We hope you caught our interview with the Perth’s Allied Costumers last week. On the same day we managed to catch up with another awesome Cosplayer: Quinn of Hearts!
House of Geekery Quinn of Hearts
Funk: This is House of Geekery, we’re at Supanova Perth 2015 and we’re talking to Nicola, better known as Quinn of Hearts, her public persona. I’m a little bit…discombobulated…because you’re dressed as Aang from Avatar:The Last Airbender. Hello!
Quinn: Hi!
Funk: How’s your convention been going?
Quinn: Amazing. We’ve met so many awesome people and it’s been really nice to meet some people from my page as well. It’s been great.
Funk: Let’s talk about your page and what you do. Essentially you’re a professional cosplayer…
Quinn: (Laughs) Well, I guess if you want to say that, but I’ve only been cosplaying for a year. This is actually my one year anniversary of cosplaying.
Funk: How many followers have you accrued in one year?
Quinn: It’s almost at 2000.
Funk: That’s impressive.
Quinn: Thank you!
Funk: You’ve really tied yourself to the character of Harley Quinn both in the stage name ‘Quinn of Hearts’ and it’s what I’ve seen you dressed as the most. Why do you identify with that character? Why do you feel that you want to be like that character?
Quinn: Well, she was my first cosplay but I also really like her. Her entire story…I think she’s a really complicated character. I think a lot of the time people for straight for the ‘she’s a dumb blonde bimbo’, but she’s not. There’s so many layers to her and I think it’s really important that if you’re going to cosplay as her to look at her backstory.
Funk: you’ve got Harley Quinn, today you’re Aang…do you have any other cosplays?
Quinn: Yeah, I’ve got heaps! In the last year I’ve accumulated about 20 costumes, which is really sad for my bank account. I’ve got five different versions of Harley Quinn and I’ve got Elsa and Anna from Frozen, I’ve got Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Mystique form ‘X-Men’…loads more.
And a TARDIS!
Funk: We know that you’re associated with the Perth’s Allied Costumers…what is it that you and this group do?
Quinn: The Perth’s Allied Costumers – we’re a not for profit charity group. We raise money for, at the moment, Lifeline. We go around to events, get a can out there and get a lot of money for these charities.
Funk: What got you started in this: Actually my boyfriend. One day he asked if I wanted to come along and I though ‘well, I’m not really into it, but sure’. Now I’m more into it than he is…so I blame him!
Funk: Does he regret this?
Quinn: I think a little bit! But at the same time it’s an awesome hobby and it’s also one of those things where you meet so many people you become with, and they’re people you may not have meet otherwise.
Funk: I’m still wierded out by the bald cap, sorry!
Quinn: Sorry!
Funk: The costumes are amazing, we see so many outfits and so much attention to detail…how much time are you investing in them?
Quinn: To much time! This morning the Con didn’t start until 10…I was up at 5 o’clock this morning getting ready. Yeeeeah.
Funk: That’s crazy. How often are you doing the cosplay?
Quinn: I’m trying to do it as often as I can. I’m not one of those people that can put on some clothes and be happy to call it a cosplay. Definitely one of those people who takes the time to do all the make-up aspects of it because I’m a make-up artist. That’s something I like to do. I choose difficult characters and try to do them as best as I can.
On the right, with other members of PAC.
Funk: Are you intentionally choosing difficult characters?
Quinn: No, not always. Like with Aang, I didn’t intend on cosplaying him but I started making the costume and…I did! It kinda came out of nowhere.
Funk: Can I tell you a story that happened yesterday?
Quinn: Of course.
Funk: We thought we saw an Airbender costume. We thought it was really good, really authentic. So we stopped him for a photo. He wasn’t an Airbender.
Quinn: Oh, god…
Funk: Do you know what he was?
Quinn: No.
Funk: A Tibetan monk.
Quinn: Oh! (Laughs) That’s awkward!
Funk: But it was totally cool! He was a big fan of Avatar!
Quinn: Well, that’s good!
Funk: He was really excited that we’d stopped him!
Quinn: That’s nice.
Funk: Have you had any awkward encounters when in character?
Quinn: Not really, nothing like that. Not yet.
Funk: I embarrassed myself, have you had any weird fans?
Quinn: No, but had a really lovely fan yesterday. He apparently only came to Supanova to see me and sent me a message this morning say it was like meeting a celebrity. That was really nice!
Funk: Is that the first time that kind of thing has happened?
Quinn: No, a couple of people have come up to me and gone ‘you’re Quinn of Hearts!’ I’ve always gone ‘oh, my god…’ (Laughs)
Funk: I think I did that once…
Quinn: I think you did! It’s lovely and it’s a huge compliment that these people follow me and my weirdness online.
Funk: Well, if we’re not weird what are we doing here?
Quinn: That’s true. That’s so, so true.
Funk: Now if somebody wanted to get into cosplay, where do they start?
Quinn: I started off by buying costumes. This is one of my first made costumes entirely. It sounds so over said, but it’s true: just have fun with it. Don’t take it to seriously, do it for yourself and no one else.
Funk: You say ‘don’t take it to seriously’ but it seems like you guys take it SO seriously and put so much time into it!
Quinn: (Laughs) Well, yeah…but not take to seriously I mean don’t get offended if somebody doesn’t know who you are. Putting time and effort into it, that is important, but it’s up to you what you want to do.
Funk: That’s cool. We’ll let you get back out there because there’s still a lot of fun to be had at this convention. Do you have any parting words for future cosplayers, or any future events and characters we should look for you in?
Quinn: Gosh, that’s putting me on the spot…if you do see me around be sure to come up and ‘hi’, because I love talking to people.
Funk: And donate money.
Quinn: Yeah, sure…if you’re over at the PAC stand be sure to donate money because it all goes to an awesome cause.
Funk: Such a great group over there.
Quinn: Yeah, they’re brilliant.
Funk: Thanks for sitting down with us, it’s really good being able to put a local face on the geek culture we’ve got building here.
Quinn: Thank you!
