Monday, December 9, 2013

SDCC 2013 Recap: Breakfast With The Walking Dead. Graaaiiinnnssssss! (Part 2)

Earlier this year, Red Dot Diva was at "The Walking Dead" press breakfast on Day 2 of Comic-Con 2013. To-date, that wonderful morning is one of her most memorable press moments ever.

If you've only stumbled on this blog article now, you can catch up on how the press event began in Part 1 of the recap right here.

For those who have yet to catch-up with "The Walking Dead" Season 4's intense and heart-breaking mid-season finale, Red Dot Diva sends you slimy sympathetic zombie hugs! And don't worry, everything mentioned in this article is S4 spoiler-free!

----------------------------------------

After the photo call ended, it was time for "The Walking Dead" press line. Time was getting tight, so the various film crew in attendance and PR folks got busy with a reset.

Somehow, Steve Yeun managed to slip away and escaped from doing it. It was probably why he had been lingering by the side of the press area. Red Dot Diva noticed that most of the actors and producers were still up to doing interviews in front of the cameras though.

Red Dot Diva had stationed herself quietly at the end of the press line beside a rather restless 2-person Taiwanese journalist-camera crew. They conversed with each other in Mandarin most of the time, and Red Dot Diva understood every word of it. It was unfortunate that they were the very last film crew, because by the time some of the talents got to them, their minders were hurrying them along, and cutting their press time short.

Being just a small-time blogger, Red Dot Diva was happy enough to be able to grab a few video clips from those who were not rushing off, or ushered away by their harried, terse minders.

Robert Kirkman and David Alpert did their press line together and both men seemed to be in a really good mood. After introducing herself to them, Red Dot Diva requested - very sweetly - if they would give a short greeting. Robert and David were most happy to do so! They also answered Red Dot Diva's nosy question:




Then, David Morrissey came casually striding by. Darn he is oh so very tall (an impressive 1.91m!) and soooooo majestic looking. Tiny little Red Dot Diva probably reached only up to his mid-chest but she can attest that David looked even more scruffily-handsome in person. And despite his stature, he was hardly as malevolent as the Governor. In fact, he graciously answered Red Dot Diva's nosy questions too!



Red Dot Diva looked around and noticed that some other actors like Danai Gurira and Chad Coleman were no longer at the press line area. They have probably slipped off or completed the press line.

She did however, catch Lauren Cohen trying to get away with doing more press interviews, by engaging with one of the film crew guys from Spike TV.

Lauren was very enthralled by the pair of Google Glass he was wearing and she spoke only to him during the 10 minutes she was at the press line. He handed the glasses to her so that she could try it out and she thought it was all really very cool.

After that, *poof*! She was gone again. Totally bypassing the poor Taiwanese film crew.

Soon, a very amiable Scott Wilson ambled by. Red Dot Diva told him she was from Singapore when she introduced herself to him and he, with all smiles, said that his wife was from Singapore too.

"Does she miss home at all?", Red Dot Diva asked him. To which he replied, "You have to ask her that yourself."

Here's the rest of the little conversation Red Dot Diva had with Scott Wilson:



As soon as Red Dot Diva finished filming her vid clip, photo-whoring Elevator Zombie Guy shuffled alongside Scott and decided to give him a scare.


By this time, there were only two actors left on the black carpet - Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus. Both of them seemed very dedicated, and gave the press a lot of their time and energy. But time was running short, and Red Dot Diva noticed that the minders and PR folks were getting very antsy. So she didn't attempt to grab any time from Andrew Lincoln when he was making his way down the black carpet. But she did admire at how beardedly handsome he looked in his blue suit. YUM.

Norman Reedus was the last to come through the press line. At this point, time was coming right down to the wire. There was still the main press conference to be held at the other side of the rooftop.


Red Dot Diva was still hoping to be able to say hello to him, but knew that he had to at least speak to the Taiwanese press first. Instead, what happened was Norman Reedus being classic Norman Reedus.

When he strode up to the corner where they were standing, Norman was promptly introduced to the Taiwanese press. As unobtrusively as possible, Red Dot Diva stood back to let them have time with him. However, as he was being introduced to them, his attention quickly fell on Red Dot Diva and he approached her and drawled in the most friendly, slightly flirty manner, "And who's that quiet one standing over here?"

All eyes fell on her as she awkwardly introduced herself, told him where she was from, and said that there were many Daryl Dixon fans back home who love his work very much. He flashed a disarming smile and said "Oh, thank you very much!" That's when Red Dot Diva request to have a photo taken with him, which he obliged with a "Sure! Not a problem!".

SQUEEEEE!!!

Even after hearing several fan accounts of how warm and friendly Norman is at conventions, Red Dot Diva was still knocked over by huge dose of Reedus charm that morning. For sure, nothing beats the wonderful experience of meeting Norman in person.

Dear Norman, just by making the smallest and kindest gesture, you made Diva's day a perfect one. Thank you so so much!!

-------------------------------

The official "The Walking Dead" press conference began soon after the press line wrapped up. When Red Dot Diva manages to find time to transcribe the audio recording, she will post another recap article.

Meanwhile, you can also view RDD blog's contributor Richy Garcia's V-log on his thoughts about the mid-season finale of S4:



More of Richy's v-logs are available on his YouTube channel! Tell him what you think, and whether you agree with his views!

She hopes these will help tide you over till the next half of Season 4 premieres in February 2014! Don't get too twitchy now!

4 comments:

  1. He is the most gracious and kindest to his fans. Inside, security was awful, and yelling and pushing the fans. There were thousands of people, and they only handed out about 100 of the special passes to get autographs. This, of course, left tons of fans behind chain link fences, and security guards, pushing and yelling to get back. There was an open window area, and Norman, Andrew, Danai, Steven, Lauren and even David Morrisey all trued to turn and grab a few items to sign for fans, even though they didn't have the special pass. I happened to be standing there when Norman turned around and he saw my shirt, which was a Boondock Saints shirt, in a sea of Walking Dead shirts. Lol, he pointed, said, "Awesome shirt!", then took out his phone and took a picture. He then allowed me to take his picture, posing and waving. Security shoved me back, yelling, and telling me to move. I made it to the side, where through the chain link, David Morrisey spoke to me through the fence, even giving me an autograph. They are the best to the fans, hands down. Norman Reedus, who is surrounded by insane female fans, handles it very well, and is always gracious. He is wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing! They are all pretty wonderful to their fans in general. :) Not easy when there's a frenzy of fans.

      Delete