Captain Izzy Cosplay Interview … ARRRR, MATEY!
Welcome to Impulse Captain Izzy Cosplay!
YARRR!! I mean… Thank you sir!
Besides being an amazing cosplayer, what does Captain Izzy Cosplay do in her secret identity?
Besides plundering and looting? I pretend my full time job is the required grind to max level, whilst my desk is covered in treasure maps! Instead of watching TV, I like to escape daily life by venturing to one of the many fantasy worlds created by RPG, MMO or shooter games :) Additionally, a captain must exercise and stay strong, which I do through dance, acrobatics, paintball and LARP. With strength and cardio combined, one of my goals is to one day make a proper Assassin’s Creed costume and parkour video!
Photography: Lexa One Photography
So how did you become involved in cosplay?
Shortly after I moved to Montreal, I was exploring the city and ran into guy wearing a Pyramidhead costume. With my slight obsession for monstrous characters (totally fangirling!!!) … I went up to talk to him. Turns out, there are these magical conventions where geeks (I was still somewhat closeted) … gather in costumes and visit gaming/comic/geeky vendor booths and workshops! A year later, I showed up with a badly thrown together Rikku (Final Fantasy X-2) costume, and I was sold.
THESE WERE MY PEOPLE! I was finally “home”!
Photography: Lexa One Photography
What’s your favourite part of cosplay and why?
Do you have a favourite part about a multi layered chocolate cake? Of course not, you love the whole thing! With cosplay I love everything from the planning stages to wearing the costume. Seeing it all coming together from nothing but an idea in your head, as well as seeing the reaction from other people are the two most rewarding feelings. But the creative journey to get there and overcoming the puzzle of complications is equally satisfying.
Photography: Captain Izzy Cosplay
Can you walk us through designing one of your cosplays?
Step 1) Fangirling!!!
Getting so excited and inspired by a character (and costume) that you want to bring its existence into reality!
Step 2) The magic blueprint.
For me, this often starts with dissecting reference photos, and putting it all back together in my head with materials and mechanisms.
Step 3) Raiding stores and terrorising shop employees.
Now that you know what materials you need, it’s time to hunt for those perfect items (that don’t exist) for the cheapest price possible … that DEFINITELY don’t exist. When you cannot find what you need, or a shop employee is brave enough to approach you in your manic search for your non existing items, well… let’s just say it’s not a pretty sight!
Photography: Captain Izzy Cosplay
Step 4) the puzzle with missing pieces.
Whether it is sewing or armour making, one thing I have learned is that no matter how well you plan and prepare, there are always complications you will run into during the process of putting everything together … I have sat down for hours researching methods and planning every little detail of how I was going to put a “simple” chest piece together, and still ran into issues. It’s part of the puzzle. Generally after a good cry or a tantrum a 3 year old would be proud of, you’ll find a solution and are filled with a good dose of feeling accomplished!
Step 5) the victory music after defeating the final boss you died 2324 times on.
Sure, you will have some fitting tests in between and slowly see everything come together, but the moment you first see everything in complete form (final evolution!!!) on the day of the convention (the day I finish a costume BEFORE the convention will be the day the sun rises in the west), truly is an amazing moment with imaginary bells ringing and a spotlight aimed at your person. Especially when you receive compliments and the genuine appreciation from other people who have been fangirling just as hard over the same character. At this stage, I generally book at least one private photoshoot with a photographer to immortalise the costume.
Photography: Lexa One Photography
When you first see yourself wearing your completed costume, what do you think?
AAAAAAAHHH!! OMG this is me!!!!!! Hnnnnnnnggggggg. I. FEEL. SO. COOL!!!
To date, what’s been your favourite character that you have cosplayed?
That’s a bit like picking a favourite amongst your pets. I love each character for their own unique personality and skill set! It depends on my mood too. Sometimes you want to transform into a cool badass killing machine, while at other times you just want to act cute or silly. Being both at the same time is a terribly confusing thing that I do not recommend ;)
Photography: Lea One Photography
What do you enjoy most about conventions?
The shenanigans with my friends!!! Being silly, meeting new people, discussing a fandom we both share for something, browsing the artist ally, the photoshoots. Did I mention the many shenanigans? To me, the cosplay community feels like a family of wonderful unique creatures, all gathering at a huge party!
Tell us some of your inspirations in the characters you’ve played?
I think I have a tendency for more obscure and complex characters. It is often the side characters that interest me more in a story rather than the protagonist. I also favour villains over heroes, often due to what I believe to be more complex personalities. The way they often were presented with dark choices shapes a character for me.
In addition, I really like it when characters are not quite what they seem! For example, Nonon Jakuzure presents herself as this cutesy, frilly, all over pink wearing marching band girl, while she is actually quite competitive and ruthless while using her music to blast people to death… What’s not to love!
Photography: Don Dolce Photography
So… have you see Star Wars the Force Awakens and what did you think?
Of course!!! I actually think it is the best SW movie so far! However, I would really like to see a SW movie with more emphasis on the Sith side of the universe (not to be confused with the Empire, although I do love you Darth Vader and Darth Malgus). For me it’s a little too orientated towards “doing good” and the Jedi way (You can probably tell I played a sith inquisitor in SW:TOR haha). Either way, it’s a great movie with a cool female protagonist kicking ass, and has our favourite characters returning. It has more than satisfied my pew pew and Wookie cravings, and I can’t wait for the next one!
What are you most looking forward to in 2016?
Star Wars: Rogue One – The Warcraft movie – Con season! – LARP / Paintball season – Summer picknicks – Meeting new awesome people!
Photography: Martin Wong
Lastly, where can we find out more about you?
Just follow the dotted line to the X on the map… Or go to one of these URLs :)
Fb: Facebook.com/CaptainIzzy cosplay
Instagram: Instagram.com/captain_Izzy
Twitter: twitter.com/CaptainIzzyCos
DA: captain-izzy-cosplay.deviantart.com
Photography: Theorem Productions
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