Howdy, y’all! McEric here with my final takeaway from the Fandemic Tour that swung through Houston last weekend: a conversation with professional cosplayer, costume designer, voice actor, and actress Lana Marie. It was, and I can’t stress this enough, early in the morning when we got to have our little chat, so please forgive us our groggy missteps.
I found Lana at her Fandemic vendor booth, number 724, nursing her coffee and straightening her portfolio on the table before her. She was resplendent in her Wonder Woman cosplay, a timely number as she was so astute and welcoming so early in the morning.
McEric: Here with AintitCool at the Fandemic Tour in Houston, speaking with Lana Marie. Very nice to have you here. Thank you so much for talking to me. Um, it’s early.
Lana Marie: Yes, very early.
ME: We’re going to take it nice and slow.
LM: Okay.
ME: So for the uninitiated, tell me a little bit about you and what you’re bringing to the Fandemic Tour.
LM: I act; I do cosplay, where I make my costumes and then I wear them for crazy shenanigans. I also voice act and a little bit of modeling. Um… what was the other question?
ME: That was most of it. Now, I checked out your portfolio, it is LanaMarie… What is it after? I feel like there’s something more. LanaMarieCosplay.com?
LM: It’s http://www.lanamarielive.com/
ME: That was it! It seems there’s not a character you haven’t portrayed yet, or is there? What’s on the horizon?
LM: I don’t even know. I’m trying to work on some retro characters; like a character from He-Man and a video game that is about to be… I can’t say “revamped” but I guess reintroduced because they’re making, finally, a sequel since like, what, the eighties or nineties…
ME: Wow.
LM: It’s not… I believe it’s official, but it’s ‘Streets of Rage’.
ME: Oh, very nice!
LM: And I’m trying to finally, like I’ve had it sitting: my Blaze costume. So I’m trying to finally commit to completing it. That’s usually the problem: I have all these costumes sitting, waiting for either mood or something to come up where I have time for it, ‘cause I usually have to push other costumes in front and then these other costumes just sit there for a little bit.
ME: Right.
LM: I’d like to have that completed.
ME: So you like to keep it topical. So have you done Captain Marvel yet?
LM: No I haven’t.
ME: Are we going to see one soon?
LM: I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of people mention that one to me, and I don’t know why FOR ME, I mean, I don’t have blonde hair. Sure, there’s wigs, but I didn’t think I had that look. Except I actually had an undercut in blonde hair for a while.
ME: And I have seen the moniker attached to your name “The Humanoid Chameleon”.
LM: Yes.
ME: So it seems there’s nothing you can’t do.
LM: It’s definitely something in my thoughts to do. It’s in consideration.
ME: What are you working on right now as far as live film?
LM: Live film? Well, right now I don’t have anything currently running. I’ve just had some auditions and commercials. I was working on a project doing some voice-over work for an independent film in Austin where they needed me to do some of the voices that they had, actually, over a live film. I’m probably not even allowed to talk about it. [laughs]
ME: Stricken from the record! Tell me a bit about your voice acting.
LM: Voice acting: I like to do anime characters, cartoon characters, anything that pretty much gives me a weird, funny voice.
ME: That is fun. Now, how did this all start?
LM: It started with, well I was doing the film acting and theater and I was told because my look didn’t really fit, I guess, into a stereotypical box so they didn’t really know how to cast me for certain things. They were kind of look “You’re look is kind of like, well it can go two ways: it can be either really bad because you have kind of a unique look or it can be really good because you can fit other types of looks that can be looked for” and so I tried to stretch it by doing photo shoots and do characters that I love and do different looks just to give them an example. And then I ran across costumes and then I ended up enjoying it to where I got addicted to it [laughs] and then I had a friend who was like “Why aren’t you cosplaying?” and I wondered “What is that?” She said “You already do all these other nerdy things like video games, anime, and comic books and you don’t know about cosplay?” And I said “No, I don’t know what that is.” Then she told me about conventions and then I started going and then I started being invited and I just never stopped. I kept on creating and usually I have more ideas than I have time to make. I have a really long list right now.
ME: Speaking of conventions, I saw the list of some that you’ve attended. You’ve been all over the world, now. It’s amazing!
LM: Well, I wish it was all over the world. [Interviewer’s Note: I didn’t recognize a lot of the conventions on the list and several sounded rather international. There was whiskey involved in the research phase, also.] Maybe someday.
ME: And you’re based out of Austin, is that correct?
LM: Yes. Well, I may be moving back to Houston.
ME: Sorry to hear that. [we both laugh] And now I lost my other question. Goodness gracious.
LM: Blame Houston.
ME: I do! Just another beautiful Southeast Texas morning out there.
LM: With the threat of hurricanes.
ME: Yeah! Which, I heard that this convention was supposed to be here last year but got called off because of the hurricane.
LM: Yes, hurricane Harvey.
ME: And now we have Whatever That Is out there which is super fun.
LM: Yes, I think this month should just be blocked off. Maybe next month would be better or the month before.
ME: That was the other thing: I understand that now you’re doing a lot of the costume work yourself, as in you’re making your own costumes.
LM: Oh, I’ve always made them.
ME: That’s amazing.
LM: Why, thank you!
ME: This one: tell me about it.
LM: This one: well this one went through many transitions, like most of my costumes. Wonder Woman, obviously, [giggles] for the non-seeing. With this, I originally made a corset but it eventually died, so instead of making one that’s the only thing I did buy. Then I sewed on, of course, the details. I made the pants, with the sewed in stars which may have been the most complicated since it stretches and bunches. [we both realize we’re staring at her nether-area and laugh uncomfortably] She’s pretty simple compared to other costumes. [gesturing to her portfolio on the table] Like Iron Man, over there.
ME: That looks like quite a bit of work.
LM: It was. It took me almost a year because of other things. That was a nightmare.
ME: Well, it’s a beautiful nightmare.
LM: Thank you.
ME: So you’re going to be here for all three days of the convention?
LM: Yes.
ME: And what are you most looking forward to? What are you looking to take away from this experience?
LM: I always enjoy meeting new people and talking about our passions. Just seeing what costumes come around and other activities; each Convention seems to have their own unique thing that they bring. This one’s new to me so I’m going to find out what it’s all about.
ME: So you did or did not attend the Tour stop in Sacramento for this?
LM: No.
ME: Now I’m led to believe that [CEO] John [Macaluso] wants to continue doing this and wants to branch out to new cities. Are you on board to take the tour?
LM: Definitely.
ME: Excellent.
LM: If they’ll have me I’ll be there.
ME: Anything else you’d like to add?
LM: Besides I am LanaMarieLive on all social media [she gestures wildly with her arm and smacks over an easel with a large photo] And I also Kung Fu my pictures!
ME: Yeah!
I wrapped up the interview by taking this lovely photo with the young lady and asking what her costumes would be the next two days of the Tour, which were Burton’s Catwoman on Saturday and Sub Zero [from Mortal Kombat] with her boyfriend as Scorpion in a special couples role. Lana was gracious with her time and entertaining to speak to, and I saw her several times throughout the weekend, smiling as she took photos with fans and giving each her undivided attention and they stopped by to admire her work. She’s a consummate professional whom I was delighted to meet and certain that we’ll be hearing from again soon on this site, so I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.
Many thanks to Fandemic Tour - Houston for the opportunity and I’ll be delivering all my findings to you as they’re offered to me in the future.
Check out Lana at all the Social Medias:
https://www.instagram.com/lanamarielive/
https://twitter.com/lanamarielive
https://www.facebook.com/LanaMarieLive/
-McEric-
