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Look Who's Coming to Dinner (snowflake challenge #3)
https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/51997.html
Tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know?
It's pretty ridiculous that I can happily write not-quiiiiite-self-insert explicit fanfic, but when I am asked this question, even though the prospect is equally imaginary, I get all the social anxiety about it. In real life, with a few exceptions, I've avoided autograph lines and "meet the fans" events for celebrities because I imagine that they must be exhausting and I don't want to prolong the misery for them by even one minute. (I also realize that people are different and maybe some people really enjoy these events.) And then when I try to imagine having dinner with someone I'm fannish about, I can't think about anything other than how boring it would be for them. This doesn't make sense because I don't actually think I'm boring to people who are curious about other people. And besides, most people like talking about themselves and their work.
Exception to all this: I have met quite a few authors at SFF cons, and so book authors don't peg my "celebrity" social anxiety.
OK, on to answering the question.
I haven't written any fics about him or his characters, and he's dead, but I'm going to go with Alan Rickman. I first got interested in him because his performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves made me ngggghh, but once I got to know him better I really liked what he said in interviews; he seemed really grounded and thoughtful, he was humble, he had a life outside of being an actor. I can imagine having a meal with him and being convinced that he was enjoying having a conversation with me. I imagine we'd talk about whatever we discovered we had in common. Books? Politics? If I thought it wouldn't bore him, I'd ask him stuff about acting — what working on movies was like vs. being in plays, Hollywood movies vs. other kinds of movies. What did he find challenging about acting. What did he wish people would ask him about.
Other real people I considered when thinking how to answer this question:
Characters:
Tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know?
It's pretty ridiculous that I can happily write not-quiiiiite-self-insert explicit fanfic, but when I am asked this question, even though the prospect is equally imaginary, I get all the social anxiety about it. In real life, with a few exceptions, I've avoided autograph lines and "meet the fans" events for celebrities because I imagine that they must be exhausting and I don't want to prolong the misery for them by even one minute. (I also realize that people are different and maybe some people really enjoy these events.) And then when I try to imagine having dinner with someone I'm fannish about, I can't think about anything other than how boring it would be for them. This doesn't make sense because I don't actually think I'm boring to people who are curious about other people. And besides, most people like talking about themselves and their work.
Exception to all this: I have met quite a few authors at SFF cons, and so book authors don't peg my "celebrity" social anxiety.
OK, on to answering the question.
I haven't written any fics about him or his characters, and he's dead, but I'm going to go with Alan Rickman. I first got interested in him because his performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves made me ngggghh, but once I got to know him better I really liked what he said in interviews; he seemed really grounded and thoughtful, he was humble, he had a life outside of being an actor. I can imagine having a meal with him and being convinced that he was enjoying having a conversation with me. I imagine we'd talk about whatever we discovered we had in common. Books? Politics? If I thought it wouldn't bore him, I'd ask him stuff about acting — what working on movies was like vs. being in plays, Hollywood movies vs. other kinds of movies. What did he find challenging about acting. What did he wish people would ask him about.
Other real people I considered when thinking how to answer this question:
- Any of the cast of Lucifer
- Tom Hiddleston (but thinking about spending time with him ratchets the social anxiety to eleven)
- Leonard Nimoy
- Zachary Quinto (someday I will finish the fic I wrote where Sylar from Heroes ends up in a Star Trek/Babylon 5 crossover universe)
- Wayne Alexander (played The Inquisitor and Lorien on Babylon 5)
- I would have J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, in here, but he participated so much in fandom when B5 was being made that I feel like I already know him pretty well.
- Elliot Page (plays Vanya in Umbrella Academy, recently came out as trans)
- Robert Sheehan (plays Klaus in Umbrella Academy. I would worry about him being bored by me though)
- Orlando Jones (Mr Nancy in American Gods)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (because I want to try to figure out how he navigated having a super-rational character and being into all sorts of spiritualist woo-woo...also to ask him if he was in on the Piltdown Man hoax)
- Eartha Kitt (singer/dancer; also played Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV show)
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of The Little Prince)
- Douglas Adams
- Daniel Craig (except I'm quite sure he'd find me boring)
- Terry Jones of Monty Python
- Prince (the musician)
- Peter Falk
Characters:
- Lucifer (*looks at my as-yet-unposted fic more or less about this very thing*)
- Thor
- Loki (*yes I know, that would be dangerous...I would have to have something he really wants*)
- Harold from Person of Interest
- Spock from Star Trek: TOS or AOS
- Chrisjen Avasarala, Bobbie Draper of The Expanse
- Phryne Fisher of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
- Takeshi Kovacs, Poe from Altered Carbon (but Kovacs would probaby snark the whole time)
- G'Kar, Vir from Babylon 5
- Archie Goodwin from Nero Wolfe series (in an alternate universe where I can still dance)
- Mr Wednesday, Czernobog, Mr Ibis & Mr Jacquel, Mad Sweeney, or Bast from American Gods
- Sherlock Holmes, John Watson (assuming Holmes wouldn't be bored)
- HAL 9000
- The Little Prince
- Jean-Luc Picard
- Pinky and the Brain
- the Ripley clone or Gediman from Alien: Resurrection
- Damiel & Cassiel and/or the angel played by Peter Falk from Wings of Desire
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That said, I LOVE your answers - Alan Rickman would be amazing! And I'd be delighted with many others on your lists. G'Kar and Vir would be excellent!
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Same! I mean, I imagine that a great proportion of actors and celebrities are extroverts and attention seekers (I mean that in a neutral way, as a character trait) who love having people around them and entertaining, but I am very much not that person and find the whole idea excruciating. If there was a big group dinner with those people invited, rather than one-on-one, I think I would find that interesting, sitting and listening, and Alan Rickman is a great choice there.
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It would be great to sit and listen to Alan Rickman at a group dinner.
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