Semi-sucky news and GREAT news: As you may know I went to meet Lance Henriksen at the Star Trek/Creation convention this weekend. The semi-sucky news is that I asked him to do my answering machine message and he DID it... but the tape didn't turn out. :-( I was disappointed at first, but that doesn't eclipse the fact that I met Lance and he was a total sweetie.

So, I arrived at the convention an hour before Lance arrived and browsed through the dealers rooms - not much XF stuff. I sat at my assigned seat and watched the end of Nichelle Nichols and George Takei's presentation. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but it was interesting because they touched a bit on how People of Color were portrayed on TV at the time, and Gene Rodenberry's vision for breaking through the stereotypes.

Yaddie, yaddie, yaddie. Finally, Lance got on stage at 4pm. A good deal of the audience had gotten up and left to stretch their legs by that time - screw 'em, it just allowed me to sit closer. Those of us left greeted Lance warmly. A few of us girls - myself included - catcalled, which Lance thoroughly enjoyed.

Lance was wearing a black blazer and a white Hawaiian-style shirt with black palm trees. His hair was a reddish brown, and he was wearing glasses and looking absolutely scrumptious. Lickable, you hear me? Gawd, it's been a long time since I wished a celebrity wasn't married... Ahem. Sorry. Lance talked a bit and told us that he's glad "Millennium's" over because he gets to spend more time at home with his wife. He has a baby, her name's Sage (how pretty!). He gets to spend more time in Maui now - on the more remote side of the island - Hanna is the name, I think. He was happy to say that he may get a role in a series that will be set in Hawaii, so he's very much hoping that comes through.

Lance immediately took questions. I was pretty surprised by the devotion of some of the fans - it's not everyday you find hard-core Lance Henriksen fans. A few of them, like me, had come to convention solely to see him. One person had flown in from England just for his appearance. One man told Lance he had a tattoo of Pumpkinhead. Lance was fascinated by this, and went to the stage to take a look. Then Lance said, "I'm going to show you my tattoos," and started to take off the jacket. This led to more catcalling from the girls (and one guy, that was a bit scary ;->). Lance showed us that he had tattoos of dolphins and I think a whale - it was definitely sea-related. He then told us that he once met a guy who has Bishop tattooed on his back. "I can't believe someone has my face tattooed on their body. My wife won't do that!"

I decided, with encouragement from another fan, to go ask a question. As I stood in line waiting to get a turn at the mike, one girl asked Lance for a hug. He granted her wish, saying, "Sure, I like hugs." Then he held up his hands to the audience, "But not too many!" I whispered to the woman behind me, "Well, now's the time to rush the stage." She giggled. Lance was humbled by all the attention. "Wow," Lance continued, "I didn't know I was coming here for hugs and tattoos. You guys are nice, 'cause I'm not much of a stand-up guy." That made us laugh, since he made himself sound like a comic.

He answered questions about being typecast - he's never done a humorous role, even though he said he has a pretty goofy sense of humor and would love to do comedy. He's been turning down a lot of scripts lately because they're all pigeon-holing him as the villain.

He also took a couple of questions about Millennium - he said he didn't know what was Fox's deal - they seem to be suicidal. They put $60 million into the show initially, and then got cold feet and no longer supported it. Lance was asked if he thought killing off Frank's wife was a good move, and Lance said no - he'd enjoyed working with Megan Gallagher.

He answered a couple of questions about Bishop, but I can't remember the answers having never seen Aliens (I can't take horror movies - yeah, I know, why am I watching "The X-Files..."). He did say that the budget for the first movie was $12 million, which is nothing now, but was a huge deal at the time, and you can see every cent on the screen, and it's totally James Cameron's vision and masterwork.

[Scream 3 spoiler coming up, so skip the next paragraph if you care. Click to skip ahead.]

Lance was asked if he knew who the killer in Scream 3 was when he got the script. But the script was printed so that the it couldn't be duplicated, and could barely be read by the actors. Lance asked Wes Craven if he knew who the killer was - was *he* the killer, and Wes was coy about it, "Umm... we're not sure." Lance said, "I figured it out when my throat got slashed."

[End spoiler]

No one asked about Harsh Realm, but he was asked about the XF/MM crossover episode, and particularly how it was working with Gillian and David. David, Lance said, joked that he wanted to throw a rock at Lance's head because Lance was the new kid in town and Chris Carter wasn't paying David as much attention during the shooting of that episode... but of course David was kidding. Says a lot about David, though, doesn't it?

So, about this time, my question came up. But first, I've got to explain my hair. I'd just had it done the day before, and instead of wearing my usual Afro, I'd had to get it blow-dried for a trim on the edges. Straight hair doesn't make for a good Afro, so my hair was put into two Afro puffs on the side. I'm still wearing it today. It's cute, but as you can guess, I look like I'm wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

So, I get up to the mike and before I could even ask my question, Lance gleefully yells, "Hey! You... you... look like Mickey Mouse! Hey, doesn't she? That's so cute! You look like Mickey!" The entire auditorium of Star Trek geeks turns and bursts into laughter. I hide my face in my hands and mumble that it wasn't on purpose, but Lance was just so pleased that I looked like Mickey Mouse that he couldn't stop talking about it. I know it's hard to imagine Lance Henriksen overjoyed at anything, but I have to tell you, I can forgive him because he's got a great smile and he looked so charming. sigh I'm in love. ;->

To make it worse, I had a Disney question to ask: I asked him to tell us about his experiences on Tarzan. So Lance goes, "Awww... you do like Disney!" He mostly explained how the process is different from live action, which I already knew, but I asked to hear how much he'd enjoyed the experience. He smiled and said it was great because this is Disney, it'll be around forever and his great grandkids will be able to say he was in it. I asked if he'd had a hand in the script at all - like ad-libbing. He said, no. He's not really a writer, he has ideas, but no, he didn't get too creative in the sessions. Earlier, when asked if he'd like to get more involved in writing or directing a show, he'd joked that to every producer and director, the worst sight is an actor with a script under their arm - they just want them to look pretty and that's all.

I thanked Lance for answering the question, and he smiled again and waved and said, "Bye, bye" - he was just too tickled by my hair. The audience giggled again.

Then, a woman asked Lance if it was true that he hadn't learned to read until he was 30, and what did that do to his self-esteem. He said it might have slowed him down, but he was determined to learn his own language, and he's been fine. He said learning lines so quickly was a bit daunting, but of course he didn't want to get fired, so, again, he was determined to do his job well.

I think that was about it for the presentation. Afterwards, he signed autographs. There were about a hundred people waiting in line. I thought the line was moving pretty quickly, but Lance felt bad for us, and at some point he got up from his chair and addressed us all, "I'll get to you. Really. I'm not leaving." He looked so serious! It was cute. When I got closer, the person in front of me asked me to take a picture of him with Lance, so I did. Lance beamed and said, "You again! Good to see you! You know I meant that in the sweetest way possible." (Shut up, Rachel.)

I had him sign my '99 XF Desk Diary first, just in case he refused to do the answering machine message or in case, as what happened, the tape screwed up. He signed it, "Hey! Lance Henriksen" Who would have thought Lance to be so exuberant?

Then I said, "I have a weird request. Will you do my answering machine message?" The woman behind me burst out laughing. Lance said, "Okay. How are we doing to do this?" I pulled out my microcassette recorder, and the short script for him. He read it over and said, "Sure." The script:

Hi, this is Lance Henriksen on Emile's machine. Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get down tonight.

I kid you not - he was totally game for it - really serious when he read it, too. It so sucks that didn't turn out. He'd said it in his soft, sexy voice and even emphasized the "down." Oh, well - not like I didn't have a great time meeting him. And it's so cool that he even did it, and I even had a couple of witnesses. I told him it was sweet of him to do that, and shook his hand. He smiled again (sigh), and said take care.

That was the end - I had to go to a volunteer meeting afterwards, so I only got a glance at William Shatner as I passed through the auditorium on the way out. But who cares! I met Lance Henriksen! And I don't he's going to forget me anytime soon. Probably had that song ringing through his head for awhile.

Purrrrrrrrr.... ;-D