DRAGONCON CHARITY AUCTION

James Teems director of the DragonCon charity auction said the auction started 6 years ago. They have done benefits for the Georgia Literacy Foundation, Pediatric Cancer, Salvation Army, Brain Injury of America and this year, the Lupus Foundation. The DragonCon staff goes to the dealers, exhibitors and artists and solicits donations from all of the participants. Without the donations, there would be no auction. There were 300 items up for auction this year. The auction averages about $3,000.00 per year for each charity. The fans really appreciate the charitable aspect of the convention.

MARC SINGER

As a criminal defense attorney, I've developed a pretty good bullshit detector. Having two teenage kids has also honed this talent. I tell you this up front, because I was very impressed by a simple selfless act by actor Marc Singer. Some journalists might report what I saw differently, but he impressed me as a sincere guy. The hot ticket at DragonCon this year, as far as female fans were concerned was James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The fans lined up by the thousands to get his autograph and have their picture taken with him. Reporters didn't get within feet of Mr. Marsters. As I was beginning to interview Mr. Singer, the huge line of fans was turned away from Mr. Marsters by the Atlanta Fire Marshall. Mr. Singer excused himself and went over to the discouraged fans and assured them that they would get back in. He walked up and down the line talking with the disappointed Marsters fans, gave out hugs and posed for pictures. I guess Mr. Singer must be a parent because when my little one gets upset, the best way to get her back in line is to distract her with another activity. Mr. Singer wasn't trying to hone in on Mr. Marster's fans. Hell, the crowds at Mr. Singer's table were big too. He was just being a decent guy, making the fans feel good in a crowded hot room. I thought to myself that he must be a decent guy in real life. He certainly appears to be one on screen.

EI: "If You Could See What I Hear."

Mark Singer: That was the kind of film that when I was working on it, it didn't even feel like it was at work. It was really more like being on vacation. We filmed part of that up in Nova Scotia, in Canada. One of the most gorgeous spots on earth. I'll never forget the cast members that I worked with. We were all like children again on that film. We had the change to be in a beautiful spot, we got to have fun with one another. The script was wonderful. I had a great time.

EI: The scene in which you drove the car stands out in my memory. For an acting point of view, how difficult was it to portray blindness behind the wheel. I believed that you were blind in the scene.

MS: It is difficult. If you do being blind correctly you enter into a kind of state of hypnosis wherein your eyes still register color and shape and form, but your mind refuses to tabulate the results. So you are effectively mentally blind at least to your surroundings. In order to achieve that state, it was actually more difficult than people might imagine. Because you have to in a way, trust in a very Zen like way that you are not going to wreck the car. You are responsible for the camera crew that's involved inside the car with you and also with the other actors. There's a bit of danger involved but it is also a lot of fun.

EI: In watching it, I believed you were a blind person. It wasn't difficult to suspend disbelief.

MS: I appreciate it. The most daring thing that actors do, the thing that makes the work always the most exciting is that we do operate, when we are operating correctly, we operate on the edge. There are so many hidden edges to our lives all day long. We all live many faceted lives, and actors get to stand around on the edge of those facets and look around to the other side of the crystal, see what's coming up and dare themselves to go to that new plain.

EI: What training have you had as an actor?

MS: I am a classically trained Shakespearean actor. In fact, I tour universities teaching Master classes on Shakespeare. And also lecturing on the perils and joys of professional acting.

EI: I have a ferret that the wife brought home. All it does is eat the carpet and bite my feet. You seemed to have better luck with yours in "Beastmaster." Any tips you care to pass on?

MS: Basically all ferrets do is nibble on humans and eat carpet. But they more than make up for it by their beauty, the texture of their bodies and by their lovely and playful spirits. And by also by their aggressive natures. They are just wonderful fascinating animals. I don't have any in real life, but as an actor, for a moment I get to establish a real camaraderie, a real friendship and a real sense of understanding with each of the animals with which I get to work.

EI: Thank you Mr. Singer. Thanks for your time.

MS: It's been a pleasure talking with you.

DAVID HEDISON

As a small child in the early 1960s, I looked forward to Sunday evenings. At 7:30PM ABC showed "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." The series starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison as the top officers of the nuclear submarine "The Seaview." David Hedison also starred in the original "The Fly" with Vincent Price. Except for the graying hair, Mr. Hedison appeared as fit and trim as he did 35 years ago. Mr. Hedison has appeared in over 100 films and TV shows during his 50-year career, with more movies on the way.

EI: You worked on a number of projects with producer Irwin Allen including "The Lost World" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." How was he to work for?

David Hedison: He was, I tell you, he was fantastic because he had such great enthusiasm. And he was a great salesman. He would go in with a project, would go into the networks and sell the idea because he got so involved with it and loved it so much. He exuded all that enthusiasm to the ABC brass and they just bought everything he said. He really was incredible. He loved his work. He loved actors. He and I had a lot of differences. I didn't agree with a lot of things he wanted to do, but the show was quite successful so who am I to say.

EI: I imagine you are referring to the addition of monsters to "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."

DH: Those I thought were difficult, unrealistic. Richard Basehart and I wanted very much to make a more realistic kind of show and work a little more on our characters. Which never happened. If Richard was sick one day, they would just give me his lines. They were all interchangeable. It was just one of those unfortunate things because there was never anything totally specific about either one of our characters. We were just very solid, grim personalities, and that's the way it was. But we had great fun and I loved working with Richard. He was fabulous.

EI: He struck me as someone who could be very intense. I loved his breakthrough film "The Fourteen Hours" where he played the man threatening to jump off a hotel ledge. It appeared he had a deep intensity that may have come from his true self.

DH: Yes. That's the way he is. As a personality he was more of an introvert, while I am more of an extrovert. He's very sort of into himself. But he and I got along great and became very good friends. Our families are friends.

EI: In "License to Kill" you made the best Felix Leiter, and I thought Timothy Dalton was a great Bond. You believed he could be a cold killer when he needed to.

DH: He was very good. A fine actor.

EI: I'd have liked if you had played Felix in other Bond films, but they went and fed you to that shark.

DH: I did it with Roger in "Live and Let Die" and Timothy in "License to Kill." Originally in the book "Live and Let Die" Felix was fed to the sharks, but they switched it all around for the movies.

EI: What do you have coming up?

DH: I did a film in New York, a low budget film called "Death by Committee." That should be out next year. And I did one in LA called "Spectres," and it was an interesting film. It should be our next year also. SO I have two films coming out in 2004.

EI: "Spectres." What is it about?

DH: It's a ghost story. The other one is sort of a comedy/drama. "Death by Committee." It's all about reality shows and how one contestant tries to get even with the host. It's a very funny kind of film.

EI: Who directed that?

DH: Michael Bergman did the first one and Phil Leirness, he did "Spectres" and he wrote it as well.

EI: I appreciate your time.

DH: My pleasure. Thank you.

NOAH HATHAWAY

Actor Noah Hathaway became a teen heartthrob in Wolfgang Peterson's fantasy epic "The Neverending Story." As one fan at DragonCon put it: "You were the cute one!" Mr. Hathaway was making his first fan convention appearance at DragonCon. Fans of "The Neverending Story" and "Battlestar Galactica" lined up to meet the young man. Mr. Hathaway has retired from the movies. He and his wife are in the beginning stages of opening a Chopper Shop in Miami. Noah told me to sit down and hangout a while.

EI: So, this is your first convention?

Noah Hathaway: First convention! Yeah. Man, it's a blast. Everybody is so nice. It's funny. That's all I keep saying, that everybody is so nice. But that's true you know. In LA everybody ain't so nice. It's an amazing change that everybody who comes to my table is 100% good human being.

EI: It's kind of a show from this side of the table to, this being a costume convention.

NH: Absolutely, absolutely. I wish I got to get up and see a little more yesterday, but I got stuck in here. But yeah, the costumes are incredible, the lack of costume is incredible. I hear tonight is wild. I'm judging the costume contest, so I'll have a good seat.

A Fan named Jamie: Some are scary!

NH: I've heard. Some are good and some are scary.

Jamie gets and autographed photo of Mr. Hathaway as Atreyu from "The Neverending Story." Jamie says the photo represents "an enduring childhood memory."

Noah has some elaborate ink on his right arm.

EI: How long did it take to get that tattoo?

NH: I did about 5 four-hour settings. That's about all I could take.

EI: You must be married. It takes someone who is married to endure that much pain.

NH: (laughs) That's funny that you say that. This is our wedding ring.

He shows me his tattoo 'wedding ring.'

NH: That hurt more than any other tattoo I have. We are in the shop. I can handle a lot of pain. He does the first line and my eyes budge out. I yell. My wife is sitting there freaking out. When they do her, they actually had people coming in the shop leave because she was yelling. The manager had to come in as say "Come on honey, please keep it quiet." I had never experienced, I mean this sucked! I would never do a finger again. This (his arm) was easy. They only part that hurt was the elbow.

A group of fans come up and share their memories of "The Neverending Story" with Noah. One girl picks a photo from his table. "You were the cute one!" she says. Several other ladies receive hugs from Mr. Hathaway. Like many kids of the 80s, these folks have fond childhood memories of the Wolfgang Peterson film.

EI: That is so cool.

NH: Yeah, it always makes me feel good. People are so grateful. You never think when you are shooting a movie, or you are doing what you're doing that people, that you touch people. This is really showing me what certain movies mean to people. I never knew. I've had people come up to me crying, hugging me, telling me... I've gotten this a lot. I had people tell me that "Your movie got me through a lot of really hard times." I was blown away by that. I never knew that it was deep with people. It's really touching. It's overwhelming at times.

FAN: I have a question for you. At the end of the film, Bastian leans out the window and screams the Empress's new name but you can't hear it. I've played it a million times and can't make it out.

NH: 'Moon Child.' There is a thunderstorm on the soundtrack. Everybody has the same question.

The fan is also a biker. He tells Mr. Hathaway that he is going to send folks to his website.

EI: You've got a website coming up.

NH: Yeah. I've been building a site. I'm trying to open a Chopper shop this year. I've been welding away, making frames and pipes. It's called 5150 Choppers. So I'm trying to start a website. We don't have any bikes completed. We'll have one or two by the end of the year. I already talked to the guy who founded DragonCon and he said "Absolutely, if you want to come next year and bring the bikes." So we're going to do a "Battlestar Galactica" themed bike and bring another one of the bikes.

FAN: You grew up cute! I bought my first color television set to watch "Battlestar Galactica." I'm not sure what I think of this new version of it.

NH: Everybody says the same thing. We all feel the same way.

FAN: The previews look interesting but the Sci-Fi channel is notorious for screwing things up.

EI: Speaking of "Battlestar Galactica," memories of Lorne Greene.

NH: What a wonderful man. We used to lay down in the trailer together and go over our lines. He'd have his arm around me and we'd go over our lines. He was like a grandfather to me. He really was. He was like my dad. Too bad he passed away. A great actor, a great man.

EI: Motorcycles?

NH: Yeah. I've been riding since I was a kid. I've probably had 15 different bikes. I raced super-sport bikes a little bit. I had my first Harley when I was 16, so it was something I've been tinkering with. So I want to open my own shop. We're going to try and open this year in Miami. It's hard. You're starting out in the garage and see where it's going to take me. We'll bring them to the conventions and that'll help spread the word.

EI: Make the ride to Sturges.

NH: Yeah. I don't know about making the ride. We might make the trailer ride. That's a hell of a long ride from Miami. But I think about them. I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming about them. My wife gets mad because that's all I really think about or do these days. So, we're just going to try and get a couple of bikes up and going by the end of the year. It takes,…for people who've been doing it ten years, some bikes take 6 months to build. It'll probably take me the rest of the year to get one done.

EI: I like that show on Discovery.

NH: The Biker Build Off. Billy Lange, he's the man. That's who I've kind of been stealing ideas from. Everybody steals ideas from each other. He's amazing. So that's kind of what we'll have our bikes look like, but they'll be a little different. They'll be pretty badass looking.

EI: Do you feel conflicted. Would you rather be in Milwaukee this weekend for the 100th birthday party for Harley Davidson?

NH: I don't know. Harley's been influential, but I'm not a big Harley fan. They're very limited. The bikes we're building… I build the frame, pipes, handlebars. We're sending stuff to get patented so people don't steal our stuff. Everything is from scratch. With Harley, you build it, then you've got to take it apart. Break the neck. They started it all, but I like the way bikes are going now.

EI: It must have been an overwhelming project, working on "The Neverending Story."

NH: It was awesome. Everything was huge. It was supposed to be a three-month shoot. Turned into a six-month shoot, turned into a little over a year. So, I was in Germany a little over a year.

EI: Was there a language barrier with director Wolfgang Peterson?

NH: He had broken English.

A couple of fans come up and buy autographs. Noah feels uncomfortable taking money for pictures.

NH: That's a little thing I'm getting used to. It was nice to have the wife here yesterday to take the money. It's a little weird exchanging pictures for money. You know what I mean. It makes me a little uncomfortable. I guess I'll get used to it.

EI: Everyone who comes here expects it. I interviewed Kim Hunter at a festival in Memphis. It was her first one right before she died. She was totally unaware that she was supposed to bring pictures or charge for autographs. She was doing it for free. She said "I guess I could have made some money f I'd known."

NH: It's just weird. When you've never sold a picture or autograph in your life. We had a showing of "Battlestar" in LA last week. I walked out the door and there were 50 people. I signed a ton of autographs. Other actors walked away without signing. These are the fans. I guess it depends on who you are.

EI: Back to Wolfgang Peterson.

NH: He had broken English. Half way through the film he stopped speaking English entirely. I speak French fluently, so that really helped. He stopped speaking English entirely halfway through the film. Spoke solely in German. I picked it up pretty quick. Couldn't speak it much, but I understood what they were talking about. His English was so-so, but now, we've bumped into each other a few times. His English is perfect now. This was his first American movie, so it was a little rough.

EI: What kind of movies do you like?

NH: I'm a martial arts buff, so anything martial arts. "Blade Runner," "Scarface," "Apocalypse." I like "Citizen Kane." I like a lot of stuff. I'm an action fanatic. I love John Woo movies. I'm not a huge drama person. I think I liked them more when I was younger. Now, I'm getting a little older, got more responsibility, I don't need to be depressed. You know, it's rough enough out there. I don't want to sit and cry for an hour in a movie. I'd rather have an action or a comedy.

EI: Besides the Chopper business, anything coming up.

NH: Not really. I have some friends trying to drag me back into acting, but I'm fighting them and trying to focus on getting this chopper thing going. I'm not a mechanic and I didn't grow up with my dad being a mechanic, so I'm learning as I go. Which is kind of rough.

EI: Trying to make your own mark as your own man.

NH: Trying to, trying to.

EI: Good luck with 5150 Choppers and thanks for your time.

NH: It's been fun. Thank you.

DragonCon2003 Links
Introduction
Day One with Jonathan Hickman
Gaming is Magic at Dragon*Con
Day One with Rusty White
The Sexy Side of DragonCon
Day Two Interviews with Rusty White
DragonCon Costume Gallery
An Interview with Brad Dourif
An Interview with Lloyd Kaufman
Day Three Actor Interviews with Rusty White

DragonCon2002 Links
Day One: Dragon*Con 2002
Day Two: Dragon*Con 2002
Day Three: Dragon*Con 2002
Day Four: Dragon*Con 2002
Linda Blair: Dragon*Con 2002
David Naughton: Dragon*Con 2002
David Prowse: Dragon*Con 2002
Peter Mayhew: Dragon*Con 2002

Rusty White