A lot can be said about the entity that is Walker Stalker Con. Unfortunately a lot of things that can be said lean heavily on the negative nowadays, for a variety of reasons that I will not get into on this post. My point of this post is focus on the two specific interviews that I was able to conduct at the convention in Atlanta this year (one arranged in advance, one that was arranged on the fly, very spur of the moment). In particular, I want to talk about my pre-arranged interview with the one and only Mo Collins, from Fear the Walking Dead (and many other works).
I arrived at Walker Stalker con on Friday morning and was told by Press Relations that day that Mo Collins would likely be available to speak sometime Saturday morning. Nothing long, nothing beyond 10 minutes or so. I was fine with that. These are actors that are being pulled in more directions than one can think of therefore I'm grateful for whatever time I can get. Plus, do you know how LONG ten minutes are? Let me tell you, when you don't know someone and you have to sit and have a conversation (since that's how I prefer to conduct my interviews, not so much question/answer, etc), ten minutes can be an ETERNITY. Think of being on a bad date. YEAH. Not so much fun right?
In any case, Saturday morning comes and I'm told that I'm scheduled to meet Mo Collins behind her designated booth at 10:55am in the morning. The time comes and I head over to her booth...and no one is there. Hmmm. I ask the adjacent booth worker if they know if Mo Collins momentarily stepped away and they weren't really sure to be able to say either way. At this point, I reach out to my podcast partner and the press relations contact who immediately shows up and lets me know the interview will actually be in the Green Room, where Mo Collins is on break. NICE. At this point, Press Relations escorts me behind the curtains and down the floor to the Green Room area where I get to sit and have a little chat with Mo Collins herself.
I walk over and introduce myself to her and she automatically greets me with a warm smile. She's dressed casually with long flared jeans and a fitted casual top. Her hair is golden blonde, long and flowing with loose waves capped off by a stylish hat. Finally, her makeup is light but accentuating her naturally sparkling eyes that light up especially when she laughs. Very bohemian, but very stylish. I can dig it.
We both pull up chairs to a table to start talking and she tells me that she's already had quite a morning because one of her fillings came loose and she needs to find an emergency dentist ASAP. Yikes. Poor Mo. That couldn't be fun. All the more reason I was appreciative of her time. And what a pleasant conversation it was. As soon as we sat down, I had to ask her about her comedic background (since it is extensive) and how any of that influences her depiction of her character on Fear the Walking Dead. Without a doubt, she concurred that her comedic background has influenced how she depicts her character of Sarah on the show, a character that tends to serve as the comic relief in a show full of despair and heaviness. Being able to play a character such as her has allowed her the privilege of not having to turn her back completely on comedy because she's able to still infuse comedy into a very dramatic situation.
So in that respect, does she miss comedy? Not really because she brings comedy to everything she touches. And if she really needs a comedic fix, there are other gigs as well. Being a mom of two under the age of five, I am VERY well versed in the world of kiddie entertainment and I was familiar with her voice acting on the animated series "Puppy Dog Pals" on Disney Junior (that's right, I watch "Puppy Dog Pals"). Voice acting is a completely different animal and she eagerly explained to me that with voice acting, she's able to let her whole body express herself through the conduit of her voice and not worry about how it LOOKS like. Sounds pretty liberating if you ask me.
Finally, I had to ask her about her poker playing skills since I know she's competed in Celebrity Poker Championships for charity. She laughed and said that she was in fact an avid poker player but she hasn't played in so long, her poker face was probably long gone. As someone with NO POKER FACE, I can appreciate that.
And that was the end of our conversation. I thanked her for her time and wished her luck for the rest of the day and the rest of the convention, to which she gave me a big hug and thanked me as well. Oh and of course I had to ask for a quick selfie (hey, I had to take advantage right?). And that was that.
There was more that was discussed in regards to hopes for her character of Sarah on Fear the Walking Dead and the evolution of her character in the incoming season, but overall, beyond it being an interview, it felt like a comfortable conversation between two individuals having a quick little chat. Too bad it wasn't over beers, but hey, you can't have it all right?
