It all comes back down to what defines fannish, and who's ever answered that question?

How is genre known? (If anyone answers this earnestly, I will have to ask you how baby is formed. Just do you know.)

I learned with this trip I don't want to meet them up close and personal.

What does that for you?

For me, if I am going to interact with an actor, I don't want to have to pretend that I think they really are their character.

If I want to "interact" with characters, I am doing that online. With fic, with analysis...

Actors are just that, acting. And some of them are awesome at it. But I don't expect they really, really, really know what is going on in a character's head.

I don't expect they really, really, really know what is going on in a character's head.

I think some of them do. I know if you want to talk about Jack Carter as he currently exists, Colin Ferguson's a good guy to talk to. Of course the writing staff gets to take that where they want, but he does have some leeway for pushback. But he does think a lot about where the characters's been and where he can be going, and what's OOC.

I'm pretty sure JA, for instance, does the same.

My icky feeling is where I ask the actors about a character. As much as I love Hardison? I do not want to see Aldis and ask him about a character he plays. I don't care if he knows the answer. When I see actors, I don't want to see their characters. In a longish conversation we might talk about motivations or how they play something but there needs to be a seriously neon, flashing and clear line between actor and character for me.

They can be the repository of information for their character and I think that is actually really awesome. I just don't know that I can ever talk about it with actors.

I grew up in University with people who acted first and wrote second, and it was my job to talk to them about what they did onscreen and why and help with their next bout of improv.

So conversations about backgrounds of women that only lived five minutes and the decisions they made were perfectly normal. Got paid for it. As they branched off to do other things, there were still conversations about roles they took or characters they wrote or personas they used for standup. It was my default angle of conversation, although I don't do that anymore.

So conversations about backgrounds of women that only lived five minutes and the decisions they made were perfectly normal. Got paid for it. As they branched off to do other things, there were still conversations about roles they took or characters they wrote or personas they used for standup. It was my default angle of conversation, although I don't do that anymore.

Oh this is totally different than my squick. If it is someone I know and we're talking about it, that's cool.

But a character that I like -- in their pretend lives apart from the writer and the actor -- I can't be fannish around said actors (or writers) without feeling weird. I can tell them I adore their fictional characters, but I can't deal beyond that.

I love Sam and Dean. But that is hugely apart from JP, JA and the peeps that write it. The fictional characters have to live in a fictional place in my head. I can pretend it is because I need to let the writers and actors go in my head but I am not certain it's even that.

If it is someone I know and we're talking about it, that's cool.

See, it would become people I knew less and less, you just drift backstage with your friends after a play and they all know the leads well, so you're only kinda talking with them about their character and their effort, etc, and then there's the continuum where you walk up to a complete stranger to talk to them about their character.

Which I may or may not ever have done absolutely ever. Not every actor. Some you can tell it's about selling the lines and hitting hr marks and doing the bare minimum. But I love to know what internal life the person most affected by the shenanigans puts together over time, and what they overlook.

But I love to know what internal life the person most affected by the shenanigans puts together over time, and what they overlook.

This fascinates me. I just can't ask as a fan. If there is any other way in to the conversation, I can do it. And, wow, do I want to poke into the brains of the people who make the people I like come alive. But I can't do it as just a fan. I don't know why.

I love the chibis, especially "OH ME".

Those chibis were delightful!

Okay... "chibis"?