The Storybrooke Daily Mirror: OUaT in the Media, Cons and Other Real Life Encounters

[Writing Wrongs]

Top 10 Once Upon a Time Plot Holes You Didn’t Notice

Oh, we noticed.

[Camera One]

The makers of that video don't seem to understand what the term "plot hole" actually means.  The "plot holes" were a random list of random quibbles and wishes.  It seemed like a video version of those wonderful Screenrant articles ("Ten Reasons Why We Should Dredge Up An Old Show For Cheap Views (And Ten Reasons Why We Shouldn't"). 

The show was indeed full of holes, but the video came up with really bad points and examples. 

What happened to Ruby?  Just because she was off-screen doesn't make it a plot hole.   Underused characters aren't plot holes either.

They asked how no one in Cursed Storybrooke noticed that Henry was getting older.  Uh, clearly their memories reset every morning and they believed things were always the way they were that morning, so however old Henry looked that day would be accepted by everyone.  It's not that hard to explain within the parameters we were given in Season 1.

And clearly whoever made the video forgot to watch the episode about the Cora dome.

"Plot Hole #1:  Season 7 in its entirety"... wow, deep.  There's a reason we needed 22 weeks to fully analyze its flaws, LOL.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

Saw A&E's show Amazing Stories being advertised on the OUAT Facebook page. It's coming up pretty quick. (March 6.) I thought it was weird considering it's on Apple TV+ and ABC is owned by Disney.

[AnotherCastle]

Quote

Robert Carlyle’s political drama Cobra has also been handed a second season. The show, which became one of Sky One’s most successful drama launches in recent years since it launched last month, will follow the aftermath of both solar and political storms, which sees Prime Minister Robert Sutherland (Carlyle) attempt to steer the country on a more even course. He is assisted, as ever, by his loyal Chief-of-Staff Anna Marshall (Victoria Hamilton), alongside a team of dedicated advisers. An assassination on British soil, however, unleashes a chain of events that threatens to develop into a crisis even more serious than the one from which the country has recently emerged. An apparently invisible global enemy, not playing by the rules and operating outside national boundaries, appears to be bent on our destruction and nobody really knows who is friend and who is foe.

Written by Ben Richards, Cobra was recommissioned by Sky Studios’ Director of Drama, Cameron Roach and Zai Bennett, Sky’s Managing Director of Content and will be executive produced by Gabriel Silver for Sky Studios. The series will be produced by New Pictures and the executive producers include Charlie Pattinson, and Ben Richards. Joe Donaldson is the producer.

Carlyle said, “I’m absolutely delighted by the audience reaction and success of Cobra. I look forward to season two and welcome the chance to play the PM Robert Sutherland once again.”

https://deadline.com/2020/02/sky-renews-david-schwimmer-intelligence-brassic-cobra-1202858108

[Camera One]

"Amazing Stories" is coming out on Apple TV+ on March 6th, and they don't have Adam and Eddy doing interviews yet?  I'm sure they'll be an entertaining read.

[KingOfHearts]

10 hours ago, Camera One said:

"Amazing Stories" is coming out on Apple TV+ on March 6th, and they don't have Adam and Eddy doing interviews yet?  I'm sure they'll be an entertaining read.

It'll just be them saying "#NoSpoilers" verbally over and over.

[AnotherCastle]

 

[Camera One]

From their interview:

Quote

TVLINE | When showrunning an anthology, do you come up with the five ideas yourselves and then have writers script them out? Or do you solicit ideas and choose from them?

EDDY | No, we actually had a writers room. With Steven, we generated the five ideas, and sometimes a writer then comes to it with an idea. In one instance, we loved a writer’s spec so much that we kind of redeveloped it for Amazing Stories.

ADAM | We ran our writers room pretty much like any show we’ve run. We would generate ideas, then go sit with Steven and talk about them, and he’d inevitably have incredible thoughts and guidance of his own. It was an incredible collaboration that way. We would then go into the [writers] room and break the stories as we usually do.

How could it be the same type of writers room as in his past?  Who was the Steven Spielberg on "Once Upon a Time"?   I'm assuming that "Steven Spielberg" was where the quality control came in, for this new show.

So did A&E & Steven come up with the general premise for the 5 episodes or what?  Eddy said they generated 5 ideas with Steven.  Adam seemed to suggest they first generated ideas with the Writers, then go sit with Steven.  Can they give a non-contradictory answer?

Quote

EDDY | When we did Once Upon a Time, we had to fit everything into 42 minutes and 30 seconds, and sometimes the things that get sacrificed are really elegant cinematography or just a fun character moment. 

LOL.  What elegant cinematography?  And all the "fun character moments" that had to be left on the editing room floor so there could be another scene of everyone walking down Main Street or standing around reminding us how much danger they were in.  That still didn't stop them from filming way more than necessary on "Once".  

Edited March 6, 2020 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

Fun character moments? How about any character moments?

A&E never cared much about "elegant cinematography" beyond the overused shot of some character riding a horse at the opening. 

[AnotherCastle]

Quote

Leading the series will be Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz — who’ve previously created Once Upon A Time, a modern soap-opera remix of Disney’s classic characters that ran for seven seasons on ABC — along with Gad. Kitsis, Horowitz, and Gad will collectively work as showrunners, writers, and executive producers on the project.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168176/disney-plus-beauty-and-the-beast-prequel-show-live-action-remake-gaston-josh-gad

[KingOfHearts]

Literally no one wanted this.

[Shanna Marie]

I was intrigued by the Gaston story concept, but if A&E are running it, no thanks. Why do they keep giving these guys jobs? Didn't they notice that they started with a good series with good ratings and then killed it (and not in the good way), so the ratings were in the basement by the end and they'd lost most of their viewers?

So, I guess Gaston is misunderstood and had a sad backstory. They'd already made him a former soldier with PTSD in the live-action movie, so I guess they build on that?

And it's going to be a musical, but they showed with the Once musical that they didn't really know how to tell a story using songs.

[daxx]

This quote.

“Though the series is still in the early stages of development, we're more eager than ever to see what Kitsis and Horowitz come up with. Considering some of their best storylines and writing on Once Upon a Time was reserved for that series' own version of Beauty and the Beast featuring Belle (Emilie de Ravin) and Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), it's hard not to be excited to see them take another crack at the classic tale.”

italic, bold, underline is my edit, but really TV guide?

 

https://www.tvguide.com/news/beauty-and-the-beast-prequel-disney-plus-once-upon-a-time-adam-horowitz-eddy-kitsis/?UniqueID=64F91E16-5FDB-11EA-93FC-D2D1C28169F1&TheTime=2020-03-06T18%3A50%3A48&PostType=image&ftag=COS-05-10aaa3b&ServiceType=twitter

[Camera One]

7 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

Why do they keep giving these guys jobs?

That was EXACTLY what went through my mind.  I swear, A&E have Arthur's magic sand and everyone they meet get a face full of it.  

7 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

And it's going to be a musical, but they showed with the Once musical that they didn't really know how to tell a story using songs.

That's the key.  They had zero experience with musicals until that episode.  The melodies were fine, the actors were up to it, but the plot was sparse and written as filler with no lasting effect on the overall arc.

From TV Guide quote:

Quote

 it's hard not to be excited to see them take another crack at the classic tale.”

Yeah, with a baseball bat.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Another interview with A&E about Amazing Stories.

Funniest quote:

Quote

“Fairy tales aren’t right for ‘Amazing Stories’ just in the sense that these stories really want to start in the real world,” Horowitz says. “I think when we were most successful on ‘Once Upon a Time’ was when we really grounded the human and emotional stories, and that’s what made you go along with the crazy fairy tale stuff and magic. That was the bar for us: What is the human story?”

LOL, delusional as always.

"Amazing Stories" only has 11 reviews on Metacritic so far, and it's at 51%.  Apparently, they only screened the first episode to critics, so that's what the rating would be based on.

 And more about why "Amazing Stories" *should* technically have better quality control than "Once"... I wonder if Steven Spielberg got annoyed with this (or maybe it was a requirement):

Quote

“Every story, every cut, we got to go to Steven with everything,” Kitsis said.

 

Another article gives a glimpse into how A&E casts.

Quote

Eddy and Adam explain why it was crucial Pedretti, who played fan-favorite character Nellie Crain on Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and Love Quinn on “You” Season 2, take the role of their leading lady in the opening episode...

“We were obsessed with her on ‘Hill House’ and the benefit of working with Amblin is, ‘Can you get this to Victoria?’ — and they did,” Kitsis told TheWrap, drawing the connection between Spielberg’s Amblin Television producing both Netflix’s “Haunting” anthology and Apple’s “Amazing Stories.”

“And then it was literally like, ‘We want Nellie Crain to do this role. No one else but Nellie Crain can do the role,'” he added. “And they’re like, ‘We’ll pitch it to her!’ And then she agreed to do it. And we were so excited about that. 

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

6 hours ago, Camera One said:

“I think when we were most successful on ‘Once Upon a Time’ was when we really grounded the human and emotional stories, and that’s what made you go along with the crazy fairy tale stuff and magic. That was the bar for us: What is the human story?”

But when Zelena rapes Robin, it's just a "fairy tale". 

[Camera One]

Quote

Adam Horowitz  @AdamHorowitzLA

I know there's a lot going on & it's pretty dark out there, so at the risk of being frivolous, I just wanna let anyone who's interested know another ep of our show, #AmazingStories lands at midnight... it's got optimism and light and I hope it can bring a little joy to someone.

LOL.  His productions are all about optimism and bringer of joy.  I can't wait to settle down with a hot cup of tea and a marathon of Dark Swan... wait, no that's too bleak.  A marathon of Doomed Savior having shaky hands... hmm, never mind...  Cora throwing a nice old lady out the window?  Mother of Roland dying?  Mute maid dying?  Handmaiden about to see her sick mother dying?  

Edited March 13, 2020 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Brigitte Hales will be doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) this Saturday:

https://onceuponatime.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:412121

There's a list of things you aren't supposed to ask since she won't answer.  One of them is "the show's unanswered questions".  

LOL. 

Is there a diplomatic way of asking any of our questions?  Like, were the scripts to older episodes locked so no one could check continuity with what they had previously written?  Or, was the Season 7 timeline actually laid out before writing began, or did you guys throw mud on the wall to see what stuck?  How about Why did they decide to make Tiana a princess when the whole point of the movie was she wasn't one?

Edited March 17, 2020 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

There's a list of things you aren't supposed to ask since she won't answer.  One of them is "the show's unanswered questions".

If the question is answered, why ask it? There's no point in asking any question that isn't unanswered. I guess what they mean is that you shouldn't point out plotholes.

[Camera One]

Maybe she meant unanswered questions like "Who's Lily's father?" since no one would have known, including the Writers, and only A&E are allowed to pull the answer out of... thin air.

I just hope people ask stuff about their process of writing/brainstorming and if she gives concrete examples, maybe that will reveal something that we actually want to know (I'm not holding my breath).  I'm expecting questions like, "What do you love most about Regina?"

Edited March 17, 2020 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Remember, the Ask Me Anything with Brigitte Hales is today - happening Saturday, March 21, at 6pm EDT, with the thread to ask questions opening at 5pm EDT.

So that would be 2pm Pacific Time to post a question.

I'm tempted to ask how Jacinda managed to stay so young given the timeline, but I'm pretty sure she won't answer that one, LOL.  Or how Alice could have known Jacinda's mother before she died.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

I'm tempted to ask how Jacinda managed to stay so young given the timeline, but I'm pretty sure she won't answer that one, LOL.  Or how Alice could have known Jacinda's mother before she died.

Those probably count as unanswered questions, along with the whole season 7 timeline, like how Hook and Emma could have a newborn before Henry leaves to travel the worlds when Emma was barely pregnant and talking about this being her first time to really do the whole parent thing when Henry had aged into another actor.

[Camera One]

The thread with all the questions and answers is here:
https://onceuponatime.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:412231

Another writer Leah Fong also answered, as well as a few from Dana Horgan.

There isn't too much new information but there are a few interesting points and a few amusing comments.

Like this one:

Quote

 

Q: Who is your favorite OUAT character? And if the answer who is different, who is your favorite OUAT character to write?

BH: That is SO hard to say.  Each character was both fun and challenging to write.  I always found Emma to be the hardest to get write. If you listen to her she speaks in very short sentences.  She's concise and a lot of what she's feeling is under the surface.  The characters with really strong voices are always fun.  Hook, Rumple, Regina... they had very specific ways of speaking, which is fun to try and replicate.  Alice was soooooo much fun to write.  I like the quirky ones.

 

I mean, it's not very surprising who the three favorites are.

This was a related question:

Quote

Q: My question is, which character was the most fun to write and which character was the most difficult to write?

BH: Most difficult, which I think I said in response to someone else was Emma.  At least, for me. She's mostly subtext and that's always hard to get write.  Most fun... probably the Evil Queen.  It's a lot of sarcastic snark and also... she has a very specific rhythm to her speech. I always enjoy that.

I found this one sort of interesting:

Quote

Well, the creative process for all Once episodes was pretty much the same. We built them as a group, which usually took about 8 days, then the writers went off to outline and script.  Sometimes the structure you built in the room stuck. Sometimes it didn't.  But you always had a strong foundation to work with as you were writing because you had to write fast!!

Sisters was my first credite episode and is very, very special to me. I remember crying writing the goodbye scene. I will say that Adam Horowitz added my favorite line to that episode, which was, "I never got to say hello." He inserted that one little line and it just made the scene work for me.

Page 23 is, honestly, my favorite episode that I wrote. A lot of me is in there. We actually started writing that the day Trump was elected President and I found it very cathartic. Ah! I could say so much about this episode. I just love it. I'd need an hour to write everything. 

So 8 days to break down an episode, which was done together.  There must have been a mind meld.

Quote

BH: My favorite episode to write was Page 23.  I may be in the minorty here among fans but I loved the Dark Swan.  I also loved building it to reveal Hook.  That took some careful planning.  Still proud of that.

I found this one interesting too.  Since the focus seemed to be on the Hook reveal.

[KingOfHearts]

The way Brigitte talks you'd think she was still promoting the show.

[Camera One]

I think it shows the Writers genuinely believed in what they were writing.

This one made me laugh a little:

Quote

Q: Hiiiii! Is there a character or a storyline that either of you didn’t get to write for that you wish you could have? 

BH: YES!!!! I wish I'd been on Once to write some of the Peter Pan storyline.  Also the Author stuff.  I love, loooooooved that.  Still convinced I got the job because I fangirled so hard in Adam and Eddy's office over that idea.  

When I was on the show, I was very jealous Dana and Leah got to write "Beauty". I think we all wanted a crack at that episode. 

First time I've ever heard someone compliment the Author storyline.

If I were on the writing team, I would have been the first one to pass on being assigned "Beauty".

Edited March 22, 2020 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

14 minutes ago, Camera One said:

If I were on the writing team, I would have been the first one to pass on being assigned "Beauty".

We should all be jealous of someone assigned with an episode meant to draw sympathy for an abusive relationship. 

[Shanna Marie]

Is anyone else really bothered by a professional writer repeatedly using "write" when she means "right," as in "Emma is really hard to get write" when it should be "Emma is really hard to get right"? I mean, once is a typo, but making the same mistake more than once may mean she thinks that's how it should go. Yeah, online stuff isn't necessarily held to the same standard as your professional work, but I try to treat my online communication as an advertisement for my professional work and make it as proper as possible. Otherwise, you end up with people wondering how you got your job.

[Camera One]

I noticed that once, but I must have missed it on other occasions.

None of the Writers answered my first set of questions about how far ahead they plot a season arc, and about when they decided on Mother Gothel's backstory.

But I am grateful she made a reply to my second question... 

Quote

Q: I loved Snow and Emma's relationship.  Did the writing team consider doing an episode featuring them in Season 6?   Was there a reason why Snow and Emma didn't have any longer solo scenes after "Lost Girl" in Season 3?  

BH: Is that true?!  Huh.  No, there was no reason.  I'm just trying to scan my memory for all the scenes I wrote with them but you're right... I think we really liked the family dynamic.  But I don't have a good answer for that one. 

I really didn't expect an answer.  Considering all their brainstorming sessions, it sounds like Snow/Emma was never really on their radar.  It's just strange how they wouldn't think about all the various relationships a character might have when plotting out a major arc, like Dark Swan, for example.  And these were two major characters who already had an established connection.  It's just bizarre. 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

7 hours ago, Camera One said:

Considering all their brainstorming sessions, it sounds like Snow/Emma was never really on their radar.  It's just strange how they wouldn't think about all the various relationships a character might have when plotting out a major arc, like Dark Swan, for example.  And these were two major characters who already had an established connection.  It's just bizarre. 

I think it confirms my theory that the focus on Emma and Snow in season one was externally mandated, and not just advice from a mentor. If these writers had been interested enough in Emma and Snow to put them front and center in season one and focus on their relationship, then they'd have been interested enough to continue developing and showing that relationship instead of dropping it as soon as they could get away with it. I bet the only way they were able to sell their series about Regina was to create a new heroine and focus on the idea of Snow White and her daughter. The series pitch probably had a script for a pilot and then a fairly detailed outline for season one, then a brief overview of what future seasons could be about (that's how the series pitch I was involved with went). They had to do season one as promised but got more leeway in later seasons, and then they dropped all the stuff they didn't care about. If the showrunners had been at all interested in Emma, they'd have come up with stuff for her and briefed the new writers so that they'd have known how to write her, and they'd have led the way in making sure to use Snow and the mother-daughter relationship.

[andromeda331]

10 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

I think it confirms my theory that the focus on Emma and Snow in season one was externally mandated, and not just advice from a mentor. If these writers had been interested enough in Emma and Snow to put them front and center in season one and focus on their relationship, then they'd have been interested enough to continue developing and showing that relationship instead of dropping it as soon as they could get away with it. I bet the only way they were able to sell their series about Regina was to create a new heroine and focus on the idea of Snow White and her daughter. The series pitch probably had a script for a pilot and then a fairly detailed outline for season one, then a brief overview of what future seasons could be about (that's how the series pitch I was involved with went). They had to do season one as promised but got more leeway in later seasons, and then they dropped all the stuff they didn't care about. If the showrunners had been at all interested in Emma, they'd have come up with stuff for her and briefed the new writers so that they'd have known how to write her, and they'd have led the way in making sure to use Snow and the mother-daughter relationship.

That's probably what happened. They've said over and over they had wanted to tell a story about the Evil Queen and kept getting rejected. Then they went to Damian who helped them and that's what was approved. They also had originally wanted Charming to die and Snow to be a nun but the network nixed that idea. So they had to go with what the network approved. After season one was hit it makes sense the network gave them leeway. A&E decided it was time to tell the story they had wanted to all along ignoring and not caring that story was what kept getting rejected. They also never seemed to pick up that view ship started to fall once they started with the Regina story they wanted to tell. Nor did they ever seem to realized that story wasn't what made season one work. Every time they tried to go back to season one and use something from their it didn't work because they always managed to pick the wrong thing. Hook and Emma get a two part finale that everyone loved. So they tried to repeated that with their beloved Regina and it failed. So the geniuses decided to do it again. That failed even worse. . Frozen was a better story because Disney stepped in and wouldn't let them destroy Anna and Elsa. They had to do better. It wasn't the best but compared to all other plots at the time it was practically the gold. It had a beginning, middle and ending. Something by that point A&E were already dropping storylines. Regina moping over her boyfriend's wife who she murdered came back to life and deciding the author owed her a happy ending, Rumple betraying everyone just cause. They somehow thought everyone would find Robin and Regina together while his wife was frozen so great. They were shocked when everyone hated it and tried to walk it back by claiming Marian was really Zelena the whole time so none of it mattered. 

[Camera One]

5 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

That's probably what happened. They've said over and over they had wanted to tell a story about the Evil Queen and kept getting rejected. Then they went to Damian who helped them and that's what was approved. They also had originally wanted Charming to die and Snow to be a nun but the network nixed that idea. So they had to go with what the network approved. After season one was hit it makes sense the network gave them leeway. A&E decided it was time to tell the story they had wanted to all along ignoring and not caring that story was what kept getting rejected. 

I wonder this was compounded by the character's popularity right out of the gate, which seemed to support their own natural instincts regarding Regina.

Regina was indeed a great character at the beginning, but as part of an ensemble and with the other characters reacting realistically to her.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Camera One

[Camera One]

They only answered one timeline question, and I was wondering if their response made sense.  I just get confused when I think about the timeline of Season 7.  But the answer made me confused too.

Quote

Q: In 7x22 we saw little Neal was around 6-7 years old. In the season 6 finale he is supposed to be a toddler. Does that mean despite the wish realm and seattle curse time hops the real time that passed from 6x22 to 7x22 for our Storybrooke characters is 4-5 years? Timeline gets confusing sometimes.

Brigitte Hales: LEAH!!! This is all you.

Leah Fong:  Wow. Well, there was a time when I knew the answers to this. But what I can say is even though Season 6 AIRED in 2016-17, Storybrooke was behind that. A few years pass between Season 6 finale and Season 7 premiere. Then more time passes in Storybrooke during the run of Season 7. Hope this helps! Haha. 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

I think the issue is that Storybrooke was way behind the times in season 6 and caught up in season 7, so, yeah, about 4-5 years had passed. Henry was in maybe 8th grade in season 6 and was graduating from high school at the end of season 7, which was supposed to be contemporary with when it was airing, 2017-2018. Though that doesn't actually work, considering that Henry was 10 in the fall of 2011. Even ignoring what Snow said about a class of 4th graders and going with him being in fifth grade in season one, he should have still had one more year of school. That would actually put season 7 a year ahead of reality. I don't remember if there were any obvious time stamps.

But that's not the timeline issue for season 7.

[KingOfHearts]

Just read an article that speculates Once Upon a Time will be leaving Netflix in September, so it might be coming to Disney+ in the fall. The reasoning is that Scandal is leaving in May, which is exactly two years after the last season was added to Netflix. September would be two years after Once Upon a Time's final season was added.

Once Upon a Time just feels like such a natural fit for Disney+.

Edited April 21, 2020 by KingOfHearts

[daxx]

I have both Netflix and D+ so I’m good either way.

[Writing Wrongs]

I just stumbled across this: At home with Sean and Bex; Lana Parilla

I love that they are all still good friends.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Writing Wrongs

[Writing Wrongs]

Another episode of At Home With Sean & Bex with Robbie Kay as guest.

[Writing Wrongs]

Oh, dear:

 'Once Upon A Time’ Star Lana Parrilla Granted Restraining Order For Stalker

 

[tv echo]

A Fairy-Tale Week: A Virtual Celebration of Once Upon A Time
https://www.creationent.com/vfe/vfe_once.html

Quote

Starting JULY 30 through AUGUST 5, 2020, skip down Storybrooke Lane with us for seven days of virtual fairytale experiences with these stars of Once Upon a Time!

Lana Parrilla (“Evil Queen/Regina Mills/Roni”)
Rebecca Mader (“Zelena/Kelly West”)
Sean Maguire (“Robin Hood”)
Christie Laing (“Marian”)
Jared Gilmore (“Henry Mills/Prince Henry”)
Karen David (“Princess Jasmine”)
Oded Fehr (“Jafar”)
Lee Arenberg (“Leroy/Grumpy”)
Beverley Elliott (“Granny”)
Merrin Dungey (“Ursula”)
Michael Raymond-James (“Neal Cassidy/Mysterious Man”)
Victoria Smurfit (“Cruella De Vil”)

Oncers will have the chance to participate with these fan-favorites in any of these following virtual experiences (please see each individual for their list of offerings – not all celebrities are doing every item):
 
(please see each individual for their list of offerings – not all celebrities are doing every item):

• Q&A panels: Participate in a StageIt panel with the celebrities
• Exclusive meet and greets: Bid for a spot to join the celebrity in a limited group setting
• Exclusive one-on-one chats: A chance to buy a 3-minute LIVE chat with a guest
• Themed recorded messages (available for a limited time): Buy a special message from the guest, such as birthday, anniversary and others
• Autographs: Fans can purchase personalized autographed 8x10 photos! Click here for details and prices.

[NOTE: Please allow 4-6 weeks from August 5th for delivery. All Autographs must be ordered by August 5th.]

Edited July 23, 2020 by tv echo

[Writing Wrongs]

So is Jennifer Morrison one of those actors that is just done with a role when the show is over? I never see her participating in anything Once related or talking about it. Same with Ginny and Josh. Whereas Lana, Rebecca and Sean seem to really have enjoyed and embraced their time on the show.

[KAOS Agent]

I suspect that the lack of Jen, Ginny and Josh is that they have moved on and are busy with other things. All three have/had lead or recurring roles on other shows and work on other projects. They would likely be expected to push those projects, not live in the past of Once.  Lana hasn't had a single project released post-Once, Bex got married and had a baby, so she's not been working much and I don't know about Sean. They can continue to milk the fandom for money to pay the bills and don't have to worry about neglecting promo for current work.

[AnotherCastle]

Jamie Chung talks about Mulan at this years SDCC:

 

[Shanna Marie]

20 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

So is Jennifer Morrison one of those actors that is just done with a role when the show is over? I never see her participating in anything Once related or talking about it.

Well, she declined to stay on for season seven, so she was kind of done with it while the show was on. Though I believe she did at least one convention after she left.

15 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

I suspect that the lack of Jen, Ginny and Josh is that they have moved on and are busy with other things.

There are a lot of factors at work -- time availability, whether they're busy with other things, how much they need the money from convention appearances, how much they enjoy conventions, what kinds of experiences they've had with conventions, whether they're worried about being typecast in that role and would rather move on instead of continuing to connect themselves to that role. Josh and Ginny have young children and both of them have been busy with other projects, so they're probably not going to want to spend weekends doing conventions. Being on a TV show means long hours and then whatever work they have to do to promote that show. I can see where spending any free time that leaves promoting a show that's over wouldn't be very appealing unless conventions are something they really enjoy.

[Camera One]

I know I would personally be annoyed with answering the same questions over and over again (for a role that became marginalized like Snow White, what is there left to say?  It would be pretty hard for the actress to put extra thought into the stuff she had to play in the later seasons), so I don't think I would enjoy conventions if I were an actor.  I guess it might be fun to see co-workers again.  As a viewer, I've always been more interested in interviews with writers and showrunners.  

Edited July 25, 2020 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

40 minutes ago, Camera One said:

I know I would personally be annoyed with answering the same questions over and over again (for a role that became marginalized like Snow White, what is there left to say?  It would be pretty hard for the actress to put extra thought into the stuff she had to play in the later seasons), so I don't think I would enjoy conventions if I were an actor. 

The video from what I believe was Jen's last Once-related convention (after she left, since she had the short hair) was pretty painful. Most of the questions were people wanting her and Colin to do the dance from the season 3 finale or sing their numbers from the musical (they claimed they didn't remember either because so much time had passed since then and moved it along). I can't imagine wanting to keep dealing with questions like that long after leaving a show. It's very much the "dance, monkey, dance" thing or being forced to play out fans' fantasies. Even good questions that dig into the characterization would be hard to answer years after you've played that character. Everything is still fresh for fans who are obsessively rewatching, but for the actors, it would be like being asked why you did an assignment a particular way years after you left a job and you barely even remember the assignment, let alone what you were thinking when you did it.

48 minutes ago, Camera One said:

As a viewer, I've always been more interested in interviews with writers and showrunners.

I'm always a little nervous about seeing actors as themselves because I don't want their real selves to ruin the characters for me. I'm well aware that they're entirely different people. I generally avoid meeting actors whose characters I really like (not that this is a huge issue, but I don't get autographs at conventions, or things like that). An interview with an actor who really puts a lot of thought and analysis into their work can be good with a good interviewer, as long as they avoid or at least screen questions from the audience. The best ones I've seen involved people writing their questions on cards rather than letting people line up at a microphone. That avoids all those long, rambling questions that are really more of a comment, requests for hugs, requests for the actors to re-enact specific scenes, or questions about what the actors think about erotic fanfic about their characters and whether or not that pairing will happen on the show (or if they want that pairing to happen on the show). But I'm much more interested in hearing from the writers -- assuming they're interesting and have something to say and aren't real jerks. I haven't been very impressed with A&E on panels. They don't seem to put much thought into their writing beyond "wouldn't it be cool?" In that case, I think the actors actually put more thought into the show than the writers did.

[Camera One]

23 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

I'm always a little nervous about seeing actors as themselves because I don't want their real selves to ruin the characters for me. I'm well aware that they're entirely different people. 

Me too.  It's so easy to forget that the actors could have a completely different personality from the characters, and heck, the actors could even hate their job, or each other, and it can take me out of a show to see "behind the curtain".  

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But I'm much more interested in hearing from the writers -- assuming they're interesting and have something to say and aren't real jerks. I haven't been very impressed with A&E on panels. They don't seem to put much thought into their writing beyond "wouldn't it be cool?" In that case, I think the actors actually put more thought into the show than the writers did.

They're definitely an exception.  I mainly enjoyed reading their interviews so we could dissect them afterwards.  The stuff we really want to know, they will never answer.

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Everything is still fresh for fans who are obsessively rewatching, but for the actors, it would be like being asked why you did an assignment a particular way years after you left a job and you barely even remember the assignment, let alone what you were thinking when you did it.

This is so true and for the Writers as well.  The recent wiki live chat with three of the writers actually didn't reveal much new information.  They often don't remember the various iterations of the plotlines, or even how they came about, since they are writing multiple episodes at a time, plus it has been a few years.  

Edited July 26, 2020 by Camera One

[Writing Wrongs]

I watched a live chat with Morrison and Karen Gillan and it just felt like she talked more about House than Once. I can see where actors get sick of talking about certain roles. It's like recently, Tom welling has erally been talking about Smallville and joining in on panel discussions. I guess actors just need to distance themselves sometimes.

[KAOS Agent]

House was the most watched show in the world for a while, so I think it's likely that talking about that would appeal to many more people than an interview focused on Once Upon a Time. 

And now I was looking something up and ended up down some weird rabbit hole in the fandom where apparently Jen Morrison was called out by Eduardo Castro for overstepping on the wedding dress and this means she's an entitled diva and constantly fought with the showrunners about the direction of the story. It's this type of fandom crazy that would be a good reason why someone might not be interested in revisiting a past role. It just stirs up the crazies.

[Shanna Marie]

8 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

It's this type of fandom crazy that would be a good reason why someone might not be interested in revisiting a past role. It just stirs up the crazies.

And she seemed to bear the brunt of most of the crazy. To the extreme Evil Regals, Emma (and therefore Jen) was seen as the chief rival to Regina, so they were constantly on the attack and would parse everything she said to get ammunition. To most of the extreme Swan Queeners, Emma was nothing more than a prize for Regina to be given, and anything Jen said that wasn't supportive of their ship was seen as standing in the way. She couldn't even say anything about the relationship her character was actually in on the show without getting blasted for not being supportive of Swan Queen, and that got her accused of being homophobic. But then there was the faction of Captain Swan fans that got their reality blurred with fantasy and parsed everything to look for signs she was secretly in a relationship with Colin, and there were the fans that got angry if she wasn't talking about Emma's relationship with Hook all the time or if she placated the Swan Queeners by doing something like taking a picture with Lana. It seems like she was constantly under attack. I can definitely see not wanting to stir that all up again. The longer you get from when the show was on the air, the more likely it is that it's the most intense, obsessed fans who are still caught up in the fandom enough to go to conventions and that they'd have to deal with.

On 7/25/2020 at 8:04 PM, Camera One said:

It's so easy to forget that the actors could have a completely different personality from the characters, and heck, the actors could even hate their job, or each other, and it can take me out of a show to see "behind the curtain".  

Even when the actors are lovely people, seeing them in real life can change the way you see a show. I got to meet William B. Davis, "Cancer Man" from the X-Files, fairly early in the show's run, and he's such a sweet, kind person that it made it hard to hate his character anymore. I guess the same sort of thing happens when you see actors in different roles. If I liked them in a previous role, that halo tends to transfer to the new character so that I at least give them the benefit of the doubt at first. But if I disliked the previous character, it may take a while for me to warm up to the new one. It seems like a bigger difference when it's the actor's real personality because that tends to underlie everything they do once you know something about what they're really like.

I wonder if it's more intense for TV actors because they're in the same role for the equivalent of multiple movies a year, so they're more closely associated with that one character, and therefore the clash between actor and character or character and other roles seems sharper. With actors you mostly see in movies, you seldom see them playing the same character in more than one movie a year. If they do multiple movies, they're in multiple roles, and you're less likely to strongly associate them with any one role. You're more aware of this being an actor playing roles. There's still some crazy fandom (see Star Wars), but maybe the association with a particular character fans are obsessed with isn't quite as strong.

[Camera One]

I was reading this article and this article about costumes, and it sounds like Jennifer Morrison has opinions about what she wears, and she had a good working relationship with Eduardo Castro.  If she had clear opinions about certain aspects of the show, I wonder if she was allowed to voice opinions about storylines and the writing, though.  

A&E was quoted in the article as saying they let the actors "take ownership of the characters".  It was in reference to them picking their own props, etc. though there were also some cases where it seemed like where the actors wanted their character to go, was incorporated into the writing, which is not always a good idea.