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Fan Expo - Orlando Jones Panel

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Everything you’ve heard about Orlando Jones is true. As long as all you’ve heard is good things. He’s just as funny and smart as his social media presence would have you believe, but he’s even friendlier – is that possible?! – in person. His panel at Fan Expo on Friday was terrific and didn’t need a moderator. He told so many funny stories, including lots of imitations of both his family and celebrities, that I’m only going to try to hit some of the highlights here.

Fans of Sleepy Hollow might not realize how long and varied his career has been. Most interesting to me is his more recent immersion in the world of fandom itself. He not only interacts extensively with fans, he’s also become involved in the academic interest in fandom. He has a really unique experience because of his varied career. He started out as a writer, moving into sketch comedy and producing before segueing into film and dramatic roles. He’s pretty much done it all. But what really gives him insight into fans is that he started off as a fan and he readily admits he still is a fan. He’s also a self-described nerd who went from reading Mad Magazine as a kid to working on the show.

Jones is from the South and had no connections in Hollywood when he headed there. At one time he was pursuing a future in basketball – now-a-days he plays in the NBA’s celebrity league. His family didn’t know what to make of his heading off to Hollywood. Jones related that his uncles just kept defaulting to him being in some branch of the military.

He started as a writer on NBC’s powerhouse Thursday comedy night when they regularly locked in 40 million viewers for four hours – Jones took a moment to marvel at those kinds of numbers. With today’s fractured market, network television will never see those numbers again. From there he was a producer on Sinbad, and then went to New York to launch FX. Their focus was launching reality television. From there he went to MADtv where he was both a writer and a cast member. It was a tough but fun experience. He said the worst part was having to listen to the writers criticize the actors and then having to listen to the actors criticize the writers! He got it coming and going.

While on MADtv he managed to get in trouble with both Stephen Spielberg and Bill Cosby. He based one sketch on his parents and how his father would get lost while driving and would refuse to take directions from his mother. In the sketch, however, it’s Schindler and his wife, and they called the sketch "Schindler’s Lost." Jones took a moment to comment that it’s satire. When writing satire, you don’t make offence – people take offence! Regardless, someone took the piece as anti-semetic and word got around to Stephen Spielberg, leading to a phone call from Quincy Jones who was in a helicopter with Spielberg during the call. Once Jones explained the sketch, they thought it was funny, but still shot it down.

The sketch about Cosby had him encouraging Theo, Cosby’s son on The Cosby Show, to go out and sell drugs to make money. At the time, The Cosby Show was the most popular sitcom on television, but Cosby was being criticized for not being black enough on the show, and this was Jones’ way of criticizing that. However, Jones was called in to a meeting with Cosby who asked, “Are you making fun of me or the media?” Jones responded the media, and after a five minute pause Cosby said ok and left! Naturally, the story was accompanied by a terrific Cosby impression!

When asked about what were his favorite roles, Jones answered that he hated everything he’s ever been in! He then asked the crowd if they liked the sound of their own voices. Of course, everyone said no, and he explained that watching himself is just like that. He always thinks he’s terrible.

He had great anecdotes about many of the movies he’s been in. He really enjoyed playing Bobby Seal in The Chicago 8 because it’s not the kind of part he normally gets. It was actually his second time playing opposite Philip Baker Hall. They were also in Magnolia but because the movie was too long, Jones’ storyline was completely cut from the movie. He said he felt like Ms Pacman when he got that call!

He said that Eddie Griffin is a wild man. They worked together on Double Take and Griffin would wreck a Ferrari and just get out and laugh. Griffin would simply refuse to say the lines as written, and Jones admitted the script wasn’t worth repeating.

Jones said he really enjoyed shooting The Replacements though he’s pretty sure that Jon Favreau did not have a good time. The movie was shot in the summer in the Baltimore Stadium when it was 102 degrees. Unfortunately, the aluminum seats reflect heat making it 120 on the field, and Jones ended up with 2nd degree burns! However, this meant he got to spend the rest of the shoot – when he recovered – under an umbrella with Gene Hackman, shamelessly fangirling him about every movie he’d ever been in. Jones does a great Keanu Reeves impression too and related that Reeves had a lot of trouble getting the hike rhythm. It was another story that had the crowd in stitches. He finished the story by saying he never goes anywhere to have a bad time, and he clearly makes sure to find the good even in a bad situation.

He talked a little about filming Evolution by the Hoover dam. He said Julianne Moore was hysterical and David Duchovny would plant fart devices all over the set and then play innocent. It was clearly another really fun shoot. He and Seann William Scott also became friends and ended up travelling around Europe for about 3 months. He thought it was hysterical that as they were riding their motorcycles around everyone would yell “Stifler” at them. He and Williams would often swap press interviews – they were on a press tour. He would do Scott’s American Pie interviews and Williams would do his Evolution interviews.

Jones also talked about The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea that is about the magic of New Orleans. The story follows a family as they work through their problems. His character is called “Dumb-ass” – really Dumas – but he had a ball with the name!

Jones is clearly close to his family, especially his mother. Apparently, his mother is convinced that the “kid” on Everybody Hates Chris is Jones’ “love-child” and she likes to “cuss him out” for not coming clean with her and admitting he was only on the show to be close to him! This was a nice contrast to Jones’ musing on networks referring to themselves as family when they really aren’t.

Jones has clearly embraced the fans as family. He said he knew a lot of the people in the room from Twitter and Tumblr. He said he tries to interact honestly with fans online. He stated again that he’s a fan and that’s how he got his first job. He doesn’t think he’s any different than anyone else and he’s not comfortable with a barrier between himself and the fans. He never thought that you could have a real relationship through social media, but for him it’s very special.

Of course, that doesn’t keep him from having fun there too. On April Fool’s he posted a story on the Huffington Post saying that he was taking over Medea from Tyler Perry, leading to a huge outcry – and eventually a statement from Perry saying it wasn’t true. Clearly, most people weren’t paying attention to when the story was posted.

Eventually, the talk turned to Supernatural – a show Jones regularly live tweets. He was asked Sam or Dean and at first refused to answer. He did say he was a Destiel shipper. He said he loves Sam but Dean is kinda cute. He ended by saying Sam – but Dean is still cute…

Jones has also been active in GISHWHES and was asked about it. He explained to those not in the know that it stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen – and it was started by Misha Collins of Supernatural. His favorite item from the 2014 hunt was getting to have his name held up while a jet pilot did a roll. He didn’t participate on a team this year but fielded 1000s of tweets of him photoshopped as a My Little Pony – one of the items on the hunt.

Jones was also asked about The Haunting of Orlando Jones. The house he was staying in in Wilmington while filming Sleepy Hollow ended up having mold in it, so he had to go to a hotel. What they didn’t tell him is that the hotel is haunted. He checked in late – about 12:30 am. He was unpacking and kept seeing people running past his window. He was worried there was a fire or something and looked outside but couldn’t see anyone. Eventually, he left his suitcase open on the bed and went to have a shower. When he came out of the shower, the suitcase was closed and the door to his room was open. Something wanted him out of that room, so he listened and left! There was some chatter on the Internet about it and a psychic showed up wanting to take him back to the room to find out what happened. It turns out there was a convent right behind the hotel and the figures he kept seeing were the ghosts of men waiting outside a room for the women they’d brought there.

Jones also mentioned that creepy things happened all the time on the set of Sleepy Hollow. Things – like tables – would simply fall over when no one was near them. He reiterated that he does not do well with haunted! And of course, they often shoot at night. He also mentioned hearing lots of weird noises it the woods. He had only good things to say about his cast mates on Sleepy Hollow. Jones said he will always be proud of the show because it was the most multi-cultural show on television without being about race. It was also through the show that he really got to connect with fans.

He did say that the trickster on set was Katia – she will torture you! She set up the Head to fall out of Tom’s bathroom. Apparently, Thom is pretty easy to startle. So it falls out and he screams, and then, Thom can hear laughter followed but what he thought was chanting! Which freaked him out more. What it actually was was Katia on the phone, laughing at his reaction and then talking in Swedish to the person on the phone!

All in all, this was a super fun panel. Jones was clearly pumped to be there and talk to the fans. In fact, he was available to sign and just chat with fans for most of Fan Expo. If he’s at a Con that you’re going to be sure to stop by his booth and don’t miss his panel – it’s a guaranteed good time!

About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
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