FearCon 2017

I finally met Oded Fehr at FearCon this weekend in Bonn, Germany. The first glimpse of him I saw while waiting in line for the photo-op. He was in a really good mood and talked to some fans in German explaining that he is half German (he has a German father) and that his German is a bit rusty and not very good ( I thought it was pretty good). He was laughing a lot with the fans and was all for being bitten by those who were dressed as vampires (of course they didn't really touch his neck). From his appearances on screen I thought he would be a bit taller (I think him being listed on Google as 188 cm is wrong because he is definitely shorter than Jensen Ackles who is 186 cm). Nevertheless he looked as georgous as in the latest black&white photo shoot pics. I bought 2 photo-ops, so we did one pose in which he holds onto my shoulders from behind and one hugging. I like the first one better, so I'm only sharing that.

His first panel was the next day. Clare Kramer, an actress, asked him a few questions and he also answered a lot of questions from fans. He loves to talk and even though he still wonders about there being fans who actually want to hear what he is saying, he enjoyed himself. What I do remember of his answers (from both his panels and I'm sorry, if I got something wrong or forgot something important):


Actors always lie on their resumé. He said he could do horseback riding when he couldn't. In the first Mummy he just sat on the horse and delivered his lines while a stuntman did all the riding. Before filming The Mummy Returns he took riding lessons everywhere he went to and it that second movie he did all the riding and stunts himself. He said it makes a film better, when they can shoot close-ups like him on horse leaning to the side and grabbing the sword from the sand.
He also lied about not being afraid of heights. So the scariest thing he ever did was the drop from the helicopter in Resident Evil. His whife Rhonda was on set that day and she was like "you're good, it's not that high". He said he barely made it through the shots and had to change his pants after every take ;)  and he still doesn't know how he even managed to hold onto the guns.

He likes filming in hot climates a lot more than freezing in the cold, especially since he can't complain about the cold all the while the actress right beside him is almost naked.

When he mentiones the cast and crew of different movies and series he refers to them as family. He also said that it's very sad that after working together long hours on a set and having that family vibe that after wrapping the project you might never see them again.

Usually on a TV series you get your lines a few days or at least one day before the shooting, on UC: Undercover he sometimes got his lines not until the morning of the same day.

In The Mummy he had to do handle a big gun while walking, hitting his marks and saying his lines. It was really stressful. John Hannah had some advice for him: "Just do it. Forget the acting, just do it." Oded said that when you do what you have to do in technically difficult scenes the acting part will just happen.

He thinks his best death scene was in Resident Evil Apocalypse, when he lit his cigarette, blows himself up and saves the day.

I asked him about his presence on social media. He doesn't think that he has anything to say to the world and that Piper Perabo was the one who got him onto twitter. He tweeted a bit but then was like, I have nothing to say. He doesn't want to voice his opinions about politics and he wants to keep everything about his family private. He also doesn't like how people pose for selfies and are like "oh, I'm looking so good right now, I gotto post this selfie" (he acted this out and it was hilarious). He does take selfies with his wife though but just as a souvenir of the places they went together.
We ensured him that we would listen to all he has to say and that we appreciate every news and every pic from his projects. I told him that if he hadn't posted a pic from the set of that Russian film called Oracle: Go Blind, we wouldn't even know about that film because every other interview is in Russian. He promised to tweet more often and to post more pics. He also mentioned that often he likes to share stuff, but isn't allowed to do so yet. 


He is very grumpy when his kids wake him in the middle of the night for no good reason.He has 3 kids, 2 dogs and 10 chicken.

His son Atticus (15) is on set with his father a lot and is very interested in the technical aspect of filming and how to tell stories.

Oded says he can't throw a ball. Swimming is more his sport. He learns a lot new stuff because of his family. His son wanted to surf, so he learned it too.

He will be on "How to get away with murder" as an Attorney General opposite Viola. It could be a recurring role if it doesn't interfer with him being on "The First" filming in New Orleans. "The First" is a series about a mission to Mars and he plays a rocket scientist.

He says that New Orleans has the most European vibe of all U.S. cities.

He almost didn't do Sleeper Cell because he feared to be typecasted as the ethnical bad guy. His wife bawled at a test screening because he was so evil.

Not sure about which film or series they were talking, however he is really proud of the scene when they drag away his wife Stella and he cries out for her. And the crew of that show or film  made masks with a pic of him from drama school and they pranked him with those but in a very sweet and appreciating way.


Later I talked to him during his autograph session. He liked the photo-op pic of us that I let him sign. I gave him my card game for his kids and a photobook covering almost all of his movies and series and he was really impressed. I said that I'm the webmaster of the Oded Fehr Appreciation Site, how that came about and a bit about Arriall, the former webmaster who sadly passed away. He was really stoked about there being someone who actually follows his whole career and even does a website for him. I mentioned that in the photobook were screen captures of almost all of his films, even the bad ones. He laughed and asked if I had seen The Betrayed which I haven't yet (only seen screen caps). He says that he thinks his performance was quite okay but the movie itself is really bad.
Then he wrote onto my pic "amasing" and corrected it later apologizing that he is dyslexic (which he also mentioned later in his panel, so I'm good to talk about it). I assured him that since he's no writer but an actor, that it's totally okay. Then he revealed that he is actually writing something with a partner. I'm really sorry I didn't asked what he is writing but the whole conversation was way longer than what they usually allow during autographs anyway.