Pandemonium Con 2 – Chai Hansen Panel

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Once again, we missed the beginning of this panel due to other things overlapping, walking in halfway through Chai answering a question – we presume – on his favourite books, where he explained that he reads a lot of philosophical stuff such as ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, however he is not part of Rosende Reads and hilariously couldn’t understand the fan who asked him, because he didn’t remember the name of Alberto’s bookclub, but we are not allowed to tell Alberto that.

Here’s everything else we can remember from the panel with Chai Hansen

Fan: How are you feeling?

Chai: A lot better, thank you! (to audience) Yesterday I wasn’t feeling the best. I had a stomach bug. But today I feel a lot better. I had a good night’s sleep. Also I travelled from Australia to be here so that’s a 28 hour flight just for you guys… (crowd: AWWWW)

Fan: If you were stranded on a deserted island with one member of the cast, who would you pick?

Chai: Probably Alberto (everyone laughs, because we’re all aware of his huge bro-crush) or Dom, because they’re both quite funny. And as Jordan it would be Maia because… yeah.

Fan: This is for my little sister, who just had to leave to go and see Luke..

Audience: laughs

Chai: Luke, is it…? Riiight….

Fan: My sister grew up with Mako Mermaid and wanted to know how hard it was to work with the tail and to swim with it and everything

Chai: That was the first job I ever got leading… even just acting really. And I was really nervous going into it. I’d had coaching sessions from the acting side, but then I was told I’d be doing all of this in a tail, and we’re just going to throw you in the water. And I was like ‘Oh okay! Cool! …am I going to drown?’ And they go ‘No, no, no, you’ll be fine! We’ve got a couple of stunties there so if you do drown, they’ll get you out, and they know CPR. You’ll be fine!’ – ‘Oh okay. Cool. Okay…’ – ‘Also… mind the sharks and sting rays.’ – – Cause we’re filming this whole thing in Seaworld, so I got to swim with actual sharks and sting rays. With a tail. And you could see the sharks and the sting rays be like ‘What is that?!?’

So yeah, it was daunting to begin with but then it’s like riding a bike. You get used to is and it starts to be really fun, because you could really swim with it. And then for the next season, the tails were made differently. They were a lot more flexible and the movement was more organic. Jason – a friend of mine – who created the tails worked on each tail for about 8 weeks, to get it to be perfect and in the new tails he put a lot more silicon in, which made them flow like it was a real tail. So I learnt to swim really well in it and actually became a better swimmer from having this tail on.

It was a really good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed working on Mako and every season got better than the last one and I hope they do another season now… and ask me back… that would be great.

Fan: Jordan’s life was cut short by the silver poisoning. How do you see his life with Maia going, if that hadn’t happened?

Chai: The thing that he was obsessed with was forgiveness. Not necessarily being with Maia, but being forgiven by Maia. So I think if he got it and felt that he got it from her, he may have left her alone…? I’ve thought about it for a while, and I’m not sure if he got the forgiveness he needed. He got it narratively. He got it in the story, but that’s not the same as actually believing it, and I’m not sure he believe it until maybe right at the end, when he sacrificed himself. To me, that was his penance.

If he had survived, after having sacrificed himself, he may have finally moved on. What do you guys think? Did you want to see Jordan with Maia? (everyone pretty unanimously says no) Yeah, same. He was obsessive about it the entire time. The fact that he ran away from this huge thing meant that he was fixated on her. One of my notes from back then said ‘Why?’ – Why did you do this? Why did you run away? And for me.. you don’t know what you’re going to do until something like this happens. I was talking about ‘fight or flight’ with someone yesterday and it’s either one or the other, but you don’t know which one, until it happens to you. And for him it was ‘flight’. So I think he was trying to prove himself by going back and showing that he could be ‘fight’. So yeah, I remember writing ‘Why did you do that?’ and then trying to figure it out, and some people just react differently in different situations. I read Jordan’s part of the book and he’s a lot more guarded in the book, we know less about him, so I tried to approach this with a bit more sensitivity. I had fun with it but it was also really difficult to be that kind of person, because you actually have to go there as an actor…

Someone said yesterday ‘I wish Jordan smiled more’ and hey, yeah, me too! I wish he smiled more. But he wears his heart heavy on his sleeve and that was kind of my approach to Jordan. I look around at all of you and I think in this situation, probably most of you would have fought, and that’s probably the normal response, but it’s all speculation. You just don’t know until you’re in that situation.

Fan: Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even just in an argument, when you walk away, and then think ‘Damn it! I should have said this!!’

Chai: Oh my god all the time!! Or even after this, I’ll go to the Green Room and think ‘Ah man, it would have been so funny if I’d said this, instead of that. They would have laughed so hard…’

Michelle: Just tweet it after!

Chai: Yes, I will tweet it… so… watch my twitter later.

Fan: What are your goals for your next show or movie?

Chai: I love fantasy and action. And comedy. I’m quite funny … Tough it depends on whether you think I’m funny. I think I’m funny. Sometimes. Anyway. I would like to do more fantasy action TV shows. That’s where I see myself. I also want to play a young Jack Sparrow. (Audience whoops). That would be cool. It’s probably not gonna happen but… shoot for the stars!

Chai: What do you think?

Fan: What do I see you playing? The feeling I get from you in Shadowhunters and you generally is about being protective, so roles in which you’re a big brother, a security guard, you protect and care for people…

Audience: aww

Chai: I feel that that is my nature

Fan: I feel it’s very clear from the way you act, from the way you speak, from the way you talk to people, that you are that person

Chai: *melts*

Chai: Thank you so much! – – I was raised by my mother. She taught me well. I live by empathy. I lead with my heart and I have never gone wrong by doing that. If you give 100% of your heart and soul, you can never go wrong. I believe in that.

Fan: What is it like to play Sun WuKong, a character that is as historically significant as him, in Legends of Monkey and if you could choose another character like that (Shakespearean, Histporical, Roman Gods, something that’s so important and has been adapted so many times) what would it be?

Chai: Some have called him the Asian Jesus… (laughs). I did a lot of research. I am so honoured to be playing Sun WuKong. When I got the audition I was freaking out because I just had to get this. I watched Dragonball Z as a kid. I know all about Journey to the West. I read the book. It’s an amazing book by the way, it’s really funny and dark. So I knew a lot about it before I got the audition. My mum was a massive fan of Monkey Magic, which is what Legens of Monkey was influenced by, so I just had to get this role. I put everything into this audition and then I did a fight scene audition and because of my breakdancing background, I had the upper hand in that regard. And then I ended up getting the role, which I still can’t believe to this day. I was super honoured and I went into study research mode. I re-read the book. I watched all the adaptations. I tried to incorporate Goku and Vegeta in little way in my Monkey, that people may not notice if they watch the show but… I’m freaking honoured. I love this show. And I might… be doing… a second season… who knows. Maybe I’ll tell you later…

If I could do another show like this… (Chai then mentioned a character we’d never heard of, and doesn’t mention what this character is from – grateful for anyone who remembers this bit and has any information) — it’s Comedy/Action. I’m a huge fan of Jackie Chan so anything that puts comedy into action would be a dream come true. So yeah, anything Comedy/Action I would die to do.

Fan: I’m Australian

Chai: Oh! Where abouts??

Fan: Brisbane!

Chai: (over excited) I’ve lived in Brisbane! Jordan’s from Brisbane!

Fan: Me and my friend have this debate… is it data [deɪtə] or data [dɑːtɑː]

Chai: It’s data [dɑːtɑː], obviously! We were talking about this other word yesterday. Do you say Schedule (pronouncing the ‘sch’ as in ‘school’) or schedule (pronouncing the ‘sch’ as in ‘schmuck’)

Chai gets the audience to vote, pretty much everyone pronounces the c in schedule. He wants to know if that means it’s an English thing. Moderator says she’s English and no. So Chai concludes that it’s an American thing. The American in the audience say no. Chai gives up.

Fan: Also, I don’t surf, so I hardly count as Australian…

Chai: Poor you… You’ve got an English passport tough, right? So you’ll be okay. You can come and visit Australia sometimes… (laughter) No, seriously though.. my sister doesn’t surf either. And I.. look down on her, too. (laughter)

Fan: I started watching The 100 because of you

Chai: YES!

Fan: But then you spoiled your death for me… So I was wondering… how long after a TV show is off air is too long to tell someone off for spoilering

Chai: What does that mean? Spoilering?

Audience explains

Chai: Ooooh… Oh I see… Right… I remember when I first posted it there were a few people that were like ‘WHAT?!?’ and I just thought… ‘but it happened like a year ago?’ – Maybe that’s too early? I don’t know! What do you think is a good time? Maybe you should just never post… until you’re a grandfather and then… but then I think I’m going to spoil it for my grandkids, too!

Fan: You’re still one of the best characters in the show tough

Chai: Really? Thank you so much!

It was a really tough role to approach because the first thing was just me killing my parents… oh. Spoiler! (laughter) But yeah, it was really hard. I thought that I don’t know how to do this well… (at this point, Chai brings the microphone to his face properly and is amazed at how his voice sounds actually amplified and realises he’s not been using his mic properly for the entire rest of the panel. He asks if people at the back can hear him with and without microphone. They say yes. He points out that it’s a good thing he’s not at a stadium….) Note to self: Talk into the microphone!

So when I first got the job I was trying to work out how to approach this because it’s so hard. And really I was just… winging it. But it was such a fun role, because it was the first role away from Mako. I went from a kids show, playing a mermaid to killing my parents. Isn’t that the funniest thing ever?

It was the first thing I did was adult and darker material and I had a lot of fun doing it, even though it was hard, so when someone says they really like my character it’s such a relief because as an actor you’re kind of thrown in and hope for the best and then you get this support and you realise ‘I did good’

So yeah, thank you all so much for the support. And that’s with everything that I do but of course Shadowhunters. The #SaveShadowhunters thing – I’d never seen that on any other show to his extend. It is so beautiful and I feel so lucky to be a part of this.

Moderator: That’s a good place to end it. You have to go, because you have quite a lot of things to do

Chai: But I want to stay here

Mod: I know, but the organisers are going to think it’s my fault and I’ll get in trouble

Chai: It is your fault!

Mod: (Gasps)

Amongst the (fake) offence, whooping, laughter and cheering, Chai is eventually persuaded to leave the stage because he did indeed have a lot of other things to do that day. What a kind, genuine guy. Delightful, as always. ]

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