First things first: during tonight's webchat at TNT.tv, I wore a pretty awesome T-shirt. It's in this picture, if you can tear your eyes away from Beth for a second to look at it. It would be entirely understandable if you missed it the first time around.
Anyway, during the chat, a lot of people wanted to know where I got it, and what it's from. I got it at GenCon, and it comes from Kill Vampire Lincoln Productions.
Second things second: I am damn happy with the way this episode came together, and I'd forgotten some of the fun improvs I did during the shoot. That "Dammit, Hardison" thing was just part of me riffing on Kane, saying all the things Eliot says. I guess the amazing spacework I did where I imagined I had Kane's luxurious long hair to flip around and lovingly brush while humming a country tune was cut for time. We also had this whole thing were I just went on and on about how great it was to "be inside Lucille", which led to that line about "I wrecked that van." I'm glad they kept it, because even out of context I think it plays pretty well.
All those tunnels were under a sewage treatment plant, so we spent an entire day literally surrounded by hundreds of thousands of gallons of shit water. While it was pretty awesome in an intellectual way to be around this marvel of engineering that makes life as we know it possible, in a practical way it was pretty gross and very unsettling.
The mall scenes were shot in Portland at this place that has seen much better days. It was heartbreaking to see so many empty stores. It was just a few zombies away from Dawn of the Dead in there.
Finally, blasting Hardison's van was a lot of fun, and you can't see it, but I was strapped into that van with a whole mess of safety harnesses and stuff. Even though I knew I wasn't going to get hurt, it took a few takes before that knowledge made it into my lizard brain.
Here's a picture of me in the van that Roskin took on that day:
I'm not sure if Cha0s will be back next year, but I hope he is, because I'd love to work with the Leverage gang again, but mostly so we can see how Hardison tries to get back at him for wrecking Lucille II.
If you have questions, feel free to ask them here, and I'll do my best to answer them. Rogers is also doing the usual post-show Q&A at his blog.
