A Q & A with the Cast of “Justified”

P1060377

Last Tuesday evening, my good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, invited me to attend a SAG screening/cast Q & A for the FX television series Justified at a venue in North Hollywood.  Now I should mention here that I have been a member of SAG for just about nine years and, while the union hosts screenings on an almost weekly basis, this was the first time I had ever attended one.  You see, the only screenings I had ever heard about in the past featured Q & A sessions with writers, producers, and directors and, as I was explaining to Mikey, the last thing I want to do is sit around for an hour listening to some random production’s creative team wax philosophical about their “process”.  Winking smile But once Mikey told me that the actual actors would be in attendance and that they typically pose for pictures and sign autographs after the events, I just about died of excitement!  HOW IN THE HECK HAD I NEVER HEARD ABOUT THESE TYPES OF SCREENINGS BEFORE??????  Needless to say, Mikey has opened up a whole new world to me and not only did I attend a screening for Mad Men on Wednesday night, but I am also signed up for one next week, as well.  The Grim Cheaper is SO not happy about this development, by the way!  Winking smile Anyway, because SAG events are seated on a first come/first serve basis and because I am just a wee bit anal, I showed up three hours before showtime.  Not surprisingly, I was the fourth person in line and when we were let into the theatre, I immediately snagged two front row spots for Mikey and me – which was great for the Q&A session, but not so much for the screening.  As you can see in the above photograph, we were seated EXTREMELY close to the screen!  My neck was absolutely KILLING me by the time the credits rolled on the episode that was shown.  LOL

P1060378 P1060379

After watching the episode, which was titled “Bloody Harlan”, the cast members were called to the stage.  In attendance was (from left to right in the above photographs) Natalie Zea, who plays Winona Hawkins; series star Timothy Olyphant, who plays U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens; series creator/executive producer Graham Yost; Margo Martindale, who plays criminal matriarch Mags Bennett; Walton Goggins who plays bad boy Boyd Crowder; and Erica Tazel, who plays Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks.

P1060380 P1060383

P1060381 P1060382

I have to say that the Question and Answer session was extremely interesting – far more so than I had imagined it would be.  Graham Yost, Margo Martindale, and Timothy Olyphant were all absolutely HILARIOUS and had the audience LOLing throughout most of the evening.  One interesting tidbit that we learned about the series was that it was actually based upon two novels, Pronto and Riding the Rap, and the short story “Fire in the Hole”, all of which were written by Elmore Leonard, the legendary American novelist who penned the tomes which inspired the movies Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Big Bounce .

Ashley Hebert Meets Ryan M.

After the Q&A segment, most of the cast hung around to sign autographs and take pictures with the fans.  Because most actors consider themselves above the whole fandom thing, very few audience members tried to approach the stars.  I was obviously not one of those people.  Winking smile On a side note – I don’t know if any of my fellow stalkers are watching The Bachelorette this season, but in the premiere episode contestant Ryan Miller hopped out of the limo upon first meeting Bachelorette Ashley Hebert , with camera in hand, and promptly asked her to pose for a picture with him.  After she did, he then said, “Later, I can get one with Chris Harrison, as well, that you can take, hopefully.” LOL LOL LOL That would SO be me if I was ever on that show!  You can watch that scene by clicking above.

P1060498

Anyway, Mikey and I first approached actor Timothy Olyphant, along with five other fans, all of whom wanted an autograph.  Timothy signed the five autographs and then it was my turn.  I asked him if he would take a picture with me and he said, “No, I’m not doing photos tonight!”  And he then promptly left!  Mikey turned to me and said, “Ouch!  That really sucked!”  And it did.  I mean, I could understand him saying no if there were a bunch of other fans hanging around hoping to get a photograph as well, but being that I was ONLY one asking, I thought it was a pretty douchy maneuver on his part.  The following day I found the above-pictured button at my favorite store, Lula Mae in Pasadena, and I just about died laughing.  The GC said I should purchase a bunch of the buttons and hand them out to any actor who turns me down for a photo.  Winking smile

[ad]

P1060385

We next hit up actress Margo Martindale, whom I absolutely LOVED on Dexter, and I am very happy to report that she could NOT have been nicer!  She really took her time speaking with the fans who approached her and signed all of the autographs and took all of the pictures people asked for.  ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER!

P1060384

Walton Goggins was also INCREDIBLY nice and happily posed for photos and signed autographs with his fans.  He was so sweet, in fact, that after we took the above picture, he mentioned that my flash had failed to go off and asked if I wanted to take another.

P1060386

Which we did.  Smile SUCH a sweet guy!

ScreenShot172

And when I later found out that he had guest-starred as frat boy Mike Muchin on the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The Pit and Pendulum”, I just about had a heart attack!

P1060387

SAG set up a small cocktail party after the event and while Mikey and I were walking around (eating way too many of the AMAZING chicken strips that were being served!), we spotted Erica Tazel.  I was dying to get my pic taken with Erica as she had guest-starred on two of my very favorite television shows – Sex and the City and The OfficeSmile

ScreenShot170

On SATC, Erica played Charlotte York’s (aka Kristin Davis’) dance teacher, Grace, in the Season 4 episode titled “Baby, Talk is Cheap”.

ScreenShot171

And in the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Lecture Circuit: Part I”, she played Julia, one of Stanley Hudson’s (aka Leslie David Baker’s) clients whom Andy Bernard (aka Ed Helms) very unsuccessfully tries to hit on.  All in all it was a fabulous night and I, for one, cannot WAIT to attend more events just like it!

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for inviting me to this event!  Smile You can check out Mikey’s write-up of the evening, as well as some videos that he of took of the Q&A session, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Justified each Wednesday night on FX.  And you can visit the show’s official website here.

The Piru United Methodist Church

Highway-126-Stalking-(66-of-248)

Before the Grim Cheaper and I embarked on our Heritage Valley stalking trip three weekends ago, I did some cyber-stalking of the area and came across this page on fellow stalker Gary’s Seeing Stars website which detailed the Piru United Methodist Church’s appearance in the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”.  Now I have never seen even one episode of the vampire series, but while I was looking through the screen captures Gary had posted on his site, I realized that the very same church had also been featured in the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”.  So, because I do love me some Desperate Housewives, I immediately added the place to my Piru Stalking List and dragged the GC right on over there while we were in the area.

Highway-126-Stalking-(69-of-248) Highway-126-Stalking-(68-of-248)

The Piru United Methodist Church, which was designed in the Carpenter-Gothic-style, was originally built in 1888 by David Caleb Cook, the man who founded the town of Piru.  When Cook first moved to the Santa Clara Valley in 1887, after migrating from Illinois due to health reasons, he purchased a 12,000-acre plot of land, which was then known as Rancho Temescal, and began to set up a community there.  In 1888, he built a railroad depot, a school, a fruit packing house, and the United Methodist Church.  Cook’s father had been a Methodist minister and Cook himself had made his fortune publishing religious books, so his faith was extremely important to him.   And while it does seem that the parish is still in operation today, it was sadly closed when we showed up to stalk it, so we were not able to venture inside.

Highway-126-Stalking-(70-of-248)

I did sure love the sign out front, though.  Winking smile

Highway-126-Stalking-(67-of-248) ScreenCap1726

And, amazingly enough, as you can see in the historic photograph pictured above, despite having a different steeple, the structure still looks almost exactly the same today as it did when it was first built over 123 years ago!

[ad]

ScreenCap1710 ScreenCap1709

ScreenCap1712 ScreenCap1711

Thanks to the church’s small-town, U.S.A.-feel, it is used quite regularly for filming.  In the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”, it stood in for the supposed-Las-Colinas, Texas-area parochial school where Gabrielle Solis (aka Eva Longoria) confronted her former teacher, Sister Marta (aka Jill Larson), for not believing her when she told her she was being abused as a child.  While there, Gabrielle also gave a few high school students this sage piece of advice, “Now girls, if it were up to me, I’d say avoid math and science.  They cause serious frown lines.”  When her husband, Carlos (aka Ricardo Chavira), suggests that she is just kidding, Gabrielle says, “No!  Young girls today need to know the dangers of long division.”  LOL

ScreenCap1713 ScreenCap1717

ScreenCap1719 ScreenCap1720

In the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”, the United Methodist Church stood in for the supposed-Bon-Temps, Louisiana-area church where Bill Compton (aka Stephen Moyer) spoke to a group of Civil War enthusiasts, including Sookie Stackhouse (aka Anna Paquin) and Sam Merlotte (aka Sam Trammell), about his life as a vampire.

ScreenCap1721 ScreenCap1722

ScreenCap1724 ScreenCap1725

The church also popped up in the 2000 comedy Space Cowboys as the supposed-Oklahoma-City-area parish where Tank Sullivan (aka James Garner) was a minister.

ScreenCap1729 ScreenCap1730

ScreenCap1733 ScreenCap1736

In the Season 2 episode of Justified titled “The Spoil”, the church was the site of the town hall meeting during which the citizens of Harlan, Kentucky, including U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (aka Timothy Olyphant), discussed the pros and cons of allowing Black Pike Coal Company to mine in their area.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, for finding this location!

Stalk It: The Piru United Methodist Church, from the “Farewell Letter”episode of Desperate Housewives, is located at 3875 Center Street in Piru.