YouTube Lunch Panel by John Foxhome
Main Panel by John Foxhome
YT video of the PCA award
Jared and Jensen at the gold lunch, which actually had a delicious spread of food but was a horror for photos due to the harsh lighting and an inexplicable 50 foot demilitarized zone between the boys and the fans.
Main Panel – Misha joins the band. One of the things that made VegasCon so extraordinary was having the Elastic Waste Band onstage the whole time. You never knew what would happen, or when one of the guests would spontaneously decide to demonstrate their musical prowess.
Jensen: We finished work at about quarter after midnight. In a different country.
Ty Olsson brought a little boy named after Jensen onstage to meet “big Jensen”.
Jared M+G
We had a chance to chat with Jared for a bit, and to thank him for his contributions to our next two books on Supernatural.
Jared: No, thank you – thanks to all the fans, this is all because of all of you guys!
Lynn: Pretty sure we need to thank you too – after all, you make the show. Not to mention your help with our books on SPN. So…
We eventually agreed on mutual appreciation. Talk then turned to kids.
Jared: (grinning) Wanna see a picture?
The proud daddy pulled out his phone to show off Thomas.
Karen Cooke was lucky enough to attend Jared’s meet and greet.
Jared’s parents joined the meet and greet, along with Johnny, one of the SPN drivers.
Jared kicked off the meet and greet by passing the PCA award around, which he initially had hidden under his coat.
Jared: You guys, it’s yours. Jensen and I figured we’d bring it to the cons and do photo ops with it.
Interestingly, they don’t write anything on the PCA award before the show. It’s all put on after the fact. Jared went on to talk about how unique and unusual this show and its fandom are.
Jared: You guys know how unusual this is, right? To have this kind of friend and family relationship with the fandom, it’s unheard of.
Jared draws some of his inspiration for staying positive and upbeat from a book he read about a psychological experiment, where they took two groups of people and had one group hold a pencil above their upper lip (which made them smile) and another under their lower lip (which made them frown). They had both groups watch the same cartoon clip; the frown group didn’t find it as funny, while the smile group did and wanted to see more. In other words, smiling really does make you feel better.
A fan asked about the recent S8 episode “Trial and Error”. Was the scene in which Sam kills the hellhound complicated to shoot?
Jared agreed that it was complicated to shoot. They had to spend a great deal of time prepping, because the “chocolate goo” they used to simulate blood, once it got out, went all over and then had to be cleaned up, which would mean hours to reset the scene. So they had to do a lot of prep. At this point, Jared jumped up to demonstrate, laying himself out on the floor in the position he was in during the shot. Fans sat up straighter…. and perhaps paid even closer attention.
The crew built a gigantic wooden cutout of a hellhound (if you haven’t seen the photo posted, find it – amazing!) so that Jared would have an idea of how high to stab it, and so they could work out whether he should stab up or down and how high. Clearly a bit hard to do with nothing there. They also used a laser pointer so that Jared would know where to aim at it when he shot it. Once the logistics were worked out and everything was prepped, then there was the big bladder of chocolate goo. Apparently it was made of strong stuff so it wouldn’t leak, but there was some concern that if Jared didn’t stab it right, it would just sort of dribble out (which might be a bit anti-climactic…). And once it was stabbed, it would be all over the ground and they’d have to spend a lot of time resetting. Luckily all the prep paid off – they were able to do it in just one take.
Another fan asked if Jared’s favorite season was still S4?
Jared pondered a bit, running through the other seasons and sharing his feelings about each. Season one, he didn’t feel like he really had Sam down yet, so that wasn’t his favorite. Season 6 and 7 were okay but not his favorites either, and neither was Season 3. Lauren and Katie were great though, Jared said, adding that obviously he was ultimately glad that the character of Ruby was introduced.
Season 2 was good, but ultimately, Jared decided that he still had to go with S4 as his favorite. As Jared put it, “it was my favorite Sam season.” The character of Sam was a little bit power hungry in that season, and Jared confided that he thinks that sometimes he might have hurt Jensen or Clif’s feelings because of some character bleed from how Sam was acting into Jared in real life. Luckily, Jensen and Clif would always be like, “Dude, calm down…come back,” and that helped him get back into the head set of Jared.
Sometimes the character bleed comes out in different ways. When he’s working really long days, Jared says that it is sometimes hard to come out of the headspace of the character. Sometimes he would wake up thinking that he was Sam, or that they were filming, especially when he sets his alarm for a time before his body actually wants to wake up. “Where’s the hunt, Dean?!!”
He then added about Season 4, “And of course I met the mother of my child.”
Another fan then asked about S8, confiding that the first half of the season had been liked by some fans but not by others, but that most fans were liking the second half.
Jared looked a bit surprised to hear that. “Oh, really?”
He said that he felt that the Amelia storyline was somewhat weak. Nothing to do with Liane Balaban’s performance, but the story line didn’t fit well with Sam’s character. Jared also didn’t like the fact that Sam didn’t look for Dean.
Jared went on to say that it wasn’t the writing, but the concept didn’t fit the character of Sam. He drew an analogy to kickboxing, which he apparently does quite a bit of lately. Anyway, in kickboxing you usually have a strong side and a weak side, and you don’t use your strong side until you need it, for the element of surprise. He felt that way about the Amelia storyline.
Jared: And the Men of Letters storyline plays out in such an awesome way, this sets things up for potentially years to come.
Jared feels this storyline fits much better with Sam’s character. Dean grew a lot as a character in Purgatory, and the Amelia storyline showed Sam essentially what didn’t work – they know now that they’re in this together.
Fan: So, we were wondering, who cleans the batcave??
At this, the SPN driver solemnly raised his hand.
The question had clearly never occurred to Jared. “I don’t know….I guess Jensen.”
A fan told Jared she had just gotten intricate temporary tattoos in Vegas so she could cosplay a Djinn.
Jared: Oh, a djinn, that’s the monster that we’re filming right now!
Fans: In the episode with Felicia Day?
Jared: Oops!
Next a fan confided to Jared that she has social phobia and that SPN cons have helped her deal with it. She asked if she could say something to Jared’s parents, and he said sure.
Fan: I want to thank you for making Jared, because he’s so wonderful, and the reason I’m here.
Mrs. P: I want to thank you for putting up with him.
A fan asked Jared who decided whether or not he and Jensen did their own stunts.
Jared explained that if it’s something dangerous like getting hit by a car, there’s no choice. Other things are sometimes up to them to choose. He likes to do his own, but no matter how simple a stunt, you can still get hurt. He proved this by relating what happened during ‘Dream A Little Dream of Me,’ (but perhaps meant ‘It’s a Terrible Life’?) when he had to pick up a golf club or something to swing at the MOTW.
A fan asked when he was coming back to Australia.
Jared: I’ll tell you what, you watch Thomas and I’ll come to Australia!
Jared laughed that between having a baby and working, when they take a day off it’s like let’s take a mini vacation. Next thing they know, they get a phone call from their parents asking when are we gonna see Thomas?? And then it’s okay, we’re coming. So much for vacation! He said they did get to go skiing recently – which unfortunately resulted in broken ribs (and some weight loss) for Jared. Ouch.
Jared: Jensen and I have talked about when the show ends, we want to do a sort of world tour. Including Australia, of course.
ETA: Thanks to the awesome @deborah_speegs for the additional tidbits
Jensen M+G
JA: Having fun?
JA: We finished work at about quarter after midnight. In a different country.
JA: (looking rather startled) Go ahead, you beat me to the punch. I had this whole thing prepared for you…
fan: I was so happy to see you in the EW Sexiest Men at Any Age!
JA: (deadpans) Yeah that was a misprint.
Fan: As a director, what has been the most challenging scene to film?
JA: Anything with me in it.  I’m not even kidding. They did not take it easy on me this year. The first time I directed was Weekend at Bobby’s and I could mostly sit back and just be a director. Last year with the Girl Next Door they wrote me in a little bit more, and then this year, they were like, ah just blow it up for Jensen, he can handle it. So it’s gotten more difficult. I’ve learned more, so there are parts that are getting easier, but it’s difficult to take the director’s hat off to be the actor.
Fans: Well, you’re doing a great job.
JA: (grinning somewhat shyly) Well thank you.
Fan: Are you directing this year?
JA: I don’t know, they let me direct my episode first these past two years so I came back early, but I told them this year that I don’t wanna do that. But I’m still saying hey, you can still write me light in the episode before that, give me a few days off, like a heavy Sam episode. They haven’t said yay or nay on that so far. Hopefully they will. I think I could do it. I’d hate to have directed for 3 years in a row and then not do it.
Fan: I know you’ve said you and Jared make each other better actors, as a director, what makes you a better director?
JA: I think directors should trust their actors, coming from an actor’s perspective. The director does kind of have the totality in mind, but if the actor is prepared and has done their homework and knows their character, then I as a director would like to see what they’re going to bring.
If they ask for direction, like how upset or emotional am I here, I give it, but I like to see what they’re going to do. Then I might tweak it. The sign of a good actor is somebody who can take direction.
I can tell when I’m working with an actor who has memorized too much, they’re not hearing a word I’m saying, just reciting it the way they learned it in the mirror. You need to know your dialogue, but you also need to pay attention to the other person. If the scene goes somewhere you hadn’t intended to go, then go with it.
As a director, I like watching those things happen. And as an actor I like being part of them. There was just a scene I had with Ty a few days ago-
Fans: Spoiler!!
JA: *hangs head and blushes endearingly* Um, right. Oops. So Benny’s back-but why, how, how long, we don’t know. So there may or may not have been a scene recently – where we found ourselves – the scene took on this emotion that I had not intended, nor did he, and we kinda laughed about it after we did it the first time.
I was like wow, did you mean to go there? I didn’t mean to go there, I didn’t either. And then once we identified it, we couldn’t help but go there, every time. Guy Bee was directing and he came over and said guys that was awesome, I didn’t even see that on the page.
And I said, it wasn’t there. Sometimes chemistry happens between two characters, and when that chemistry happens you need to be available for it. And some actors are so rehearsed in their heads that they’re not available for it. So as a director and actor those are my favorite things.
Fan: Men of Letters batcave
JA: Cool set, right??
Fans: Dean finally has his own room and when that scene ended I was almost teary eyed.
JA: That was mostly there on the page, in the dialogue. Dean, you know, he’s never had a home, it’s been the backseat of a car or a motel room, and all the weapons are on the wall, the memory foam, and he can actually take the picture out of his wallet.
It was a poignant moment for the character to have a sense of belonging somewhere, being able to put his stuff down and not have to leave. Of course he’ll always be travelling, but it brings a whole new element to the show, to have a home base like that. Potentially.
When I first read about it I said this is a game changer. This could really open up these guys to a whole new way of dealing with things. I think it’s cool.
Fan: That prayer to Cas at the end, (writer) Dan Loflin tweeted that he was on set that day and you two worked on some dialogue.
JA: We get the writers up there every now and again, once the writer has written their last show of the season, they’ll come up for a few days. We just had Robbie Thompson up. But other than that they’re ghosts to us.
Fan: Dan said you worked through some dialog shooting that scene.
JA: Yes, there was- that just didn’t happen randomly, that happens.
When we start working up the dialog, it’s sometimes like, you know what, that just doesn’t sound right, it looks right on paper but it doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t flow. So you change the word or lose the line all together.
A lot of the time, we don’t have writers on the set, we don’t even have producers on the set, that’s how self sufficient we’ve become, which may or may not be a good thing. So Jared and I have to take things into our own hands, we’ll call down south and ask if they can come up with some different dialogue, we just can’t wrap our heads around it, it doesn’t sound right, and they’re like absolutely, let us get on it, give us a few minutes to work something out.
But often we don’t have time, now that we’ve said it out loud, it just doesn’t feel right, and Jared and I will just change it. So I was like Dan, you’re here, I’m getting hung up on this or I think this would be more powerful this way.
I think it was more like that, I had the idea that it needed to be a little more emotional, a little bit more kinda pleading, so he and I just sat there for like 10 minutes while they were setting up the shot and just spitballed a few things.
It’s hard to be emotional without being emotional. If you recall I didn’t get really emotional, but that’s good writing and directing.
Karen: Jensen’s photography hobby.
JA: I used to take pictures, but I’ve kinda gotten away from it. I prefer to shoot landscapes. There will be times when our director of photography Serge lights this amazing forest or stretch of highway in the night, big condor lights, shadows, trees, and I look around and say damn, I wish I had my camera.
Fans: You’ll be taking pictures soon with the baby coming.
JA: Yeah, there go the landscape shots.
Lynn: Can you tell the Supernatural Harlem shake story? It looked so awesome, and you seem to have started it.
JA: (indignant) I didn’t! I really didn’t. This is the story as I know it. Brian Rose, our B camera steadicam operator – everyone calls him Rosie – he’s a great guy, one of the crew favorites. He was sitting behind his camera when we were setting up a shot, and the dolly grip was looking over his shoulder and the focus puller and they were all laughing.
And we were like, what are you guys doing? And they said hey Jensen, c’mere, and he played me one of the Harlem shakes and I was like, what is this, that’s pretty funny! And he says, we should do one. Then Matt Titchenor, our focus puller – it’s all the camera crew, they’re a bunch of crazy idiots – they said go tell Guy we should do one of these.
And I was like sure, I’ll do it, I don’t care, let’s do it. So it wasn’t my idea, but I may have spearheaded some of it…Our AD, Kevin Parks, he’s very scheduled, no time for play.
But I was like hey Kevin, listen, on Monday you’re not gonna like what we’re gonna do, but you have to suck it up and let us do it, let us have a little fun, it won’t take long. So then it just kind of spread like wildfire among the crew, we’re doing the Harlem shake on Monday morning.
JA: I will say that once the footage was captured, Matt Titchener, who’s a bit of a tech geek, took it home and edited it and then we sent it down to post to see if they wanted to put it out, and Phil Sgriccia was like I think it’s great.
And then Jared had the very bright idea of saying just to cover our butts we should call Warner Brothers. So he sent an email to Peter Roth saying listen, you’ve mentioned in the past how you’ve used the Eye Of The Tiger video in board meetings with your executives, as a viral way of promoting tv.
JA: Obviously when Peter told me this I was like, you what?? And so he was a big fan, he thought it was great and he was like these guys are having fun, and when people are having fun the work is good, you get stuff like this, and you get fans like this and you get a successful show. And it’s true. We have fun.
Well, Jared touched on that and said in the spirit of having fun, we made this little video, and we wanna ask your permission to release it, its’ just a little something for the fans to enjoy.
And Peter sent it back and was like I think it’s great, you guys always keep me laughing, you guys are amazing, let me just check w legal…..and you didn’t hear this from me, but they paid out a liability thing, so they’re covered if anything happens, and then Peter said, knock yourself out. So, over 3 million views? I think it was worth it. When are they all gonna realize that people like this show and the show has got the best fans in the world??
We’ve now come to the strangest part of the afternoon. A fan said something that started with “I’m not asking you to give anything…
JA: (interrupts, looking a little flustered) I thought you were gonna ask me to give a urine sample or something.
JA: I thought you were gonna say, I’m from WB…..Sorry you scared me….I would’ve passed with flying colors of course.
The actual question – Dean’s story arc this season.
JA: In a sense, it’s back to season two, when it was Dean’s motivation to look after Sam and make sure he didn’t crash and burn. This is a similar situation. Dean’s got to be a base for Sam to lean on, to be there for him so he can do this. But being as stubborn as these Winchesters are, Sam is saying you can’t help me, this is what I have to do. So it’s tough for Dean, not taking lead dog on something like this, but he’s gonna have to, there’s no choice.
Fan: Do your parents find the reaction you get from women at cons strange?
JA: Heheh. I got a text message from my mom the other day: So which one are you in this Harlem shake video? And I was like, Mom, just…don’t! At this point, they understand fandom and the whole thing. We have the same last name, so every now and then someone will ask, do you know Jensen Ackles on Supernatural? And my mom will be like: Know him? I birthed him!
JA: They’ve seen everything I’ve done, some I’m grateful they’ve seen and some maybe not. They watch the show every week, and then I get a phone call and a critique, mostly from my dad. I’m usually on set and I’ll get a mom and dad calling and I’ll be like oh *looks at watch* is it Wednesday?
At this point, a fan suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room.
JA: Is she okay? Or was she like, damn, this is not Jared!
Fan: What do you just have to do when you go to a ren faire?
JA: Me personally? I have to eat a turkey leg. A number one is the turkey leg. Last time I went I did some javelin throwing, or spear chucking, whatever – I was throwing a long pointy stick at a bale of hay. I was pretty good, I was surprised. And drink some mead. But the turkey leg, definitely . it’s like *acts out chowing down on a giant turkey leg*
JA: I had 2 last time. Not proud.
Fan: You mentioned that you and Jared took something from the set of Bobby’s house when they tore it down. What did you take?
JA: *looks shifty* I can’t tell you that! I don’t know, there may have been a few nicknacks that fell in my pocket, coasters, paperweights, probably things you’d recognize from the mantle. They were just gonna go back in the lock up of some show….
JA (making an indignant pouty face) Hey, it’s good stuff!
Which is apparently displayed in his apartment in Vancouver.
Fan: Have you developed your own style of directing?
JA: I don’t know that I’ve done it long enough to have a style just yet. Directing episodic tv is very fast paced. Not everyone is successful at it. Some film directors come in and try their hand and are like, woah, this is going too fast, I can’t keep up. It’s a different ballgame than film.
They’ve got it down to a science, there’s less room for creativity, but you can pick your moments. I just try at this point – I wouldn’t call it a career – I see what’s worked for other directors.
Kim Manners, Bob Singer, Guy Bee, Steve Boyum, I watch how they shoot and move the camera. The script is a road map, but it’s up to the director to decide when to hit the gas and when to hit the brakes and when to swerve. And that’s fun when you get to fit in those bits of creativity. So far I guess they like what I’ve done.
Time was unfortunately up.
JA: Guys thank you so much, it’s always a pleasure. Have a good time the rest of the weekend. Don’t gamble too much!

x 22:31 Spotted: Jared Padalecki at Bellagio. @KitCat_LV is in love.