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Tidbits from “Carmilla,” Gillian Anderson and more at Fan Expo Canada

Well, it’s official: they let me back into Fan Expo Canada for the second year in a row. I guess I’m a veteran now, but of course I still managed to get lost. Come on, over 129,000 people packed those halls during the four-day event (Sept. 1-4). The largest fan convention in Canada, this year’s Fan Expo was especially popular with fans because of big names like Stan Lee, Mark Hamill and William Shatner, and Star Trek ruling the event as the franchise celebrated its 50th anniversary. But I was there to track down some of our favorites, and I think you’ll agree the convention delivered. Any fans of Katie Cassidy, Alex Kingston, Freema Agyeman, Hayley Atwell, Gillian Anderson, Carmilla and Wynonna Earp up in here? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Let’s start with Katie. Was Laurel the Lance sister I really wanted? Okay no, but remember when Katie got hot and heavy with another woman in an otherwise forgettable thriller? Well, there’s that, but she also has the Caity Lotz goods because they’ve lived together. Sadly, she didn’t go into much detail there, but she did share that both Caity and Danielle Panabaker of The Flash are “really good roommates” and “awesome girls.”

But for those who ship Laurel with a certain lady or ladies (I see you, fan fiction), you’ll be excited to hear Katie is super prepared to get back into her gear after recently signing a deal that will see her appear across Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

And speaking of Arrow, Mama Lance aka Dr. Elizabeth Corday aka River Song aka Alex Kingston was at Fan Expo this year as well. I’ll be honest, I’ve been particularly interested in finding out more about Alex since Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat’s revelation that River Song is bisexual.

I’m thinking her Kinglets (Alex’s dedicated fan base who have traveled all over the world to meet her and each other) are interested in much more than that, but I’m also convinced a strong contingent of them are queer too. But I wonder what they think about Alex’s somewhat controversial thoughts on a female Doctor.

“I don’t know if the Doctor should be any gender,” she said. “If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.”

But then she explained herself:

“I think that if you keep the Doctor male, what it does is it actually gives whoever is the writer on the show fantastic opportunity to create strong female characters who are characters who then interact with the Doctor.”

One of those characters, Martha Jones, was played by Freema Agyeman, who was also at the convention and who we’re loving right now as the unabashedly queer Amanita on Sense8. Freema started off by taking a crowd selfie and quickly got into how much she’s enjoying her awesome hairstyle on the show. Us too!

One thing I didn’t know about Freema is how big a fan of The Wachowskis she is and how close we all came to not seeing her dream of working with them come true. It turns out her then-role on The Carrie Diaries presented a scheduling conflict, but things, fortunately, worked out (except for The Carrie Diaries, which didn’t get picked up for a third season).

Her role as Amanita is also the first time she’s ever played someone in a romantic relationship on a show, period. So one of our favorite scenes on the show is also her first sex scene and nude scene too.

Freema also opened up about who Nomi and Amanita represent for the series queer co-creator, Lana Wachowski. “With Nomi, with Jamie Clayton‘s character, Lana Wachowski is putting a lot of her own experiences into that character,” she said. “My character, Amanita, was based quite heavily on her partner, Karin Winslow.”

“So some days are hard because when you as an artist are pouring so much of yourself and reopening old wounds, there’s a lot of emotion. So there’s a lot of tears when we’re shooting.”

Could Freema have some company on Netflix sometime soon? Hayley Atwell seems to think it’s a possibility.

“I’m not entirely convinced it is over, to be honest,” said Hayley of Agent Carter during her panel. “I think it’s got every chance of finding a home somewhere else, whether it’s on a Netflix channel or something like that. And I’d be more than happy to bring her back.”

That includes a spin-off movie as well. All this means we might have some more Cartinelli in the future. And on that, kudos to the person who yelled out “Cartinelli” and made Hayley chuckle. “I would definitely have liked to see Angie come back.”

“They’re very, very different, and they shouldn’t in some ways have anything in common,” she said. “But remarkably, you know, Peggy needs Angie. Because Angie is, she’s not afraid of friendship, she’s not afraid of emotional connection, and she’s funny, and she’s lighthearted and she sees the world in a different way that I think makes Peggy feel quite safe.”

I saw Hayley at Fan Expo last year, and I can tell you she was just as amazing then.

Another lady who was back for more this year was Gillian Anderson. Her dry humor was also pretty consistent.

Somewhat forgetful and very chill, Gillian didn’t even blink when a guy told her about the Scully tattoo he had done on his thigh. Apparently she gets that a lot.

What did get her going was the guy who interrupted her story and had the audacity to flip her off. Dude! Last year I was more than a little apprehensive about how she would handle questions about her being bisexual (by the way, she is not hostile to the question) and you’re giving her the bird?! What’s it feel like to have hundreds of people direct their anger your way? Also, you’re a jackass.

She did get to talk about her projects, too, though, including The Fall (where she plays bisexual Stella Gibson) and, of course, The X-Files. Here’s what she had to say about her characters in both:

“I like Stella a lot. She’s one of my favorite characters to play. I feel like there’s lots of me in her but there’s a lot of her that’s not me at all.”

On Scully: “She’s quite a square, and I’m not. But I like her.” Agreed.

Then as per the usual for her panel appearances, Gillian auctioned off the T-shirt she was wearing (including signing it and allowing for a meet-and-greet) for charity. It eventually sold for $2,100 CAD, but not before a bidding war commenced and someone suggested she auction off her skirt. And then my mind was blown. It turns out a Twitter account had been created just a few hours earlier for that very same skirt, which Gillian had been wearing for days at back-to-back conventions, including the day after this talk. It seems Gillian Anderson only owns one skirt, and you can follow it here.

Oh, and Gillian is “maybe” open to the idea of working with Kate McKinnon. A little more enthusiasm Gillian, please.

Despite not a ton of costumes, there must have been a running Ghostbusters theme at Fan Expo this year because two members of the Carmilla cast said they wish Leslie Jones could’ve been a guest star.

And speaking of the Carmilla panel, so many emotions! I mean, that really was a lot of the panel, talking about what an emotional ride filming what they knew would be the last season was. We also got to see the Season 3 trailer for the first time and talk about how awesome it is that Veronica Mars’ dad Enrico Colantoni is playing Papa Hollis in the new season.

But what about Hollstein in the new season?

“I think Season 3 is very much about what a relationship is and what it can be,” said Natasha Negovanlis. “It doesn’t have to subscribe to one particular thing. There is no definition of what girlfriend and girlfriend should be.”

Interesting…

Everyone’s also pretty happy with their wardrobe for Season 3, including Sharon Belle and her “cool leather harness thing.” You know, sometimes things should be exactly what they sound like.

Also, a shout-out to the Lexa fangirl who asked if we need to worry about any queer deaths this season. “I don’t know if you noticed this about Season 2, but everyone that died came back to life,” responded Elise Bauman.

In Wynonna Earp, the dead don’t usually get so lucky, but we love the show because as someone in the audience screamed, “All the lesbians survive!”

“That’s all I want on my tombstone. My ancestors are going to be confused but proud,” said showrunner Emily Andras. She then reiterated that even before #BuryYourGays became a topic of discussion, she knew she wasn’t going to kill off the queer women on her show.

“Regardless of the fact that it’s about representation, it’s also still about individuals,” she said of WayHaught’s popularity. “I think it’s about Dom and Kat. Right? We can all agree with that? That it’s about these two incredible actresses making these two characters feel like real people having this incredible, real relationship.”

And while Katherine Barrell couldn’t be there, Dominique Provost-Chalkley unexpectedly was! Oh, the silence that fell over that room just to take her English accent in.

What about her new hair color though? It did beg the question that was raised: is she already prepping for a Dark Waverly? Of course, we never did get that answer.

But when asked what advice she has for her character, Dominique said the following: “I would say like follow your heart and just do some stuff for you for a bit.” Or someone…

Then thinking better, she corrected herself: “Well obviously I would’ve given her the advice to not touch the tentacle goo.” As they’d say on Family Feud (so appropriate here), “Good answer!”

Best convention north of the border, right? Oh, and I went to an LGBTQ speed dating session, which was admittedly very fast, but interesting. Hey, if I’m still this damn single by this time next year, I’ll be back. Really, I just want to go back to Fan Expo pronto.

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