Creation Nashville 9 June – changed to 5 Feb
http://fangasmthebook.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/jared-padalecki-talks-sam-sports-and-more-seasons-of-supernatural-at-nashcon/
Jared Padalecki’s Q & A at Creation’s Supernatural convention. Jared was already seated at a large round table, with ten lucky fans joining him. The other ten of us crowded around or pulled up a chair, and the conversation was at times almost like a rowdy dinner party, with fans and Jared all laughing and talking at once.
To the surprise of no one, when we joined the conversation in progress, Jared was talking football. He and Gen had recently gone to see the Giants play the Cowboys on New Years, and for the first time he felt the game was so miserable that they actually left. He still sounded pretty disappointed, and the gathered fans gave him a lot of sympathy. The boys were flying back to Vancouver and missing the Super Bowl that evening, so fans wondered how they were dealing with that logistical quandary.
Jared: I’m TIVOing the game, and I’m gonna turn my phone off. Inevitably, it will be the time I’m walking through the airport and I look up at the monitor and I’ll see the score! Luckily I’m flying to Canada so it will probably be the hockey scores though. It’s all hockey all the time – it will be like ‘Tom Brady and the Patriots at the Super Bowl….and in other news, at Vancouver Canucks practice…’
Jared loves his football, that much is clear – and kind of adorable.
Jared: I went to the very last game at Texas Stadium, I was sick as a dog, it was during Season 4, and I flew straight from Vancouver. They were about to demolish the stadium, so they had all the Hall of Fame players there, Emmitt Smith, any Hall of Famer Cowboy, and it was a big deal after the game, they all met at the 50 yard line. But even the guys who had just retired, they were like so hurt, they were like (at this point Jared jumped up and acted the part of a limping beaten up player, much to the amusement of the fans). I mean, you get the biggest guys you know, have them stand like this far apart, and then run as fast as they can at each other, and that’s what it feels like.
Fans: *wincing* Ouch.
The next question started out with “As a librarian….”
Jared: I’m not a librarian.
Fan: I know that!
She then asked a question about what he was reading and what he reads on his ipad as opposed to an actual book.
Jared: Right now I’ve been reading a lot of baby stuff.
Fans: Awww. Are you nesting?
Jared: I am, and Gen is, and she’ll kill me for telling you this, but I will. We have a two bedroom apartment in Vancouver, and I get that her hormones are making sure that everything’s all right with the baby…but we have two dogs, Sadie and Indy, and dogs lose hair. So I came home one day and she was on her hands and knees in the bathroom with handfuls of paper towels and Oxiclean, and I was like ‘Gen baby, what are you doing? I’ll get it or I’ll call someone, but get off your hands and knees!’
Fans: Good plan!
Jared: It’s our plan to have a natural childbirth – I say ours like I’ll be doing something…
Room full of fangirls: Good point!
Jared: (laughing) But anyway, her mother did it and she’d like to do it. And Vicky (Misha Collins’ wife) did it, and she had a long labor, so we took their advice and we got this book, it’s called Hypnobirthing, not really hypnosis but more like centering and relaxing. So I’ve been walking around with this book and I was getting these funny looks so I’m like, okay, I’m gonna download this on my ipad and read it there! Right now in book form I’m re-reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, and Legacy of Ashes, about how the CIA hasn’t really been doing its job. I still do love books, but the ipad is good for flying. I download my scripts on it but I do kinda miss having books.
Most of the room seemed to agree.
Jared: We had our baby shower a month ago in LA and we had the people who came give us a quote for a baby book. Jason Manns is a big big Mark Twain fan, and his quote , which I love and will try not to bastardize, is “People who won’t read have no advantage over people who can’t read.”
Jared: I’m gonna love my baby obviously, but babies are so funny looking, they’re kinda alien looking. My brother’s newest baby, Oliver, was two months old at Christmas and they sent out a Shutterfly card to all the family. I was showing it to one of the crew and he was like ‘Oh, I’ve seen that picture before,’ and he pulls out a picture of Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars. I ended up emailing it to my brother, like ‘hey, I found a picture of Oliver online.’
Fans: (laughing, most likely more than Jared’s brother did….)
Jared was already lamenting how fast the time flies – he arranged a little photo shoot when they were in Sun Valley with the photographer who shot their wedding, to immortalize Gen “with a little basketball in her belly”. They also wrote messages to their unborn son.
Jared: I really wanted to write ‘I’ll be really happy as long as you’re happy….and a Cowboys quarterback!’
Luckily reason (or Mrs. Padalecki) prevailed.
Fan: So tell us about Sam.
Jared: Sam isn’t doing too well. Episode 16 is usually where we start the final arc, but we added an extra episode so it’s episode 17 that we’re shooting now, and Sam’s been seeing “Luci” all this time and doing his hand bit.
At this point, Jared demonstrated Sam’s “hand bit”, noting that the mark was actually still there, and holding it up so we could all see.
Jared: They put it on with an alcohol base makeup so it doesn’t rinse off, and they put it on every day. So Sam does something where he can no longer ignore Luci, so Luci starts really torturing him.
Fan: Is it a challenge? Have you been throwing bits in that weren’t necessarily in the script to help us remember (that Sam’s hallucinating)?
Jared: It is, it feels like flexing your muscles again. I have been, because I don’t want to lose what we started, we’ve got this cool scary stuff going on with Lucifer. I never know what will make the cut and what won’t, and unfortunately that often doesn’t. Our writers write great stuff but they also write very optimistically, and there’s only 44 minutes of screen time and we film 50 minutes, which is great, there’s a lot of meat in there, but they have to chop bits here and there. Generally editing works that you have to get the lines in on camera, it’s one of those technique-y things you have to learn as you go along, to do the other stuff along with a line. So Luci isn’t letting Sam sleep, so Sam is losing his beans.
SPOILER ALERT!
Fan: So Pellegrino is back?
Jared: He is – and Mark sends his love, he had to back out of the con because he was shooting til 1 am.
Jared explained that doing Nashcon was difficult, because there aren’t direct flights to Vancouver.
Jared: It doesn’t come from me and Jensen, it comes from our bosses. It’s in our contracts that we can’t take the last flight, even in LA we can’t, because if we miss it – if there’s an accident or a speeding ticket, you can’t call and say oh well. It’s not allowed.
He explained that he and Jensen are trying to play extra nice right now because they really want the Show to come back for another season.
Jared: A lot of shows that are getting good numbers and ratings, get cancelled because the actors just forgot and started going ‘well, we’re the boss’, but no, you’ve gotta make the show and if not, they’re gonna stop making the show.
We’re always impressed with both Jared and Jensen’s determination to avoid falling into the “I’m the actor, I’m the boss” trap, with both of them always spreading the credit around for the Show’s success. It was, frankly, wonderful to hear how invested they are in keeping the Show going and how much they’re still loving their characters.
Fan: There’s nothing like watching a show where you can tell the people making it are really enjoying it.
Jared: Like on the Wonder Years, where they had to do separate shots at the dinner table. But yeah, we do love the Show and we wanna keep on with it.
Fans were glad to hear it, and also happy to hear that the industry as a whole seems to be recognizing our boys’ incredible talent. Jared had just met with Bruce Willis about playing Willis’ son in the next Die Hard film.
Jared: Bruce liked me, but Warner Brothers would have had to promise I’d be clear through August, so…. But it’s nice to know they liked me, and they liked Jensen too. Bruce is having a baby in a month also.
Fan: Did you talk hypnobirthing with him?
Jared: No! He thought I was all ‘actiony’!
Fans: Well, duh!
Jared: By the way, I told Jensen about the hynobirthing thing, because he had a helluva time sleeping last night even though he was exhausted. Because it’s all about relaxation techniques. I’ve been sleeping like a baby – you breathe and you imagine steps and each step doubles your body weight, so I’ve been doing it in my trailer, because when we’re on location there’s all this ruckus, people are moving trucks, and if you’re not getting a lot of sleep, you wanna take a little 10 or 15 minute cat nap.
Fans: (are still imagining Jared and Jensen practicing the hypnobirthing relaxation thing….)
Fans then asked for the scoop about why Supernatural’s award for Best Drama wasn’t televised at the People’s Choice Awards, which was a big disappointment not only for fans, but for the cast and crew.
Jared: The flow of information from the PCAs to LA to The Powers That Be to the SPN office to Vancouver, it’s like that telephone game, it gets so discombobulated. PCA knows who the winners are, so they ask for a guarantee of appearance for the actors so they can start programming a schedule. And they didn’t get that clearance. Believe me, we would have liked to be there — for y’all guys to see the fruits of your efforts, and for the Show. It was nothing to do with Jim Michaels, Vancouver didn’t make the decision. The Powers That Be would have had to tell PCA that we were available, and they didn’t.
Apparently the new head of the CW, Mark Pedowicz, would have liked them to appear as well. He’s a big Supernatural fan himself. While they haven’t gotten word of an early pick up or any definitive news about renewal, Jared said he got a sense of things when he went to the Television Critics Association awards (for the aptly named Badass dudes of the CW panel). Apparently Pedowicz likes the show enough to have taken $25,000 in ads on SPN’s behalf in Variety.com, and was upset that it wasn’t made clearer that if the boys had been 100% cleared to have a night off, they would have been invited to appear. Time off on SPN, however, is hard to come by.
Jared: When I was getting married, I was like, I’m getting married on February 27, can I have some time off?
Jared: It’s hard because, if we’re shooting at the Olympic Center and the two days of the year that are available are 2/25 and 2/26, then I’m gonna be flying down to my wedding the night before. If it was a show shot onstage it would be easy, but we’re on location. That can really mess with a shooting schedule. But if the PCA awards happen again next year, I’m sure we’ll be there.
2012-02-05,http://fangasmthebook.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/jensen-ackles-talks-dean-directing-and-more-in-nashvegas/#more-637,Nashcon_JAMG,”Jensen Ackles’ Q & A with twenty happy fangirls took place this afternoon at Creation’s Supernatural convention in Nashville. Jensen joined us in a small meeting room and climbed up on the extra tall chair at the front of the room, wondering aloud why they always had him seated on such a high chair. He suspected that perhaps it had something to do with Jared. Logical assumption, but fans knew better. The better to see you with, one fan said with a smile.
The theme continued with the first (somewhat unexpected) question: Who dressed you?
No way it was a criticism, because Ackles looked good. Really good. (yes, we’re Anchorman fans). We’re also pretty sure he can dress himself and still look that good, but in this case he confessed that he came home one day and found a few new outfits – jeans, shirts, sweaters — laid out on the bed courtesy of Mrs. Ackles. The conversation went something like this:
Danneel: There you go, I’m sick of looking at this stuff.
Jensen: What’s wrong w my tee shirts??
Fans (and Jensen) agreed that Danneel’s sense of style was an asset, however. Fans were appreciative.
Jensen: And we always have someone kinda looking out for us on set, so it makes it easy. And then Jared just wears plaid. Gen does the same thing for him as well but I think that when she’s not around he’s like, back to basics!
Luckily Padalecki makes plaid look pretty damn good too.
We asked the next question, which wasn’t quite as playful as the first. We’d had a lovely chat with actress Kim Rhodes (Sheriff Jody Mills) the day before, and she’d told us a story about why it was such a pleasure to be directed by Jensen – someone who understands acting and actors. So we were eager to hear the director’s side of that picture.
Us: Kim said that instead of coming over to her and saying “what are you doing, that’s not working”, you respectfully asked ‘what are you trying to accomplish there?’ and she pretty much said, I have no idea, and you said “okay, well let’s put our heads together then and figure out how to do it”. Did you have any experiences with directors that taught you to do it that way for another actor?
Ackles: Not one in particular, but I’ve probably learned lessons over the years from various directors that I liked the way he noted that actor, or something. It’s different with a lot of the directors we have come on, who’ve directed our show in the past, and we’ve built up a rapport over the years, so like Bob Singer doesn’t even need to speak to me anymore. He’ll just make eye contact, and he’ll be like –(gestures)— stretch it, or —(more gestures)— pick up the pace. Or he’ll walk up set and be like, “Jensen?” And he’ll do one of these — (jumps up and acts it all out, complete with complicated nonverbal Bob Singer gestures which had fans laughing out loud)—and I’ll know exactly what he means, try something different. And I love that I have a relationship with somebody like that and it’s great because he’ll come right back after the take and say, “I think it, you do it — love it!”
And I guess to come back to Kim, I know how I would like to be talked to, as an actor, and I think that’s probably why actors can make a transition into directing, because they know how to talk to actors. A lot of times, I’ve talked to the guys who direct our show like John Showalter, who comes from an editing background, and so he had to learn how to talk to actors. And by talk to actors I don’t mean we’re all kinda hard to talk to, it’s just saying the right things to get them to do what you want them to do. Without telling them, or line reading sometimes. Some people will get a little shifty about it if a director comes up and goes ‘say it like this.’
Us: And Kim said you didn’t do that.
Jensen: Sometimes I don’t really mind, I’ll be like I don’t care, tell me how you want me to say it, and I’ll say it. But a lot of times, it’s better for the actor to get there for themselves. So you kinda coach them so they get there by themselves. And I guess because I’ve spent fifteen years of my life in front of the camera, there are certain techniques that I use to get there myself and I guess I just use that same technique as a director.
Us: Apparently you did, and she appreciated it
Ackles: That’s a very high compliment from her, I appreciate that, thank you.
Would he ever think about writing an episode?
Jensen: I’ve made feeble attempts in the past, friends of mine who are writers have said hey, let’s get together and do this, and I last for about two minutes. I have a hard time with conceptualizing things, coming up with concepts. I can take ideas and tweak them, I feel like I’m good at doctoring dialogue but a far as conceptualizing from the genesis I’m always at a loss. So no, not really.
It was apparently impossible for the room full of fans to be distracted from the visual for too long, however. The next question got right back to basics, so to speak.
Fan: In “Time After Time”, you were just so hot. Gorgeous in that long coat and hat.
Jensen: (is blushing)
Jensen (still blushing): It’s the hat
Fans: (look skeptical): Riiiiiight. It’s the hat.
Ackles: The difficulties in shooting a period piece like that are in getting it as authentic as you can. You’ve gotta get all the cars, all the old timey props, the wardrobe, all the details. And I thought that Diane (Widas) our costume designer just knocked it out of the park. Our set designer, Jerry Wanek, did an amazing job. And Phil (Sgriccia) did a great job directing, they put a little treatment on the film to give it that old not quite sepia look. I had a really fun time doing that. And going back to what you were saying about the look, I remember I walked on set in the outfit for the first time and I had crew guys who were all dressed in like North Face Gore Tex, and it’s cold and raining and they’ve got their hats and their gloves, and I had a couple of these guys, these grips who like have no emotion, and they were like man, why did we stop dressing like that?
Ackles: And it’s true, everybody looked so sharp and back then, even if you were going to the grocery store, you were in a shirt and tie. Men dressed really really nice back then. I think my grandmother really enjoyed seeing me dressed like her husband did. She was like, oh, you looked so amazing, just like your granddad.
The next question was about portraying Dean, something Ackles has had seven seasons to think about.
Fan: How do you make certain decisions for Dean, like the scene where Cas dies and you took the trenchcoat out of the lake and folded it, that wasn’t scripted?
Jensen: It was not. A lot of those are just character instinctual things I’ve been playing Dean so long I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how he would react to a situation – his relationship with Cas was very deep, there was a deep friendship there, and I discussed it with Guy Bee, and said if he ever comes back, he’s gonna need the trench coat. And there was just something like, almost a closure, I was just folding it up, like a flag. So I pulled the coat out, and Guy was like “Do that again.” I wanted to take care of it, it belonged to somebody who meant a lot to Dean. So it was a happy accident. A lot is written, it’s a very well written show, but it’s nice when they happen.
A fan asked if he’d seen the final version of the last episode.
Ackles: I watched the air of “The Slice Girls”.
Fan: Did you know when you were filming the scene with Lydia that they were going to intercut it with the scene of the murder?
Ackles: Yeah it was written like that
Fan: Do you think Dean would have actually shot her?
Ackles: I’ve gotta be honest, I think he probably would have. I think if push comes to shove, he was still processing it in his mind but I think he would have done it. We wanted to play that ambiguity, it was important for Dean to have a real struggle with it. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue there to make the struggle, but he had to struggle, and the struggle had to come off the screen. I’m glad that was a question in your mind.
Apparently the drunk off Turducken scene in an earlier episode had some improvising in it too.
Fan: When you sat on the counter and did that crazy thing with your head when you were saying ‘I don’t care’, did they write that?
Jensen: No, it just happened. I did a few variations, and that was just the take they took. That sandwich killed me. It was on a hard toasted ciabatta bread and because I make Dean look as silly as I possibly can most of the time, I was trying to get as much of it in my mouth as I could so it would be funnier when I tried to speak, but the hard bread started actually cutting my mouth. After five takes, Jared stopped and was like, dude, you’re bleeding! It looked like someone punched me in the face.
Fans: (with sympathy) Owww
Ackles (with stoic bravery): It’s what we do
Ackles’ wounds didn’t prevent him from eating a Turducken for lunch that day, by the way
Jensen: They were specially made for me and they were really good!
Season 8. Have Jensen and Jared been taken by surprise?
Jensen: Leviathans took me most by surprise – how much bigger can we get?!
And speculating?
Jensen: We never really did in the past, just went with the flow. But recently we’ve started going, how’s this gonna work, if we go another season, or more, and if so, what’s the end game? On the flight over here, he and I were hatching out some of these. I actually have an idea for the ending, and I might for the first time in seven years actually pitch something to the writers. Of course, they’ll probably be like oh yeah Jensen, that’s a great idea (rolling his eyes)
Fans: So is it a happy ending? (all fingers in the room crossed….)
Ackles: It’s not a hold hands riding off into the sunset, it’s what I think is the only way it can end.
A fan asked if Jensen could get lost in films, or if he watched them too critically because of his profession.
Ackles: If it’s a well done film, I absolutely get lost in it. There can be shots I remember from films, and I might be like ooh, I’d like to try that shot. But I try to get lost as an audience member and for the most part I can. Unless it’s too stylized or an actor is giving a performance that’s not believable.
Fan: Dean’s got such low self esteem, when will he realize his life is worth something?
Jensen: I think there is worth and value in his heart, and he has a will to survive — to take a lyric from a famous song — he’s such a beaten up and scarred hero, he’s a battered warrior, but he’s gonna keep going because that’s where he finds his validity.
Would Dean call a redo on anything he’s done? Any of the deals he’s made?
Ackles: No. He would’ve made all the deals. He wouldn’t have tried to live a life of normalcy with Ben and Lisa though. I think he’d wish to take that back, in hindsight knowing he was never really out of the game and that attempt was never really going to go through.
Will we ever see an Evil Dean?
Jensen: Right now Sam’s kinda cornered the market. We had soulless Sam and now the wall’s cracked and he’s not sleeping and he’s having visions of Lucifer, and as long as that continues, Dean’s gotta be a pillar of strength. He feels like he always has to be there for his brother.
Jensen: So something supernatural would have to happen to go down that road, of evil Dean.
Some fans wanted to know why we didn’t see more anger from Sam and Dean after Bobby’s death, to which Jensen pointed out that they can’t show everything in 42 minutes! The anger was there, but the show picked up with the boys dealing with the emptiness that comes after. Fans went through some of the same emotions, already missing Bobby acutely and lamenting that the boys salted and burned his bones. Of course, as Jensen cryptically pointed out, you can’t count anything out on this show
He also said they leave some things intentionally open, in case they might ever want to use them. Dean’s amulet, his alcohol use….stay tuned, fandom.
Fan: Is it tough to switch back and forth from your character to yourself?
Jensen: It’s pretty easy when you’ve been doing 140 some episodes. The more that muscle gets worked to switch it on and off. There are obviously a lot of similarities, mannerisms, the way we talk, that will probably get used in every character I do from now on. And Jared does the same thing. He’s not actually a crazy insomniac! If you’ve ever seen us behind the scenes you’ve seen how quickly we go from being serious to being idiots.