Gigi Edgley at Starfury Defiant Convention 2002

Personal Accounts

Todge's Tale

I managed to get up at an unearthly hour of the morning and make it on time to catch the 4:24 train. What the HELL was I doing, half past four in the morning, on my way to London to meet up with three people I've never seen in my life, then go with them to a Sci-Fi convention!! I don't do that sort of thing!

After what seemed like an age, I arrived, first, at Heathrow Central Station, then all I could do is wait. But not for long. Within about fifteen minutes Dave arrived, and we managed to find each other without any problems. A little over an hour later John turned up, now all we had to do was get to the hotel. A friendly driver was willing to take us.

After arriving at the hotel just before 9, we met up with Stuart, who got there a day earlier, lucky ba...... We picked up our passes, then put our names down to have our pictures taken with Gigi and waited.

Gigi turned up late in a black Suzuki 4x4 with Lani Tupu. They both rushed in and Gigi said 'hello' to us, we were lucky enough to be by the door as they entered. Then we waited some more.

Eventually the three of us (Stuart had already had his done) entered the room where Gigi and Lani were having their pictures taken with the fans, got in line and waited again, but not for long.

Accompanying Photos by Todge - L to R: Dave, John, Gigi, Carl & Stuart

Gigi looked stunning, as you can imagine. Her hair was straight, not quite shoulder length and dark with broad light streaks, she was wearing glasses, jeans that sat low on her hips and a light grey, sleeveless top that came down to a shallow point at her navel, leaving her midriff bare, and over that a sleeveless denim jacket with the likes of 'Scorpion', 'sexy' and 'rock you' patches sewn on.

At last it was our turn, Dave went first, stood beside Gigi, put his arm around her and rested his hand on her backside. He got a little slap for that and she hoisted his hand up to her waist for the picture. Next it was John, he went and had his picture taken, then had to have it taken again because Gigi blinked. Then it was my turn, we said hi to each other and I stood beside her, ready for the picture, but was told John had to have his taken AGAIN!! I started to walk away, but Gigi pulled me back and said 'at this rate I'll get the sack!'. I was told to stay were I was, so I stood beside Gigi again, we put our arms around each other, rested our heads on each others and I looked at the camera with a god awful grin on my face, the picture was taken, we said 'thankyou' to each other, and I walked away. Then John had his picture taken again, this time successfully.

As we walked away to collect our coats, I was shaking. I had just had my picture taken with Gigi Edgley! Something I didn't dare dream I would ever have done, but I had and it was amazing.

Next we hit the dealers room, where all manner of Sci-Fi merchandise was on sale. We were standing at the first table, browsing the items on sale, when someone stood close behind me, I could see who it was in the corner of my eye, I it was Gigi! 'Oh, hi-ya' I said, she said 'hi' and went on to say that this is the first time she had seen a lot of this stuff (the Farscape merchandise), and she liked looking through it.

John asked what she thought of England so far and she replied that she hadn't seen much, she arrived on the Thursday, she was at the convention Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and was due to fly out Sunday night, it's all very hectic, but she loved being here. Gigi continued around the room while we went out to the foyer. We decided to see if Gigi was up for a picture with the four of us. Soon she came out and we asked, amazingly she said yes. John gave his camera to Gigi's aide, who took the picture, then Dave gave his camera, next it was Stuart's camera, he handed his to the girl taking the pictures and said 'one more?', I said 'no two, can you wait for two?', Gigi feigned collapse, and, hanging off our shoulders, said 'wake me up when you guys are done', Stuart got his picture, then I go mine. We said 'thankyou', Gigi went her way, and we went ours.

We went to Stuart's room to kill some time. At about 11:15 we went back down stairs. We saw the end of some guy's time on stage (I had never heard of him), then it was Lani Tupu's turn. He came on stage and said his piece, answered a few questions. He told us that he wasn't happy the way Crais was killed off, and told the production crew as such, he told us what it was like wearing red high heeled shoes, very good for the calf muscles apparently, and what it was like talking to the walls (in Talyn). He gave us one of Crais's screams and a rendition of Pilot. He said that on set, he had to do the dubbing for Pilot before acting as Crais, because Crais was always shouting and screaming, forcing his voice lower, which made it a lot harder to do Pilot.

When Lani's set was over we had three hours to wait for Gigi, Stuart suggested we walk to a pub about fifteen minutes away. Fourty minutes later we got there! (Thanks Stuart)

We arrived back at the hotel and watched the last half of Nana Visitor's set. Next it was Gigi. As people got up to leave, Stuart, Dave, John and I dashed down towards the front, we managed to get within about six or seven rows from stage and waited.

The lights went down and the big screen on the right of the stage lit up and gave us a few minutes of Chiana action. Gigi was announced and she ran, bouncing, onto the stage. The crowd roared and everyone started taking pictures. 'Wow, so many flashes' Gigi said and playfully bent over and pointed her backside at the audience. Eventually the flashes died down and Gigi said hello and gave us a reading of a letter she had written for her family back home and told us a bit of what has happened to her so far. She described the sunset she saw from the plane over Vegas and the lack of humour in business class. She said that she had received a phone call saying that they (the production crew) wanted to pick her up from the airport and take her straight to set for some voice overs etc.. 'Haven't they heard of jet lag? I can hardly stand let alone talk after that flight!' she said. Then it was question time.

During her question time Gigi is asked about her trip to Mexico, she says she can't remember much, so it must've been good. It was nice having time to acclimatize before hitting the States. She starts to say something then stops, saying 'I mustn't tell you that or I'll get a whipping from Claudia Black, which is no bad thing!'. She said that she does conventions because she wants to. She said that she really gets into the part, at the end of a days shooting she thinks of herself as Chiana.

Gigi told us about her interaction with Jool, she was asked about Chiana and Jool's relationship, and was there any truth in the rumour that they are going to get 'romantic'? Gigi squealed and coyly said 'I don't know what you're talking about', she eventually replied 'no', but at the end said 'or is there?' She said that a bit throughout the questions, she would give an answer and then say 'or does it' or 'or do we' or some such.

She said that Chiana is getting more like she was in Durka Returns, 'spunkier, feral and rat-bagette'. She said 'yeah Dave (Kemper), I've heard all this before', but went on to say it is actually happening, she told us that they have been tweaking her make-up all through the series, cutting it down here, changing it slightly there, from the original FIVE AND A HALF HOURS of make-up for her first episode, they've got it down to two and a half hours.

She also gets a costume change, but only for one episode. She comments that over the last three seasons Chiana has had only one real costume change, yet in Beastmaster she had six changes in one episode. She said that time is so hectic on set that they have no time for rehearsal, she learns her lines, arrives at work, goes to make-up then sees the production crew, David Kemper tells them what he wants from them, then, about twenty minutes after make-up, they are in front of the camera, shooting the scene.

She said one of her favourite episodes is 'Taking the Stone', she likes working with the co-stars, she mentions her hair in that episode, and she liked it that way saying 'I've always wanted dreadies', it was her real hair with 'mud' in it to make it wiry, she jokes that you could snap it off, it was so rigid. She even does the thing holding her hands above her head, wrists close together, palms facing outwards with fingers pointing away from each other.

Gigi was asked about Chiana's posture, it was up to Gigi how she played Chiana, she says she came up with the posture and the way Chiana moved and acted by herself. After filming Ben Browder told her that David Kemper wanted to see her, 'whos that' asked Gigi, 'the producer' said Ben, 'is he important?' she asked.

Gi went up to see David in full make-up who told her he liked what he saw and if she 'kept it up she may stick around, so here I am today'. She thanks the audience for their support saying it wouldn't have been if it wasn't for them, which provokes an applaud.

She was asked about her web site and the 'Sandbox', and replied that it will be back, 'when they've found a format that suits everyone', implying that it was pulled because of some of the content, but didn't elaborate.

She talked about her visions, saying David (Kemper) wanted her to have visions containing herself when she was in danger, then came the end of season three and Chiana's visions suddenly became a lot broader, concerning anybody aboard Moya, even if Chiana wasn't involved. She questioned this with David who said, 'oh, I've given up on that' or some such.

Gigi's asked about kissing, what it's like kissing her co-stars, 'who's best, who 'tastes' better?'. She refuses to say who's best, but goes on to say that 'kissing Dargo is weird, the same as Jothie', she says that prosthetics taste funny, but 'licking tentacles is great, the more tentacles the better I say' she says. She says that she has to be careful while kissing because her make-up smudges easily and says that on a certain episode her kiss had to be cut, because she was tired and didn't take too much care, when they had finished Gigi's co-star's face was covered in grey! Gigi says that the make-up sometimes makes her itch and when she use to scratch someone would run on and quickly cover up what she had rubbed off. Now she's given a powder puff, so when she itches she can relieve it with that without destroying the make-up.

Someone asks what she would do if Farscape ended now. 'Do you know something I don't?' Gigi replies. She mentions the dole office, but then says she would like to teach or go into theatre, maybe she would do that.

She's also asked about her name. 'Have you got a piece of French in you?' they ask. Gigi replies no, 'I would like a piece of French in me' she says. She doesn't know why she's called Gigi, 'my parents haven't told me where they got the name from' she says. 'Pip' is also brought up, that seems to be a joke, nobody on set will tell her why John Crichton calls Chiana 'Pip', she can't find out. Gigi says that it is a coincidence, because her nickname when she was younger was Pip.

All of a sudden Gigi's set is over, ten minutes early! The audience boo and Séan Harry stands up and says 'Hey, who brought her over?' The set was stopped early to allow time for an auction of certain Sci-Fi memorabilia, with the proceeds going to charity. Gigi stayed on stage to help with the auction. After which, the four of us went to get our autographs.

Again we were waiting in a line, but this time we where right at the front because our registration numbers were below fifty, our reward for booking our tickets early. Gigi sat at a table with another girl. Soon it was us. Dave and John got their autographs, I got a picture of Gigi, one of Chiana and a 'Through the Looking Glass' script I had bought earlier signed. I said 'Thankyou' and wished her luck for the future, Gigi giggled and said 'thankyou Carl' (our names are on our badges).

That was the last I saw of Gigi, we all went and got something to eat and when we got back we picked up our photos we had taken earlier with Gigi, which she had also signed. Then killed some more time in Stuart's room.

We ended up in the main hall, where, apparently, there was meant to be a quiz and a fancy dress competition, but an episode of 'Buffy' was shown instead. Time was running out for me, I only had thirty to fourty-five minutes left before I had to leave to catch my train home. (Damn the rail services, why don't they run trains to Ipswich through the night). So instead of watching Buffy then rushing to catch the train, I decided to leave then. I said 'goodbye' to the guys and left.

As I walked out of the hotel, the fancy dress competitors where arriving, I saw numerous Chianas and a very good Zhaan. I got outside only to see my bus leaving, it would be fifteen minutes 'til the next one, so I waited. I toyed with the idea of staying until the end, around 4am, then get the first train back in the morning, I was about to go back inside when the bus arrived, I got on that instead.

My day was over!

My only regret is getting on that bus, I now wish I had stayed 'til the end. If I was to do it again, I would stay for the whole weekend.

During the day I got to meet Gigi, I talked to her, got pictures taken with her and even got to 'cuddle' her. She is one amazing lady, so friendly, bubbly, she has time for her fans and genuinely enjoys being with and around them, she'll talk to anyone about anything. She really is one in a million.

If ever anyone reading this gets the chance to meet her, don't think about it, DO it. No matter how much you've heard or read about her, no matter how high your expectations, Gigi Edgley will blow you away. Guaranteed.

~ Todge


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