It sometimes –though not too often- happens at a FedCon that
I get quite overwhelmed by one of the actor guests, in terms of their personality
that for a variety of reasons I find enormously appealing. I do like many of the actor
guests we’ve met in almost 15 years of conventioneering, some of them I don’t
really care about , yet a few stand out as people I would want to have as
my friend. This FedCon I met two such people. One of them I expected to like immensely,
but the other was quite unexpected. I am talking about Ben Browder here.
Now, who’s Ben Browder? SciFi fans will know him best from
his portrayal of John Crighton in the groundbreaking Farscape show, or for his
role as Cameron Mitchell in the last two seasons of Stargate SG1. In both
series, Browder plays a rather brawny character with some rough edges and a
certain ‘redneck’ factor as well. Add to that the fact that he grew up in the Southern
USA and you end up expecting a certain kind of person. And yep, it is a
prejudice and a generalization, but there it is anyway. Well, Ben Browder is nothing like that at all, there is also a lot more to this man! We first met him upon check in at the hotel reception and many more encounters were to follow. At his autograph session Bill and I have a quite long talk with him on the insanity of some of the anti-gay things happening in the States, and if I still felt there was something redneck about him, that had melted by the time we were done.
I sat though his two panels and they were a blast. Ben turned
out to be a born entertainer and he is absolutely hilarious on stage, redecorating
the stage set up, sprinkling water on the floor “for Barrowman”, but at times shifting gear into a more solemn
and more serious tone, when a question begged for that. It’s also quite a sign
of having some guts to address WWII within five minutes of appearance in front
of a predominantly German audience, always a sensitive and precarious topic.
One thing does need clarification: the look on my face on my
photo shoot picture. As one can see, that day I had dressed up in Star Trek 2009 gear, including
the phaser which I had holstered at my left side. So, while we are posing, Ben
all of a sudden says: “I hope it’s that phaser of yours poking me”, on which we
both fall apart from laughing, so the photo has to be done again, and I find myself
struggling to keep a straight face, as I am very much aware of that phaser
poking him again. Hence the rather strained look on my face in the picture, and
hence my feeling of being “Browdered” .
But the last impression Ben made upon us will last the
longest. It happened during the closing ceremony, after everyone had come on
stage and John Barrowman was being ‘hailed in’. John dances in, starts fooling
around with Ben-who happened to be closest to him- and of course stage and audience
alike go crazy-as this is the power of Barrowman. Things cool down a bit and
then all of sudden Ben Browder turns towards John, grabs him in an embrace and
tenderly and lovingly gives him a full kiss on the mouth. Yep, these are
actors, yep, this is acted, but to me this is a very powerful expression of complete
and total acceptation of a gay person, at the same time showing that this is
not something to be feared, looked down upon, vilified or ridiculed. Seldom
have I seen such a meaningful symbolic act and it really affected me. Barrowman
then obliged the audience by pretending to swoon and faint, but to me the hero
of this convention was Ben Browder. I am glad and proud to have met him and
talked to him.
And that brings me to the ultimate highlight of this
convention. John Scot Barrowman. Scottish-American
actor, singer, dancer, writer, and entertainer. Openly gay icon and quite flamboyantly
so. An amazing multitalent, as I discovered a long time ago after being
captivated by that iconic series Torchwood. Now, John Barrowman at a convention
is like a force of nature. This man has such an enormous amount of energy, he
has such an hysterical sense of humor and, above all else, he is such a warm
and giving human being, it is almost unreal. On stage, he is the Entertainer
Incarnate with never a dull moment during his two panels. Off stage, he is
someone just like us, who is clearly thrilled to be there. There was an instant
connection between Bill, myself and him, as evidenced by the first thing he says
when we meet him for his autograph: ”You were sitting front and center, in blue
and yellow, right? How long are you together, fellows?”, so I’m all like “Wow,
he remembers us from the f**king audience!”.
The photo shoot with him was something else as well, as he is actually the only male
actor ever who actually hugs other guys (as evidenced by the picture). And to
be honest, Bill and I were quite “happy” after this, hence the “We’ve been
Barrowmanned!”.
John Barrowman is everywhere, he is at the party, where he
runs into me, looks me in the eye and goes: “Well, Hello again!”. Acting, or does he recognize me for real? I’d like
to think so, as most actors (will pretend to) recognize you only AFTER you’ve
drawn their attention. This was Barrowman drawing MY attention.
And on it goes, Sunday Morning, Barrowman is late after a
whole night partying, he is almost an hour late for his autographs. No problem,
after we are done with Ben Browder, after we have chatted with Anthony
Montgomery about his first comic book there is nothing to else to do than wait for
John to ‘arise’ . Luckily, the things that I want him to sign (I think more of
it as “Imprinting his energy into it”) are his two autobiographies “I am What I
Am” and “Anything Goes”. So I set myself down and start reading “Anything Goes”, chuckling all
the time, because the way he writes is very much the way he speaks as well,
which is at times hilariously funny.
Then he walks in, sunglasses and all, not really Mr. Sunshine
this morning, but professional to the end. And I have the rather surreal experience
of reading a book written by an author who is sitting right in front of me,
talking the same way as he wrote the book. We are getting in our line, and once
we reached his table, it is: ”Hi again” and then the mask drops and he tells us
he’s so tired and needs to go on autopilot for a while. One again, it feels
like the person talking and not the actor.
Later we go to his panel, that he holds together with Eve Myles and he seems to
have recovered considerably, or he must have a really good autopilot.
So why am I writing all this, as if I were some star struck teenager who’s
meeting his idol? Well, partly because I do feel that way J. But mostly because I
feel and want to show that John Barrowman brought something unique and precious
to this convention: a genuine concern and love for fellow human beings coming
from a genuine and fully developed person. That at least is what I got from the
personal time we had with him. Yep, he is hilarious, yep he is raunchily flamboyant,
a born entertainer, a fantastic singer actor and o, yeah, I love his books! But
he is also a beautiful human being, willing to share this inner beauty and
wisdom. And that is most important of
all and it holds a significant teaching to me. I cannot wait to meet him again…
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