Transcript of Gareth’s Q&A session from the EXPO 2007
Transcribt by athousanderrors/February 2007

 
 

MC: Coming up very shortly, we´re going to be having a raffle, which is going to last three hours, uh, there will be no next guest, coz I know you´ve all been desperately awaiting- no, I´m joking. Look at her face! “I´m gonna kill him, I´m absolutely gonna kill him.’ Nah, we´re seconds away from what many of you have been waiting a long time for…You know what? *looks at fangirl in front row* I´m gonna get someone to watch you. You´re scaring me already. *chats about spare seats* If there´s a seat next to you, if you put your hand up so we know that there´s one free-No, he won´t sit next to you, no matter how many times you ask, NO. Oh, deary me. *pokes head around to where Gareth is waiting* You still have time to run if you like.

Please keep all flash photography to the first five minutes, so that we don´t…blind him. Permanently. Otherwise it´ll be a blind season two… “Are you there John? No?’

So if you can all move round….I´m just prolonging their agony now, it´s great. *grin* But uh, ladies and gentlemen, it is now my great pleasure to welcome to Telford, to the Midlands EXPO…Ladies and gentlemen, you may know him as Ianto from Torchwood
Fangirl: *squeal*
MC: Don´t do that! *scared face* Please give it up for the brilliant GARETH DAVID-LLOYD!
Fangirls: *squee*
Gareth: *looking a little nervous* Hello…
MC: I´m going to leave you at their mercy.
Gareth: Oh dear. Alright.
MC: Who wants to go first? *to fangirl* I knew you would.
Question: "We´d love to know what's on the list of things to do with a stopwatch?"
Gareth: What´s on the list of things to do with a stopwatch? *looks a little nervous, stammers at first* “I..I think that ehm…that was left open in the – uh – in the episode so you could use your imagination, I think. And I think I´ll probably get arrested if I give you the list, so…’
MC Kids, cover your ears now. We apologise to parents for the contents of the next five seconds…
Gareth: *is very very very silent. Grins nervously.*
MC Who´s next?
Question: Hello!
Gareth: Hello – I´ve seen you a lot today, haven´t I?
Question: Um, yes. *laughs* Obviously you have loads and loads of fangirls. Is that really fun, or deathly terrifying?
Gareth: Well, um…
MC In her case, I can tell you what the answer is.
Gareth: Well, having the attention´s very nice. But when it gets to – when you´re signing knickers, um it can get a bit uh, a bit frightening.
Question: And I have another quick question – would you sign our knickers?
Gareth: *pause* Yep, meet me round the back at four o´clock.
MC *sounding very long-suffering* Oh dear….what have I done?
Question: What was it like kissing Captain Jack?
Gareth: Um, well…he´s very well-shaven. So if you close your eyes, you can kind of imagine it´s a girl, so I didn´t have to do much acting.
MC What did your friends think when they saw that?
Gareth: I haven´t got any friends any more.
Fangirls: *collective ‘awwwww´* WE´LL BE YOUR FRIENDS!
Gareth: *points past fangirls to (presumably slightly more) normal people* I´ve got a friend over there now.
MC I think a lot of women just suddenly became your friends. Right, we´ll go to this young man over here…
Question: Are you bisexual?
Gareth: Um…no I´m not, actually. I´m straight. But you know, things might change. Is Ianto bisexual? Well, um…he might be for his own purposes, but we´ll have to see in the second series.
Audience: Oooooooooh….
Question: Were you in The Bill?
Gareth: *slightly embarrassed grin* I was in The Bill, yes. *laugh*
MC Well spotted! *spots someone raising hand* Oh, I´m dreading this…I apologise in advance for this.
Question: Were you in Pokemon?
MC WHAT?
Gareth: Was I in Pokemon? No! *sounds rather baffled, understandably*
MC I think we should introduce a screening policy next time...
Gareth: Which character did you think I was in Pokemon? (unanswered, presumably)
MC Oh dear.
Question: Was there any interesting screw-ups while you were filming?
Gareth: Sorry, what was that?
Question: *repeats self*
Gareth: Sorry, really, I still can´t…
MC Were there any interesting screw-ups – mistakes?
Gareth: Oh, mist-yeah. There´s um…I believe when the box set comes out with all the episodes and the commentaries and everything, there´ll be a special feature of about 20 minutes of cock-ups.
Question: Um, what episode was the best to film?
Gareth: The best for me? Well um, the most tiring one but probably the one I enjoyed the most was the cybergirl episode, because I had loads to do! Um, up until then I was just sort of a glorified teaboy, so it was nice when I got that script in the post.
MC And will we see more character-based episodes for you in season two, do you think?
Gareth: Uh, apparently yeah, I mean we don´t get the scripts until about a week before we start filming, so…but apparently I´ve been told by the writers there´s lots of big Ianto stories in the next series. So that´s…good. For me.
Question: If you could choose on, um, Torchwood, would you be good or bad?
Gareth: Would I be good or bad? Um, well obviously I´d be good, but it is fun playing um, playing darker characters as well, it´s fun playing baddies sometimes. But the baddies never make it to the next series, so uh, I´m always gonna opt for the goodie parts.
Question: Uhm, you know the Torchwood car?
Gareth: I know the Torchwood car, yeah. *smiling*
Question: Is it real?
Gareth: Yeah, well um yeah it´s a real Range Rover that´s sort of been souped up by the BBC, but yeah, it was real. It was quite cool inside. It´s a shame not a lot of the gadgets really work, because you just wanna press everything, but it doesn´t do anything. It´s just all sort of hard plastic.
Question: Can I have one?
Gareth: Can you have one? I´ll look into that for you. Leave your address at the door, and yeah.
MC Right ok…think you´re going to be pre-ordering on cars now…and on knicker signings.
Question: Is Torchwood like Doctor Who, in a ways?
Gareth: Um…I mean it stemmed from Doctor Who, it is a spin-off. Basically around one of the characters that was created by Doctor Who. But I think as the scripts have been developed, it´s become very much its own entity, its own beast. So I think they´re gonna keep it quite separate. Of course Doctor Who isn´t limited to…the Doctor travels around the whole universe – time and space – whereas Torchwood´s sort of mainly staged in Cardiff. So it´s a different – it´s a very different sort of programme. But, [it] stems from the idea from Doctor Who.
MC Has there been one single moment on set that´s been really funny for you, that´s stayed with you?
Gareth: Um..nnnothing I´d like to divulge to the public! Em…Ummm…No, and I can´t say that, no…
MC: Maybe in the DVD commentary
Gareth: Yeah it uh, might be revealed then.
Question: Who was your favourite person to work with from the Torchwood cast?
Gareth: Well, they´re all, they´re all so lovely that I couldn´t really…choose between them. Um…
Question: You had to say that, didn´t you?
Gareth: Yeah, I´ve got to say that. *laughs* No, no, it´s been-it´s been really lovely, in the sense that everyone that´s worked on the show, the main cast and the guest stars have all been really really lovely, and really hard workers, but not afraid to have a bit of fun as well.
Question: Is this just a one-off series or is there going to be more?
Gareth: I start shooting the second series at the end of April, so it should be on BBC2 in September-October time.
Question: Erm, do you like to watch yourself on telly?
Gareth: No, I can´t stand it. I hate myself. Um…but I think that´s a problem a lot-I think if any actor enjoys watching himself then they´ve got a problem. Um…I mean I watch them so I can improve, but I uh, am very self-critical, so it´s not a nice experience whatsoever watching myself on the telly.
Question: Hello, I was just wondering how far in advance you were told there was going to be a Jack/Ianto relationship, and how it affected the way you played the character from then on?
Gareth: Um, well the first script, th-there´s a bit of sort of um, flirtation where Jack says, “Ianto looks good in a suit.’ So I knew that when I got the audition. Uh and how far that was gonna go, I didn´t have any clue, I just sort of found out as the scripts came along. But uh, because of that scene in the first script that was planted, I sort of guessed that´s where it was going, so it sort of developed from there.
Question: Will you marry me?
Gareth: Will I marry you? Are we gonna skip the first date, y´know, everything like that…? Um…*lifts mike down a little, looks up, smiles* It´s rude to say no, isn´t it?
MC You´re gonna have a harem in a minute, aren´t you? If you say yes to her, the whole front row´s gonna be on stage on their knees.
Gareth: I know. *laughs* Um, I´ll think about that…
MC Good answer. Ok, no more marriage proposals, knicker signings, or pokemon references, please? *disbelieving* I´m gonna have a list in a minute! Right ok, we´ve got this young lady in the middle, then this young lady here.
Question: Is Captain Jack back in the next series?
Gareth: Well, you´ll just have to watch the next series, won´t you? I-I think since Torchwood is sort of based around Captain Jack´s storyline, he´s sort of the main feature, I think it´s safe to assume that he´ll be coming back.
Question: Will Doctor Who ever be in Torchwood or Torchwood in Doctor Who?
Gareth: Um, there´s gonna be the-the obvious elements, like the Cybergirl was a sort of development on the Cybermen characters and the Doctor´s sort of mentioned in Torchwood, but I think they wanna keep it as separate as possible. I don´t think the Doctor will ever appear in Torchwood, and I think the only character from Torchwood that´s gonna appear in Doctor Who will be Captain Jack. Uh, I think they´re gonna try and keep it as separate as possible because of the sort of, the adult subject matter that Torchwood involves. So, not really. But for Doctor Who fans, there will be things that they´ll recognise.
MC I believe it´s season three episode ‘Utopia´ that we see John Barrowman back in Doctor Who, so…
Question: Hi, are there plans for any Torchwood action figures?
Gareth: *firmly* Yes. Um that´s what I´ve heard. So yeah, I think so.
MC Ok…oh God, I´m dreading this one…*heads for front row fangirls*
conjunkie: I just wanted to say that we really love you in Torchwood, and I heard a rumour around, I don´t know if it´s true or not, that you weren´t supposed to be in the rest of the series after Cyberwoman? Is that correct?
Gareth: Um, I´ve heard rumours of that as well. Of course the creators and writers aren´t gonna come up to me and say, “Well, your character died in episode four…Um, you know, but we thought we´d keep you on.’ That - that is a possibility, but um, I was never actually told that my – when I originally got the um, got the job, they said that, “you´d only be in, you wouldn´t be in every episode’. So I assumed that there was a plan for me to get killed off before the end of it. But um, *smiles* they must´ve liked me. So I´m still there, which is good.
Question: Do you think Ianto enjoyed shooting Owen?
Gareth: Well...I think probably there was something when he shot Owen that was sort of bitter revenge for his comments about Lisa, but um…I think by that stage in Torchwood, Ianto´s very much sort of…he´s the good soldier, he´s trying to prove himself, he´s trying to do everything right to make up for the fact that, he´s been hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement.
MC What sort of things do you hide in the basement?
Gareth: *pauses, laughs. Doesn´t answer.*
MC You don´t have to answer that.
Gareth: *covers mike and mimes talking at length*
Question: In season one, there were a lot of standalone episodes. Um, without giving away any plot specifics, is there gonna be any more of an ongoing storyline-
Gareth: -More of a linear narrative? I believe so, yes. I think – I think with the first series I think it was you know, an experiment, it was a gamble, a lot of money was spent on it so they wanted to make each episode um, sort of, so if someone was watching it for the first time, they didn´t really need to have seen the rest of it to get into it. But now it´s got a fanbase and the characters are more established I think there will be more of a, sort of a linear narrative throughout the second series, yeah.
Question: Can you make coffee as well as Ianto?
Gareth: Well um, I got the part because of my coffee-making skills, actually. They had a room with a camera, and they said, “Right. Make us a roast’, and then that was it, I got the part.
Question: If you could be in any other movie, what would it be?
Gareth: What movie would I be in? Oh…Um…I always wanted to be in a Nightmare on Elm Street, because uh, my brother used to feed me mugs of cider when I was seven and make me watch them. So I´ve been big fan since then, really. Umm…So, yeah. Probably horror films, I like horror films, so that type of thing.
Question: In Torchwood, if you could have any special ability, like to read minds, shoot fire out of your ..., what would it be and why?
Gareth: Well um, the reading minds one, there was an episode about that, and I think it uh, highlighted the downside to being able to read everyone´s mind. Um probably flying, y´know, I´d love to fly. “You´ve got a convention tomorrow in telford’ *mimes shooting off into the air* Five minutes, y´know. So flying would be my thing.
Question: When you´re out on the street, do you ever get recognised?
Gareth: I do. In Cardiff, I think everyone´s sort of a bit bored with seeing us filming now. It´s like, “Oh, it´s Torchwood doing filming again.’ So uh, they tend to ignore me in Cardiff. But uh, when I go to London, yeah, I get recognised quite a lot. Which is quite nice.
MC Have you ever been tempted to walk into somewhere in Cardiff and just go ‘Torchwood!´ and see what happens?
Gareth: I-I do want to go into a club and just go, “coming through, coming through, Torchwood…Weevil on the loose.’ Look, there´s one over there!
Question: You do look amazingly good in suits – are they bespoke, or do you get them off the peg – who makes them?
Gareth: Um, well, we´ve got a brilliant designer, costume designer called Ray Holman. He doesn´t make the suits, but he spends a lot of time shopping around and a lot of the suits are from Zara, um, one of the them was a Vivian Westwood, one of them was a River Island, so it depends. Whatever takes Ray´s fancy, I think.
Question: It´s the way you wear them.
Gareth: *nods* Yeah. *grin* It´s the way I wear them. Makes them look far more expensive.
Question: What´s your favourite film?
Gareth: What´s my favourite film? Uhm…Ooh, I don´t think you´d know my favourite films. I like um…I quite like Japanese films. Japanese horror films, like, y´know, Battle Royale, the original Ring, things like that. But I doubt you would´ve seen those, would you?
Questioner: No. I don´t know them.
Gareth: What´s your favourite film?
Questioner: Dunno.
Gareth: You don´t know, yeah, it´s a hard question, isn´t it? Cuz there´s loads of films. But I like um, I like Japanese horror films.
MC: Right, we´ve got time for one more question. Which is not you. *points at fangirl*
Question: Are you a Doctor Who fan?
Gareth: I um…I wasn´t the type of fan who would go to conventions, or buy all the dvds, but um when I was younger I used to love it, yeah.
Question: Who´s your favourite Doctor?
Gareth: Tom Baker *in ‘isn´t it obvious´ voice* But I grew up with Sylvester MCCoy, who I discovered recently wasn´t the best Doctor. Y´know, he was what I grew up with and recently since Torchwood I´ve been watching a lot of the old episodes. I think Tom – Tom Baker´s my favourite.
Question: So basically you think we´re all bunch of geeks, really?
Gareth: I think you´re all a bunch of geeks really? Is that what you´re saying? No, not at all! I mean, um, someone asked me earlier on would I go to a convention in – is there anyone I´d go to a convention to get an autograph from, or merchandise, and yeah, there are loads. I did a convention in Manchester, and Robert England who played Freddy Krueger who was in Nightmare in Elm Street, and I was starstruck, I was too afraid to speak to him, so – no, I don´t think you´re a bunch of geeks. If you´re a bunch of geeks then I´m a geek as well.
MC: Ladies and gentleman, a massive round of applause for Gareth David-Lloyd!
Gareth: Thank you very much.
*Torchwood theme plays as Gareth leaves*