When we heard that Renée & Barrett would be at the London Comic Con in May 2013 we thought this would be a good time for another NCISLAFamilia Meet Up in London… after checking the flights we weren’t so sure anymore… due to the Soccer Champions League Finale that same weekend it was impossible to get into town for an acceptable rate… long story short… when we heard that NCIS Los Angeles Fan Lillie was planning to go to the MCM Expo we reached out to her & asked if she’d be willing to write an article about her day… we were lucky and she agreed – so here’s what she experienced… 🙂

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Team Lillie visits MCM London Comic Con! (26th May 2013)

I’d never been to a Comic Con or anything similar before. When I found out Renee Felice Smith and Barrett Foa were attending, I knew I HAD to convince my mum to let me go. At first she said no, because it wasn’t ‘her thing’, but then I spoke to my dad about it and eventually convinced him to take me. Renee and Barrett weren’t the only people I wanted to see. I’m also a big fan of Grey’s Anatomy and Camilla Ludington, who plays Jo Wilson, and she was going to be there too!

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We set out to be at my local train station by 7am, as the train to London left at 07:06.  I live on the south east coast of England, so it takes over 2 hours, with the added train, underground and other transport changes. We arrived at the London Excel Centre, where the Comic Con was being held, at roughly 09:30.  We chose to buy early entry tickets, which allowed us to get into the event an hour early. So we stopped off at the hotel we were staying at for the night, to drop our luggage off and we stood in a queue for roughly 20 minutes before they let people in.

I was truly amazed by the amount of people who had dressed up for the event. There was a colourful and amazing array of different costumes, all sorts of comic book, anime and  film/TV characters! There was giant inflatable Despicable Me 2 minions, which I loved! I just wanted to steal them all to have in my garden! We navigated our way round to the signing area, which was where the special guests would sign autographs for their fans and take pictures with them. It was £15 per person per autograph. I got tickets for Camilla, Barrett and Renee. There was all sorts of special guests from different shows, like Falling Skies, Teen Wolf, Once Upon a Time, Merlin and lots more that I’d never even heard about until now!

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Camilla was already signing autographs at this time so me and my dad joined the back of the queue. As I got closer to the front of the queue, I got more nervous. I chose a picture for her to sign and picked a Greys Anatomy one. She smiled at me and asked my name and if I was a fan of Greys, I told her I was a MASSIVE fan and that me and my mum watch it every week! She also asked my thoughts on the season finale. I had a Team Lillie band that I wanted her to have. I explained to her about how I’d beaten cancer, set up a charity and I’d like her to wear my band. She smiled at me and said “Wow! Of course I will!” My dad took a photo of us together, she’s such a lovely lady and I’m so glad I got the chance to meet her!

At lunch I was checking my twitter and I saw that Renee and Barrett had tweeted about a Q and A session they were doing in the main theatre. Obviously, I had to sit as close to the front as possible! They answered questions about Nell and Eric and one man asked if Barrett liked wearing shorts and flip-flops.  He said that the set was always cold! Which I know is true because, when I visited them I wore a playsuit, not realising how cold it actually was. I had Goosebumps most of the time, haha! He also said that Linda Hunt has a heater, which is the same height as her and in between takes they all huddle round it, like a campfire! Then a lady said to Renee about how good her tap dancing was the day before and would she show everyone again. She’s so good, it was awesome! Barrett dropped her a beat and she just started tap dancing! Took me back to the days when I used to dance, she was totes amaze!

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When their time was up, we rushed round to get in the queue for autographs with Barrett and Renee. I had made something for them and written letters for the whole cast. We got closer to the front and Renee glanced over to where I was standing, her eyes lit up and she shouted   ‘It’s Lillie!’ really loudly, everyone behind us started whispering to each other, like how did Renee know one of her fans! That was it I was next, Barrett still hadn’t noticed me. He looked up at me, stood up and gave me a massive hug. He asked how me and my dad were and thanked us for coming to see them. I gave him the plastic wallet with the things I’d made them and the letters. Someone had gotten him chocolate and he said it would be safe with that and it would be flying back to the States with him. I picked a picture for them to sign and then we moved over to Renee. She also gave me a huge hug. I was so happy because they had remembered me and were as excited to see me, as I was to see them! It was so cute. I gave Renee her Team Lillie band I’d promised her from last time; she put it on immediately. Barrett then said he wished he’d remembered to wear his and that it was in his trailer. We spoke with them for a bit, meanwhile holding the astonished queue up. They didn’t hug anyone else but me, well not that I saw anyway! Renee signed the picture too, and then my dad took photos of me, Barrett and Renee together.

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We ran all the way up to the photos with the stars booth, only to find that we had missed the photos with Camilla by 2 minutes! We had to wait just under an hour for the ones with Barrett and Renee, so we hung out looking at people’s costumes and these teenage girls trying to jump on Drew Roy, from Falling Skies, they were seriously crazy! The time came for the photos with Renee and Barrett. My dad somehow thought it would be an amazing idea to secretly take photos of Barrett and Renee without any of the staff noticing, as you weren’t really allowed! But I think Barrett noticed and did a cheeky pose (yes, I saw Barrett!). I had a really nice picture with both of them and we held up the queue by talking again. My dad carried on taking secret photos, until the flash went off and we got told off. It was so funny because we just acted so innocent, as if we’d done nothing wrong.

We were waiting for the photo to be developed when Darragh O’Dea, who’s a DJ in Ireland, came and found me. He visited the set of NCIS:LA in 2011 and interviewed the cast. He follows me on twitter and it was so lovely to finally get to meet him in person! He was waiting for Renee and Barrett to finish so he could have an interview with them. Comic Con was just amazing; I had such a good day! This was another day I’ll always remember. I met some lovely people and just had a truly memorable day!

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Thanks again to Lillie for sharing her experience !!

If you wanna wear the same wristbands the stars wear go to her Team Lillie page and buy one of those wristbands or support her good cause by donating directly… THANKS !!

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