Meeting Mark Sheppard at Comic Con

Mark with talkative fan

I met Mark Sheppard!!!

I don’t know who you are, but if you own a television set you would have seen Mark Sheppard. He was Romo Lampkin (Baltar’s attorney) on "Battlestar Galactica", the Ring Director in "Chuck", Ivan Erwich on "24", and Crowley on "Supernatural". He also made appearances in "Warehouse 13", "Firefly", "Medium" and more. Of interest to me, he plays Sterling – the team’s recurring nemesis – on "Leverage", which had me wishing for a surprise appearance at the panel but no dice.

No worries, though, because I went to see him on Friday. I thought he was going to be signing from 2 p.m. to whatever time, but he was actually around from 10 a.m. to 2:30. When I got to his booth, he was cleaning up the space (I thought he was setting up) and his 11-12 year old son was waiting around for him. There was this older guy standing there chatting him up. There was still a line for him, even though he was trying to get away, and I stood at the end of the line patiently awaiting my turn.


As I stood there, I studied the specimen of a man. He looked damn good. I find Mark attractive when I watch him on TV, but in person, he was striking. All of the features that I find appealing were ten times more alluring. I couldn’t think straight. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and his arms are pretty muscular. I’ve got a thing for arms. His tattoos were snaking down his arms and were partially visible. I’ve got a thing for tattoos too. And older married men. And British men. Mark Sheppard has it going on, basically.

In any event, Mark responded to whatever comments and laughed at the jokes of this fan that kept chatting at him while he packed his gear. Now, thinking back, I believe it was the laugh that got me. It was so genuine. Mark’s entire face lit up. His eyes danced. I suddenly found myself thinking, “what the hell am I going to say to this beautiful man when I reach the beginning of the line?” I’ve got nothing that isn’t completely inappropriate, and even if I was okay saying that completely inappropriate thing, his kid is right there. I decided right then and there to run.

But not without a photo. I snapped this picture (pls see pic above) on my iPhone before I (quite sneakily) backed out of the line and ducked behind a nearby partition.

Then I ran. Mark Sheppard, if you ever come across this somehow, I apologize from the deepest depths of my heart for being such a creepy creeper.

The next day, I actually met Mark Sheppard. Maxii and I had split up for whatever reason after the Leverage panel, planning to meet later in the day to visit Mark’s booth together. Not an hour after the panel, I got a text about when I wanted to go see Mark. Maxii wanted to go right then. I was down with that, so I ran upstairs (from the Exhibit Hall) to find his booth.

Of course, I got there first and waited around very awkwardly hoping that Mark wouldn’t notice me standing at a safe distance, trying to look disinterested. She arrived and we stood in line. Lucky for me, Mark was wearing a long-sleeved shirt this time, so I wasn’t quite so distracted with his biceps and tattoos.

Mark zeroed in on Maxii and began chatting her up. This was pretty usual. Maxii will deny it, but everyone that met her fell in love with her at first sight. He noticed from her name badge that she’s Canadian and talked about how beautiful it is up there. When she selected the "Supernatural" picture for him to sign, he began to ramble off about his role in the upcoming season. He said, more than once actually, that Crowley’s “got Bobby’s soul, and what in the world is he going to do with it?”

Then, he pulled out a t-shirt that another fan had given to him. It was a picture of Crowley and Bobby kissing to seal the demon deal. The fan had photoshopped a big heart around the picture. I made some kind of comment like, “oh my god, who gives a gift like that? What are you going to do with it?” Mark said that, naturally, he was going to wear it on set. I’d have died laughing if he hadn’t already killed me with his hotness.

He finally got done with Maxii and turned to me. I had him sign the "Supernatural" picture too, but I also asked about the picture he had displayed of "Leverage". He had tweeted before of no Sterling in Season 3, so I asked when we were going to see him again. He told me that the schedules didn’t work for Season 3, but Sterling was coming back in Season 4. YAY! The next day, they announced that "Leverage" was confirmed for Season 4. I felt like I had gotten the scoop. :)

When he read my name badge to make sure he spelled my name correctly, he says “Oh, Morgan? My father’s name is Morgan.” I strained not to say “I know,” because the alarms in my brain were working somewhere on a subconscious level (thanks, brain alarms) telling me that that response would be stalker-creepy. Instead, I gurgled something along the lines of “hhmmm yeah…” A slight improvement in my opinion.

My Mark Sheppard autographed pic

At some point during this conversation, I shook the man’s hand. Can’t remember if it was at the beginning or the end. Maxii is no help on this point. She tells me that all she could hear the entire time was his accent and none of the actual words being said. I’m glad I’m a better multi-tasker. I remember thinking that his accent wasn’t quite as suave as when he’s acting.

All in all, he was a really nice guy. I had to appreciate that he was chatty because I came up with nothing. He’s obviously seasoned at the schmoozing, and it served him well. I was pretty at ease the entire time I talked him despite wishing that I wasn’t such a huge dork, but that isn’t something I can blame him for.

The autograph pic reads: “Erica – lots of love. Mark Sheppard” I fantasize that he doesn’t write that to everyone.

Thanks to @RealFastTlkr for her pics and this squee-ful blog ;)