[Water Lily]

cont'd

Billy didn't stay for the films; he went for supper or something, and he was a little late getting back for the Q&A because he thought there were 8 shorts, not 6 (go figure).

The Q&A only lasted 5 minutes or so. I had a question, but I didn't put my hand up right till the end cause I was chickenshit, and by then it was too late. No offense to anyone out there who might have been the poser of one of these questions, but I thought most of them were really lame and a complete waste of Billy's and our time.

These are not in the right order, cause I forget what the right order was, but somebody asked what Billy thought of Edmonton so far, and he said he hadn't had a chance to see much of it but "The street I'm living on is really cool" (Translation: he was staying somewhere on Whyte Ave, maybe the Varscona?) That question was okay, but it was immediately followed with "So what do you think of Canada so far?", which I thought was pretty redundant. Also, those were both the kind of question you're obligated to give a politically correct response to no matter what your real opinon is, so what's the point of asking?

The only good questions were about if Billy felt isolated while filming Sniper 470 all by himself (he said he didn't because he wasn't really all by himself; the director, the cameraman, the makeup girl, and a bunch of other people were always there too), and how they filmed the space scenes (Billy said he practiced 'floating around his living room'). Oh, and someone asked what's up with the screenplay he and Dom are working on, and he said Dom's typing it up right now and there's been some interest in it.

Somebody asked if he supports the Scottish film industry (well duh, what do you think - he's here, isn't he??), a girl in front of me asked if he'd be in a picture with her (selfish and inappropriate during a general Q&A IMHO), and a girl behind me asked if he would marry her friend Jen cause she's in love with him (immature and a waste of time, again IMHO).

And somebody asked if he would show us his tattoo of the Elvish word for 'nine'. I thought this question was pointless because if you are informed enough to know not only that the Fellowship got tattoos *and* what the tattoos are of, you *must* also know they agreed not to show them publicly. So why waste everybody's time asking when you know he's going to say no.

Then Billy signed a very very small number of autographs and left. They had to kick us all out cause there was a 9:15 show waiting to get in.

I decided afterwards that although seeing Billy in person wasn't everything I had hoped for (I really wanted an autograph, dammit), it was more than I expected. He was really nice to everybody and funny and sweet, and the shorts were good too, and I made some new friends. And Billy did not disappoint me. I think I had been worried that he would say or do something that would somehow diminish my admiration for him, which would have made me sad. But nope - he managed to stay right up there on that pedestal.

Now I can't wait to see him again!!

The End.