Walker Stalker Con Day 2: Kids and Zombies
9:45 A.M. – Welcome to Day 2 of the Walker Stalker Convention here at the Westin Waterfront. Unlike yesterday’s fugly, gray sky, today is bright and sunny and beautiful outside – perfect weather to stay inside and listen to people talk about a television show for hours!
The crowd seems more muted today – more families, more kids, and I’m guessing there are more than a few hangovers in the rest of the bunch. There are fewer costumes out here, and that once-haunted Starbucks line seems pretty manageable. Maybe it will pick up in the afternoon.
On a somewhat related note, I have somewhat of a topical t-shirt on today, my COBRA logo tee. I’ll bet it gets less comments than the Hartford Whalers hat I wore yesterday.
10:00 A.M. – First panel of the day, featuring the 11-year-old Brighton Sharbino, who played “Lizzie’’ during the last season of the Walking Dead. Lizzie was the disturbed little girl who took to naming the walkers and smothered those poor bunny rabbits before Carol sent her off to the flower-fields in the sky. In a year that featured Oberyn Martell’s eyes getting punched in and his head Gallagher-smashed and … well … everything on “Hannibal,’’ Lizzie’s death was perhaps the most disturbing thing in 2014’s television scene. That’s impressive.
Oh, she was also one of Woody Harrelson’s daughters in “True Detective.’’ Somebody cast this girl in a lighthearted teen movie, please! She actually talks about “True Detective’’ a little bit. “Woody was on a show called Cheers – my grandmother used to watch that show,’’ she says, to a bunch of groans from the 40-year-olds in the crowd. Sharbino, like the rest of the actors, is absolutely delightful on stage and has a naturally charismatic presence; she’ll be the star of some young-adult “Divergent’’-like franchise sooner rather than later, I’m sure. She also drops a hilarious anecdote about eating lunch next to the zombie extras on the show. “They eat nicely! They’re people!’’ she says when asked about their dining habits.
10:45 A.M. – Second run around the exhibitor hall. We’ve got to have a serious talk here about the prices for some of the autographed memorabilia. There are four or five big books of standard-sized photographs autographed by stars major and minor; I could spend a whole day flipping through and judging them in relation to other pictures. A signed picture of Carrie Fisher in that gold bikini from “Return of the Jedi,’’ for example, is only going for $85, while an autographed picture of David Hasselhoff from “Knight Rider’’? That’s $100. Are we seriously going to believe that the Hoff is worth $15 more than Princess Leia? Then there’s the signed picture of the two lesser bad guys from “Superman II’’ (Zod’s sidekicks) that are only going for $35, a complete bargain. I could get that and the signed Andrew McCarthy picture from “Pretty in Pink’’ ($45) and still have $20 left over for lunch, all for the same amount of dough it would take for one Hasselhoff picture. Also, the prices for action figures have skyrocketed since I was a kid.
Whoops, I’ve stared too long at the Hoff. I’m late for the next panel.
11:13 A.M. – This panel is on “Zombie Consciousness,’’ and it’s actually fascinating. The two guests are legit health professionals – Steven Schlozman is a psychiatry professor at Harvard, and Peter Cummings is a neuropathologist and a forensic pathologist. They’re medical wizards who just happen to absolutely love the zombie culture. For a half hour or so, they get into the technical and philosophical side of zombies, in a rather engaging way. They describe zombies as “drunk alligators’’ (pretty accurate, honestly) and the two debate the most realistic way a zombie apocalypse might happen (Schlozman says through airborne means, Cummings says as part of virus), all while cautioning that the ombie apocalypse “will never happen.’’ The panel teeters right on the verge of taking itself too seriously, but never falls over that line. An unexpectedly interesting experience.
1:02 P.M. – Emma Bell (Amy) is the next actor to take the stage; she was the victim in one of the show’s most emotional moments, all the way back in its fourth episode. The much younger sister of Andrea (Laurie Holden), Amy was bitten and killed in an attack on the camp, leading to the tearful, zombie-preventing sort-of-execution by Andrea. One of the great moments in the show’s history. Bell, it turns out, was also in one of my favorite little guilty pleasures over the past few years, the stuck-on-a-ski-lift horror flick “Frozen’’ (no, definitely not the “Let it Go’’ movie), so maybe someone will ask about that.
Somebody does ask about “Frozen,’’ it turns out; Bell is queried if she’d rather be in the zombie apocalypse or marooned on a ski lift. “I would prefer it to be the zombie apocalypse,’’ she says. “Because Daryl Dixon would be there with his crossbow.’’ The love for Reedus’ Dixon isn’t limited to the convention’s patrons. She also refers to Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) as “The Gandalf of our show’’ and accidentally lets an f-word slip while responding to a five-year-old’s question. She’d have to do that about 400 more times to match Jon Bernthal’s language from last night.
Oh, another theme that’s brought across from just about every actor – the love of Frank Darabont, the dearly departed original showrunner. Bell gushes about him. The show’s obviously been very successful without him, but I do wonder how much better it would have been if AMC hadn’t messed with Darabont’s control. A show that, creatively, matches “Breaking Bad’’ or “Game of Thrones’’? It’s nice to wonder.
1:45 P.M. – I really can’t express my astonishment at just how many children there are here. Not just ages 10 and up, no – these kids are really, really young. There are probably more seven-year-olds here than there are 37- or 47-year-olds. Again, this is for a show in which children are routinely killed in some of the most horrifying circumstances ever captured by the medium. In fact, there is an entire panel coming up made up of young girls whose characters have been killed in brutal fashion. I guess the parenting world got a whole more lenient over the last 25 years or so.
2:00 P.M. – That panel I was talking about in the last paragraph has started. It’s made up of Madison Lintz (Sophia, the zombified daughter of Carol who was shot by Rick in season two), Addy Miller (Summer, the zombie Rick shoots in the first scene of the entire show) and Meyrick Murphy (Meghan, Lily’s zombified daughter who is shot by The Governor). Murphy defines the word precocious; she speaks more intelligently than most actors three times her age. “How old are you?’’ a disbelieving host asks at one point. “My mom says I’m 10 going on 25,’’ she replies. During the panel, she also talks about moving to Boston to pursue degrees at both Harvard and MIT. She’s got ambition to match her precociousness. When asked who her favorite person to work with on the show was, she replies with a gushing “I loved every single person!’’ to awwws from the crowd. “She is just too cute!’’ someone says behind me.
3:15 P.M. – There’s a stormtrooper here. A zombie one, fittingly enough, trailed by either a Jedi or Emperor Palpatine – I’m guessing the latter. He’s immediately swamped by fans. Man, people just love stormtroopers. Kevin Smith really had something when he did that Stormtrooper wedding thing in “Jay and Silent Bob.’’ I just hope J.J. Abrams isn’t walking around looking for ideas for the new “Star Wars.’’ I’m concerned enough about it already.
4:00 P.M. – Everything seems to be winding down here. Time for one final cruise through the display hall; it’s jam-packed outside, as those who plunked down gobs of money are beginning to line up for a picture with Steven Yeun (Glenn) and / or Lauren Cohan (Maggie). They’ve consistently drawn the biggest lines at the autograph sessions, too. People love that couple. The rest of the attendees are browsing through the vendors and posing for pictures with this gory zombie dummy (pictured).
That’ll about wrap it up for me here at the Walker Stalker Con – it’s been a damn fun time hangin’ out with all of you Dead fans. Hopefully, I’ll get to do the next one, wherever that may be.
Kind of regretting not dropping that $100 on the Hasselhoff picture, though…
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