Last night, I made a new stupid cellphone video. Enjoy:
This Sunday, I return to LEVERAGE on TNT as the evil computer hacker Cha0s, in the holiday spectacular episode The Ho Ho Ho Job. Immediately after the episode airs, I'll be joining the cast for a live web chat. I'll give links when I have them, if you want to watch us.
I did some press for Leverage last week, and some of the interviews are starting to be released. Here's one I did with Aldis from Sci-Fi Chick dot Com:
How do your characters interact in this episode? What is the animosity or mutual respect, being that you’re both hackers?
Aldis Hodge: I think there was a bit of jealousy established between our characters and, Wil, you can definitely jump in on this one if you – I think in the first episode that we did together when Hardison was kind of beat for the very first time. And of course he doesn’t like Chaos, but there’s a general respect for his skill level because there’s nobody else in the world as good as Hardison.
I mean, Hardison can go work for the FBI, who has the best hackers in the world working for them, so he chooses to do his own thing. So, I think there is a bit of jealousy established. And I think that Chaos, once he got beaten himself, had to give us his crown, his thrown; his pride was beat down a little bit. And, you know, I think there may be a little bit of jealously on his end.
So, I think because of that these two are going to continually go back and forth, back and forth for seasons to come.
Wil Wheaton: Yeah, these guys are – they’re Holmes and Moriarty. It’s Superman and Lex Luthor. You know, it’s Kennedy and Khrushchev. These guys are complete nemesis to each other and I think if you asked Hardison who the greatest hacker in the world is he would say, “Well, it’s me of course.” And if you asked Chaos he would say, “Well, it’s me of course.” And then, who’s the second best and each would probably say the other.
And that’s what makes it really fun to bring these guys to life and have them clash, because they probably – I mean, if you were to make them characters in a role playing game and build out their stats, they’re probably really close. They’re maybe separated by one point in either direction in a few different places. And they, you know, they are both, from their point of view, without peer. And the truth is, these two guys, you know, if they were on the same side the world would really be in a lot of trouble.
And here's the first part of one from Star Trek dot Com that is, as you may imagine, mostly focused on Star Trek.
A lot of people loved Wesley, but you also took tremendous heat during TNG’srun. Despite the fact that you were just a kid playing a character written by others, those people who simply hated the character more or less took it out on you. How personally did you take the criticism?
Wheaton: I’m 38 now and I meet people all over the place, in airports, in coffee shops, at restaurants, at conventions. I meet people who grew up watching TNG,who are around my age, and they tell me how much they loved Wesley Crusher and how much they related to him. Whenever I go to anything associated with science or medicine or engineering, when I go to speak at universities, when I go to do things with NASA, I meet people who were inspired to become what they are today, working in some sort of science-based field, because they loved Wesley Crusher. So I have discovered over the years that the people who are adults now, they didn’t have access to Usenet and the Caps Lock key when they were kids. What I was hearing back in the old days were older people who were just sort of predisposed to not like a young character on a show. I think the writers could have navigated around that and made him more relatable, instead of like an idea, but they had a hard time overcoming a lot of that stuff. And when I was a kid it was very hard. It was hard not to take that personally. Kids are awkward. Kids are insecure. I spent 50 hours a week doing Star Trek when I was a kid. That was really my life. To go to conventions back then and have people criticizing me and attacking me personally instead of maybe talking about the writing, it was hurtful.
Are you in Los Angeles? Are you looking for something to do tomorrow night? Well, you're in luck, person-I-just-made-up! Come on down to the ACME in Hollywood to see me join my pal J. Keith vanStraaten for The Fix-Up Show!
Time is running out to get your very own How We Roll v2.0 T-shirt from shirt.woot. I'm not sure if it will go into the reckoning, or the Land of Wind and Ghosts on 12/10, but either way, you should really buy 100 of them right now, just to be sure.
I'm putting together a Wil Wheaton Holiday Gift Guide that should be published tomorrow, but here's a preview:
- My Lulu store for books and audiobooks. Lulu just e-mailed that if you use the code HOLIDAY305, you can have free ground shipping until 12/12/10. Yay!
- The Memories of the Futuremug.
- Wil Wheaton shirts at Jinx.
If you're looking for really awesome Christmas music, go so SomaFM and tune in to the Christmas Lounge. It rules the yule, y'all.
I'm doing a new Radio Free Burrito today, which will include a sample of my performance from John Scalzi's The Android's Dream, which was just released as an audiobook.
Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET
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My 2 year old daughter ran over to see what I was watching. This is what followed:
Lynn: Who that mommy?
Me: That is Wil Wh..
Lynn: KITTY. MOMMY, KITTY! Mommy who was that?
Me: That was Wil Wheaton and his cat.
Lynn: He is a cute kitty.
Wow – Two great interviews published this week, appearing on Leverage this Sunday followed by a live podcast, AND live at the ACME tomorrow night!
This is definitely Wheaton Season.
If I did not already have to be at a charity fundraiser all evening on the 8th I would so be at the ACME!
Break a leg!
Kitty!
I hope you don’t mind a technical question:
How does it take in real time to record an audio book that will eventually be 10 hours long? Would you mind sharing a bit of the process involved?
C’mon Wheaton, let the cat out of the bag!
*ding!*
Well, this is just back-of-the-napkin, but I'd say that it takes about 65 minutes of reading for each 60 minutes in the final release.
Bought a “how we roll” shirt for my manfriend. It should be here today or tomorrow. I told him I was getting him something from the wonderful world of Wheaton. His response… “sigh”. I guess I should stop calling him Wil when he needs a shave.
That is quite impressive. Thank you.
Soma FM has an iphone app too, so you can listen anywhere your iphone is! For those in the world who have iphones…
Has he got a bit of burmese or bombay in him? He looks a lot like my cat… especially the expression of mild disdain, masking the old craving for attention, used for passive-aggressive purposes… bless, so cute.
Ooooh! Thnx to you and Wil for the suggestions! Perfect!
your cat is almost as cute as mine!! although she prefers (or should that be purrrrfers?) carboard boxes and open drawers!!
oh and aren’t you worried about getting type-cast as an eeeeevil computer genius / Mystic Warlord of Ka’ah!? 😉
Cat-in-bag is stupid? Really? Sleepy, maybe. Stupid? Not so much. Stupid (but no less amusing) would be fitting in a box he doesnt have a chance in hell of getting in.
http://www.twitpic.com/2zz68p
Hah, that’s excellent that you used role-playing stats to compare Chaos and Hardison. You truly are a geek idol, Mr. Wheaton.
you should make a cell phone video of a faceless you stroking the cat and laughing like evil genius on his way to world domination.
Apologies in advance for the ST comment, but I imagine the positive stuff is nicer to hear.
I am 36 years now and I have to say that I totally loved Wesley Crusher as a kid watching TNG as well! Am watching the series again now (3rd season so far) and I still do. Am sure it would be a different story nowadays were it running for the first time.
Um, you are awesome, and you rock, and yay Kitty! but dude um – throne – okay?
-Madrigorne
DUDE! Did you see?? Evil Wil Wheaton is Evil: http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2010/12/08/alignment-chart-week-the-big-bang-theory/
“So I have discovered over the years that the people who are adults now, they didn’t have access to Usenet and the Caps Lock key when they were kids.”
LOL. Best. Response. Ever.
You can also count me as one of those kids who was inspired by you, and I work at MIT now.
Can’t wait for the new episode of Leverage! Love the interaction between you and Hardison.
I thought of a new “do something creative every day for the rest of the year” project for you to do. I was walking into my friend’s house and she said, “I put Christmas cling-ons on the window!” I stood there for several seconds trying to figure out how she got Christmas “Klingons” for her windows! Apparently, I’m even more of a geek than I realized!Christmas Klingon window cling-ons would be completely awesome and it sounds like a fantastic project for you, Wil!
Cat: I bet he’s going to stiff me on the residuals again.
The mental image of a plush Klingon with suction cups on his hands and feet fills me with more glee than it should. ;o)
SQUEEEEEE!!!
Re: Radio Free Burrito
Wil, in 2008 I saw a mention of Jonathan Coulton on your blog. I followed the link, listened to “Re: Your Brains”, and instantly decided to 1) get back into music production and 2) try to produce a good zombie song. 2 years later “Christmas With The Zombies” is done and has already aired on Dr. Demento. This would not have happened had it not been for you and JoCo just being there and adding so much coolness to the world.
To thank you for the inspiration (and the constant links to cool stuff week after week) you and anybody reading this are welcome to download a “secret” radio-quality mp3. Go to http://www.christmaswiththezombies.com, click on Radio Download, enter User Name “radio” and password “mp3”. Enjoy. And please feel free to include it on any Radio Free Burrito xmas show or whatever.
I hope this note doesn’t come off like I’m trying to plug myself here. I was motivated by the mention in your interview that nowadays you are discovering people who were inspired by Wesley Crusher. You continue to inspire people with your attitude and worldview. Personally, I have you and JoCo to thank for kicking my butt back into my favorite thing: music production.
Hey Wil, what are the chances of selling autographed items for the holidays? Heck, for that matter, just offering autographed items that would ship after the holidays?
My daughter “liked the movie”.
She liked the cat in the bag the best.
Daughter wanted to see it full screen after I posted the comment. So I obliged her. 🙂
For a stupid video that’s less than 40 seconds long, you’ve brought us some nice entertainment today. Thank you!
Little late to add to this, but I happen to be one of those kids who watched TNG growing up and Crusher was definitely a big influence on me. Now I’m 30 with 10 years in the analyst biz and most co-workers regard my skills with contorting numbers as something not unlike sorcery. So thanks for bein a teen geek role model before all that sh*t became cool.
So is the cat out of the bag yet? Hardy-har.