Jewel Staite

August 08

Holy eight-years-since-my-last-blog, Batman!

I am absolutely disgusted with myself for not updating you sooner, or answering your plethora of fabulous questions the moment I had a chance. (Spent that moment watching So You Think You Can Dance instead, but if you have experienced the hot tamale train that is Joshua, I’m sure you can understand.)

I have to start with some shout-outs to the people who have been so supportive of me, in Australia at the last two Supanova conventions, as well as both Shoreleave and Comic Con. To those of you who know who you are, you made me feel loved and very blessed in a world of anti-Keller threads. Also, your messages of support on myspace do not go unread, and I am so incredibly grateful for your outpouring of love and reassurance; I’m being sincere when I say I don’t know what I would do without you! Thank you for the validation. I love you back.

Okay, I’m moving on to questions now, because there’s a lot of them… many blogs’ worth, actually. But I’ll start with just a few:

1. Are there any movies in particular I’m looking forward to seeing? I think Tropic Thunder is at the very top of my list at the moment. I’m terrified it’ll disappoint, but somehow I don’t think it will. Robert Downey Jr. is a god amongst men. New celebrity crush fo-sho.

2. Do I have any irrational fears? I’m a wee bit excitable around things that slither, but not irrationally so. My mother actually goes bananas around snakes, and so does my grandmother. My theory is that it was genetically passed down through several generations of women in my family, but it got a bit diluted when it reached me. Still, you won’t catch me cuddling one any time soon. Cocker spaniels will do for now.

3. Am I doing the Firefly commentary for the new blu-ray version coming out? Sadly, no. We tried desperately to make it work, but it was smack dab in the middle of a very heavy work week for me (we’re currently shooting the episode "Brain Storm"—this will be a goody) and I just couldn’t get back in time to make it happen. It was a little disappointing, not gonna lie, but I am gonna blame it on Summer. SUMMER!!

4. Am I a Grey Goose vodka fan? I’m a Kettle One girl myself. Actually, that’s what they call me on set: Dr. Kettle One. I wish I was joking.

5. What classic Disney animated character is the most perverted and/or disillusioned with life? The person asking this was most likely sampling Kettle One at the time, but lets humor them. Most perverted would go to Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, who could not keep his candlestick to himself. Most disillusioned has to go to Ariel, as much as I love her. Can you imagine the disappointment she must have felt after the fact, when she moved into the castle with her fancy legs and new man and realized she gave up living in an underwater fantasy land with talking fish to become the wife of a spoiled prince? When her dad was the KING to begin with anyway? Bad move, my little mermaid, bad move.

6. Who is the bigger prankster: David Hewlett or Nathan Fillion? Nathan all the way, one hundred and fifty percent. The man does not stop pranking. I am constantly looking over my shoulder when I walk down the street, let alone a convention, waiting for him to pop out at me with a giant finger. David doesn’t prank, really. We’re not a prankster group on Atlantis. We sit around eating sandwiches and making up nicknames and ballads about the wraith, and then laugh hysterically until someone tells us to shut it. Nathan turns me into a sly pranking master mind just to keep up with him while David turns me into a giggling, blathering idiot with egg salad on my face.

7. Latest pet peeve? You Tube. I can’t tell you how many times I ask people not to put me up on You Tube, or at least ask my permission before they do, but alas, there I am, after every convention, telling a story I’d rather not the entire world to know. Here’s the thing: when we go to conventions, we look forward to the Q&As because it’s a chance for the fans to talk to us and get to know us, and I’d like to have the freedom of saying whatever I want without the fear of knowing it’ll end up on You Tube, even if I ask and sometimes beg them not to put it up. I don’t want to have to start holding back during my Q&As and become a bore with stories of how I "get into charactah"—I want to be able to be me! So if anyone has any ideas on how to handle this problematic situation, I am all ears. Rant over.

8. Ever tried wearing bits of each other’s wardrobe or costumes on the set for fun? Ooo… this happened once, and while it was fun for us eight year old gigglers eating sandwiches, it was not fun for the people upstairs. Two actors who shall remain nameless switched patches on their uniform jackets (dictating what country their characters originated from), and forgot about it by the time the cameras rolled… and it was captured on film. I’m sure the brilliant editing department found a way of getting around it, but it happened, and so I think the whole switching bits of costumes game is over.

9. Guilty pleasure movie? I have a few. Airplane. Old School. Titanic. A League of Their Own. The Muppets Take Manhattan. My dignity is in danger, so I’ll stop there.

10. How do I feel about getting closer to thirty? Wow, thanks! I didn’t realize turning twenty-six made twenty-seven, twenty-eight, and twenty-nine completely insignificant lightening years that whizzed by faster than you can say Vegas, baby! But I guess I’m officially "late twenties" now. I don’t feel bad about it. Everyone says thirty’s the new twenty, and forty’s the new thirty, and most women I know in their thirties say it’s when they realized they knew who they were. I’d like to think I know a lot about me already, but maybe I’m wrong. Self-discovery is a life-long process and that’s what makes all of this living business exciting, so I say, embrace the years you’re lucky enough to meet. And I feel very lucky at the moment.

Thank you for reading! Happy August! More much sooner than last time, promise.

Jewel