This is a transcript of our live interview with Barabara Barnett live from Comic Con 2012 (http://www.onceuponatimepodcast.com/030-fam-ouat-part-a-main-show-comic-con-ouat-news-ouat-press-room-exclusives-evil-regals-take-a-road-trip/) with many exclusives only heard in the OUAT Press Room. Apologies for any mistakes.
JEFF – Excellent. So this is Barabara Barnet. She’s a writer, speaker, author, blogger, and she’s the co-execuitve producer of blogcritics.org. She’s a great friend of the program and she loves Once Upon A Time. And this was her first comic con. Barbara, how did you fair during your first comic con?
BARBARA – Im still standing.
COLLEEN – That’s good
JEFF – Good.
BARBARA – I’ll tell there are a lot of people, you know we view as nerdy and geeky comic con people as being couch potatoes always doing video games – that’s not true. Because unless you’ve been trained like a marathon runner, you cannot possibly make it through 4 days of comic con – I am convinced.
JEFF – Well you had mentioned that you had done some preparing. I’m glad you did because it s a huge huge place isn’t it?
BARBARA – Oh man. The convention center alone is blocks and blocks long. Then there was all this stuff going on out in the street in the surrounding community that is really awesome and it is wonderful and the weather finally turned nice today. It was hot and humid and it started to get nice today, and it’s been great, it’s been exhausting, and lots of walking. Comic Con is actually healthy for you because you do so much walking. You can eat anything.
JEFF – Yeah. Is it like an airport terminal in that the places you want to get, are on the opposite end of where you’re at?
BARBARA – Oh yeah, yeah. In fact today, my shuttle bus from my hotel drops off near Hall H which is actually a great place for me because most of the press things are at the Hilton across the street. So that’s very close to that. And Hall H, is the infamous Hall H where all of the movie stuff is. So Twilight and all those other panels are in Hall H where nobody can reach. The lines are miles long alone. But I had an interview this afternoon or actually this morning that was all the way down the other side of the convention center and then 10 minutes after that, I had to get to the Hilton which was all the way back by Hall H to do a press thing for Alphas. What a disaster! That was really interesting! It’s really like an airport terminal.
COLLEEN – Yeah
JEFF – Yes
BARBARA – O’Hare airport. Yes.
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BARBARA – Now those were some of the highlights and of course the Once Upon A Tine stuff.
JEFF – So tell us about the Once Upon A Time stuff. What was it like? Because it is kind of ground zero for Once Upon A Time today.
BARBARA – Yeah, well my Once Upon A Time experience, I guess started yesterday. I interviewed Jane Espenson.
JEFF – Wow
BARBARA – I’ve interviewed her a number of times, mostly by phone or by email and I met her yesterday morning at her hotel and we had a great long conversation. So my Once Upon A Time experience started then and she – we talked a little bit about Skin Deep and Robert Carlyle, Rumplestiltskin and all of that. And she gushed a little about how wonderful he was to work with and to write for. And I asked what the reaction will be now that there’s magic in town. And she said, well she really couldn’t tell me.
JEFF – Uh huh
BARBARA – But she assured me that there will be lots of reaction. One of the things that she told me that was really interesting, was, I asked her about will there still be a balance between the enchanted forest and Storybrooke? And she said well, you ask a very interesting question. There will be balance and she said sort of like, that’s going to be interesting. She said sort of very cagey. So I would look for that this season and explore that. And actually Eddy and Adam commented on that as well. During the press time this afternoon, why is there even a need for a forest anymore? And how is that all going to play out. So that’s going to be kind of interesting. Then this afternoon was the panel which I did not go to. One of the downsides of covering press is that if you go to a panel and your standing in line for hours and hours and hours, you can’t do anything else.
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BARBARA – So one of the nice things is they set up a press room for the media and a lot of the bloggers, mostly bloggers in the media room, is that actors and creative team – And they have these round tables with 4 or 5 or 6 of us, and they come to our table and they go to all the different tables, so there are maybe 12 tables in the room and you get 12 different interviews. Which is kind of nice because it’s not like a press conference where everyone gets the same answers. So I’m going through my notes, I came home at 5:00. I actually skipped 2 press panels so I could go over my notes for tonight. Sorry about that for my Grimm fans and my Revolution fans. But I really wanted to go do this. So I talked to Ginnifer Goodwin, and I talked to Emilie de Ravin, and to Lana Parrilla, and to Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis. So I will give a little of scoop on those.
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BARBARA – So, I’m going to just kind of go through my notes so it’s going to be kind of random. But I’m not going to read you my notes. So with Ginnifer, one of the things she talked about was her relationship with Emma is going to be very interesting and explored. The way she put it was, these guys have become best friends and then really each of their own first best friend, they both really never had friends before. And now, she finds out Emma is her mom (daughter) and they are the same age. And it’s really going to be really difficult to kind of get their heads around that. It will be a really kind of difficult relationship and part of it will be coming to terms with that different relationship. Maybe even a little resentment. Emma will also have to come to terms with the fact that her parents are very famous fairytale characters.
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BARBARA – And they will really be diving into that. Let’s see, what else did Ginnifer say? She was actually very surprised that they broke the curse so soon. She had really thought, like most of us that the curse was the crux of the series, but it will be a lot of fun to see what will happen with these characters now with magic in their lives. And in fact now, they are really going to be playing three different characters because now they are going to have their fairytale character, their Storybrooke character of before, and now they are really working on doing an amalgamation of these characters, because now we see parts of their fairytale personas come into their Storybrooke life.
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BARBARA – She also gets to kick more ass
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BARBARA – And she will much more of a badass in the present, and she says she was actually doing some stunt rehearsals. So that’s interesting. And I asked her if now that the curse if broken, do characters get to leave Storybrooke, because they couldn’t before? She said that’s something they are going to be exploring and who will come in to Storybrooke. Will people come in to Storybrooke? She also said that this role for her, she always always wanted to play a Disney princess and now here she is playing her favorite Disney princess. About Mary Margaret, she talked about making the character, (stop me when I talk too much)
JEFF – Keep going. 🙂
BARBARA – Ok She was wondering., that she studied all the Disney features very intensely trying to get a handle on who Snow White was, maybe she was an animal activist, you know cause Snow White with all the birds and the stuff in the cartoon or animated feature, or maybe she’s got OCD. But ultimately she said, she created a character that was really her ideal – flaws and all.
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BARBARA – She didn’t want to… What she realized was that the Evil Queen was, that the character of Mary Margaret has the characteristics that the Evil queen would want her to have. So really, she ended up playing her as her own worst enemy – when she’s almost happy and she pushes her own happiness away. So that was kind of Interesting. Then we got to talk to Emilie de Ravin, a lot of the questions there was her relationship with Rumple.
JEFF – Right
BARBARA – And we were asking her, is she going to try and change him? And she said no, she really doesn’t presume to change this guy. But really more to the point, she will be trying to bring out the lighter side to him, the part that’s been hidden away, the part that she had only been able to see so far. Then she might be little less predictable, a little darker, because you are who you’re with and is she going to get affected by that, her own personality. She’s the only person in town who doesn’t know who all the other people are in fairytale land. She’s going to be exploring that. She was asked, what did she find, what did Belle find appealing in Rumple? She said it started as little bit of an adventure, she wanted to leave home. She wanted to be something a girls …. But being around him, she saw something in him that was different that no one else saw. She thought he was like a wounded soul, which I think a lot of women see in Rumple.
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BARBARA – Then someone asked her maybe she’s got Stockholm syndrome? She was very emphatic, she says no. That she fell pretty hard and pretty quickly for him. Sorry…break in if you want. I’m just rambling…
JEFF – Sure. I think that’s the one thing I always thought about Emilie was that she probably is the only one who can break, for lack of a better term, Rumple’s curse. To really get the emotion out of him and to help him to see that power was actually destroying him and pulled him and his son apart. I always thought it was interesting to put love in there, somebody that he actually really loved. So, anyway, I love that egg in the mix.
BARBARA – Yeah, and that’s how she sees him. She’s really…and that’s going to come out possibly when she realizes what the evil queen has done to her. And you know, she obviously is going to be affected by that fact that the person she really loves and deeply cares for is furious with the evil queen and that will affect how she sees the mayor. So…
JEFF – Speaking of the Evil queen, I have at least one person in the chatroom that almost jumping out at my screen. What was your discussion with Lana like?
BARBARA – Interestingly enough, that’s where I was going next.
JEFF – Perfect
BARBARA – You know her birthday is today (tomorrow). It’s actually Lana Parrilla birthday today (tomorrow) and she was really overwhelmed during the panel, 4500 people sang Happy Birthday to her. She really was quite moved by that whole thing, Lana thinks that Regina really has a good heart, ultimately and eventually she would like to see her have some redemption. Maybe in season 7, that’s what she said, maybe season 7. And she really sees Regina as the ultimate unlucky soul.
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BARBARA – And she’s going to need to grow and now with the loss of Henry, she going to have to do some soul searching and take some responsibility for that and really try, but she also added that we will see how long that works. But she said, hopefully in season 7, she gets some redemption – not too soon.
JEFF – Right
BARBARA – And she said she’ll either end up with a halo around her head or 6 feet underground, that was a quote.
COLLEEN – Interesting
BARBARA – She also said she was kind of the opposite of Regina. Because she said herself that she has a really big heart. And it’s kind of interesting that she’s playing a character that does not. She also talked about her relationship with Mr Gold. She said that, from last season there’s a lot of history between them and we will get to see a lot of it.
JEFF – Great
COLLEEN – Woohoo
BARBARA – And she said, I quote, “its juicy and fun” she said, “Bobby and I have been texting and she’s saying Oh my God, we’re so excited to be telling this story.
JEFF – I love the fact that Cora may have had some dealings with him, with Rumple
BARBARA – Yeah
JEFF- So it’s kind of a family affair. It’s all down the line, all the different things that… yeah so I’m excited for it too.
BARBARA – She’s going to be trying to salvage her relationship with Henry. And that’s really, she said, her biggest concern right now. And we also had a chance to talk with Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who by the way, I also spoke to yesterday because they are also writers and consulting producers of Tron Uprising, a Disney XD series.
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BARBARA – So I got a double dose of Adam and Eddy this week. In different guises, so they talked a little about what to expect next season they said it’s the next chapter, they are not back in the enchanted forest, and they are the ones saying, “why is there even an enchanted forest? And what they have lost by now having magic in Storybrooke and now being sort of these amalgam characters. We will find out who Henry’s father is. And they also said that a very important moment when was when Regina in the finale, said to Henry, “no matter what happens, I do love you.
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BARBARA – And they said that’s a really significant moment. And the other thing they said, is that because we’re going to find out who Henry’s father is were added yet another person in Henry’s life. Now not only is Regina going to have to share Henry with Emma, if not had lost him to Emma, now there’s a another guy in the mix – a father. Now the other thing they said was, the Emma last year told Henry that his father was a fireman who died I a fire. Well if we meet him this season, ha! Is Emma a liar? What if that’s not true? So there will be trust issues there. So what it comes down to that they both said, you know with this major theme of parenthood, and how these parents have really screwed up their kids lives. It will affect Archie most of all,
JEFF – Right
BARBARA – He’s going to be very busy and he can go and buy himself a boat and retire.
JEFF – Lots of things to talk about with Archie. Yup
COLLEEN – Yup
BARBARA – Yes, yes, yes.
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JEFF – Barbara, I thank you so, so much for giving us just all this great information on you first comic con. You haven’t barricade yourself in your room and hung up the do not disturb sign. I really appreciate your friendship to me and the show. And the listeners and I really appreciate you and I want you know that.
BARBARA – Thanks. Oh can I just say one last thing?
JEFF and COLLEEN – sure
BARBARA – You know the Once Upon A Fan Site UK, you know , I’ve been talking to them. They support With Kids Glasgow which Robert Carlyle is a big supporter of and he’s done a lot of work for them and the Once Upon A Fan Site has raised quite a bit of money for them. So I had the cast that I met sign my official comic con press badge
JEFF – uh huh
BARBARA – And it’s going to be auctioned off along with, I will send to the winner, I got photos of Josh Dallas and I think Lana Parrilla oh no Emilie de Ravin signing the badge that I will send along to. And there will be more information coming up on that. So…
JEFF – Very cool, very cool. Well thanks so much Barbara.
BARBARA – No problem, my pleasure.
JEFF – Everyone, please go check out the many very things that Barbaraa is working on, one of which is blogcrtics.org. that site has a lot of….I’ve been reading her chronological trip through comic con and getting ready for it and going through it. Barbara, thank you so much.
COLLEEN – Yes, thank you.
BARBARA – My pleasure. Bye.
COLLEEN – Bye
JEFF – Bye. Have a good evening,
BARBARA – Thank you too, bye