The Happy Ending Convention 4: a weekend of emotion and friendship

Two years after the last Once Upon A Time event organized by People Convention, the Happy Ending Convention 4 brought together the fans and the cast of the show for a weekend. Two days where where emotion, friendship and family were the main themes.

Actors moved to see their fans

Lana Parrilla was the first to come on stage during the Happy Ending Convention 4 under the loud applause of the fans attending. The actress was overwhelmed by the welcome and by seeing the Oncers (the name of the fans of the show) again: “Wow. Thank you. Thank you. I’m gonna start crying. I’m very emotionally these days. I’m sorry. […] Excuse me, it’s so weird to see everyone. […] I recognize some of you even with masks”

A feeling shared by the rest of the cast throughout the weekend. At the opening ceremony – which had to take place after Lana Parrilla‘s panel – everyone was excited to see the fans again. Sean Maguire even yelled a “we’re back baby” in the room.

Colin O’Donoghue thanked everyone for coming to see them while Karen David, in French, confided “to be very happy” to be finally at this event. Rebecca Mader said she couldn’t believe that this moment had finally arrived after so many postponements and started to sing the beginning of Wicked Always Wins, the song she sings in the musical episode of Once Upon A Time: “Finally, the moment I was hoping would come.” She added: “we just survived the fucking global pandemic, we dit it. Thank you all so much for coming. Vive la France.”

Jared Gilmore also thanked the fans by saying that he missed everyone while Michael Raymond-James concluded the opening ceremony with a “Paris, je t’aime” in French. A great way to start the convention in an atmosphere full of love.

A cast and a family

Over the course of the Once Upon A Time conventions, we have seen time and time again that the cast of the show is very close and considers itself a family. This was again the case at the 4th edition of the Happy Ending Convention. During the weekend, the cast of the show laughed and cried together and reminded us, during their different panels, how much they love each other.

For example, Colin O’Donoghue, who we were able to do an interview with, said that what he misses most about Once Upon A Time is “being around the cast and crew,” because “you build up, especially over that length of time, really close relationships with people”.

Jared Gilmore also recalled the importance that the cast had in his life: “I grew up on set. I was 10 years old when we started the show and I’m 21 now, and that’s crazy. I grew up with these people and they are my family. I am the person I am today because I worked with these people, because they helped shape me. They taught me about life, about acting and for me, it’s hard to pick, just one cast member because I want to see them all. I want that chance to be able to hang out with them, to laugh, to have fun, to tell stories and catch up because, it really is like one of the most magical things about conventions.”

Michael Raymond-James and Sean Maguire said they call each other when something is wrong. Michael added: “I can be going through very difficult times, call up Sean and within 10 minutes, after I sort of downloaded whatever trouble it is that I’m in a dealing with, he listens, he hears it, and puts things in perspective for me and then he comes up with a joke that starts the healing process.” Later, Sean will recall one of his best memories together: “I think that was one of the nice things about Once upon a time: the fact that Michael, Colin and I all sort of lived real close to each other. And so, on Sundays, we’d have a big Sunday dinner and glasses of wine and stuff like that. It’s just family.” An opinion shared by Michael who admits that he likes to see his children with “Uncle Sean” and to simply be together.

Lana Parrilla and Rebecca Mader also talked about their very strong friendship when a fan asked them what they liked most about each other. Lana Parrilla said: “We laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh, and it’s just so healing. So I find that being together is really healing because laughter is everything. You can’t take everything so seriously. But then, we also get to cry together about the things that are hard in life. And that’s really special too.” Rebecca Mader admitted that she “said it before and will say it again. I think the greatest gift that she’s (Lana) given me in our friendship is that I really really feel like I can be myself. I feel like a lot of times, a lot of people [..] find me loud and annoying or want me to be less me or whatever and I feel like, with her, I can totally be myself.” A beautiful declaration that proves how real the friendship between the two actresses is.

Emotions and friendships were therefore very much present at this 4th edition of the Happy Ending Convention. And no doubt, this will also be the case at the Happy Ending Convention 5 which has been made official by People Convention at the end of the event. As first guests, none other than the duo Lana Parrilla and Rebecca Mader.

In the meantime, you can check out all our photos from the Happy Ending Convention 4 on the page dedicated to this event.