and then to Ilyria. I forgot about my reel entirely then and I ended up doing a reel for Amy. It’s so exciting to watch her go through all her stages so I just wanted to comment and I think she deserves applause for that." So now that everything is all over did Andy manage to take anything other than lifelong friendships from his Angel experience, "I didn’t get squat and I hear everything’s going on Ebay including my clothes," Andy exclaims. He then asks Amy if she managed to keep the chair with her name on it to which she admitted hers had been stolen as well as another one belonging to producer David Burns. The thief obviously mistook it for David Boreanaz’ chair yet the one with the words ’demon clown’ emblazoned upon it still remained. "On the back of Andy’s chair back at the end of the season it said ’demon clown’" Amy explains. "Which I didn’t find amusing at all," as Andy counters, "but everyone else did," causing Amy to laugh. Well, yeah!

When asked about the scene where Fred sings, You Are My Sunshine and Lorne realizes her fate, Andy admitted he would have shot it slightly different. He would have preferred looking up the stairs at Lorne’s reaction instead of from above as one of his own friends misinterpreted the scene as Lorne being evil or bad initially. He feels a different camera angle would possibly have given a more understanding view. He also told how his stunt double, Jeremy continued the ’catching of Fred’ part of the scene with Amy Acker’s stunt double Sonia, admitting that Sonia wasn’t caught the first or second time that scene was filmed. During his next talk with Dayne Johnson, Sparky and Brody Hutzler, Andy worked out that during his time on Angel he was put into makeup 843 times and at 3-hours per makeup session that would equal 35 days straight in the makeup chair, much to a look of horror on Dayne’s face. Andy laughed as close friend Dayne told about how much Andy loves to sleep and is awful to wake up. On one occasion, Dayne went to Andy’s apartment and was constantly ringing the bell trying to get ’madam’ out of bed only to hear what sounded like two sudden bangs against the door. Seemingly Andy had thrown something at the door to dissuade the ringing of the bell but as it continued, his friend heard another sudden loud bang like a shot gun to have the door open and Andy say, "Guess you won’t be ringing that again," as Andy had taken a hammer to it. It is well known how difficult Andy is to wake up as the audience discovers that friend Mark Lutz doesn’t bother with the mercilessly incessant door bell torture he just climbs the wall and balcony to let himself in.

This hilarious banter was typical of ’the Dayne & Andy show’ throughout their entire talk, amidst laughter and applause by the audience, we just had to share verbatim:

Dayne: "Well, I can tell them all about your sleeping problem right, your nodding problem? I’m holding the fan like this, and... [Dayne imitates Andy dozing off as his head slumps forward into the fan] he nods his nose into it or his chin, a wig would go flying somewhere." Andy: "I do have a little problem staying awake, at times. And Dayne would get loud in the makeup trailer. But we have really early calls times." Dayne: "Not only does he sleep, did he ever tell you how late he usually shows up at the set? To my chair? For those of you who saw the airbrush makeup today, we paint really small lines, and really detailed. Okay, this is how it works, you’re doing the airbrush makeup and he’s like... [nods off again] Yeah, that makes it easy. ’Okay Andy open your eyes, no, really open them.’" Andy: "It was hard!" he whined. Dayne: "Or his lips, it’s like, ’Okay, hold really still.’" [nods] Andy: "Oh, he would get pissed!" Dayne: "A nice red line going this way." (indicating up the side of Andy’s face) Andy: "He would get the most pissed if it was my lips, if I were to nod off, because the lips are the very, very last thing. And so I’d be sitting up and he’d say, ’This is the very end, just stay with me,’ ’Okay, okay,’ and then I’d go... [nods]. He’d put lip-liner around my lips first, first? Last?" Dayne: "271 ones times later and she [yes, ’she’] can’t remember which applies first." Andy: "843-hours I spent in the makeup chair!"

Andy also touched on the fun he and his co-stars had whilst filming in Las-Vegas during the Season 4 episode, The House Always Wins as it is one of Andy’s favorite episodes, although his companions say it was due to the unrestricted bar times. Andy recalled how the sign shown as the Lorne billboard was actually a sign for a chicken that played Tic-Tac-Toe. This causes Sparky to laughs about how Andy’s rival in Vegas was a chicken, which of course Andy threatened to hide in fellow actor David Boreanaz’s trailer due to his fear of fowl. There are many in-jokes and stories among the group as well as Sparky’s confession that he was always responsible for making Lorne’s Sea Breezes, which should be just water and red food dye, but as Sparky mentions to the laughing-fit induced Mr. Hallett, "They were always ’Absolutely’ perfect." Absolute [Vodka] being the main ingredient. Sparky also worked out that Angel, the Series costs $139 per second much to Andy’s horror and worry that he played too much on set. The group continues to laugh about Andy’s fear of Illyria. "Amy is usually cranky on set and very difficult," says Andy knowing Amy had left that day due to her filming schedule and wouldn’t hear his joking comments. With his current ill health many fans wanted to wish him well, give cards and presents which clearly made him very emotional at the show of affections that fans have for this lovable larger than life man.

SARAH THOMPSON (Eve)

Playing the mysterious liaison Eve, Sarah Thompson is as different to her backstabbing on-screen alter ego as the two sides of the same coin. Taking to the stage with fellow guests Clare Kramer on Saturday and Jenny Mollen on Sunday, Sarah conveyed none of the treacherous traits that set her up with Wolfram& Hart’s elite but instead came across as a fun loving and charismatic actress. Sarah was introduced the Angel-verse in the final season and found herself following in the very evil footsteps of her predecessor Lilah Morgan played by the elegant Stephanie Romanov. As a huge admirer of the show’s creator Joss Whedon, she described him as a ’genius’ in her audition as she told the audience how it felt to become part of such a well-established show. "I was thrilled to get the job," she enthuses, "I watched the show and liked it a lot and I was a big fan so I was absolutely thrilled. I was a little nervous working with the others and I felt like the new kid on the block but everyone was real warm and welcoming. It’s been a wonderful experience." When she first graced our scenes however Sarah admits that the mystery surrounding her presence was as much of a surprise to her as it was to the viewing audience, "I didn’t even know very much from episode to episode, you know when I started the show I didn’t know how many episodes I was going to be in. We didn’t know who Eve was at that point, I knew very little." Sarah cites her favourite episode as the Halloween adventure Life of the Party and not necessarily for the reason that most people sitting before her thought (although the idea of getting naked with Angel behind a sofa is reason enough), "It was just so much fun," she confesses, "we were all on set all of the time and it was just one big party scene. It was fun to watch the actors because J’s character was just peeing all over the place and it was just real fun!"

Although Eve may not have been as naturally gifted at evil as her predecessor, she did manage to do the one thing that Lilah didn’t and that was to form a close alliance with former Wolfram & Hart golden boy Lindsay McDonald by getting him on her side and in her bed. Although she initially had her own agenda, it was Eve’s infatuation with Lindsay and her wish to make his plans succeed over her own that led to her fall from grace as far as the Senior Partners were concerned and a replacement liaison, Marcus Hamilton, who was drafted in to take her job and her immortality. Firefly actor Adam Baldwin filled the rather large shoes of Eve’s successor and Sarah was asked on her thoughts about the change, "I think Adam Baldwin is great, I think he’s a great actor," she answers, "but obviously I don’t think Eve, the character, was too thrilled about it and about losing her immortality but he’s definitely a great guy to lose it to!" she laughed. The influence Lindsay had over her probably resulted in Eve’s ultimate downfall in the series finale, "The last scene of mine is, I’m stuck in that room pacing and I find out that Lindsay’s not coming," Sarah answers when asked directly about her thought’s on Eve’s fate, "In terms of what would have happened after that, I think Eve was so dependant on Lindsay, her whole motivation was based on Lindsay and so losing him was confusing for her. I don’t think it would have ended well for her at all." Still having someone like Lindsay McDonald as a love interests means that you get to share some screen time making out with the very ’pleasing to the eye’ cowboy Christian Kane and that can’t be bad surely, "You know I’ve actually known Christian for a number of years," she explains, "we’re friends but it was great. It was a little awkward at first especially with someone you’ve known for a while."

Sarah may have joined an established cast but it was group of gifted actors sadly lacking in members of the softer sex as Charisma Carpenter, the show’s lead female for four years, had left the show the season before. Charisma did make a brief return for the 100th episode of Angel but Sarah didn’t get the opportunity to work with her as much as she would have liked. "I only worked with her a few days unfortunately as we didn’t have too many scenes together but it was a lot of fun and I’d never met her before. She brought her son to work a couple of times and her baby is absolutely adorable. I loved working with her." Angel’s fan base is far from diminishing as the tireless Save Angel campaigns have proven. Although Hyperion may have been Sarah’s first UK fan event, it wasn’t her first encounter with the Angel fans as she had attended the Wolfram & Hart Review, the Angel version of the famous Posting Board Parties, in Los Angeles earlier in the year. "I had a good time out there," she recalls, "it was my first experience meeting a lot of fans of the show and I was so pleasantly surprised at how friendly and kind everybody was. I loved that and I love meeting the people that keep the show on the air so it’s cool to meet people that are so supportive." Mementos from the set and wardrobes of Angel have been appearing all over Ebay but Sarah has a different way of capturing her recollections, "I keep scrapbooks of everything," she confesses, " and I love keeping things so I have every script and I have the call sheet from my very first day at work with the call times and who was there that day. I don’t have any wardrobe or props or anything like that but I have a lot of memorabilia and a lot of photos in a massive scrapbook."

"It was fun to watch the actors because J’s character was just peeing all over the place." Sarah on Life of the Party

There was a tenuous tie that linked Sarah to the Buffy-verse before she ever set foot in the corridors of Angel’s evil law firm. One of her roles was that of Danielle Sherman in the movie Cruel Intentions 2 and Buffy herself Sarah Michelle Gellar of course appeared in the original film. Although advertised as a prequel to its mother film, Cruel Intentions 2 was supposed to be something different entirely. " It was actually a television show first," Sarah reveals," it was actually a show called Manchester Prep for Fox that was going to be a new series. We shot a few episodes but the show got cancelled right before it was set to premier and the director and the producer had all this footage and they cut it together somehow to make a film and that’s exactly what they did. They cut together all the episodes, shot an ending and released it as Cruel Intentions 2." One young lady from the audience commented that the film itself was quite confusing and didn’t really make sense setting up the storyline for Sarah Michelle Gellar’s version. "I think that probably comes from the fact that it wasn’t really intended to be a prequel," Sarah explains, "but it was intended to be a spin-off of the movie so any problems came from the fact it was sort of thrown together from the television show and they stuck a label on it that it was the prequel to the movie." Sarah was happy to talk about her upcoming film project, Tamara. "It’s a film I start in about a month and I play the lead role of Tamara. It’s sort of along the lines of a really cool kind of thriller horror film principally about a girl Tamara who’s kind of an outcast and everything who goes through a transformation and becomes this really sexy and confident villain who is out to get revenge on a lot of people who treated her badly when she was the outcast. It’s really fun; it’s a great script, really edgy and lots of blood and guts, your typical horror film. I’m very excited about it."

A lot of questions arose during the session asking Sarah about her personal preferences in some things such as what other shows that appear on the television networks would she like to appear in, "I love watching crime shows like CSI and Cold Case and all those kind of crime scene show," she admits, "I would love to work on that and play a CIA agent or something like that because those are the shows that I watch." She was also asked the almost obligatory question about the people in the business she would most like to work with, "I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarrantino and I love Kill Bill and I love Kill Bill 2 and Pulp Fiction. He’s one of my absolute favourite directors and I would jump at the chance to work with him in any capacity." Some actors and actresses make a decision early on in their careers to stick to a certain medium. There are those who are more than happy to make their names on TV in long running soap operas while others feel the lure of the silver screen and prefer to act in movies only, "I like them both," Sarah replies when asked which category she falls under. "I love how you sort of become a family on a television show and it’s fun to come to work every day and see the same people and get to work with them several weeks at a time but I love doing films and I love the theatre also. It’s really about the project and the role." And if she ever had a chance to swap places and become a fan at a convention, which show would she choose? "I’m not sure if they have conventions for this show but I’d go to a Sopranos convention, it’s my favourite show on television." Only because Angel is now off the air!

ED SEVARTIES (Sparky Props)

"This is Paramount Studios, circa 1919, now those people that you see down there are all dead. However, the stages are still there: Stages 5, 6, 7, and 17, those are the stages that we shot Angel on. This is what Paramount Studios look like today; the trucks that you see are the Angel trucks: grip, electric, special effects, props, Craft Service and the person you see there in the middle is yours truly. One of the main stages at Paramount is Stage 7 and this is the biggest stage they have and where we had our hotel set and is the oldest stages is all of Hollywood. Everything’s been filmed there from the Honeymooners to Hunt For Red October, so when you walk in there and you’re the only one in there you can feel it. Season One we were on the watchful eye of Fox, for that reason alone I don’t have any photos of Season one. However as we continued on and Fox started to realize that we did know what we were doing I did get my camera out and took some of these lovely pictures that I’m going to share with you guys today." Ed requested that no one take photos of the screen during his presentation - as the pictures and videos were his personal collection of his time on Angel - so within this page are some of the CoA staff’s personal behind-the-scenes memories from our work with the series. We ask the same consideration that you please do not copy any of the following photos.

IN THE BEGINNING

"The first season we were on Stage 6, we had our old apartment set and office set, but there was hardly any room to work in so we blew them up. We replaced them with a place Joss decides that they should move to a hotel, so they built this lovely set on Stage 7 and this place you could not take a bad picture in, just an absolutely gorgeous set and of our construction department I can not say enough good things about them. The interior of the [Hyperion] was loosely based on the Ambassador Hotel, it has a rich history to it; it was built in 1919, it closed down in 1980, but what is really famous about the Ambassador is the place where Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed. Towards the end of Season Two we went to Pylea, this is a picture of Amy’s first day on the set there, Alexis with his dog Daisy. And for us, going outside was a dream, it was absolute pleasure because for two years we have been on a cold, dark stage, everyday. So for us to go outside, in the country was just paradise, we had a great time. There were actually two crew that were on Angel: there was what we called an old crew and a new crew and that was all based on this man, Herb Davis. Herb was our director of photography for the first two years; now the DP is usually the man who’s really in charge of the crew on the set, because he’s the head technician so to speak. He brings about the whole mood of the set and Herb was one of the most laidback men you’ll ever meet ion your life, he was just a fantastic guy and because of him the set of Angel was surprisingly relaxed. So when Herb decided to leave, he was ready to move on we were all really upset because how could be find anyone better than Herb, but we were wrong, we found this man, Ross Berryman. Ross took over as the DP for Seasons 3, 4, and 5 and everybody loved Ross right from the start. He was just as relaxed as Herb and he was a fantastic guy, very talented and he was also an Aussie so there was a lot of Vegemite on hand. Season three, 9/11 happened and it really brought us all together."

Los Altos Hotel & Apartments

Dan Kerns, Jim Contner, & Ross Berryman

Stunt coordinator, Mike Massa

"A lot of people moved up Season Three, myself included and so did this guy, Mike Massa. Mike is our stunt coordinator, he was doubling David all the way back on Buffy and was also doubling David on Angel of course. But in Season three Mike took over as the stunt coordinator on the show and what that means is that he actually designs the fights, he choreographs the fights; he hires the stunt guys and makes sure everything is safe. He did a fantastic job and in the five seasons no one got seriously hurt on the set of Angel. We had a fire on Stage 6 and the Cordelia apartment burned down, and it was quite a devastating fire, if we wouldn’t have gotten to it in time it would have probably taken the whole stage down. But once again, the amazing construction crew, they got in there and within 48-hours we were shooting again. We always have big episodes around Christmas time because we always get a two-week break right after that and Season three was no exception. That was the year we did the ballet episode which was a Joss episode, they are naturally big anyway, but this one was a little above and beyond that. You’re talking three hundred extras dressed up in eveningwear, all of the cast, choreographed dances, un-choreographed love scenes, but we didn’t mind it because we get the big Christmas day lunch. Anyone associated with the show can come out there, we all get together, I want to stop with here because this is Beau Baker in the middle, [Alexis on the right], and the guy on the left is me. If you’re going to ask me what I’m going to miss the most about Angel, is this right here. The three of us were ten years apart, roughly, and we all seemed to have the same interests and same passion and I hate to say it but I haven’t seen either one of them since we wrapped but I just wanted to share that with you guys, that I think about them all the time and I miss them a lot."

FOUR EVIL ELEMENTS

"Season Three we Vincent came in and we liked him right from the start, he was just a great kid but I’ve got to tell you something, he was a pain in the ass when he was a baby. I know that a lot of you out there are writers yourself and you want to be producers some day and I know I’m just a prop guy and maybe some day I’ll be working for you but let me give you a little hint on the four elements that use stay away from when you’re designing a series. And those four elements are: nighttime, water, animals, and babies. They are four things that you cannot control and they will come and bite you in the ass! I know, because we had all four of them on Angel. Babies are cut but when it’s time to do the happy lullaby scene and they’re screaming time just ticks away and animals; have you ever tried to wait for a goat to do a scene? But when the Connor baby got sucked into the portal there wasn’t such a gasp on the set as there probably was at home, we were kind of thankful that the baby days were over. If you work on a TV show about vampire, of course you’ll be working a lot of nights and I knew that when I started. So you have to be a night person, and I am - I am now. I leaned to enjoy it, I absolutely love it, I love the idea of going to work when everybody else is coming home and when everybody else had to get up and battle traffic I’m going the other way because it’s morning, can’t shoot out, it’s light. Working the nights, there was just something about working in a graveyard, this is actually Valentino’s grave, right behind Paramount at Hollywood Forever Cemetery - we shot there a lot. It was almost like we were stealing the moment, like we weren’t supposed to be there because there wasn’t anyone else around."

PRODUCERS, DIRECTORS, & WRITERS

"The entire series wouldn’t have happened without this man right here on the cell phone, that is Kelly Manners, now you might have seen his name at the beginning and the end of the television show but to us he’s more than a name. He is a voice; Kelly is our field commander when we’re there on the set. When you are doing a TV show or anything creative you have the people who come up with the ideas and the people who have to execute these ideas. Now those two land masses have to bridge and Kelly Manners was that bridge, and he was a strong one. And if that connection isn’t strong your project’s not going to work. So here’s a guy who understands the creative side of everything, he understand what Joss is going after, he understands what Jeff Bell’s truing to do and he also understands what we have to do to get it done. He was with us every step of the way and because of him you got Angel the way it was, without him it would have been a different show, I guarantee you. Season Four, everybody was back, Andy was putting on his makeup again. All our favorite directors were back; this is one of our favorite directors, Bill Norton. He was too, this is actually Jim Contner, you might know his name, he directed a lot of Buffy and when he came over to Angel he directed a lot of Angel as well. Jim actually worked on the movie Jaws so whenever Jim would direct we would do a lot of Jaws jokes and ask him to tell us a bunch of Jaws stories. He was a former cameraman himself so you always got a great project when you had Jim in there."

Makeup artist Dalia Dokter & Dayne

The fifth evil element: Tight Spaces

David Boreanaz’s final battle wounds

"The writing, season four we started doing what’s called the ’story arc’; that means you start here, and by episode 22 you have to here. But to get there you have to take little steps, and each one of those little steps are the episodes, and each one of those episodes have to has little stories within them, and each one of those little stories have to have little subplot stories and they all have to combine together. After season four we were a little apprehensive about getting a fifth season, the writers and Tim Minear and Jeff Bell and the editors got together and they made a demo reel to show to Warner Brothers of what we had done the past four years. Watching the stuff that we did was just absolutely phenomenal so I knew we were getting a fifth season. What do you do when you know you have a job to come back to? Well, of course you pack up all the props onto an airplane and you take them to Blackpool." A show of hands of those who had attended End of Days, "Those of you who weren’t, this is what you missed."

LUCKY NUMBER FIVE

"Season Five, the gang was all back, and of course we had some new faces as well to add to the cast of characters. James Marsters came over from Buffy and we’ve had him on the show before, but now we got him every day, and that was just a pleasure, he is so much fun to watch. And she’s a lot of fun to watch too, not hard to look at, at all, Mercedes [McNab]was terrific. So with our new cast ensemble and our veterans we set off to have the gang take over Wolfram & Hart and began fighting evil while working for it at the same time and voila, you have instant drama. And because we had a new storyline we got rid of the old set, we had to build a completely new one. This was going to be the law offices of Wolfram & Hart. We built these sets on stage 5, stage 5 is the longest set that’s at Paramount and our amazing construction team had 4-weeks to complete the entire set and they did just an incredible job doing it. On the fifth day, shooting the fifth episode of season 5 of Angel on stage 5, five kittens were born to one of the Paramount cats and the mother abandoned the kittens because we were there so we took it upon ourselves to raise them. I actually took them home for a weekend and nursed them and they all grew up and we adopted them, they became our mascots. This is Julie’s cat, she’s our wardrobe girl; this little guy’s name is Otter. Now Julie actually still works at Paramount, she’s on another show so Otter still comes to Paramount everyday, where he was born, to see his mom. This is my cat, of course I’m kidding, this is the black leopard that J. August had to do the scene with in the white room. This is what I’m talking about, look how long it’s taking this cat to get on stage. ’Just get on stage, we’re ready!’"

Mercedes & Dayne on Life of the Party

Piano Player Lorne and Alexis Denisof

J. August Richards enjoying being gutted

"There were a lot of episodes that stood out in Season five; the werewolf one was a great episode, one of the funniest. There were a lot of new stars born, a lot of guys who weren’t stares on paper, but once they said two word, ’Pee-pee’, they were overnight sensations. Season five David Boreanaz actually directed an episode, and I can tell you without being a politician he did fantastic. He’s a guy who just had knee surgery, who was acting in a show, who was directing a show and he still remained calm and he did a terrific job. The submarine episode we shot in Burbank, it was a lovely set but let me just add one more thing to your four elements that you don’t deal with, don’t deal with tight spaces. This is a practical submarine. We also did the 100th episode, December 8th, 2003 - that’s the whole crew who was there that day. David Fury directed the 100th episode; he also played the puppeteer for our puppet episode. And we were laughing, and it was a good thing we were laughing because things were about to get real serious. The very next episode, our dear beloved Fred became no more, things were about to get even worse on Friday the 13th. It was on that day I looked and I saw Joss, we were shooting this scene, Joss stops by all the time, but behind him I saw Jeff Bell and there’s Ben and Drew and what’s everybody doing here? They asked us all in a room and Joss got up and he said that he was talking to Warner Brothers and they officially passed on a sixth season of Angel and that we would continue to finish out the season, we would finish up our four episodes and then we’ll call it quits. And the next thing you know we were shooting our last episode and it’s time to start killing people."

CHECK THE GATE

"I took these pictures for Alexis and I’m going to share them with you guys, this is during the filming of Wesley’s death scene and it took us about five-hours to shoot it. I’ve got to tell you, watching this you could not believe that this was the same guy who five years earlier was tripping over coffee beans on stage 6. He took that character and absolutely metamorphosized him in five years and on that day you saw him turn that character into a shell. It was truly incredible. Here is the actually moment when we said goodbye to Alexis, this was his wrap. And a couple days later it was our turn, this is the very last first shot of Angel, this is the last time we would ever shoot something for the first time that day. It’s at a coffee shop which is ironic because our very day, our very first shot was at a coffee shop. That night we moved to the alley, downtown Los Angeles, this is the same alley where Angel fought Faith, season 1 in the rain. It was cold that night, and it was cold this night as well, but this night the rain was a little warmer because in season 1 the rain was real, season 5, the rain was us. And that’s how you do it; you just get a guy on the roof with a hose. This is the last time the cameras every rolled on Angel, this is the last time the slate ever went in front of the camera. I just got behind the camera, I knew I needed that moment and got it. This was a Friday night and what they say when the show is done it, ’Check the gate,’ check the gate means: the gate’s good, we’re done, we’re going home and usually you get excited about that but on this particular day there was almost dead silence when they said check the gate, we knew what that meant. Kelly and Jeff here got up there and said a few nice words and we packed up and went home and that was it. This is the best I can do of giving you a slide show to sum up what it was like to be on the set of Angel for the past five years. I miss all these people and I hope that a few of them will miss me. It seems like forever since we wrapped. I just want to say on behalf of the crew, I want to thank you guys very, very much for your support over the past five years, because of you guys we got this far, so thank you very much."

DAYNE JOHNSON (Makeup Artist)

Dayne Johnson is fast becoming a Starfury regular, having previously appeared at End Of Days last year. He is exceptionally gifted in his field with a background of experience which speaks volumes including such credits as the Schwarzenegger classics films: Batman and Robin, Eraser, and ironically enough, End of Days. This year Dayne took to the stage yet again to show us how he transforms the beautiful Amy Acker into the Old One, Monarch and warrior: Illyria with the help of Londoner Claire North. Dayne started off by explaining that the character of Illyria came about because Joss decided he wanted a ’blue’ character and the rest was left to Dayne, the whole effect is created using just airbrush applications, and of course Dayne’s artistic hand! In the presentation to the attendees in the Main Hall on Sunday morning, Dayne used airbrush technique to colour Claire’s hair with the distinctive blue stripes. He explained as did Amy, that this was how her hair was originally coloured, in fact Amy was going to colour her hair blue to make the transition that bit easier, luckily for her hair (although not for the fans) the day before her appointment, the cancellation of the show was announced and a wig was made instead. Dayne had not ventured out ’with the girls’ the night before and had retired to bed by 1am to make sure he was awake and ready for the early morning call. He had to prep Clair’s hair an hour early, before the fans arrived, so as not to keep them waiting. CoA was on hand to ask about the colours and applications used in the Illyria makeup to which Dayne was always ready and eager with a response, if not a familiar raised eyebrow.

There are major differences in the application for Illyria in regards to foundation compared to your typical vampires and demons as Dayne explains, "Illyria doesn’t have any prosthetics involved, so we don’t have any skip prep or anything involved. Right now, I just happen to be spraying blue in her hair to get the color to come out. But skin-wise, the only thing I would do prep-wise would just be a derma-shield base which is just like a skin barrier so it didn’t bother Amy’s skin before we started the makeup." In addition, there are various colours used in the application for Illyria’s hair. "There are three airbrush colors, three blues and they are just airbrushed on in three layers. It’s all artwork." Dayne admits humbly, but that’s where craft and talent are fused together by this man, "There’s no prosthetics involved so it doesn’t give it really any three-dimensional look, it just gives it colour difference." Luckily for Amy, this application isn’t as time-consuming as Andy’s "Her makeup was an hour and the hair probably took about 20-30 minutes to get the wig on," says Dayne. But the paint that he applies doesn’t allow for much styling of the hair once the blue is complete. "That’s one of the drawbacks of this particular makeup," he confesses. "Once I comb thru it, it separates it so much you don’t see a good section of hair anymore; so pretty much I’ve styled it to where it would hang down like Amy’s and I’ll finger through it just a little bit without loosing the colour. It doesn’t allow you to style the hair much once you’ve sprayed it like this, that’s why originally we ended up going to a wig with Amy because then the hair was actually died blue, then you could work with it however much you wanted."

During the course of the demo Dayne was asked whether it was more challenging for him to do a block colour or a blend, his response was, "Both!, When you make prosthetic, you create a 3D effect, with the airbrush you’re trying to create the effect with shading and lighting." This just goes to show that although the character of Illyria looks simple it is anything but. Of course having chosen to re-create Illyria on stage, Dayne was also asked about the re-appearance of Fred and whether her darker makeup was deliberate. After announcing, "I was drunk that day!" he took a more serious tone and explained that both Amy and himself decided that going for the darker look would be a little more intense, it would show that Illyria was still just under the surface although they still went for the classic natural Fred during Wesley’s last moments. Dayne didn’t just concentrate on the application during the demo session, he told the audience about the reactions of the other cast members to the finished look, "When Andy first saw it, I thought I would lose him for the rest of the day," he joked. Dayne had previously told attendees of Starfury’s End of Days about Andy’s tendency to sleep during his makeup application, this year it was David Boreanaz’s turn to go under the microscope. He explained that, "David’s not one to sit in the makeup chair, [I] hope to god he’ll fall asleep." Apparently the shows’ star acts like a kid on a road trip with the continual request of, "Are we done yet?! Are we done yet?!"

Dayne Johnson and Claire North as Illyria

Dayne was also asked what he would like to do both on the show if it had continued and in a wider sense. He responded by stating that he would have loved to have aged David and Alexis, "Angel doesn’t age; but they could write that in." Outside of the show he said he would love to work on something big like, Lord of the Rings. He was also asked if he had got in on the action by getting some screen time in a similar way to Rik Baker in the Men In Black movies, he explained that although he tried a number of times, they wouldn’t let him. Along with what his future hopes are, Dayne offered his favourite pieces were from the show, he admitted that he was (of course) very happy with the Lorne and Illyria makeup’s but two of his real favourites were those of The Crib from Season 1 and Vail, the Season 5 mage responsible for Connor’s memory re-write. Throughout all of the 2-hours and many questions, Dayne continued to work diligently to convert Claire into Illyria and the results were fantastic. Although the original plan was for an Illyria photo shoot with Amy, her work commitments quashed that plan as she had to depart the convention a day early, but this transformation proved that the makeup really can make the character and Illyria was once again re-awakened to rule over the snap-happy attendees. Unlike the actors, Clare was at a disadvantage not having a mirror to watch the transformation herself, and as Jon Bayliss informed us, "She didn’t really see herself until the photos came back. She enjoyed the process and she is working on an Illyria costume. We both got a lot from the experience especially as I will be trying to copy Dayne’s work he’s a bit of a hero to me." And to all of his Angel fans!

GOING, GOING, ANYONE? OK, GONE!

During the lunchtime break on both Saturday and Sunday, Starfury’s own Sean Harry and resident MC Clare Kramer took to the stage to auction off some highly desirable Whedon-verse memorabilia. Deciding not just to limit the lots to Angel related items there were clothes worn by Amber Benson and James Marsters from her film Chance as well as Buffy related items. With Dayne Johnson in attendance the items available this year were expected to impress and impress they did, and on both day’s Dayne joined the duo on stage with various items gathered from the set including full-face prosthetics of Season 4’s The Beast personally autographed by Vladimir Kulich. Other items up for bid included: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 100th episode T-Shirt, Green hooded sweatshirt from UC Sunnydale’s Athletic Department, Mercedes McNab’s Harmony vampire teeth, the TV Guide and Hollywood Reporter’s 100th episode special issues signed by David Boreanaz, and Nickalous Brown’s Wardrobe Department Crew Cap from BtVS.

One of the lucky auction winners, Gareth Hughes from Nantwich in Cheshire, was happy to tell CoA of his first time bidding experience in acquiring the ’The Beast’ cowl and why he chose this particular item. "Season 4 Angel will always be my favourite. It was just so ambitious and attempted to visualize an actual ’L.A. apocalypse’ on screen. This I thought it did with flying colours by producing something that was of ’feature’ quality on a TV budget," stated Gareth. "The Beast was truly awesome, a fantastic design brilliantly realized! The height of Season 4 for me was the end of ’Apocalypse Nowish’ where The Beast took on team Angel and won. Awesome. Although I’m sure that if Fred [as Illyria] had been there then that confrontation would have gone the other way," he joked. Gareth has always liked watching the auctions at previous events but had never bid on anything before, "I knew more often than not it would be unlikely I would be able to afford anything. I unfortunately missed the first part of the auction on the Saturday (probably queuing!) but saw the Angel forehead go for an amazingly low price. Fortunately I was in the hall when the Sunday auction took place otherwise I would have missed the arrival of ’The Beast’. When I saw it I got a little nervous twitch and I turned to Adina [his wife] and asked if I could bid up to 100-pounds on this." Gareth confessed, "She said it would have to be my Christmas present but said, ’It was okay.’ She has a good idea when something is important to me so probably thought it best to go along with me thinking that there was no way this item would go for less than 100-pounds ...little did we know! I immediately got a little hot under the collar. The next couple of minutes were a blur really and still can’t believe that the bid stopped at my 90-pounds. I gave my details and next thing I knew I was paying for ’a head in a box’!" he laughed.

On the whole Gareth was surprised that a lot of the items available went for such low prices. Especially as the bidders were the ’target audience’ so to speak. "I think everybody must have ’spent up’ by that point on autographs and photo sessions. Had I not already bid on ’The Beast’ then I would have undoubtedly bid for the Skip face-piece as this was also a lovely item!" If actually getting the mask wasn’t enough then Gareth was called out of the audience for photos with the ’grand master himself’, Dayne Johnson, as referred to by Gareth. "What a lovely chap he was too. He was very courteous and gave me tips on how best to look after my new ’pet’ Beast. I probably came across as a ’gushing fan’ but I’m afraid that’s me. He even signed it and posed for photos with myself. What a gent. These photos will look great alongside the mask when our new display cabinet is delivered in August, he proudly claimed. "This will undoubtedly be a talking point for visitors to my home for probably the next 3 decades but I’ll just be happy to know that I have a little piece of my favourite Angel in the house." As mentioned by Gareth, the bidding at this years’ event did not quite reach the dizzying heights of the previous year, even with a mysterious bidder trying to up the ante at Sunday’s session. The top seller of both days was a set of vampire contacts worn by James Marsters; with both James and his alter-ego Spike being firm fan favourites it was not a shock that there was some furious bidding with the final winner nabbing the items for 240-pounds. These were closely followed by a set of wine glasses, a bottle of wine and an invitation to the 100th episode party; the glasses and bottle were both engraved to mark the auspicious occasion and went for just 210-pounds. Again James’ fans shone in the adoration with the outfit worn by him in Chance going for 170-pounds.

There were many other items under the hammer this weekend going for anything from 25-pounds for Buffy Crew Cap to 110-pounds for the screen used prosthetic used on David Boreanaz for the Season 1 episode "Batchelor Party" and it’s safe to say that everyone who won a bid got something they’ll treasure forever. Other items this year taking top bid were: a BtVS 100th Episode Crew Jacket at 150-pounds, an outfit worn by Amber Benson in Chance at 120-pounds, the Skip face prosthetic (with Bullet fractures) at 110-pounds, and a BtVS 100th episode Party Invite at 110-pounds.

THAT’S AN ANGEL WRAP

The best thing about events such as Starfury’s Hyperion is not only do fans get the opportunity to spend the weekend in the company of guests from their favorite television shows but they also get to share their experience with friends that they may not have seen for awhile as well as getting the chance to dress up and party until dawn. The worst thing about the events is that they have to end but not without a huge send off. Sean Harry brought out the guests one last time and as is customary he voiced his appreciation of all the people who work so hard to put the event together as he makes sure they get the plaudits they deserve. Just like the opening ceremony a couple of days previously each guest then got the opportunity to say their farewells while the fans got the chance to show their thanks. One by one they were announced; Sparky declaring that the show will, ’Never be over,’ while Dayne thanked everyone for the interest they had shown during his Illyria makeup demonstration.

Once again, as soon as Brody stepped forward (complete with England shirt in support of that evening’s football match against France) the chants of "Off, Off, Off" could be heard from the female population as the sight of his six-pack had been the one thing denied all weekend. Although he teased a little, he didn’t fully oblige but instead told everyone he had had a blast once again. When Jenny Mollen stood to take her turn at the microphone, Brody decided he was going to join in with the ’off, off, off’ chant and to his surprise Jenny reached to the bottom of her top, pulled it over head and then threw the discarded garment playfully in Brody’s face. Fortunately for Jenny, but unfortunately for Brody, Jenny had been wearing a vest top underneath so he didn’t quite get what he was looking for. Jenny became a quick favorite over the course of the weekend for fans who got to meet her at her first convention and although shy on Friday afternoon, Sunday night found Jenny in the league of veterans and sad to be leaving. Sarah Thompson proved all weekend that she was nothing like her sly alter ego Eve. "When I came here I was a convention virgin," she said to everyone, "and I want to thank you all for popping my cherry!" Next, Julie Benz laughed, "My cherry was popped a long time ago. As ever I have had an amazing time this weekend and I want to take this opportunity once again to thank everyone who got involved with the Save Angel campaign. And Sean Harry said that if you all asked him loud enough then I can come back again next year." The fans in attendance let Sean know in no uncertain terms that that is exactly what they wanted.

Vincent Kartheiser had been winning the crowds over during his stay with his eccentric sense of humor and just as he had conducted a ’meowing’ session earlier in the day, this is how Vincent decided he wanted to bow out. He got everyone to practice the happy, ’I love you’ meow as well as the angry, ’feed me now’ meow but at one point he felt the performance of the disgruntled feline was not quite up to scratch and so gave a thirty second character analysis as to the motivation behind the grumpy puss. There are no words that could possibly do justice to the enthusiastic response that Andy Hallett received. Andy never let his smile drop or his sparkle fade if it meant leaving someone happy and satisfied. Although he may have been unable to display the exuberance of his End of Days experience, Andy still could not find it in his nature to walk past a room of partying people and not join in and that is why every soul attending Hyperion loves him. He brings so much to the Starfury events and he was the first one to lead the traditional chorus of Mandy to wrap up the closing ceremony and the delight of a man who wound up the convention at one in the morning with his trademark song, Superstition. Under the watchful eyes of both his mothers (including Dayne) Andy received a standing ovation for the appreciation of the man that he is. And even though she would have been on a plane half way across the Atlantic, Amy too received the thanks she deserved. All in all it was another successful event and as Monday morning brought about weary faces, heads dropped by the weight of hangover and pockets made lighter from the spending of mountains of cash some contemplated doing it all again just five days later in Glasgow!

From more informations with pictures :

http://cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts4/hyperionHapps.html