FedCon 18 (2009) – Edward James Olmos – The ‘old man’ of BSG (4)
Edward James Olmos
Where to begin? Friday night at FedCon brought three amazing panels and they hit it right off with ‘the old man’ himself, Edward James Olmos a.k.a Admiral William Adama of »Battlestar Galactica«. It was completely mind blowing that he and his co-stars Michael Hogan, James Callis and Mark Sheppard came to Germany at all. After all, it’s not like taking a trip from the West Coast to some East Coast convention. And to have three of the main characters and the coolest character of BSG assembled all at once (yes, and let’s throw in Richard Hatch as well) … frakking cool!
The crowd in the Mainbridge was excited and hyped by the Opening Ceremony. The BSG fans had already shouted themselves hoarse with “So say we all!” in response to Michael Hogan’s introduction of “the Admiral”. Everyone was itching to see the old man on deck … pardon me: on stage. But before that was about to happen, there was a special, special treat in store for the fans – another grand fan video by MAYAN VIDEOS:
I was lucky enough that my friend had given me this video on a CD earlier that day, but I had not had the chance to actually watch the clip. Despite our conversation two nights ago, I had no real idea what to expect (but me and Batch strongly suggested that she better put Romo in there!). Well, what can I say except that she once more did an awesome job. The video is absolutely amazing and it almost had me dissolve in tears on a couple of scenes. My favorite lines are at 1:06 (”The firmament has opened // cloudless and ocean blue”). The lyrics of this song are so poetic, but MAYAN did a perfect job of finding the right clips. KUDOS! (btw, she also has a frakking awesome con report on her blog, make sure to check it out!)
After the video, the crowd was going absolutely wild, cheering and hollering, and to that excitement, our Master of Ceremonies Marc B. Lee announced the one and only Edward James Olmos to the stage.
Edward James Olmos stands deeply moved on the stage at FedCon 18 in front of 2,000 fans who welcome him with repeated “So say we all!”
It was pretty obvious that Edward James Olmos had not really known what the German fans had in store for him and that the cheering crowd was not something he was used to. He admitted right away that FedCon was only the third convention he had ever attended and – without passing judgement on some of the more experienced convention guests – he showed his earnest appreciation all weekend by being accessible to the fans and just an extremely nice guy.
People were already queuing at the microphones, so the Q&A started right away. Asked what – from his point of view – made BSG so special, he gave a very interesting answer. For Edward James Olmos, the scripts and the concept had already been superb, but he perceived the whole production process and the viewing experience of the fans as a whole. For him, the show was not simply ‘done’ by producing scripts, acting, or post production. He also stressed the impact the fans had on the whole thing.
Edward James Olmos describes how BSG got elevated by the input from different production departments and fan support
He said that the feedback from the fans via mail, blogs, discussion boards and e-mail had been overwhelming for Ron Moore. It was nice to hear that our support and thoughts about the show had actually reached the people in charge and it reminded me strongly of the conversations JMS, Joe Michael Straczynski – creator of Babylon 5 -, had had with his fans back in the days of producing B5.
Olmos recalled that he had accepted to work on BSG under one condition: he wanted to tell stories. He didn’t mind the scifi genre, but he made it clear that as soon as he would have to fight some multi-eyes weird alien, he’d be off the show. Well, I think it is safe to say he got his wish 
To my absolute delight, Edward James Olmos’s appearance at the United Nations was the topic of two questions and the second questions was almost the same I had wanted to ask. Loosely phrased, I had wanted to know how Edward James Olmos perceived the impact of art (television, movies, actors) on real life, especially in bringing more attention to issues of political and social interest. I have even written an article about that topic and so I was very pleased when other fans brought this up.
Olmos expressed his thanks for the question and he really enjoyed answering it, making it clear how dear the topic is to his heart. He started by explaining how the movie “Wolfen” (that was part of the fan’s question) had raised his awareness about the connections between the movie business and political issues. In that case, Olmos had wanted the producers to find a Native American to play his part, out of respect for the Native Americans. For their efforts, he said they got recognized with an award by the American Indian Movement. Edward James Olmos was the first one to receive it in its history.
Edward James Olmos during his passionate statement about the importance of the United Nations and their work
His appearance at the UN was of equal importance to Edward James Olmos. He said that his show helped to raise awareness of many issues like torture, children in war situations, conflicts of faith etc. and he was glad to help a real organization to make people understand that these issues were not only a product of the television media but reality for many people around the world.
“The United Nations is the organization where we all come together. There is no other place where all nations come together and talk.”
– Edward James Olmos, FedCon 18
That was the most remarkable thing about this weekend and I will mention it again when I write about the other panels: all BSG actors were confronted with political and religious questions. As we all know from dinner and party conversations, those topics can turn a friendly atmosphere icy in no time. But none, I repeat: none of the actors declined such a question and they all answered thoughtfully and respectfully. For me personally, that was the most moving experience of FedCon: to see that there was a real impact of the shows we loved, that they were not just scifi and something to forget after an episode had aired. This is further stressed by the fact that »Battlestar Galactica« got recognized by the prestigious Peabody Award [1. The Peabody Awards honor distinction and achievement in America within the fields of broadcast journalism, documentary film making, educational and children's programming, and entertainment.]:
Battlestar Galactica is not just another apocalyptic vision of the future but an intense drama that poses provocative questions regarding religion, politics, sex and what it truly means to be “human”. [...] For pushing the limits of science fiction and making it accessible to all, Battlestar Galactica receives the Peabody Award.
- Peabody Awards website
During his panel, Edward James Olmos tried hard not to spoiler any fans because the second half of season four has of this moment not yet aired in Germany. But there were quite some fans who had already seen the finale ( I myself thank iTunes for that) and who had questions about it. Edward James Olmos recalled that working on the final episodes had been an emotional drain for all involved. Not one of them had wanted the story to end, but to end it had. When they had almost wrapped the shooting, so late at night it had almost been morning, both he and Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin) were in tears. Olmos recalled:
“…and she couldn’t move because … of the situation we were both in.”
- Edward James Olmos at FedCon 18
Caught himself just in time, didn’t he ;) Of course, the question about the Cylons came up as well and how his own reaction was to the revelation that his second, Saul Tigh (played by Michael Hogan) was a Cylon. Edward James Olmos started his reply by saying that none of the cast ever knew what was about to happen to any of them
“…and many of the cast members started to read the script backwards, to see if they were still alive at the end of the episode.”
- Edward James Olmos at FedCon 18
Edward James Olmos showing how some of his cast members dreaded reading scripts
He went on explaining that Michael Hogan never saw it coming, him being a cylon:
“And he will deny it to this day. Just ask him.”
- Edward James Olmos at FedCon 18
No, that slight smile at the end did not really promise anything. And no BSG fan left the Mainbridge that night with the thought ‘I gotta ask Michael Hogan tomorrow that question’. Wouldn’t cross our minds. Nah.
Michael Hogan mind playing a Cylon? Nah! What makes you think? Just ask him, you can’t go wrong there.
Eventually, forty-five minutes had passed and Edward James Olmos’ panel came to a close. And like we had all hoped for, he ended it with the BSG battlecry: “So say we all!” and 2,000 happy fans had the chance to yell it back.
SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL! SO SAY WE ALL!
Next up: Nichelle Nichols’ panel.
Additional information
For complete galleries of FedCon 18, please visit my photo site In The Moment.
If you are interested in owning the panels of the BSG cast on DVD, professionally produced, please check out Fedcon.tv. If there are enough pre-orders, there will be a special DVD again.
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