Actor and director Jonathan Frakes is best known for his role of Commander William Riker on Star Trek: Next Generation.
Frakes came out to the panel and with a smile on his face. He instantly commented about how great Planet Comicon is and how incredible of a job that Chris, the head person and organizer of Planet Comicon. He made several comments during his panel how amazing this convention is including the set up for the panel and the sound system.
Frakes was very interactive with the crowd and those that asked him questions. He always put a positive spin the questions. One of the crowd that asked a question had a shirt with the Picard facepalm meme. Frakes thought it was funny and had to imitate it. This lead into him doing an impression of Sir Patrick Stewart. He shared how Stewart would poke fun at the bridge scenes when the Enterprise would attacked and state, “Twenty five years of Shakespearian theatre for this?”
Frakes was asked about directing and how it worked with him on screen. He discussed how he had prepared for it when he first got his shot at it during Next Generation. He has focused on his directing for numerous years since then. He did direct himself in Star Trek: Picard and stated that was more difficult because he hadn’t acted in a while. He stated that he got comfortable because there were three other directors he trusted and he trusts his cinematographer to tell him if they need to do it again.
When asked about his cast mates, Frakes only had positive praise for them. He was asked to pick his favorite to work with but of course he didn’t really answer that question.
He was joined on Stage by Brent Spiner for a surprise visit. Frakes came on and they discussed their new show, The Brent and Johnny Show. Check out the post specifically about it for more details.
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