Meet Jessica...

Krewe du Who: Why do you cosplay, or what do you like the most about it?
Jessica Ports: Since moving to Nola 4 years ago, costuming has become a regular part of my life, with Halloween, Mardi Gras, and all the other events. Technically you could say I started cosplaying at the age of 12 when I dressed up as a science officer from Start Trek: The Next Generation, but that’s just because I was a nerd! I had no idea what cosplay was at the time. I got into it last year when I joined KdW and heard about walking with the Chewbacchus parade and the collector cards, and started putting together my first Rose Tyler costume then.

KdW: How many costumes do you presently own? 
JP: I have 4 different Rose Tyler costumes (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Idiot’s Lantern, Tooth & Claw, and Doomsday) as well as a Femme First Doctor completed right now. I also have a Nurse Chapel costume from the original Star Trek series. I’m working on a Femme Jack Harkness, one other Rose (The End of Time) and some non-Whovian ones as well (one of Mudd’s Women from ST:TOS, Princess Leia, and Willie Scott from Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom).

KdW: What makes a costume one that you want to recreate?  
JP: So far it’s been an affection for the character and their place in the narrative of DW. That’s why I like Rose Tyler. Sometimes it’s the challenge of a fun costume - like when I was working on the Femme Doctor project for KDW, and ladies were signing up to portray various Doctors, I jumped at the chance to do William Hartnell’s First Doctor – I don’t feel like he gets enough love, and he was the one that started it all! Desaturating my skin to look like a real black & white character was also a challenge I really wanted to undertake, and it came out wonderfully, thanks to the talents of KDW’s own Meghan Davis.

KdW: Do you belong to any costuming groups? 
KR: I’ve recently started following and interacting with some Doctor Who cosplayers online, though the dw-cosplay.livejournal.com site and on Facebook, but Krewe Du Who is my primary group.

KdW: Do you attend any of the larger cons such as DragonCon in Atlanta?
JP: Not yet! I’m so new to the cosplay and cons in general that I haven’t had the chance. I attended Wizard World in New Orleans last year and had a blast, so I plan to attend more cons now that I have a feel for it and have more costumes to wear. I was going to go to DragonCon this year, but my best friend is due with her first baby that same weekend, so I can’t skip town. There has been some discussion of going to San Diego Comic Con next year, though.

KdW: What was the best experience you've had in costume? 
JP: Just being recognized as the character and people coming up and asking to take pictures with me is SO much fun! It’s a great sense of accomplishment to be recognized and to portray the character and the costume well, and to have people appreciate it and want to take photos with you, it’s great. It makes me feel like a Disney Princess! I had one young kid at WizardWorld last year who just stared at me in awe when I was in my Rose Tyler costume from The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, he was so excited to meet “Rose”!

KdW: While in costume have you met the original actor that you're playing tribute to? If so, what was his or her response?
JP: Oh, what a great experience that would be! I would like to meet Billie Piper; it must be a strange thing to have people cosplaying YOU, and I wonder how she handles it – I would love it if she appreciated the effort and liked the costume.

About DOCTOR WHO...
 
KdW: What do you like the most about Doctor Who?
JP: It combines so many things I love in entertainment – science fiction, history, time travel, love and friendship. I only started watching it a little over a year ago, and I’ve seen all of the reboot episodes starting with Christopher Eccleston, and started going back and watching the old original ones as well, starting with William Hartnell. I’m on the Second Doctor now, and I can’t wait to get to Tom Baker, since everyone talks about him all the time. But the show sucked me in immediately and now I want to devour it ALL. I agree with Craig Ferguson, who explained the show as “the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism” – that really says it all.
 
KdW: Have you been involved with Krewe du Who before?
JP: Yes, they’re some of my favorite people in NOLA! I did the first collector card run last year, helped at the KDW booth at Wizard World, walked with KDW in the Chewbacchus parade this year, attended Time Fest last month, and I’ve gone to most of the new episode viewings at the Crown & Anchor. I’m also working on the Femme Doctor poster project, which should be done soon!

KdW: Why Rose?
JP: Cosplaying Rose is fun for me because she was such a lively character, with conviction and a special relationship with The Doctor. It sounds cheesy, but I fell in love with Doctor Who as Rose was falling for The Doctor, so there’s a kinship I feel there. He was new to me at the same time he was new to her. She has a handful of really fun, iconic costumes that immediately bring you back to those episodes when you see them, but many are relatively easy to put together because Rose wore normal clothes. Plus I’m a blonde so I can play her easily without having to wear a wig – a big bonus in my book!

KdW: Please describe what it took to make this costume.
JP: For the first one (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), I basically scoured eBay and Amazon for the pieces I needed. The Union Jack t-shirt was relatively easy to find, and I used jeans I already had. I found the screen accurate blue Timberland boots on eBay slightly used for a completely reasonable price, and picked up gold hoop earrings easily as well. The hard part was the jacket. It’s a hooded jacket, almost bomber-syle, and the original screen accurate version is nearly impossible to find. I ended up with something of a similar shape and color, with my faux leather hooded jacket, and even though the fabric and style aren’t exactly right, I think it works with the rest of the costume really well. For the second one (The Idiot’s Lantern), I relied heavily on the experiences of other Rose cosplayers from the dw-cosplay.livejournal.com community, who put together screen captures and breakdowns of the outfits in great detail. This one is clearly not screen accurate, but cobbled together through a combination of thrift store finds (I got the dress for $4 at the local Goodwill), Target (I found a jacket with a similar color there, along with most of the accessories), and eBay (for the shoes and remaining accessories). You can see the full breakdown of these two costumes (and the Femme First Doctor) on my personal cosplay blog: https://badwolfcosplay.wordpress.com/