#lilhenstridge

Elizabeth Henstridge at Gold Coast Supanova (Australia), April 2018.

I was waiting to see if a video emerged of Elizabeth Henstridge’s session at Gold Coast Supanova April 2018, (I know you are not allowed to record during these things, but I have seen plenty of videos turn up from other conventions). I haven’t been able to find one, so I thought I would write down the interesting parts/information that I had not heard her talk about in other interviews. I realise I should have done this at the time when it was fresh in my mind, so some parts may be slightly hazy so don’t take it as gospel. It is definitely not verbatim! Apologies to Elizabeth if I misquote her.

I had had already met her the previous day to get her autograph and she was super nice and very engaging with the fans.

I couldn’t find any professional photos from the day (seriously!! Why did they not capitalise on her more?), so sorry you’ll have to make do with my photo from my phone! General impression when she was up on stage: she is funny and humble and knows how to pick the tone of the room and work with it.

A lot of the questions were things that she has answered multiple times in other interviews (sometimes I feel sorry for stars being asked the same things over and over) but she was very good about answering questions and making the person feel okay even if they were really nervous.

One person had travelled 18 hours by train to be there – Elizabeth was impressed with her commitment, admitting that would be like travelling three times around her home country.

She said something about living in LA is a big change from England but that she likes it even though she misses things from home. There was a bit of discussion about things common between England and Australia. And then in one of her answers (I can’t remember the question), she said something like ‘sometimes you just have to push the boat out.’ (I have found out this is a British saying, but being a majority of Australians in the room, everyone was a bit baffled). There was some murmuring amongst the crowd as everyone was asking each other if they had ever heard that expression but no one knew what she meant. She jokingly gave everyone a disappointed look and said that usually it was Americans that didn’t understand her and she thought Britain and Australia shared a bond and that we all understood each other. She started explaining it meant having a good time and splurging out. Someone shouted, “Oh, you mean like ‘painting the town red’?” and she said “Yes! Like that. Do you guys use that expression as well?” and most people in the room nodded their agreement. She laughed and said, “Good, we are back on track then.”

In the convention event program, there was a section for each main guest that was attending with a brief bio and a ‘Did you know?’ fact about them. Hers was: Elizabeth Henstridge shares the exact same birthday as her character in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Jemma Simmons. Most hard-core fans already knew this, so it was a little disappointing to not find out some new snippet of information. However, my friend got up at question time and asked if it just happened to be a coincidence that they had the same birthday, or did the writers deliberately use the same date for some reason.

She laughed and said: “You know what? I actually only just found that out when I read it in the event program! I didn’t even realise until now.” She started trying to work out how she had missed that fact. “It must have been on one of her I.D. cards or something.” (I remember from seeing it on her gravestone in the Framework, but maybe there are other incidents that I have missed?)

 So my question was in reference to this note, for those who can’t remember it:

I asked: “When Simmons writes the note for Fitz and puts it in with his sandwich (cue her putting her hand on her heart and pouting, because she is such a FitzSimmons shipper), are the producers so pedantic that they came to you and said you had to write the note, just in case you had to write things again later in the show so the writing matched, or did they get someone else to do it?” (I had also meant to ask that if she did write it, did she think about what kind of writing style Simmons would have and how it would differ from her own but I was so nervous I forgot).

She actually got excited and said “Oh my God, are you a Virgo?” I said no, and she then said “Well I am, and this was something I was concerned about too. I got handed the sandwich and the note was already in there and I was thinking I should do that myself. But it was already wrapped up in the plastic and I was new and didn’t want to push my luck so I tried memorising the writing in case I needed to do it later.” I said it was a bad move (meaning on the showrunners part) and she said “Yeah, I know. So, basically: someone from the art department wrote that note.” :(

Another funny moment was when someone was talking about how they miss the light-heartedness of when it was the ‘Buskids’ back in season one. Elizabeth looked baffled. “The Buskids?”

“Yeah, Fitz and Simmons and Skye…you know, the Buskids.”

“I’ve never heard that. Why the Buskids?” And then basically a whole lot of fans are talking over each other trying to explain, you know, because of the Bus…the Bus (how we all thought just repeating it back and gesticulate aimlessly was going to help, I have no idea), and that they were all so young when it started (she was laughing, saying she understood that bit) and then someone reminds her about the plane being called the Bus and she was like “Ohhhhhh, the Bus. I get it.” She started laughing and then she seemed to think about the term. “Hmm, Buskids. I like that.”