http://www.jmsnews.com/ A lot of people in the audience are trying to get JMS to tell them more about the new Babylon 5 project - and apparently some people know more than others. They are meeting in a classroom, and someone writes Mr. Straczynski, then underneath his name, "TMoS". As soon as he comes in the room, he erases "TMoS"
Speaker: Joe Michael Straczynski Location: Hawthorne High School Comic Con Date: 5/8/2004
Audience: .. all right, I think everyone in the room wants to know, you've been dropping clues the last couple of months about a certain project...
JMS: And if I could talk about it I wouldn't be dropping clues!
Audience: We just thought since we all turned out...can you throw us a bone?
JMS: I want to throw you some gristle. Uh...no...I wish...Boy people figured that clue out pretty freakin' fast! (I was thinking?) this is so obscure, nobody's gonna know this...wrong! If I could talk about the new B5 thing, I would. There is a new B5 thing coming...there's a lot of money involved in it...it could be (pantomimes a movie screen) really big...but I can't comment beyond that because they will seriously kick my a** if I talk about it.
Audience (Aisling): No filming over Labor Day weekend, please, because I want the actors to be able to come to DragonCon.
JMS: Did I say there was filming involved?
Aisling: Well I'd be sad if I went all the way to DragonCon and there was nobody to see because they're all busy with you! (laughter) (by-play)
Audience: What character in B5 is closest to you and your voice?
JMS: What character in B5 is closest to me and my voice? The cat in Brown Sector. (laughter) I would like to say it was Delenn or Sheridan...I'd like to say that, unfortunately it wouldn't be true. My guess is probably Londo. Mainly because Londo represents...bad choices. And...I've made a lot of really awful choices in my life, as we all do. You think 'Ooh, why did I do that? Why did I say yes to that?'. That identifies Londo's dilemma. He is in some ways, (something) the most human character we have on the show. You really see the pain that his past decisions visit upon him. And I spoke through him a lot, to that issue. He's also my means for addressing immobility. He starts off thinking he has no choices, he's stuck where he is, but he has choices, as we all do. And by denying that, up front, you create (something) boxes in after a while. By your own willinglessness to accept responsibility for things. He starts of as a character with all the choices in the world and no power. He ends up down the road, with all the power in the world and no choices. And that arc let me talk about our sense of powerlessness. He says this one line that I put into a script by someone else...."My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter because I've forgotten how to dance." Who in this room can't identify with that (something) line? So for me it's Londo. That's my personal voice in the show. I would like it to be G'Kar. I'm not as smart as G'Kar, unfortunately. It's odd...they say "How do you write Babylon 5?" I open up a window to that place...and...I write down what they say. It's almost like...(something) a channel, but it's almost like automatic writing. It just comes out. And...the hard part is making them shut up. Years later I'll be lying in bed trying to sleep and I'll hear all of a sudden Londo and G'Kar going at it and I'm like "Jesus, give me some rest, (something) for 5 years, we got a divorce, come on!" (laughter) Other questions...Yes sir.
